Cool Miscellaneous Stuff

“Enjoy the little things in life, for one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” —Robert Brault


We had this quote on our family room wall in New York (without the reference). I just thought of it as I was deciding how to start off this odds-and-ends post. There are some really great things here, but they're all similar to past sorts of posts. Yet the repeats always represent happy memories for me. So, they're pretty great, really. Here they are:

New Year's Party. We missed out on going to Mom and Dad's for Thanksgiving and Christmas due to bad weather (or the expectation of it), which was a bummer, so I wasn't going to miss this get-together! But I didn't get many pictures....

Noah and Summer on New Years.

Just a great shot with a cat.

Groundhog treats. This was Noah's second time making these, but he got into it more this year. I don't know why Jonah isn't pictured. Maybe he ate it too quickly. Or maybe his was hard to look at.

As Valentine's Day approached, Tori was a bit down, since many of the girls at school had boyfriends and got fun gifts from them. She felt like the day was pretty depressing, SO I took her some flowers and chocolates anonymously. And this year, I tried to be even more secretive, so that she'd think that it MIGHT be from some cute boy with a crush. (The year before, I had similar things delivered to our other kids, and she saw Maggie's.) But, she guessed anyway. I did get things for the others too. At the end of the day, you really only need your parents - not a smelly teenage boy. We also did pink fancuchins(sp?) for breakfast, and John and I went out to eat for dinner, which we don't do often enough.

This was Maggie's last year doing class Valentines, which was sad. Noah had fun doing them for his preschool class.

Our kids still rule the science fair! Jonah used one of Greg's ideas and ended up with a very cool project. He got the top prize from Strata Networks, which was an iPad Mini! It was by far the best prize given out. He enjoyed it for a while, and then sold it when he accidentally went swimming with his phone this summer. He got quite a bit for it, and got a nicer phone than any of us own with the money. He also went to the big science fair put on at Weber State and got an "Excellent" and a third place award from the Air Force, which also came with some money. That's pretty fun for a boy his age!

Prize winners.

I'll add more, as I continue to find extras.

Okay, I've got more. They'll be a little out of sequential order with other posts, but here they are:

Dinner with Alex

This night was just magical. We had planned to go somewhere big, but it just didn't happen. So, as a last resort, we roasted hot dogs and marshmallows in our backyard. Eli played his guitar and we visited. You just can't predict which activities will be the favorites, I guess.

This is the only Cinco de Mayo picture. Tori made the flan this year, and it was fabulous!

These are all pictures from a helmet appointment trip to Provo. When we were done, we went to visit Greg's family, and see their new house. We walked along the river with them and had a nice time. (These Provo trips are most memorable for Echo's car sickness, and our singing Barney songs in a desperate attempt to keep Alex from crying/screaming.)