February holidays: Valentines/ Chinese New Year

Rachel and Bryce took the initiative to make their own Valentine boxes. I didn't realize what they were doing until they were halfway finished. I'm pretty proud of them!

But as soon as the box was emptied of its candy, Bryce had a heyday destroying the it. :)

We also enjoy celebrating Chinese New Year! I pull out my special china I brought home all the way from mainland China. 

Yum-Yum!

Valentine's Day

Look at these adorable valentine's boxes Rachel and Bryce made. Ahhh. They had a lot of fun making those together. Their idea, their work. I stayed almost completely out of it!

Bryce and I had a lot of fun as I volunteered in his classroom for his party. I was in charge of the craft. 

Camille was up at Clear Creek camp Monday-Wednesday and missed Valentines day at school. So they had their party on Friday. We had purchased valentines the week before and she labeled them all but on Friday morning, we could find them anywhere. My best guess is that they got tossed in the garbage during a clean-up rampage. So, Friday morning, bright and early before school, we rushed to walmart. Of course, there were no valentines cards. So we bought a bag of laffy taffy and laughed it off. Her classmates didn't mind. 

One of my favorite Valentine traditions is to, each day, tape a heart on my children's door (and my husband) that lists something that I love about them. I got kind of behind this year and had to double up several times. But hey, got to keep it real. I can only do my best. 

And it just makes my heart swell to look down the hall and see the love! And it really helps me love and appreciate my children and spouse more when I'm always thinking of things that I love about them.  

This year, all on his own, Bryce decided to make me a couple of hearts too. Sooo sweet!

"Mom, I love that you make time to play games with the kids"

"Dear Mom, I love the pretty music you play on the harp."

The Nativity

I remember re-enacting the Nativity when I was a child. Usually Grandma and Grandpa Dewey would stay overnight on Christmas Eve and my Dad or Grandpa would read out of a special children book, Luke II, which was mostly scripture. My siblings and I dressed up in costumes my mom gathered in all their 1970's fashion. Nothing fancy- towels, scarves, robes, tinfoil crowns. And we did our best to act out our roles. 

We've done the Nativity a few other times when we've had family together, but since we've been doing Christmas Eve on our own, we've never included the Nativity as our own family tradition. Well, this year, we dressed up for the Nativity three times!

Nativity #1

I was in charge of the program for the ward party. I had the Comstocks sing a few songs and they were awesome, as always. Then a video of some of the primary children.

And then some of the youth acted out the Nativity in shadow-box fashion. It was pretty awesome.

Sydney is the angel

Parker is the wiseman.

Nativity #2

We acted out the Nativity with the Brown cousins. Between my costumes and Bryn's costumes, we had a well dressed cast.

Nativity #3

This one we did with the Dewey cousins. Only this wasn't the actual Nativity. It was a story that my told about a sheep meeting baby Jesus. 

It was so nice to be reminded of the birth of Baby Jesus so often this year. Its a story for the ages worth retelling.

Christmas Cookies

One of my greatest Christmas weaknesses is sugar cookies. This year I waited all the way until Christmas Eve to make them. Some for Santa and some for me. Worked out to be a pretty sweet deal. Oh, yeah, and some for the kids. Speaking of kids, they were pretty creative with their decorating this year. Bryce did the gingerbread man. Camille did the snowman and the stocking, I think. They all turned out scrumptious!

They lasted until after dinner on Christmas day!

Achievement Awards 2015

Have you ever had a family tradition that you LOVE with all your heart but you can't seem to keep it up? That is status of our Achievement Award night. 

The purpose of this night is to recognize the achievements and accomplishments of our children. To recognize their hard work, dedication, and perseverance in doing good things. 

