Christmas is my favorite time of the year! I love the lights, the music, the decorations, and most of all the increase in love and kindness felt throughout the world. The past few years we have done the 12 days of Christmas, which has been a lot of fun and has really helped in feeling the Christmas spirit. This year we talked about it early in the month and selected a family. . . and then mom dropped the ball. I let the first day come and go and it would have been the 3rd day of Christmas by the time I remembered. Oh well we thought, next year. However, can I just say that it made a difference. It just never really felt like Christmas :( Well, next year mom will not drop the ball!!

Still, Santa did make his way to our house, and Matthew was so excited to finally get an electric toothbrush!

Santa brought Matthew a remote control car, what a lucky boy! He also got a "pro scooter", as he calls it, although I am not entirely sure of the difference. This he tells everyone was from his Aunt Carrel (go Carrel . . . you sure are earning lots of brownie points this year!) See, Walmart had the best price for this scooter and was one of just a couple stores even selling it. However, all the Walmarts anywhere near here had been sold out since Thanksgiving. So, Carrel saved the day by finding one and shipping it to me. The kids all recognized the box and new it was from Carrel so on Christmas day when I told Matthew it was for him he figured it was from Carrel. He doesn't quite understand that I paid for it, just that she sent it to him. Oh well. For now, Carrel is the favorite Aunt.

Amee wanted anything to do with gymnastics. She told Santa she wanted uneven bars. Instead he brought her a new leotard and an outfit and beam for her American Girl doll. Tom and I gave her a balance beam. She will have to wait until she has her own house for the uneven bars :)

Zeke is getting so big and is more concerned about style these days that he is about toys. Santa brought him a new pear of football gloves, very nice ones I might add. And from mom and dad he got new basketball shoes and clothes. He also got the new Madden 25 xbox game. He did not think he was getting the shoes and he was very excited!

Now for Sami, she only wanted two things. . . Beats by Dr Drey and Ugg boots. . . well, she got one of the two, Beats. The Uggs will have to wait until they are the only things she wants (I however did get a pair of Uggs and I am sure they will find their way to her room). Santa brought her jewelry, which she was happy about, and surprised as well.

Sami loves musics, and that might be an understatement. If she is not listening to music she is playing the piano. Sometimes I get the feeling that she can't function without music. Needless to say, she was very excited about her headphones. I have told her that I am going to do random bedroom and bathroom checks, and if they are not clean then I take her headphones until they are clean. This is going to be fun!

Jake is such an easy boy to please and he never really wants much, haha. Actually, he has learned that we won't buy the kinds of things he really wants (iphone, laptop, ipad, etc.) So he just tells us to buy what ever we want. He did tell us he wanted the new NBA2k14 and Call of Duty, Ghost. . . so that is what he got, along with some new basketball clothes and socks.

Matthew riding his scooter around the house like it's a race track! Our house has lots of doors, making it a perfect race track around the kitchen and piano room. . . connected by the laundry room. Matthew will literally do circles around the house on his scooter. Which is fine with me as long as it has not been outside. Once he takes it outside he will no longer be allowed to ride it through the house. Hopefully this day will come sooner than later. 

Merry Christmas everyone!!!! We love and miss you all!!!

We have recently celebrated Matthew's 6th birthday and Amee's 9th birthday. I am not much for letting my kids have birthday parties, but since Matthews birthday was on a Friday I let him invite a couple of friends over to play. Amee was such a fun sister and played all sorts of games with the kids. 

As you can see Matthew asked for a Minion cake. It was actually very easy and fun to make. All of his friends were impressed, which was fun for me :)

Matthew is getting so big and he is so full of life. He loves doing anything on wheels, with a ball, or with his brothers. And he can always seem to amaze me with his natural instincts and abilities. He is also so sweet and loves to make others happy. 

Thanks to Amee Matthew got breakfast in bed. This is something I used to do, but it has become more difficult on school days over the years, but Matthew was so excited that his sister thought to do this for him.

