Sight Words

Every week Alana comes home from school with sight words on little flash cards to practice at home and this week one of her words is "what". You can see where I'm going with this already, can't you?

A- What does this say?
M- What
A- This
M- What
A- *slightly exasperated* What does this say?
M- What
A- This
M- What

It went on for probably three or four minutes and I was laughing most of the time and she got to giggling too. I love kindergarten. I invited Leah over to help us after a while and she very helpfully said, "That is the word WHAT."

Killjoy.

Goodbye Dad and Mom

My parents are on their way to their third mission for the Church. This time they get to go to Montreal, Canada. They will be gone for one year and they get to learn a little bit of French which they are excited and a little bit nervous about.

Of course they wouldn't be my parents unless they traveled about and visited all their loved ones on the way there so even though they don't report to the MTC for a week and won't be to Montreal until February 15, they are already on their way. They will see some friends in Utah, my Aunt and Uncle in Idaho, my sister and her family in Washington state, and my brother and his family in Michigan. They are looking forward to about 4,000 miles of driving, but that's all in a day's work for them - they could do it in their sleep - but we hope they won't.

Ryan and I went up to see them at their first stop along the way in Sedona on Monday. I brought four kids up and Ryan came up a little while later with the other kid. We all stayed over night with Mom and Dad and played and had fun, then Ryan and the four school age kids left super early in the morning to get the kids to school and Ryan to work, and Peter and I stayed and played with Mom and Dad then we leisurely drove home in time to meet the kids when they came home from school. We all enjoyed spending special time with Grandma and Grandpa before they were really gone.

I am really proud of my dear parents for all the wonderful service they give and for all the love they share with everyone they meet. I hope I am like them when I grow up.

Peter and Flagstaff

Peter and I went to the park last week and here is his latest trick captured on video. He is dang cute.



This weekend we took the kids to Flagstaff to play with the Emmons' and their snow. Here's Gaby and Tierney's wild ride. I think she was aiming for me actually.



We had way too much fun and got not enough sleep but honestly, the best time to play Twister, Super Mario Brothers and watch movies is AFTER the kids go to bed. Ooh, I just realized something cool, we watched the movie Twister on Friday night and on Saturday night we played Twister, spooky. P.S. I am horrible at playing Super Mario Brothers on the Wii, it took me a long time to figure out which one I was, then I just kept walking off cliffs for no good reason. It was sad. But Ryan, Carson, and Gaby were good at it and we laughed a lot so that is good.



We had lots of yummy food thanks to Gaby and her mad cooking skills. The kids had a blast in the snow, Jefferson spent hours on the back porch chipping away at snow and ice because he is a ten year old boy. Peter is in love with baby Coco, I think it's partly because he can say her name but he asks for her even when we are at home and he hasn't seen her in a while. The girls love playing with Tierney and Avery and shaking up their peaceful existence :) It was a great success and we are so blessed to have such wonderful friends that make us laugh and help us to be happy.