Marcus's Last Pinewood Derby

In the past the Pinewood Derby was a bit different. There are a couple things I would change, but the important thing is that Marcus had fun.

The cars (the BYU one was the bishop's son's car.):

The "Most Creative" car goes to the green lantern car. Marcus designed, carved and painted  it. Andy had a hard time not helping more, but it turned out just like my boy wanted.

 Marcus and one of his best friends, Stephen. (The BYU car was his.)

 Getting ready to race after weighing in at exactly 5 ounces (the max weight):

 My boy's last Pinewood Derby. (Luke can't wait until he gets a turn.) I can't believe it.

Hope the video works. The computer tracks time to 1,000th of a second and these 2 cars tied! Crazy! Marcus came in 2nd, 1st and 2nd in his races but didn't place in the top 3.

11 years is too long

11 years is too long. The last time I saw my aunt Susan was my wedding day. We were very excited to get together while she was in Las Vegas. 

Walking up to the Bellagio:

 I couldn't resist this one:

 My husband and Uncle Denny met for the first time and really enjoyed each other:

 Waiting at Serendipity 3 (Me, Anneke, Marcus, Aunt Susan):

 Mallory loved Uncle Denny:

Mallory stole most of the fried oreos off Andy and Luke's sundae (I did not appreciate them like everyone else did.):

 Andy enjoying his fried oreo while Luke eats the sundae:

Serendipity is known for their frozen hot chocolate. The rest of my family got sundaes but I got a white chocolate frozen hot chocolate, YUM:

The crew in front of Planet Hollywood (Uncle Denny, Anneke, Aunt Susan, Luke, Marcus, Andy, Mallory and me):

Strings

For music Anneke is learning about the different areas of an orchestra. She can never remember the brass section. :( (I used to play the french horn so this hurts my heart.)  To help her identify instruments we watched the Disney version of Peter and the Wolf.  It was so fun. I remember it being longer, though. I love the wolf's theme. This did not help my cause with my daughter though. 


Since January Anneke has asked me if she can play the violin. I do not even know where to begin with that. Not to mention we do not have the funds to purchase an instrument or pay for lessons but she is so excited about it. Now what?  Marcus is playing the guitar so why can't she play the violin? Good question.

1 Nephi - bowling

The whole family finally made it through 1 Nephi. We went bowling. (The only place to go bowling that you don't have to go through a casino to get to.) Our stake president has challenged us to finish the Book of Mormon by August. We have stepped up our reading accordingly. (Thankfully our bishop asked us to read it by December and gave us a head start on the challenge.)

 Luke (Wookers) loved his orange ball.

 Hard to believe she has a fever, huh?

 Mallory helped me (The Hotties) and didn't do too badly.

 Watching gets old after a while.

 Marcus (Blue Marco) did the best.

 Mallory felt the need to squat down and watch after each bowl. Anneke (The Princess) did pretty well.

Blue Marco - 120, The Hotties - 90, The Princess - 70, Dadman - 91, Wookers - 84

Next up - Ice cream/Frozen yogurt after 2 Nephi

Marcus

Marcus has wanted lego Diagon Alley for a long time with his birthday money and taking place in a survey he got it.

 The best part was the $100 bill. He examined it for an hour or so.

Andy helped Marcus his circuit experiment for science. Luke was fascinated watching it work.

Homeschool definitely has its perks.

Photo withdrawal?

It has been a while since I have posted photos. Honestly, I am not feeling much like blogging. I kinda wonder if it is worth it. But, for anyone that cares here are some cute shots of my baby girl.

 Sleepy heads.

 Look at that cheesy grin.

 Ouch! Brothers can be mean. (It is now a scar.)

 Rockin' is a favorite past time when she is feeling well.

 Sisters!

 Cute girl!

Piggy tails!

For two weeks this angel has been sick. 102-103 fevers. The doctor says it is "just a cold". On top of that she is teething trying to get molars. Today she got a blessing because we are tired of our girl not acting like herself. Our house is a sickie house.

