Sleep Overs Vs. Late Nighters

Wes and I have decided we aren't going to have our kids do sleep overs. If they are invited to a sleep over we will say, "no", but they can stay until late. I know that some parents would say, "That is way too strict", but our kids can still have a lot of fun doing late nighters. Byron had his best friend over the other night until like 9:30. That's late for our kids. :) They had such a fun time. They had homemade pizza, sat in the hot tub, watched a movie and had treat bags.
I have a lot of fond memories of sleep overs growing up, but there is also some things that are no good that can happen at sleep overs.
So, what do you think? Sleep overs or late nighters?

Fun Valentines Weekend

We had such a great Valentines weekend! We like to have our children experience stuff outside of their element. We decided it had been a few years since we took them down to the children's museum, so we went there. We went on a Saturday, and it was packed. Our kids didn't seem to notice.
Then we went to the Mayan Restaurant. It was cool. The divers were insane! There was one that climbed to the top of the raptors, like 30 feet up, and jumped from one bar to the other and then flipped into the water. My heart skipped a beat. It is such a narrow opening where they dive, one slip and they would hit the rocks. Our kids loved being there. They are getting older, so they behave a lot better when we go places. Which is a bonus. All in all we had a great weekend.

Life & Death

Click here for details on Craig 

We just got back from Idaho. Wes's uncle died in a horrible accident. He was up on a tanker truck trying to fix something and it blew up. He leaves behind 7 children and 5 grandchildren and a sweet wife. He died at, I think 53. That is so young. That family is hurting so bad right now. The funeral was great. I sang at it with Aunts and cousins. I got choked up a lot, so I don't know how well I did, but it sounded fine.
Sometimes death can be confusing, especially when individuals are taken so young. It is such a blessing to have the atonement and the hope of seeing our loved ones again. We will miss Craig. He touched so many lives around him.
On our way home we had a freaky experience to say the least. We were driving along on clear roades and out of no where hit black Ice. The road was covered in it. It wasn't just patches. We had a full car load, without a seat to spare. We started sliding side ways at 65 miles an hour. Then we would slide the other way. Good thing Wes knew what he was doing. Seriously I would have flipped us for sure. He just kept calm and steered one way and then the other and got us out of there. It also helped that our Sequoia had traction control. It was beeping the whole time. We were all so thankful we were Okay. We could have hit a barrier, rolled, hit another car, etc. It was so scary. We immediately said a prayer afterwards. We were definitely protected by Heavenly Father. In the mean time our kids were asleep being thrown around. We were all in our seat belts and after that went like 20 all the way home.
It just made me think how fragile life is and how Heavenly Father could say, "Times Up" for any one of us at any time.
I am going to try to live my life more to the fullest. I know our uncle Craig did. He was a good guy!

Winter Fun

A few weeks ago we got a ton of snow. So, we went up on the hills by our house and went sledding. It was so fun! Some times doing things like going sledding seem to be too much effort. But, when we do put forth the effort, it is so fun. It's all about creating memories with the fam. For Christmas we got this really fun tube from my Sister Sarah and her husband. It goes so fast and smooth.
I know, in the last picture Lil and I look like bugs. Wes must have just been focusing on sledding and not taking a picture. Ha ha.

Congrats Boys!

Our boys did really well in Reflections this year. Byron drew a picture of a snake and Ethan wrote a poem. Byron got 1st place in Visual Arts and Ethan got first place in Literature. We knew a few weeks before, but had to keep it a secret from them until they found out at school. Daddy was even able to make the assembly. They also got trophies and their pictures in the paper. What sweet hearts. We're so proud of our boys! I almost got a bit teary eyed seeing their joy.