Snow Party

For our "ward" snow party, we usually go out to the church farm and have fun, this year we were told at the last minute that the church was no longer allowing motorized machines on the property. So we had to punt, luckily we found a great lady that said we could use her property. So we headed over for an afternoon of fun. Brock was so excited to go and get to be out in the snow, I think he was on a tube the entire time. He was freezing by the time we got home. But he enjoyed every minute.

This is what Brett did the entire day, he would drag kids around and drop them off and get another load of kids. He loves to be in charge.



This is a photo of Kaid after he had gone on a ride where Vern tried every trick in the book to get him to fall off of the tube. He never did fall off he just got a face full of snow. I was pretty amazed that he could hold on through some of the tricks that Vern did.




This is what Colby did, he sat and talked to everyone and made sure that they were warm and had plenty to eat. He is really good at taking care of people. For some reason he never wants to get out and take a ride on the tubes.


This is me, Chelsey, and Nat, we were braving the tube with Kaid in the driver seat...Needless to say we where ready for a wild ride. He loves to be able to get his old mom flying in the air. We held on as long as we could but the three of us where no match for Kaid. Kaid was taking Nat and Lacee for a ride and they did not even make it out of the gate. It was quite comical. I think everyone had a good time and made memories that will last a lifetime.
Erika

Happy Birthday Mom!

OK, so how lucky am I to have two amazing moms! And both of their birthdays are in January. So I get to let them know how much I love them and appreciate the things they do for me. For some of you who I have not seen in a while this is my birth mother, I have had the opportunity to have her in my life for seven years now. How lucky I am to get to have her and her family share our lives. Kathy is wonderful; she has taken us in and loved us without even a second thought. She is the peacemaker and is always thinking of others. I have learned many things from her, and I get a lot of things from her (inherited) it has been fun for me to see where I get my long legs and funny feet, my stubbornness. (Which by the way is a WEAVER thing) I truly love her and love getting to know more about her and the many talents she has and shares with me and the boys. Mom I hope that you have a great birthday and know that I love you and enjoy having you and dad in my life. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!
Love,
Erika, Colby & The boys.

Laughter Lives Tuesday

This post is part of "Laughter Lives! Tuesday" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check our their blog to read everyone else's "Laughter Lives!" posts.Ok, I saw this on another blog that I love to read and thought that I would give it a try. I am going to start with a little bit of background to our family for those that really don't know me. We have two older kids (16, 13) and then one younger (Brock, 7) So the other night the big boys were both out with friends doing what teenagers do on a Friday night. So Colby and I decided that we would go out, we asked Brock what movie he wanted to see, so off we went to a movie of HIS choice, and then we went out to dinner. During dinner we were all talking and Brock piped up and said "You know I have decided that I don't want to date you two any longer, your not as much fun as my friends" Colby and I both sat there in a state of SHOCK! Did my 7 year old just tell us that we where no fun?!? We both burst out laughing and Brock said "WHAT?" He had no clue what we where laughing at.
So now it is your turn...What makes you laugh?

Cheating

Last week I was talking to Brock about how his day at school had gone and how he had done that week, he proceeds to tell me that his teacher only gave him 90% on a test because she had said that he CHEATED! I asked how did you cheat, he said that he did not, but that his teacher said that he did. I knew that we had SEP the next day so I thought that I would talk to his teacher then. So the next day as we were driving to SEP's Brock was extremely nervous, which he usually is. But I kept asking for more details on the Cheating he did not give me anything other than what had already been said.....So in we go to meet with his teacher, we sit down and she tells us that Brock is doing well and there are no concerns at all. I was a bit puzzled by this so when she asked if there were any questions I of course said YES. I proceeded to tell her what Brock had said the night before, she had a weird look on her face and said that Brock has never cheated, and Brock said it was on my math time test......The light went on with the teacher, and she started to apologize. She then proceeds to tell me that they were working on doing speed tests, so before they started Brock went through his paper and wrote a 1 in front of all the problems, which would have allowed him to finish the entire paper in the time allowed, but one problem....Not all of them would be ten or higher... So she told Brock that he could not cheat the system. And once she gave him a new paper, he only missed one, so he got 99% but Brock said that it was 90% because he is not understanding the 99%. It was really quite funny once we got the full story. His poor teacher felt so bad, she kept apologizing and said she will find a different way to say things. You gotta love a kid that thinks outside of the box. I always knew that Brock was the one that was going to keep us on our toes!

