Jensen's Sixth Birthday!!

Jensen turned six on March 4th.  The kids had the day off school so I decided to do something fun with them.  They got $25.00 gift certificates to Toad's for Christmas so that's where we went.  I did a quick search of Toad's website before we left and discovered that they give out $25.00 gift cards if it's your birthday.  That was awesome because I read the fine print on their certificates and discovered we could only use two at a time.

We started out with some mini-golf. It was BEAUTIFUL (sun was bright, birds were singing) outside!  It was awesome to get some fresh air.  It's been a long winter!  Can you tell Jensen was a little excited about his birthday?

It was nice to have them get along and play nicely together for a change.  We have been cooped up way too long.

Arcade fun.  They also enjoyed a game of laser tag.  It was Jensen's first time and he loved it!

The go-karts didn't open until four so we had an hour to kill.  The kids decided to play another round of mini-golf while they waited.  We stretched our game out a long time!  I think each one of the kids lost their balls in the water at least once.  Logan was our designated retriever.  I wasn't about to stick my hand in that nasty water! We made it until four, only to discover they weren't tall enough to drive the go-karts!! They were disappointed but had fun spending the rest of their money in the arcade.

We then met the grandparents at Pizza Plus for a birthday dinner.  This is Jensen's fancy birthday treat that Pizza Plus gave him.  He couldn't quite finish it so Josh and I HAD to finish it for him. What a shame, seeing as how it was YUMMY!

He got new cowboy boots from Mom and Dad, legos from G-ma and G-pa Naylor, church clothes and a game from G-ma and G-pa Braegger, legos from Logan and hotwheels from Ally.

He was definitely a happy Birthday Boy!

Wolf Mountain aka Skiing Part 3

Wolf Mountain has a Monday "Family Night" special.  Four people for $40.00.  We decided to take advantage of that and take everyone (minus Holden, plus Ally's friend Carolyn) up for a fun night.  And it was fun!  Yes, I just said "fun" in reference to skiing!  Weird!  It's still not my favorite thing to do, but I didn't fall down once so at least it wasn't painful and embarassing.

Logan was my ski buddy for the night.  Josh was helping Jensen and Ally and Carolyn were doing their own thing.  He kept making sure I was okay and having fun.  I guess he's seen me fall down too many times!

They have a "magic carpet" for the little ones.  It's a tiny slope with a conveyor belt to take them back up.  Jensen had mastered it by the time we left.

The snow bunnies!  They were a little bored of the "bunny hill", but just had fun being together. It was a great night of skiing!

Another Crazy Adventure

We went Snow Shoeing!!

Josh took Presidents Day off from work so we spent the weekend at the cabin.  We happened to have the Boy Scouts snow shoes with us so we decided to give them a try.  The kids and I had never been so it was a new adventure for us.

We were so proud of Jensen.  We were a little nervous about taking him with us because we didn't think he would be able to use the snow shoes.  They were a foot taller than he was!  But he did awesome!  He kept right up with us the whole time.

We were on some pretty deep snow.  We passed an igloo that someone had built previously.  My camera took a little dip in the snow so I didn't get a picture of it.  

*side note:  someone's birthday is coming up and she might just want a new camera.  A really nice one.  Just sayin'.*

It was almost magical to walk on the untouched snow in the forest.  There was even a light snow falling most of the time.  It was so peaceful and beautiful.

There's nothing like freshly fallen snow for a little snack.

Monkey see, monkey do!

This may or may not have been intentional-you'll never know!

That is a lot of snow on that roof! We called our little walk the "Potty Trip".  We were walking through a campground and everywhere we looked there were restrooms.  Well, what we could see of them-they were buried pretty deep.

Josh sat down to wait for Jensen to catch up.  When Jensen caught up to him, he just plopped down in the snow by him.  We all had so much fun!  Who knew we were such outdoorsy people?  I feel like we've tried it all this winter-and enjoyed it all!  (Well, except for me and the skiing-ugh.)

Logan the Wolf

We had the Cub Scout Blue & Gold Banquet last week.  Logan earned his Wolf!

Here he is receiving his award.  He also got 1 gold arrow and 3 silver arrows.  He put in a lot of work to earn his award (and so did I)!  It has been fun this year being able to work with him at Scouts.  But we are both ready to move on.  He moves to the Bear Den next month and I might someday get a new calling.  Of course, my next calling could be worse and I might want to be back in Scouts...

Nope.  Probably not!

Well, with that attitude I'll probably be stuck in Scouts forever!

The theme was "Celebrate our Scouts" so we had each of the boys share a talent.  Logan played the piano, of course.  He loves to perform, but doesn't like to practice!

Good job, Logan! 

Skiing, Part 2

We went skiing...again.  Can you believe I went again?  As if I didn't get enough punishment last time, I decided to go for round two.  Shocking, I know!  

This is us going up the first gondola at "The Canyons".  Yes, that's right.  "The Canyons"...where the rich people ski.  And you definitely have to be rich to ski there!  (Fun trivia: this is where Tony Danza broke his leg) We figured up what it would have cost for us to go with out the free passes we had.  What cost us $55.00 would have been $300.00!!!  Good grief!  Thank heavens Josh traded some guy work for the ski passes and Ally had some cheap rental coupons!

