"The Great Girl Scout Cookie Exchange"

Remember Kate, the "Entrepreneur?"   Well, she's back at it once again.  Kate happens to be a girl scout and has looked forward to selling girl scout cookies from day one.  Finally the opportunity came around and Kate made a personal goal of selling at least 50 boxes of cookies.  Kate created and sent out a mass email which described her goal and a brief description of all of the flavors of each of the cookies that were available-she made them sound irresistable of course.  Well, Kate's Uncle Shawn responded right away and put in his rather large order of GS cookies-a whopping 9 cases which totaled 108 boxes!!!!  Kate was beyond thrilled to put in those kind of numbers on her order sheet.  Here are a few pix and a short video clip of the whole experience. 

What a goofball!!!  This was the highlight of Kate's career so far.  Thanks Uncle Shawn for making it such a memorable experience for her!!!  By the way, Kate ended up selling a grand total of 238 boxes!!!

The newest member of our family...

We decided to adopt!!!  Meet "Gracie" which is the newest member of our family (along with the chickens and Harley of course).  Heather and I decided it was due time to get a run around car and stop pouring money into the gas guzzlin' Suburban to do everything we needed to...especially now since gas in nearing 4 bucks!!!  We found a perfect car for us-a 2009 Subaru Outback.  Here's the best part...last week we put in $30 of gas and it lasted the whole week with everywhere we needed to go! 

 I think we're gonna keep her...

Ski day at Wolf Mountain!!!

We decided to finally take advantage of G & G's Christmas present and go skiing with the family up to Wolf Mountain a few weeks ago.  Clayton even decided to come down from Logan to meet us there for the day.  It was a perfect day...not crowded and not too cold.  Below are pictures and video clips that sum up the day for us. 

Video clip of Liam, Chloe and Kate:

 

Chloe, Eli, Liam & Heather come off the lift:

 

 Chloe and Kate riding up together

Liam is prepared for anything to happen

Chloe had so much fun

Ok, so here's the funny part of this post.  In this video clip you have Kate who is trying so very hard to shuffle up to the trail that Chloe is on, Chloe doing her best to help.... but it just doesn't quite work too well....

 

...and the outcome of Chloe trying to help Kate:

 

Despite the struggle that Chloe and Kate had, we all had so much fun together that day.  We decided to have dinner at the Timbermine on the way down Ogden Canyon...a perfect day. 

The Super Bowl party...

As most of you know, Liam is pretty much the only member of our family that actually cares about sports at all. I think he's converted Kate to loving sports too...at least it seems that she's a strong supporter of whatever her big brother is into at the time (I think she just loves him so much). We felt that we needed to make a big deal about the Super Bowl coming up and have a "party" or something. Liam was pretty excited that we were willing to go all out for this occasion. Kate and Chloe got excited as well as they thought of ideas of how the house could be decorated for it. The menu included spicy buffalo wings, pulled pork sliders, chips and homemade salsa, banana cream pie and Italian sodas! It was fun and hey, Liam's team even won the game. 

This is Kate, Chloe and Liam's masterpiece.  We had to have the Super Bowl decor going on...

 She's just pretending to care about the game hahaha....

This is Harley getting excited about everything that's going on.........settle down buddy.

Liam and the "Talent Show"

So Liam's cousin Sam had a great idea for the upcoming 4th Grade Talent Show.  After several weeks of "practicing", here you have the result.  Liam is in the purple tie...

Kate...the "Entrepreneur"

Ok folks, Kate is not only our silly girl, she is our little entrepreneur-seriously.  About once a week (sometimes several times a week), she comes up with a business idea that she's certain will be successful.  One of her favorite businesses is called "Kate's Chill Town Spa".  I really need to scan in the paper that she professionally prints out for everyone so you can have a gander.  It is hilarious!  At Kate's Spa you have choices such as: "Hand & Foot Rub with Music and Hot Cocoa" for $2 (That is my favorite choice-she brings her boom box with bee boppin' music with a cup of hot choclate-how great is that?) and others like: "Facial with Cucumbers (or zuchini, or lettuce leaves or whatever may be available to stick on your eyes) with Live Show" for $2.  What's the live show you say?  This is where Kate likes to show off her singing and dancing skills...it's quite entertaining.  And for just a buck or two it's pretty great.  She even offers "back rub with music and clothes"-I know, I wasn't sure what the "clothes" part of it meant.  She told me that she'll look in your closet and pick out the clothes that you should wear the next day!!!   Liam just kind of scowls a bit at the whole thing and gets frustrated that Kate's making all the cash.  Sometimes she and Liam will go in together on a business. Word is they're planning some Spring Yardwork thing that I'm kind of wondering where it's going to go haha.  

So this year for Valentine's Day Kate wanted to sell choclate dipped strawberries!!!  She sold a "3 pack" for a buck a piece....and sold out in 30 minutes!!!!  Too funny... and to make it funnier: before she even went outside to sell them she said "Dad, just look at me...with my glasses and my froggy boots, who's going to be able to say "No" to my strawberries.  Oh goodness...



you can barely see the frog boots in this pic

She was perfectly happy to sit out on the corner in the 30 degree weather to "get to business".  Love you Kate!!!

Christmas 2011!!!

 So Christmas has come and gone...kinda sad, but we enjoyed every minute.  Here we have the traditional "Nativity" play.  In case you're wondering about Kate and Eli's parts, Kate is the "star" and Eli is...a "cloud"???  Not sure about that one.  

 Chloe as Mary

 The dorkey "cloud"

 So Heather had a great idea to have a "Clara" (from the Nutcracker) outfit made for an American Girl doll as a keepsake for Chloe.  Evelyn Jensen in our ward did an outstanding job in recreating it right down the bloomers.  We were so impressed!  Chloe LOVED it...

Kate was thrilled beyond belief to find the presents that she's asked for since last January.

Eli said that all he wanted was "Zelda, Skyward Sword" game and also to have a Nintendo 64 game system with "Super Smash Bros"

Liam has been dying to have a sweet RC car and of course, another Lego set "Money Bank Transfer"

Oh Kate....so cute in her new glasses (non-perscription haha).  

Chloe is actually wearing Kate's other pair of glasses.  Kate was in the ward choir for Christmas day and wore her glasses there too-she's been wearing them to school, etc everyday since...

She is a FUNNY little girl

somebody's excited

This was a huge surprise for Eli...the full collection of "Calvin and Hobbes" comic books

Clayton and Eli both asked for robes for Christmas.  Heather and I thought it would be funny and so very cheesy to have them embroidered with their names.  They loved them...