March MADness

I'm totally caught up in the madness of March!! My entire brackets don't look as pretty as my Midwest bracket..... I wish they did!!

Only dumb Missouri blew it!! Lets go DUKE!!

As of tonight, 6/8 for the elite eight. 3/4 for the final four!! And both my teams for the final game are still in!!! Holla!!!

:)

Sundays

This is totally my new gig.

Every Sunday you can find me visiting a primary (the children's classes) in some ward in my stake!!

Today being St. Patrick's Day was especially fun... Who can resist orange and green mustaches?? Not me!!

Even though I haven't been in my own ward for weeks-----pretty sure people think my kids have no mother, or I'm inactive---- I do enjoy my new calling as the Stake Primary President. It's pretty sweet. The children are always so cute.

And I get to work with some pretty amazing ladies too!! Seated beside me are my two counselors and a member of our board. The Brunette secretary and other board members were visiting a different ward!! (Totally not on purpose, but it's how it turned out.)

A lovely, lovely St. Patty's Day!!

:)

Victory!

A wonderful weekend in Napa, the "fatherland," was made even better when the littlest brother beat the biggest brother in ping pong. 2 out of 3 proves it wasn't just luck!!

Good job Jim! It was a great game to watch!

I smell Spring

I love this time of the year. I have Spring fever like no other. This fever usually comes over me because I am sick of wearing my winter shoes. I prefer to be barefoot or in flip flops any day.... I'm just tired of the whole socks, shoes, and cold feet.

So the sun has been shining, the temperatures rising, and I am so excited!!

These two cuties are super excited for spring too!!! Can't you tell?

Chubby Bunnies

I have tried many ways to post this!! I am sorry for the delay.

Every mother deserves to watch her kids play CHUBBY BUNNIES :)

It doesn't take a lot to entertain us.  We were all very entertained.  

Riley and Kevin. You guys are awesome!

New Tradition

 On January 1st, we headed to the Pacific Ocean.  We camped-- yes in January we camped!!-- at Rufugio State Beach which is just north of Santa Barbara.  It is an incredible beach to camp at.  You are literally right on the beach.  It was awesome.  Well, most of it was awesome.

 Watching the kids and Jim play football on the beach was awesome.

 Riley still celebrating the new year was awesome.

Okay. no it wasn't.

Too bad he lost that squeaky thing. (prayers were answered!)

 The sunset was AWESOME!!

I just couldn't take enough pictures of this. The sky was on fire. It was so beautiful.

 This was awesome.

 Have you met my awesome daughter, the writer?

Chilling with these two was awesome.

 Lunch on the beach. Awesome.

We loved having Kevin & Jessica with us. The weather during the day was incredible.  I can't like. The night was not awesome.  The wind blew and blew and it was soooo cold. I froze all night.  Not my favorite camping night. The days were so nice.

 Look close.  Jim and Marissa switched places!

We loved this trip so much we've decided it should be a tradition.  A new tradition.

Perfect way to start the new year :)

And this.  The Wagners are so competitive...

Ready?

It'll be posted tomorrow!!

Christmas in February?

 Okay. So I'm a little late.  Blogging has been hard for me lately...  I blame it on the smartphone and all of my favorite apps!  However, I need to be better, because since I absolutely never scrapbook anymore, this is our family history in a nutshell.  So bear with me as I play a little catch up!

Christmas was wonderful, like always.  When my kids were little it was all about their excitement and wonder at the magic during the season.  As my kids have gotten older, Christmas has changed.  Some traditions have stuck, some have been left behind.  Traditions are an ever changing phenomenon.  New ones are born, old ones die, and we just keep moving forward.

As my kids have gotten older, I think Christmas brings a lot of showers of memories. This opens the door for much reflection! There are so many great memories AND we have so much to look forward to!  This year was no exception.  We had a wonderful season.

 Thank goodness for our SF Giants!!  Everyone, and that includes Jessica and Ben, got a World Series t-shirt.  We couldn't resist a big shout out to our family's favorite team. (As we speak, we can't really say that for the SF 49er's.)

 Riley is really happy to up and opening presents.  :)

 We were blessed to have Marissa, Jacquie, and Ben home with us for Christmas Day.  We were thrilled to have them and Ben was a great sport with all of our craziness!  We even took everyone to see Les Mis on Christmas afternoon. It was awesome :)

 The kids showered Jim with some of his favorite things.  He always says that it's not Christmas if you don't have Ritz crackers, sausage, and cheese! :)

One gift I absolutely loved was making Ben a t-shirt quilt!!  He has envied Jacquie's t-shirt quilt for a long time so now he has his very own.  I hope it keeps him warm in the bitter Rexburg cold!!!


Christmas was awesome. It always is! We loved every single minute of it.  We can forget the fact that I didn't get one gift wrapped until the 22nd of December.... Or the projects that didn't get quite done.... Or all the goodies that we didn't bake.... Or the pumpkin pie that we forgot to eat on Christmas Day...

They were good times with the people I love the most. :)