This is the awesome sledding hill.
Here's Ryan blasting down the hill. It should be noted that at one point he got off course and crashed into a tree. He has a very nasty and very large bruise on his thigh to show for it. Soooo glad it wasn't worse!
Warming up and trying to dry out around the fire with his friend Connor.
Jacob's good buddy, Noah, recently went to an autographing night with the Jazz. Jacob asked Noah to get him some autographs on his basketball card and nerf basketball. The card is Al Jefferson and his autograph. The signatures that you can see on this ball are Raja Bell (19) and the assistant coach. The ball also has Paul Milsap and a few other players. This is SOOOO awesome!
We finally had a court of honor for Jared to receive his Eagle Scout award!! We held it at the church on New Year's Day. We thought we'd try to get the new year off to a good start. The court of honor also awarded merit badges and rank advancements to other scouts. Ryan received several merit badges and a rank advancement to Star Scout.
Jared received a bunch of awards, including his Varsity letter (being presented by Bro. Yardley)...
an On My Honor scouting award (this is a pin with ribbons attached)...
and a Duty to God award from the Bishopric (this is also a ribbon with a pin). Wow! We didn't realize he was receiving all these awards too! Definitely a nice surprise.
We decided as a family that we would like to present the Eagle Charge to Jared. Mark, Ryan, Jacob & I all took a part and presented an item to Jared to help him remember what is expected of him now that he's an Eagle. The first charge is to have honor. We presented a white shirt to help him remember to have integrity and honor his priesthood.
The next charge was to be loyal. Ryan presented Jared with a BYU tie to help him remember to be loyal to his standards and values.
The next charge was courage. The color of courage is red, so we gave him a red fleece blanket to help him remember to have courage to stand for the right. The blanket is embroidered with his name and the date that he became an eagle scout.
The fourth charge was to be of service to others. We presented him with a pair of gloves to be used in serving others.
The final charge is vision. He received a pair of binoculars to remind him that he is now a leader and that others look to him for guidance.
The Eagle Pledge was presented by one of his scout leaders, Bro. Nield.
Following that, we proceeded to do all the pinning! First, the eagle pin...
then the "scarfing"...
then the mother's pin...
and finally, the father's pin.
Matthew slept through the whole thing, resting his head on Aunt GayLynn's lap!
Here's a fabulous picture of Jared with his proud grandparents.
We had a really nice evening and everything went really well. Several extended family members were able to join us for the occasion, which made it extra special. We are grateful to Bro. Yardley for helping us pull everything together. We are very blessed to have such awesome scout leaders in this ward. I'm proud of Jared and his accomplishment. He truly represents everything I expect of an Eagle Scout. I am blessed to be his mother. Congratulations, Jared!
We had some family photos taken in the summer, but I didn't like how they turned out. So, we were finally able to get with Heidi to get some awesome photos taken. The weather was pretty darn nice, especially considering it's January! Here's a sampling of what we came up with:
Aren't they a handsome lot? I'm not biased, of course. Jared has grown so much over the last year, that the boys are really "stair steps" as pertaining to height right now, which is why I like this photo.
I also have some really nice head shots of each of the boys and a nice photo of Mark & I. Heidi does an awesome job with her photography. If you want to check out her web site, click here. Thanks, Heidi!!
Mark decided to get crafty and so he got the boys to help him make a pinata during the holidays. The paper mache part of things didn't go as well as expected, so he pulled out the duct tape to finish it off. Once it was deemed strong enough, he wrapped it in yellow crate paper, cut a green spikey top, stuffed in a bunch of candy, and our pineapple pinata was ready for action! We started with little people at bat first -- that's Matthew (above). 
And now for the big guns...Ryan broke through to the candy! Wahoo! Candy for all!
Matthew can ride on two wheels!! Wahoo!! He hasn't really liked his bike much because he does so well on his scooter, which he's been riding for a year and half at least! This summer we put training wheels on the bike hoping it would peak a little interest for him. He tried a couple of times and just didn't have any interest. With the weather being so nice these days, I decided it was time for him to get rid of the training wheels and learn to ride a bike like a big kid. Mark & I took the training wheels off and took him up the street a couple houses. We set him on the bike, turned him toward home and gave a gentle shove. That's all it took -- he was off! A couple more times and he was riding around like a pro!!
Now he totally loves his bike! Everyday he wants to practice riding. We even took him over to the bike trail and he did awesome! Way to go, Matthew!!
