january 1- january 26 2020

Ben started his new job with Boston Scientific.  Before he can start working, he has a total of 6 weeks of training....away from home.  It is broken up into chunks, and the past month, he has completed a 2 week training and a 4 day training.  It was an adjustment for everyone to have him gone, and we did a lot of Facetime (above).  There are big struggles for sure, but we are also being helped a lot from above, and in some ways it isn't as bad as we thought it would be.  In other ways, it is worse.  Its a learning curve for all of us.  This new job is an amazing opportunity for Ben, and we are really excited.  

Park City opened up a Woodward location a few months ago.  There are only 4 in the country!  Sam and his best friend Blake got day passes for Christmas (courtesy of their awesome mom's) , and they finally got to use them this week.  I have never seen these boys more excited!  It is an indoor facility for scooters, BMX bikes, tumbling, skateboarding, and so on.  Each place has coaches to help you learn new skills and to be safe.  Outside is a massive tubing hill, HUGE ski and snowboard jumps, a ski.snowboard park, and two skate parks.  Sam and Blake had the time of their lives, and are looking forward to going again next week.  What a cool place to live by!

Sam has been in a STEM class at school, and he discovered that he is extremely gifted with this.  His teacher absolutely loved Sam and gave him all sorts of extra privileges and access to all of the saws, drills, and equipment.  The students were given some materials and asked to try to make a car that moves out of them.  The kids were lucky if they could even get it to move at all.  Sam's car he made went 27 feet and blew away the school record.  He invented it all by himself, and made it from just a chunk of wood and a rubberband.  His teacher is begging him to continue on in some aspect of this, whether it be engineering, architecture, construction, etc.  Sam has quite the talent.  He is asking for power tools for his Birthday...haha!

After three extremely stressful attempts, and lots of prayers, Mary passed the test to get her drivers permit!  She is so excited!  I am torn.  How did we get here?  How is she this old?  What the crap.  aaahhh!  

Molly is a crack up.

This girl is very musical, and has a very pretty voice.  She loves to perform "shows,"  I can't wait to see what route she takes.

Luke's club soccer team is doing an indoor futsol league.  Luke loves it, because ti is more casual, and he gets to try all the positions.  He is so dang good at soccer.  I love watching him play.

When Ben got home from his 2 week training, he showed the kids all of the cool medical devices he will be selling.  It was very interesting, and the kids were completely intrigued...especially Luke, who I have a feeling will become an excellent surgeon someday.

We dealt with our fair share of anxiety when dad was gone.  Poor Luke, needed ALL the comforts.  

William had strep throat last week.  When we took him in to get tested the doctor also looked in his ears.  He noticed some wax, so he did an ear cleaning treatment.  This MARBLE of earwax clunked out of his ear after about 5 minutes of treatment.  We were blown away!  It was huge!  Yes, we are super weird, but we wrapped it up and brought it home to show the family.  Pretty amazing.

Sam and some of his buddies hanging out.  He has quite the group of friends.  

uummm, ok.  I guess she got tired of holding the Kindle with her arms.

Molly and Charlie are as close as they come.  They have a very special bond.  Pretty sure Molly is the only reason we have continued to keep Charlie through some of his naughty moments.  Molly was playing vet. with him the other day, and I got a fun picture clip of their interaction.

And that a wrap for the past few weeks.  I can't even being to describe how busy life is right now, especially when Ben is gone, so it is really hard to find time to blog.  I am trying hard though.  It might just be like this for a while.  Peace out!

catch up of all catch up's aka major guilt but at least im updating

So, no excuses this time other than....life. The amount of blogging I have to catch up on is big, that I almost just quit blogging.  But that would be sad, as this is my version up scrapbooking and keeping a history for my family.  So, instead of freaking out about finding time to do a million posts to catch up on the last 6 months, I am just posting loads of pictures with captions.  As always, going forward, I really am going to try to be better.  But you know.....life.

Miss Molly.  January 2020  5 years old.  She just got a hair cut, and she looks adorable!   Such a gorgeous girl.

Molly getting her first official hair cut.  Before this, her hair was almost to her waist!

Luke and William Lights on Temple Square December 2019

Molly and Mary....Light on Temple Square  Dec. 2019

Mary eating her famous breakfast of Avocado toast on her 15th Birthday.  Dec. 23, 2019

Williams broken leg. Salter Harris fracture (growth plate) Dec. 2019  Broke it in Pocatello at Geranimos trampoline park on the LAST day we still had insurance before switching to a new company.  

Our home.

Christmas lights on Temple Square 2019

Luke's school cowboy Christmas program.  Dec. 2019  3rd Grade

Molly's show off day at All American Gymnastics.  She in in the developmental program.  Age 5 Dec. 2019

Mary's friends.  Ben took this picture.  Mary is absolutely dying behind Alexia.  We laughed forever at this.  

Dec. 2019   Luke's name was drawn out of the hat to put the star on the tree this year.  He wore his special elf hat for the occasion! 

Thanksgiving dinner in Pocatello in the basement of Devin's Dentist office.

Sam's 14 POUNDS of candy he got this year trick or treating!  Oct. 2019

Mary's competition season started.  She is on level Jr. 4  Team name: code black

Mary worked on the Polar Express as an elf again this year, so we went as a family to try it out!

This is how William fell asleep Halloween night, hahaha!

Mary Halloween 2019  Freshman  Had a HUGE party at our house with 16 teenagers.

Luke Halloween 2019  (7 years old)

Molly Halloween 2019  (5 years old)

Mary 15

Sam 12

Luke 7

William 9

Molly 5

Family pictures 2019.   I REALLY wanted a sunflower field, but when we got there, they had all died the night before in an early freeze.  So...we improvised.  We hiked all over the mountain, picking any surviving sunflowers, and we re-planted them at the picture location.  Where there's a will there's a way.  Boom.

Molly learned to ride a bike without training wheels, in about 30 seconds.  September 2019  Just turned 5

William was so excited when the Sinclair dinosaur was dressed up to represent football season.  We love or local Sinclair dinosaur.  He dresses up for all of the occasions.

Luke is terribly color blind, but he decided to organize his poke' mon binder by color.  This is the "purple page."  haha!

Molly's 5th Birthday party.  Top left to right:  Mallory Muhlestein, Molly, Henry Snyder, Harper Holmes, Cruz Cherry

Bottom left to right:  Millie Phillips, Beckham Sweat

Ben drew the puppy, for Pin the Tail on the Puppy at Molly's Birthday party.

Molly and Beckham Sweat

Molly and Millie Phillips

Molly and Mallory Muhlestein

Molly and Harper....her best friend

Molly and Henry

Molly and Cruz

Family weekend getaway to Snowbird

First day of her second year of preschool. 2019

Unicorn shirt, pants, shoes, backpack and helmet.

Luke's first season playing club soccer for the Rangers.  His team is AMAZING!!  Coach Riley Risto is great.

Luke First day of 2nd grade

William First day of 4th grade

Sam, First day of 7th grade

Mary, first day of Frehman year

Last President's Club with Cintas.  2019  Diamond Level

William got to be the starting kicker on his football team this year. 2019

2019 Wasatch football.  Gremlins  William was the kicker, nose tackle, right tackle   Most games, he played the entire game!