Home School Prom

Here are Aliysa and Jace getting ready for the homeschool prom.  They had so much fun.  My friend Cindy is the one who puts on the dances for our homeschool group.  She does a great job - this is not a "date" dance.  Everyone just comes and dances with lots of people.  They had a huge group there.  Cindy has tables full of delicious food, dance instruction, door prizes, and she has each person fill out a dance card.  She periodically gives out prizes like Jamba Juice gift cards for whoever has the most names on their dance card.  Lots of fun.  We know several kids who are not homeschooled who have attended these dances and then asked us to let them know when the next "homeschool" dance is because they had so much fun.  Cindy, do you want to start planning some community or stake dances?

Mineral, Animal, or Vegetable?

 

We went to the geology & wildlife museums at BYU-Idaho

Dinosaurs

We love the aquarium - so many interesting creatures packed into one space

 Fossils

 Beautiful rocks and gems

 A real beehive, packed with bees, inside the museum

A real big, bad wolf

 No animals were actually touched in the making of this blog post

 One of Zach's favorites - a bear!

 Aliysa's new love

 We got to come home to this in our yard

Last day of gymnastics

Yes, I just did a major deep clean of my house, and finally found the charger for my camera.  It was sitting on my bookshelf.  By the camera.  I'm sure, well, sort of sure, that it wasn't there when I was looking for it.  None of the children put it there.  Bob said he thought it might have been there the whole time.  Okay, I must be blind.  Anyway...I now have tons of pictures to post to catch up.  

These are pictures from the last day at homeschool gymnastics.

 Spencer and one of his best buds, Alex.

 Uneven parallel bars

 The beam

 Smile, Abby....then you can get down

 Courtney loves the beam

 Mallory

 Jace is trying to get a job for next year as the gymnastics assistant.  So, he was helping with all the classes.  He loves it.

 Wow, Spencer and his friends forgot to shave this morning.

 The parachute

 Jace doing backflips

Zach on his way to the foam pit

 Lissy Lou

Abby-upside-down

And another fun year with "Miss Tracy" ends ... counting down the days until next year!

Moments that Matter Most

This video is such a good reminder! It made me think of Melissa's blog, which is named after a quote in this video. I always love reading her blog when I need to be inspired and motivated to be a good Mom and enjoy life.  Now, I'm getting off my laptop (like the Mom in this video), and enjoying some time with my kids.  We're organizing our attic today while Bob is gone.  Great fun. :)

Hahn Family Reunion

Well, the last few weeks have been a whirlwind.  We packed for four different trips, and then, just as I finished packing the van for our Hahn family Trek at Martin's Cove, we decided to cancel the trek.  The weather in Wyoming was going to be very cold, with constant rain and wind the entire weekend.  Taking three babies to camp in that weather sounded like more of a pioneer experience than we really could handle.  (We should have listened to Lisa in the first place!)

Anyway, my whole family came to our house instead.  Although that made me wish that I had been cleaning the whole week instead of packing, we had a great time.  

I have tons and tons of pictures to post, but my camera battery is dead and somehow, the battery charger that is always in the camera bag has sprouted legs and run away.   I'll have to steal some pictures from my siblings' blogs.

Here are pictures of the fun pioneer activities we did at our home instead of at Martin's Cove.  Thanks to Tara for organizing all the meals and activities.  We shared pioneer stories about our ancestors, and it was so neat to hear those.

We ate, played, hiked, laughed, and made s'mores together. 

We got to meet Ahren's baby, Matthew.  It was so fun to see Taycie, Anna, and Matthew together.  Abby is the oldest, but she isn't the biggest

More pictures here and here

We were together Saturday to Monday
Monday to Saturday was Green Canyon Swim Camp  While we were there, some of my family went to Martin's Cove, since the weather had improved.

Saturday we drove to Utah for Becca and Nick's reception.

Sunday we got to visit Grandma Nuttall and see Nuttall relatives.  I absolutely love being at my Grandma's home. It has been way too long since we've been there!

Monday Bob's parents came over to Saratoga Springs and we had a nice visit.  Bob's Dad gave him a Father's blessing.  How neat it is to be in a family that is strong in the gospel.

Tuesday and Wednesday was Youth Conference in SLC for Aliysa, Jace, Courtney and I.  What a great experience.  My favorite thing was a hike to Ensign Peak.  My Mom watched the other kids because Bob had to go back to Idaho.  She has earned her blessings in Heaven!

Thursday we drove home.  I could not keep my eyes open while driving, so I finally turned on the radio and drove Aliysa crazy by listening to every kind of music - from Country to Spanish songs that we couldn't understand.  Dancing and singing to the music while driving in a rainstorm kept me awake. 

Friday and Saturday Aliysa and Jace went to another youth conference for Foundation of Liberty.  Bob was the keynote speaker at this youth conference, so I drove up Friday evening with him.  He spoke about goal setting and achieving your dreams.  The theme was "Climb Your Mountain", and he did a SUPER job!  His talk was so inspiring to me.  Afterwards we had dinner there and joined the youth for a little bit of their dance, then drove home.

Saturday was our 17th wedding anniversary.  We had a fun day just spending time together, eating lunch at a park, and in the evening Bob pulled the motor home into our driveway and we let the kids all sleep out there - they had pizza, ice cream, story books, and movies, and we had a nice quiet house. 

Sunday was church, and then a fun time at the Muhlestein's.  Bob's parents are visiting and we all had fun together.  Bob finished up his online scout training while we were there, then we came home late and Bob, Aliysa, and Jace finished their packing for Cedar Badge Youth Leadership Training Camp while I cleaned out the van so they could take it when they left at 5:30 am this morning. 

Courtney started her preschool this morning.  She had six cute little girls and boys at our home enjoying snacks, activities, and learning together.  Mallory was her very helpful assistant, and they had lots of fun.

So that is how our last few weeks have been.  I am very sleep deprived.   I think we'll have lunch and a nap for everyone.  Hopefully pictures will be able to be posted soon!