This is a video of Matthew LAST year, 2012. It is not the best recording, but still fun to watch. At the end you see him stand up on his motorcycle. In this video he is 4.

Happy birthday Matthew!!

And Amee, what to say about Amee. She is such a happy girl and is so kind to everyone. She is so forgiving of others and just wants to make others happy. She is also very brave and trusting. She will do anything you ask her to do, even if she is unsure or scared. She will try just about anything when we are at the lake, and just takes crashing in stride. 

For her birthday Amee wanted cheesecake, which Sami made. She is becoming quite the cook. I am sure you will all be so impressed with our singing!!!

Happy birthday Amee!!!

And what would Christmas be without ginger bread houses?????

Even Zeke and Sami had to do one. . . . and I of course helped. This is one of my favorite holiday activities. 

I need a better camera on my phone :(

Sports, sports and more sports!!

It has been a busy season for the Newman household. Jake running cross-country and Sami playing volleyball for the Lovell Bulldogs. We have also been watching Zeke play his first year of tackle football.

Amee is still doing gymnastics and Matthew can't wait until January, when he can wrestle.

State Cross-Country

Go Jake!!!!

Jake was able to run for  the Bulldogs this year at State for cross-country. He did a great job and ended up placing 8th, qualifying for All-State. Unfortunately, if you ask Jake, he will tell you he did horrible. Let's just say this was is slowest run of the season, with an 18:09 for 3.2 miles. This is pretty good in my opinion. According to Jake is there is no where to go but up!! Below he is running in second place, which he did for the first two miles, but was unable to hold on for the last mile. We were so proud of him! Since State Farm is a huge sponsor of Wyoming sports, Tom was able to hand out all of the awards! Lovell boys placed third for 2A schools. What an awesome day!

Sami with a block!

Sami had a great year in volleyball. Unfortunately we did not get any pictures and only a couple videos. He she an asset to the team and it was fun to watch her play!

Go Zeke!!

Below is a clip of Zeke running the ball in for a TD. He is playing QB in this clip and when the ball is hiked he drops back then around to the left and down the middle for  TD. Zeke is #1.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween has never been my favorite holiday, even as a child. When Emma was born on Halloween I thought this would help me to be more excited about the holiday, but it just has not happened, yet. Maybe next year, haha. We did not even get our decorations out this year. What is even worse, we didn't even carve pumpkins. My poor children. Although, they must not feel too deprived. . . as they really don't seem to have a supper strong desire to dress up. Zeke, who has always loved putting on costumes, could not even think of anything he wanted to be. He must be too much like his mom. I wondered if he would even dress up. Matthew was my first to decide what he wanted to be. . .  a mummy, which he was for school, then when it was time to go trick-or-treating, he changed his mind and put on an old batman costume. Amee decided she wanted to be a little oriental girl, and at the last minute Zeke decided to by Sye from Duck Dynasty. Lucky for him the high school had done a Duck Dynasty day as part of their Homecoming week and we were able to borrow a beard.

We actually have a cup that looks just like the one Sye Carry's all over 

Just before going trick or treating. CJ, Zeke's friend is the football player

Now we can start to decorate for Christmas . . . this is my favorite holiday. I would have a tree in every room if I could!

September

Canning, field trips and more fun at the lake!

I think I am about through with all the canning I am going to do this year. I still have my beets to pickle, but there is no rush on picking them yet.

I wanted to share one of my favorite things I canned this year. Pear-raspberry jam. It is wonderful, and a great way for making your raspberries go farther.  I have tried the recipe with fresh raspberries and fresh pears, fresh raspberries and bottled pears and frozen berry blend with fresh pears. They are all awesome. In the picture the raspberry pear is on the left and the berry blend, which has strawberries, blackberries, blueberries, and raspberries is on the right.

To make this jam you simply puree the raspberries (1 1/2 - 2 cups) and the pears to make a total of 4 cups. Add 6 cups sugar (scary, just don't think about it) and a box of pectin and boil for 1 minute. Process 15 minutes.

