Murder Mystery Party

Tyler decided to put together a Murder Mystery Dinner Party with all the people he works with.  He is a perfectionist and spent a lot of time preparing for this.  It was a western theme.  It was a fun evening for everyone!  It's been great getting to know all his co-workers over the last 3 years.  They've held several fun activities outside of work.
 

 

The group!

Here Tyler is playing the part.  He was the U.S. Marshal investigating the "murder."

  

Tyler participated in a "Russian Roulette" game with eggs.

 

All the eggs were hard-boiled, except for one.  

 

They each took a turn to pick an egg to smash on their head.

They amazingly went through all the eggs with luck!

Tyler had the last egg.  

We all knew what was going to happen!

 

Let's Party!!

I love our winter birthdays, because it gives us something to look forward to!  Jordan got to celebrate his 7th birthday a week early!  We successfully pulled off a "Minecraft" birthday party, without even playing Minecraft! Ha! Ha!  Thank you to "Pinterest" for all the party ideas!

 

I made everyone a creeper shirt... super easy!

Everyone got to enjoy all the "Minecraft" foods found in the game.  

Ellionna parked herself right in front of the "gold" (aka Rolos).   

We made our own square heads!

 We played "Pin the Tail on the Pig." 

 The kids used the "Enderman" head as the blindfold. 

Makenzie so graciously used her talent to make the pig.
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We played "Minecraft Bingo."

 Blowing out 7 candles!

We got Jordan 4 laser tag guns for his present.  

The kids LOVED playing with them for the rest of the evening. 

Vacation for Makenzie and Jordan

We love our extended family!  Not being able to see them all the time is the hardest thing about living so far away! Lexi was getting baptized and we definitely wanted to support her in such a special event.  It wasn't feasible to take the whole family, so we opted to send Makenzie and Jordan by themselves.  They were sooo excited to fly by themselves and to enjoy this adventure without Mom, Dad, and their younger siblings.  I gave them 2 rules before leaving... #1- Don't have too much fun without Mom. #2- Come home.  

They were spoiled by everyone and they did not want to come home! 

They got to spend some time with both families.  It's so convenient to have my brother in Vegas.  The kids got to spend time with their cousins before and after their flights.

 

  

They made it for Lexi's birthday party.  

It was a "Hello Kitty" party.  

Playing party games....

Sleepovers are the best with cousins!

 

Baptism Day!  

The cousins sang "I am a Child of God"

 

 I'm sure Makenzie and Jordan will remember this trip for the rest of their lives.  It was a perfect time for them to go out and see family.

Cabin Fever

Since the new year, our Ohio winter weather has been causing problems.   Really the weather hasn't been THAT bad (comparable to what we have seen in Utah, Missouri, and Michigan).  But the "officials" are calling it bad and have been cancelling school left and right, and then delaying the school hours on all the other days.  Now, we all jump for joy when we have a snow day once in awhile. But now, it's getting old! The cabin fever has set in as activities and extracurriculars are being cancelled, too.  Who knows what other winter weather we will have in the next month!  I am just ranting, because in reality, IT'S NOT THAT BAD!    

 

 (One of the mornings of a snowstorm)

It's really not affecting my kids that much, because we home school. My poor kids feel jipped that they still have school when all the other kids are out.  But, I'm grateful I have something to do with my kids that is more productive than watching movies all day.  (We still are watching a lot of movies though!) But, I'm sure grateful we will be done with school in May, while everybody else will be going an extra 2 weeks in the summer!  I have only taught 5 seminary classes in the last 4 weeks!  I'm not going to lie, it's been nice to sleep in!  But then I know I have a duty to teach and it's not happening like it should be.  Some things are just out of my control.

 

 We love having a fireplace!

Without further ado... here is what we've been doing to stay somewhat sane!

 I thought this was a cute picture. 

Jordan is the lone "survior" of sleeping.

 Gavin is starting to sleep walk a little at night. 

 I found him like this one night before I headed to bed.

 Horsey rides are the best! 

 Tyler is running out of room!

 We are running out of room in the tub too!  

(Bathing all together is NOT a common occurance.  There's no room for the water to go, except on the floor.   No fun for mom!)

Tyler is working at the urgent care on the weekends now.  

We usually text and send him pictures throughout the day.

 

This is what we get back from him.

Since we have a  HUGE collection of Wendy's kids meal toys the kids love building these huge creations.  (Shows you how much we love Wendy's!) We've been collecting these for years, and somehow we randomly still get these in their kids meals. 

Great snow day activity!

Another fun activity was going to library time and doing a winter craft!  

I thought these were so cute!

I was watching a friend's children for an afternoon. 

 Her little girl has red hair (and is named Makenzie).  

These girls are two peas in a pod. 

Ellionna is starting to get into dress-up.  

Her favorite thing though is to pull everything out of her drawers and dress herself.  

I found her here with 3 extra shirts on, plus the clothes she was wearing!

 

Gavin still loves dress up, too.  

He fgot an Army helmet with accessories at the dollar store.

  

The boys are in swimming lessons. 

 What better way to enjoy winter, than to swim in the 85 degree therapy pool?

 

Grandma Sherman got the kids a Karaoke machine for Christmas.  

It's been a favorite around here for all of us!