Free e-books

I shared this with my mom and little sister via facebook. But, you don't need to be on facebook to use it so I thought I would share it here for all my kindle/tablet/nook users. Pixel of Ink gives you updates on their website or via email or on facebook about free or inexpensive books for kindle and nook. There are different sections. The former is for adult books and I have had a few that have been deleted from my cloud for content. I personally love the young edition. (These are two separate links so be careful.) They had a limited free download this week of a book called The Worldwide Dessert Contest. It is interactive and so fun. When I am done I am gonna let Marcus read it. Inspired Reads has Christian books that are free or inexpensive. Since I got my kindle in December I have only paid for one book. I wanted to share with ya'll. Let me know if you use it and share any good books you have found.


*When you go to get the book, be careful. Sometimes the free is no longer free and can cause you grief if you don't pay attention. 

An extra day

On leap day this year we were obviously moving. We took a break to attend Baby Marcus's 1st (one of Luke's best friends) birthday party. Since he only gets one every 4 years he gets a big one. For about 6 months, though I had another plan to top off my evening.


In October we started collecting cotton fabrics in all sizes from the sisters in the stake. Our stake YW president (one of the most amazing women I have met) had a plan and it was all about service. In November she came by after work and showed about 5 of us how to make these beautiful pillow cases (I sent my to Dutchie). The stake young women presidency put together fabric packets. The beginning of February they had women from all the wards gather and she trained them on making pillow cases, too. 


On Leap Day the sisters met in each ward building and teamed up with a young woman from their ward. They made pillow cases together. It was such a great idea and a great turn out. They made 301 pillow cases that night when the goal was "100 pillowcases in 100 minutes." This was all for a grand purpose...The ConKerr Cancer group. Each pillow case has been donated to this great cause. I thought that it was something others might want to look into doing. Cari with her Princess Academy, Cub Scouts, other Young Women groups, etc. It is close to my heart and I am sad I missed it. One of the girls from our ward made 6 that night! Another girl took home several kits to complete. What did you do with your extra day?

Explanation

I feel that I should explain my letting things go post on facebook. I was (and still am to an extent) having a hard time letting something go. I feel I can explain better in a more private forum.


When I became a young women's leader I wanted to do 2 things 1) Be a towel holder for the girls during baptisms for the dead and 2) Make the solo packets for Girls Camp. (Solo packets are basically a booklet with activities, articles, scriptures, getting to know you games, etc. for the girls to work on and learn from about the camp theme, other people at camp, etc.) I have not fulfilled the dream of either one. They really aren't a big deal BUT, on top of this we have to go back two posts to "unexpected".  The woman that died has always done solo packets. I took over her calling last year and was going to work with her on creating them. As I prayed about her daughter and how to reach her I felt impressed to have us (the YW presidency) work with her on the solo packets. I started gathering information and was ready to talk with the presidency about it. However, someone else had already started making the packets and didn't want to give up the responsibility or really share it either. I talked it over with the presidency and we are praying fervently to be able to figure out another solution and keep the peace. So, that's it. It doesn't seem all that big does it? But it is hard to know something and feel you can't accomplish it. I am doing better, but it will take time. Life goes on.

Gas

When they tell you between noon and 4pm don't be late. The day we moved in Andy was taking the missionaries to get food and then home. When I got to our new home I had missed the gas hook up just barely. The soonest they could fit us in was Saturday at no sure time so we had to be home all day. We moved in on Wednesday. That meant no heater, no hot water, no drier, no stove, no oven, etc. That was the coldest shower I have ever taken. I only took one on Thursday and figured I could hold out until we got heat on Saturday. We caved and bought a microwave so we could heat things up including water. It was a very long few days. We kept warm unpacking boxes and bundling up. (There was a cold snap here.) I am very grateful for gas right now. Luckily we smelled nice for Stake Conference and didn't offend any noses around us.


In other news...Mallory is the same size Anneke was at 9 months. She wore Anneke's first Easter dress to church yesterday.