I also had someone give me some apricot and plums. I threw them in my juicer and made a jelly, this also worked great!

Matthew's first field trip!

Boy was he excited to go on the bus. In Star Valley he watched the big kids get on the bus every morning. I think he feels like he is missing out since we live close enough for them to walk. He was so cute though. I was one of the parents who was asked to go along for supervision. I was a little late getting to the school so many of the kids were already on the bus. 

As I got on the bus and quickly scanned for Matthew, I found him sitting in the seat with the emergency exit. He was looking and the handle and I could see in his eyes that he was curious. I tried to get his teachers attention, no go. And he pulled the handle. An alarm, which sounded very much like a reverse beeping in a truck, went off. It was not that loud. His teacher was looking all over trying to determine what was making the noise. I finally got her attention and told her it was Matthew. She quickly made it to his seat and put the handle back in the correction position. One we were all sitting she went into a brief explanation about the emergency exits and what they were for. 

Life is never boring when you have kids :)

Matthew and his friend Cayden on their first field trip

Hutchinsons Visit

Hutchinsons came up for a visit, which will probably be our last trip to the lake. We have really loved Lovell and are blessed in so many ways, but we sure have missed our friends in Star Valley!

Believe it or not, we were trying to get the boys as high as we could and to NOT get the girls high at all 

First Day of School

Home alone! 

Matthew started kindergarten today. He was so excited to be able to walk to school with the older kids (Zeke and Amee). I was concerned about him having separation anxiety, so I encouraged him to walk to school with the others. He seems so little, but yet so big. 

When it was time for him to go to class and leave Zeke and Amee, he became scared and cried. Zeke did great though. Gave him lots of support and Matthew bravely went with his teacher. (This was the first day of school report I received from another mother who dropped her boy off at school).

Matthew has been his teachers best helper and is always cheerful.

Zeke and Amee are also doing great in school. They are all so smart and such good helpers to their teachers.

Jacob, who is now 16 was too cool for first day of school pictures :)

Sami is in high school this year, and doing really well. Her and Jake have their last class together, which I am sure will be interesting as the year progresses. 

Along with the beginning of school was fall soccer. Zeke, Amee and Matthew all played. Naturally my kids are all star players :)

I was able to coach Zekes team. I forget how much I love soccer until I coach. I really do love the feel of the ball at my feet. I love coaching as well. I prefer to coach U10 or older though. This is the first year I have let one of my kids play at U6  level. Matthew did great, and loved every bit of it. . . He even loved going to practice. I did not take my camera and was not able to watch many of Amee's and Matthews games, as they were usually in conflict with Zekes,  but I did get a couple pictures with my phone of Matthew.

Matthew just took a shot, but it was wide :(

Here Matthew was attempting to go kick the ball, to score . . . but was told he must stay out of the "safety box." This was a new concept to me. Apparently no one but the goalie is allow in the safety box, which I guess keeps the goalie from getting hurt.

Sweet 16 - and never been kissed!

at least that is what he tells his mom, except the last day of school just before we moved to Lovell. One of the girls in Star Valley was so sad that she slapped on one him :)

Jake had his big 16 this year. For his birthday he took a group of friend to the lake, which we have no pictures of. Then they came back to the house for Pizza.  That evening Jake had his first date (which was a group date of course) they went running and played volleyball. His very first date was with Kim Robertson, an older women,17.

Jeff Jameson, Connor Davis, Nick Haskell, and McKay Mayes. (McKay is the photographer of the pictures we have of our family over looking Lovell).

Jacobs very own 22

Summer has come and gone

Summer is almost over and I am sad! I love having the kids home and playing with them. I think I like summer as a mom more than I did as a child.

We have had a great summer! We took one family vacation to Moab, Ut. What a blast we had!!! I never knew four wheeling could be so challenging, scary, and fun all at the same time!

