Grant Basket Ball

I know Grant misses the shot in this play but he had two more like it in the game where he made the baskets. He's such a better player this year, still holds back at times and is working on being more aggressive putting shots up and getting rebounds. But being on the school team has really pushed him. If fact the entire teams is playing so well together and they really look like a team.

The bike video is after he went through, got stuck in, some mud.

St. George Trip

For President's Weekend we headed down to sunny St. George. Traffic was a bear leaving Salt Lake at 5 pm on Friday and it took us an extra hour to get to the Southern most corner of the state!

We got up Saturday morning and everyone headed out on a bike ride. I tore my mcl in December skiing and so I was unsure if I could ride. But that sunshine just was too tempting so Grant hung around while got my knee brace on and tested out my parents bikes to see if I could get around. Once we got the bike seat the right height we headed out.

We thought everyone was heading to the park, but we couldn't find them so we road around and then Grant called Troy and we met up. The pics of Grant are before the mud and after the mud. Then the pictures of us finding the rest of the gang. Please don't pay attention to the ill fitting helmets, it's a battle just to get them on their little heads.

We all made it to the part and the kids played some tag on the play ground.

We then took the boys to the mall and got hair cuts. Victor wanted to go really short, I think it looks really good on him and makes him look like he really might be 12 years old.

The kids in front of my parents place in St. George. My sister came down so we could hit some of the homes in the Parade of Homes, so her Grayce and Mason and in the pics too.

The next day Tricia and I toured some homes and Troy took all the kids for a hike in Snow Canyon. It sounded like quite the adventure. Here they walked up to look at the Pioneer graffiti.

The petrified sand dunes were the hit of the day. Troy just turned them all loose. They only had a couple incidents during the day. Tanya got up on a rock and had a little panic attack and couldn't get down and it took a bit to coax her back down. After that she was fine. When she told me about it she said she stood and cried. Which I hate to say in some ways was good, because she is starting to express more of her emotions and cry and talk about them.

The other incident was Ana jumping over a crevis, I guess it scared Victor and Troy pretty good. When she told me about it she said it was a lot of fun. I told her dad was afraid she wouldn't make it to the other side and get really hurt and she laughed and said Ana never get hurt. So there is some of the FAS showing through. She just doesn't know how to stop or really what is appropriate or safe/dangerous.

Are we getting tired?

Love Ana's outfits she puts together. Thank goodness for uniforms at school or we'd have more battles to fight.

Here was a cool arch they found to climb up too.

This was the fossil they found in the rocks. They would have brought it home except when they drove into the park the person in the booth said no taking rocks out of the park. It was probably a good thing or everyone of them would have had pockets full of the round marble like rocks that are formed from the wind blowing them around the canyon.

This was their last hike to the White Rock Ampitheater.

We met up for lunch at In and Out Burger and then headed over to see the temple grounds. The kids really liked watching the little movies where kids answer different questions about the church and gospel at the Visitors Center on the temple grounds.









Sorry Tricia we didn't get a picture with you in it or of you and your kids. What were we thinking.

Morgan organized everyone on the steps so we could get a picture on the steps of the St. George Temple.

9 months

Last Tuesday was 9 months since we arrived home with Tanya, Victor and Ana from the Ukraine. It has been a roller coaster ride. These were pictures we had done and the Family pictures were ones we sent out with our Christmas cards, sorry I didn't get them posted with our update for Christmas.

Aly and Marcie come for a visit

Aly and Marcie came out for Aly to audition for the BYU music program. So lucky for us we got to see them a couple of times! And from our end of the piano Aly played wonderfully! She really is talented with her music. So as Marcie and I opted out of the photo here we have: (back to front) Grant (black sweater), next row: Ethan, Victor (face just poking through), Whitney and Tanya. Next row: Morgan in blue hat, Aly holding Alysa and Ana hiding in her hair. What a gang. Brady and his girls came over to eat dinner and say hi to everyone. Aly was a sport and played mario with the kids on the wii. She then played uno and sorry with Tanya.

These are the yummy cup cakes that they brought for dessert. Very tasty.

Now here we have a shrunken version of Troy. If he were in "Honey, I shrunk the kids" this could have been what he looked like. Ana came into the family room the other day in all of Troys clothes. What a character she is, always into something. At least this didn't involve tape, glue, carpet or markers. Our funny girl. For perspecitive, those shorts hit Troy mid thigh...

fender bender

Ana and I were heading off to ballet and I was talking to her and not paying attention and I backed right out of the garage into our tutors car. Odie is cashing his check and buying used parts and fixing it himself. As for me, I took it to the garage and they had it back to new in two days. Now that that is out of the way, I tend to wreck every car -- hey, just once, I should be good to go for the rest of the Suburbans life. We are planning on having it a longggggg while.

Grant and Colin baking

How to keep two 13/14 year old boys entertained. They want to hang out with girls and I'm not quite ready for that, they aren't yet 14! Plus I've explained and explained that meeting up with girls somewhere without adult supervision is a date. Right? Someone back me up on this, please. I like the no dating till your 16 rule and Grant knows it. So to distract them I listed a dozen things they could do... not including toilet papering or egging which they continually kept adding in. We found a happy middle ground with making cookies. We did get a couple nice batches out before they began making crazy faces with red hots. And secretly I enjoyed spending the hour with them in the kitchen. Hopefully baking cookies will distract them for the next two years...

If this video downloads it is of Grant singing at the assembly. And for the first time ever he is in the front instead of hiding in the back!!

Victor

Victor moved up to Young Mens in church and received the priesthood on January 17th. Very exciting. Then next week he passes the sacrament and did a great job. He said he was a little scared, but seems really comfortable these past couple weeks.

Tuesday night is Young Men/Young Women and last Tuesday they had a big ettiquite dinner. I guess all the boys were assigned girls to escourt into dinner and sit by during the meal. Victor of course loved the food, but wouldn't sit by the girl the entire nigtht. Thus he was running from table to table with a quick stop at his for food (he loves food!). He was laughing the entire time he was telling me about the activity. I just kept thinking he'll grow out of this too, right? Just a little reminder that emotionally he is just a child. I tried to ask him how he thought the girl felt and he just laughed... so we'll have to try again when he's calmer.