Night Out

My mom came up to stay with our kids while Dennis and I spent the night in Salt Lake City this weekend. Dennis had to attend a MPA introduction class from BYU so we thought that we would make a big night out of it. We ended up staying at the new hotel downtown called the Hyatt. It was nice. I did a little big of scrap booking while Dennis was at his meeting, then we went out to dinner at a place in the Gateway called Z'Tejas. Yuuuummmmy! We had shrimp and pork dumplings, then I had the three mushroom enchilada and I tried out the mango lemonaide! Oh my!! Of course then there was the chocolate store across the street so Dennis insisted that we stop there. What could I say to my man. I just want to make him happy! It really was fun. There was the moment in the middle of the night where there was the drunk couple were fighting outside our window, but other than than, fabuloso! We stopped at Tai Pan Trading on the way home and I saw this simple, yet cute little table. Dennis looked at it and said "I could make that". So the next stop on the way home was Home Depo where he picked up the supplies for the table, he brought it home and started working on it for me. He is so good to me!
For some reason this year he has been dragging out Valentines day during the past couple weeks. I've already had chocolates, roses, the night out and a card (which I promised to save until the actual day.) Of course he's setting a pretty high standard for valentines to come, but hey, I'm not the one to complain.

11 Years Old

Jacob is turning 11 today! Happy Birthday boy!! I'm so glad he was my first. He is a very sensitive boy and is a great friend. He always wants to do the right thing. He loves playing sports, he has great speed. Right now he is playing basketball. He collects pok-e-mon cards, loves playing the piano and is really good at it. The past couple months he has just started started to excel. Jacob loves to read books. Right now he's reading the Ranger's Apprentice books. He also loves playing video games and riding his bike or rip stick. This year he got an MP3 player. He loves it. Now if I can just keep up with the kind of music kids like these days. They actually like listening to the good stuff from the late 80's early 90's. (I'm feeling a little old.)

St. George

This past weekend we spent in sunny St. George. It was a sort of Christmas present from my parents. They rented a nice place there and the whole family stayed together. It was so much fun! We went to the animal museum and a nice hike around the mountains where we stayed but mostly it was lots of video games, Foosball tournaments, late nights playing games or watching movies. The kids were able to enjoy a little time in the hot tub which was really not that hot, but fun anyway. Before we came home we walked to a little park to see the ducks. I just can't get over how warm it was down there! The time went by so quickly and it was a little difficult to come back home to the bleakness and freezing temperatures and snow.

8 Months Old

I actually had to count this one out on my fingers to make sure it was right. It's just going by so quickly. Bonnie has started doing some amazing things this month. She is getting really good at picking things up with her fingers and we've officially started the vacuum stage. She's become a vacuum and sooooo, we've had to use the vacuum more. Every little thing goes into the mouth. We give her little finger foods and she loves that. She now goes from her belly to a sitting position and even pulls herself up to stand next to things. She has no desire to crawl. She even got mad at Dennis when she tried to let go while she was standing up and he was holding onto her. She's working on waving now too. She has the cutest little laugh and her favorite game is peek-a-boo.

Moving On

This week Jacob graduated from cub scouts. Wow, I can't believe we've reached this point. It's a milestone in his life. He is now moving on to new scouts. This past year has been so great for Jacob with Dennis, who has been his Leader. Jacob was able to get a special plaque for earning every pin available to the Weblos, that was 20 pins. He also received his Arrow of Light. He has just done so well! Way to go Jacob!!

Christmas 2010

We had our usual traditional Christmas with the Marker side on December 23-24th. On the way up, we stopped to visit Great Grandpa Marker, who had never met Bonnie and he kids even sang him a couple Christmas songs.
This was kind of a special year because the entire family was there. 22 grandchildren, 12 children, and 2 overwhelmed grandparents.We had a sort of Marker family Olympics which everyone enjoyed. It included events like Mattress surfing, straw table golf, snowman bowling, lampshade fishing, juggling, "This is a Fork", and Jacks. We had the reading of the Christmas story, and lots of Christmas music.

We spent Christmas Eve at our house. I usually fix a big Christmas dinner on this night and we all thought it would be fun to invite Grandpa and Grandma Sorensen to spend the night and enjoy Christmas morning with us. The kids helped me plan the menu so we had grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, home made rolls (which Grandma made), macaroni and cheese, orange tapioca jello salad, green salad, stuffing, California blend veggies and yams with eggnog and pop. I made napkin holders this year and we finally broke down and bought a special Christmas dinnerware set and then the final touch and the kids favorite part, candle light. It was very nice!

We told the children they could come wake us up at 7am so they were there on the dot ready to get everything going. It was a fun morning! Khora gave us the best reaction when she opened this tea set. She was hugging it asnd squealing and running around. It was just what she wanted!

We drove to Fayette on Christmas night and spent a couple days there. Dennis ended up working most of the next week so we came home a little earlier than we usually do with plans to go back and be with the rest of the family for New Years Eve, but Bonnie got RSV. Luckily she didn't have it very bad and got over it well enough to make it to my niece's blessing on January 2. Whew!! What a whirlwind month it has been! Now maybe I can take a breath.

Master Isaac

9 Things Isaac did this year.

1. He got baptized in January
2. He loved being in Cub Scouts
3. He did an awesome job with his baseball team
4. He took 2nd place in the Kids Summiteer Bike Race
5. He found a great friend in Teddy
6. He had a great time going on fishing trips
7. He started collecting Pokemon Cards
8. He saved and bought his own rip stick
9. He had his first ever birthday partyHappy Birthday to Master Isaac. When he was born we got a card from a sweet neighbor with this title on it and I really liked the ring to it so I occasionally use it. Isaac had his first ever birthday party this year. It was really stress free for me because being . . well, Isaac, he planned the whole thing himself. Sledding at the "blue park" then back to our house for hot cocoa and rice crispy treats. He invited a few friends and his brother and sisters. We all had a lot of fun. He also had a couple games planned, like leapfrog stools and Mario-cart championships. He had a great time. Love that kid!! This year he requested a new fishing pole, the DVD "Despicable Me" and to take the Hunter safety class this month.