Unfortunatly we did not get any pictures, just videos. Sami is making a movie that we will post, eventually. On our way to Moab we stopped at Pioneer Village and Airborne

Everything is always funner with friends (Top picture is Kaitlyn Grant with Sami and Amee. Bottom picture is Kenny Grant with Matthew and Nathan Grant in background).

Even the big kids enjoyed the craft room (Kaitly, Whitney, Kenny, Zeke, Talon and Amee)

Zeke getting his first shave 

The kids loved Airborne. I spent all of my time with the little kids so I did not get any pictures of the big kids, except one blurry one of Sami.  Matthew and Amee were in heaven. Matthew is a little jumping bean, who will jump off and on anything!!!

Leaving Moab we hiked at Arches National Park (at least I think that is what it is called).

 Beau, Nathan, Whitney, Matthew and Sami

 Zeke is in the pink shirt under the Arch, Talon is sitting on the ground.

Zeke, Matthew, and Talon 

 Talon, Zeke, Jake and Whitney

Amee, Matthew and Whitney (I think you can also see a little of Jake and Tom)

We have been blessed with lots of visitors this summer and have done hiking and boating. After the Blomstedts it was Dick and Linda, then Rosie, followed by Don and Maurine with Ayden and Parker. Ayden had so much fun that Trey wanted to come for his birthday, so Valisa brought him and Brecklyn. We missed Joe and Ayden (Joe had to work and Ayden had another committment). I think we also had a parade each time someone visited 

Jake has participated in 3 or 4 fun runs. His best time for a 5K this summer was under 19 minutes. Zeke ran his fist 5K ever in under 26 minutes and Matthew ran his first 1 mile race, doing and impressive 8:25!!!!!

We soon will have Rosie again!!!!!!!

  Rosie has now seen the Billings Montana Temple

The kids were planning to make a video so they were taking pictures. I am not sure what the video is going to be about, but I am pretty sure they had fun taking them.

We have been watching baby Ashlyn twice a week this summer. She is one very loved baby! It has been fun to watch all the kids with her. Jake and Sami are so great and responsible with her. Jake calls her "his baby"!

Kaitlyn, Talon and Sami

Jake is pretty awesome at surfing! It is usually pretty safe, but he managed a few wounds

 Zeke

Amee 

Parker

 

Parker wake boarding for the first time

Rosies first time surfing

Ayden did great, she was such a trooper! She got up for a short time, but I missed it 

The two boys on each end are not anyone we know, they just happened to be jumping at the same time.

Amee, Zeke, Matthew and Rosie

We have also been to the shooting range a few times. Tom is doing a great job teaching our kids the importance of proper gun handling. You can never be too careful when handling a gun.

It is fun for the kids to shoot at targets. Ayden is our little Annie Oakley! I think she must get it from her mom and grandma, as they were both also a great shot!

Tom, Parker, Amee, Ayden, Zeke, and Matthew 

Little Annie Oakley 

 Hers was the shot in the head. Tom told her to aim for the head, so she did

This is Kaitlyn Grant, trying not to get crumbs in "Toms Boat"

After he saw this I think he wanted to adopt her

Sami and Kaitlyn 

 Kenny, Rosie and Talon

Trey shot right through the bottle

When Staci and Jason came to visit we tried to hike to 5 Springs, but after 1 1/2 hours hiking turned back around. We did have a good time and it was a fun hike, we just never made it to the falls.

Well, when Valisa and her kids came we attempted a second time to hike to 5 Springs, which we successfully reached after about a 5 minute hike. We only went to the bottom, but it was still a pretty spot. 

I think I enjoyed the hike with Staci and Jason almost as much and would like to do that same hike another time, when we have lots of time because I think we might find a few from above 5 Springs that would be awesome!

Sami and Brecklyn

 Zeke was seeing how long he could stand in the water, as I offered him 2 pennies for every second. He earned 5 Dollars

 Brecklyn was such a joy. Somewhere along the way she decided Tom was "Grandpa Tom." This kids thought this was so funny and they naturally encouraged it all weekend!

Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there!!

Between all the parades combined I think we handed out about 12,000 Otter Pops!!