Here we are going up the "High Meadow" chair lift.  This was the beginner hill-perfect for me!  After a few trips down it, with the kids flying past me of course, Josh decided I was ready for the intermediate hill.

.

.

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I was NOT ready for the intermediate hill!

Ugh.  

There were definitely tears involved.  And a few "it's a good thing these were free passes, because I'm NOT enjoying this" uttered.  And a couple of trips walking down hills in just my ski boots-without skis.  There was also one incident involving a fence post (ow).

After that I took a break at the ski lodge and let Josh and the kids have their fun on the intermediate hill.  What took me an hour to get down, took them twenty minutes.  I did enjoy sitting in the sun (it was a beautiful day!) and sipping my $3.00 Coke.  By the time they came back to get me, I was ready to try the beginner hill again.  I ended the day with my skiing confidence somewhat restored.  I've decided to stick to the beginner hills-forever!

Logan and Ally are sure getting better and better at skiing!  Logan was like a little bullet.  He hasn't learned to fear it yet.  Ally is more cautious, but can be just as fast.  I think my problem is I've got way too much fear of falling!  This was one of our gondola rides back to the van.

Look!  I'm smiling at the end of the day!  I think I was just relieved to have it over with! (I also hadn't realized my face was sunburned and I looked like a racoon.) Will I be hitting the slopes again?  Only time will tell...

Boxes & Bows

Since I was complaining about making Valentine Boxes in my last post, I thought I would show what we came up with this year. I really didn't have much to complain about. I even had fun helping Ally make hers (gasp).  I guess I've just been feeling pessimistic lately about some circumstances in my life that I can't control and it came out in my blogging-bleh. Anyway, I talked Logan into using the box he used last year (yay!).

An awesome "Braegger Trucking" box. Logan and Jensen handed out little airplanes this year.  I get so tired of the kids bringing home candy for every single holiday, that I don't like to give it out anymore.  Doesn't it seem like kids get WAY more candy than we did as kids?  It was always a special treat.  Now it's just expected.

This is the back of Ally's box.  She spent a lot of time on it!

The front of the birdhouse.  It turned out way cute! Those are hair clips in front of her box.  She made one for each girl in her class.  She put this poem on the tags:

Flowers shine

You're divine

Please do be my Valentine!

Some of the girls asked her to make them more.  She said she would-for a dollar a piece!  That's my little entrepreneur!

February, Smebruary

February is another of those months that seem to drag on and on.  Most people are looking forward to the Super Bowl or Valentine's Day.  Not me. We are NOT football people. At all.  Talk about a boring game.  It's hard for Josh to sit still that long. Seriously. He is happiest when he is busy working on a project. Well, it's probably a toss up between that and a nap.

I'm not really sure why, but I can't stand Valentine's Day.  I don't need a holiday to force me into telling people I love them.  Hopefully my family knows that I love them by the things that I do for them everyday.  And I don't think a day goes by that I don't tell them I love them anyway.  And then there's the Valentines for my kids classes.  That means a TON of work for me.  My kids aren't happy with just a cute little envelope or mailbox.  It has to be something elaborate. In years past we have had a giraffe, butterfly, frog, semi-truck etc. I am so not looking forward to this years boxes. Just call me the Valentine's Grinch.

Boy, this is turning out to be a cheerful post, huh?  How about I share a little from our lives for the last couple of weeks to finish up.  Talking about my kids always makes me happier.

This is Jensen's prize winning Reflections entry. He won Honorable Mention at the Counsel level! How many different fruits and vegetables can you see?  Ally also won Honorable Mention for her musical composition and photography entries.  Proud night for the Braegger household!

 Holden loves his blanky (on the right).  I had been trying to find a "back-up blanky" for quite a while so I was excited when I found the one on the left.  Holden even liked it, too.  However, about a week after I bought it, I lost it.  I have no idea where it went.  Good grief!  I can't win!

This is Ally preparing to get her ears pierced.  She was a little (okay a lot) nervous and was squeezing my hands really hard, jamming my wedding ring into my other finger.  It hurt.  And I'm ever so grateful (I'm being sarcastic, in case you were wondering) to my best friend Gwen for capturing it in a picture.  I can't believe I'm putting it on my blog....

Here are the cute brave girls with their matching earrings.  It took Ally a while to settle down afterwards, but she eventually got around to being happy she did it.  She had never asked me to get them pierced-ever-but decided to do it with her BFF Katelyn.  She said she was always too scared to get it done, but figured it would be okay to do it with Katelyn.

Cute Holden story:  Grandma Carilee had some snowpeople lined up for Holden.  She pointed to them and said "brother, sister, Mommy, Daddy".  Holden pointed at them and said "brother, sister, Mama, Josh".  Ha!  He refuses to call Josh "Dad".  It's been two months now.  It kinda bothered Josh for a while, but now we just laugh.  He's such a funny boy!