Happy Birthday Mom

Today is my mom's birthday. She is the best. I hope that she has a great day. I wanted to just let her know just how special she is to me. My mom has always been there for me, she has always been cheering me on. She never showed her disappointment in me, which I know there where many times that she was. She has taught me so much through out my life, she gave me so many opportunities and still continues to teach me things, she has taught me to cook, clean, be a better person, sew (she is still trying to teach me that one) she always "brings back" my plant. I don't know how many times I take a dead plant to her and she can bring it back, she will bring it to my house for a few weeks and then I take it back to her and she works her magic...She is awesome. But I think one of the most important things that my mom has taught me was to love, and have faith. My mom has never not had both of them in her life. She loves everyone and she has never had her faith falter. She is such a strong women. She amazes me I am proud to be her daughter. Mom, I hope that you have a great day and know just how much I love you. Happy Birthday! Mom your the best.

Love,

Erika ,Colby & the Boys

Recap of December

Wow, I can't believe it is the end of a year....Time sure seems to fly by when your the parent. I remember being a kid and thinking that it took forever for Christmas to come and then forever for my birthday to come around...Now, I blink and they come and go. This month we had a lot of fun and really enjoyed our time together. We started the beginning of the month the the Ward Christmas party, it was a lot of work but a lot of fun. Colby, Kaid, & Brett really came in and helped out at the last second. And they didn't even complain. The next week I had finals that I tried (key word) to study for...I really didn't apply myself like I should have. There was too much other stuff that I had going but I was able to get a 4.0 so I must have done alright with the studying. (Colby said he wonders if my parents will still pay me for grades?!?!)
The next week we were headed to LAS VEGAS, yes I typed that correctly Vegas! Not for the NFR, but for the Pioneer Bowl! BYU vs Arizona... We went down with Colby's parents and two of his brothers and their families. It was so much fun. We went down early on Friday so that we would be able to go to the fireside, I still get chills thinking about the spirit that was there. When the team gets up and sings "As the Army of Heleman" I can't describe the power it has. It is an awesome sight.

If any of you know Colby, you know that PATIENCE is not one of his best virtues. So with that said as soon as we hit Las Vegas you could feel his stress level rise....We wanted to go to the outlet stores and while we were driving up and down the streets looking for them (because we couldn't ask for directions, and I should have printed them off line) we came across this man, we even had to flip around to get a picture. From some of the YW/YM Colby gets texts messages about the people who wear helmets and running shoes....10 minutes in Vegas and we find one standing on the corner. He even had a "guitar hero" guitar on his back. We all laughed and laughed.

The next day we shopped at the families new favorite store "Bass Pro" if you think Cabela's is neat, it pails in comparison to the Bass Pro shop. I could have spent hours in that store, oh we did. They had one of the neatest aquariums I have seen, they had real ducks in the store and neat mounts.
We then went back to the hotel and geared up for the game. We decided to go early so that we could do some tailgating...so we went to the stadium and watched people and listened to the bands. Brock wanted his face painted so we waited in line and he told them exactly what he wanted...
Then we went into the stadium to our seats. There were about 20 of us so we had a pretty good cheering section, we were surrounded by Arizona fans. At the start of the game they had David Hasselhoff sing the National Anthem and there were some of the troops from the Air Force base there to carry out the flag.. It looked really neat.

I was not prepared for the cold, we were in Vegas in a Desert who knew that it could snow there?!? It had snowed a few days before we got there but it was so cold that they still had snow on the ground in some places. So once the sun went down it got COLD! But we weren't going to let that keep us down, we cheered and loved everything about the game.
Most of you know that my kids require sleep, will with the time difference it was really getting the best of Brock, the kickoff was at his bed time in Utah, so by the first of the second quarter Brock was asking how long until bed? I told him several hours, he was not amused. So with about 10 minutes left in the second quarter he asked if he could sit on my lap, yep you guessed it! This is how he spent the rest of the game, that is until I decided in the last of the 4th quarter that I was COLD- Brett, Brock, and I went out to the car. Colby & Kaid joined us after the game was over. Even though BYU lost we still had fun. They played hard and that is all that matters. Right?!Brock did not notice the cold at all, that is until I had to give back the blanket when we went out. We all had a blast and enjoyed the time to be away from home and the stresses.

Christmas was great, we had my parents over for dinner and were able to just stay home and relax. We rang in the New Year with Kaid and Brett out with friends, and Colby, Brock and myself at home. Brock did not see the New Year, but Colby and I did.