We can't seem to decide if we should hold this every January as part of goal setting, or at the end of summer, because sometimes summer can be pretty productive and a good time to look back at what we did during the school year and summer before a new school year begins.  You can see our inconsistency here:

2009 Aug

2010 Jan

2011 Aug

2013 Jan

So this year, it was August again, and if that's a pattern, well then, I'll take it. And I forgot to put together a really fun addition to the evening. Darn it! I was going to make a video of our summer, because boy, were we hoppin'! But I forgot (so maybe I'll put one together quick today.)

Anyway, on to the awards!

BRYCE: moved his bedroom to the basement (and is now sharing with Rachel). He got a nightlight that projects a picture of Spiderman on to the ceiling.

RACHEL: performed in her first full Ballet, "Sleeping Beauty". She got a couple of packs of Extra gum for her extra hard work.

CAMILLE: passed off a complete level in her piano books and was pretty proud of that. She got a new Disney piano book. She now has to fight Sydney off to play the piano.

PARKER: totally excelled at earning merit badges this year. I sewed the ones he received onto a brand new sash for his uniform. I put 9 on and he has also earned about 9 more that he hasn't received yet. Sooo proud of this boy!

SYDNEY: made the Freshman Volleyball team at Westlake High. She has worked tirelessly to improve her game so that she could have a chance. Lots of camps, practices, early morning workouts and backyard practices. I'm excited for her and the coming season. 

STERLING: survived a near-miss experience with becoming a zombie. He had mouth surgery to repair some receding gums and we teased him, after the fact, that his mouth was so bloody, he looked like a zombie. Glad that's over! (Reminded me of the video at the end of the post)

And I got an award for having my first fiction short story published. "DEEP WATER" 

Although we are inconsistent with this tradition, it is worth doing, even every other year, or bouncing between January and August. Working hard and persevering is worth the reward of feeling good about the things you are doing in your life. My kids are learning that and being recognized for it. That's reason enough to persevering and working hard to make sure this tradition keeps happening!

Apricot Festival 2015

July is one of our favorite months of the summer. It is also one of the busiest months of the summer. One of the highlights is the Apricot Ice Cream Festival that happens every year. This year, we were lucky enough to have Grandpa stay at our house for a few days. On Friday, we drove to Park City, to the Canyons and took a gondola ride up to the top of the mountain. Then grandpa kept a bench warm while the rest of us took another lift further up the mountain to a little lake and walked a mile back down.

The cool part about the second lift ride was that it was most commonly used by mountain bikers. On the way up, we got a bird's eye view of them taking jumps and doing tricks.  On the way down, we got this cool video.

OK, also in this video, you see how Hash hikes. Its a big ninja adventure. And then his Dad hides and scares him by saying "ooo, la la." Now when my kids scare each other, they jump out and say "ooo, la, la." Its hilarious and very random.

The next day the whole Brown clan got together and hiked Bald Mountain. It was a long, rocky, windy hike and it was awesome!

Look at all those natural mountain lakes. Bald Mountain is really really high! Its almost 12,000 feet above sea level.

At the summit!

After the hike and a nice picnic lunch, we returned home for a BBQ. The LDS missionaries made a guest appearance and shared a message.

After the missionaries left and were safely out of hearing distance, we had our first ever Lip Sync Battle. I started it off with "Kissed By a Rose" by Seal, but no one got video so these pictures will have to do.

And then the REAL show began!

We also awarded the traveling Apricot Festival award. This year it was awarded to Grandpa. 

There is so much to love about this family. I love this Apricot Festival and love hosting it, year after year!

Past years:
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008

Hot Air Balloons

As per tradition, this year we went to the hot air balloon festival in Provo again for the Freedom Festival.

 

The best place to stand is always near the flame.

Sterling loves to watch the balloons get laid out and blown. But me? I love it when they take off!

Then we hiked the Y for a beautiful view. We could see the Provo City Center temple, Provo temple, Timpanogos temple and we could barely see the Oquirrh Mt. temple. And just beyond our view were the Draper temple and Payson temple. We also called G'pa Brown to say hello and see if he could guess where we were. This is also becoming a tradition. Good times!