sneaky leprechaun.

these little leprechauns had a fun st. patty's day.

the sneaky leprechaun escaped their traps again!

this one is mabel's.

he also escaped connor's trap! 

he must have brought a friend this time though. 

he needed someone to drive the getaway car!

he was nice and left lots of gold for us to enjoy!!

the best ten years.

it seems not that long ago, but if you count children, jobs, school, church callings, trips, and on and on and on, it all adds up to the best ten years. 

happy ten to us. here's to another 50. love you my love.

our brown-eyed birthday girl.

our beautiful mabel turned 6 yesterday. crazy to believe that my baby girl is now 6!! she's so grown up and the best helper and many times seems older than 6. she is such a great sister and friend to everyone around her. she loves meeting new friends. everywhere we go, she meets someone new. the park, baseball games, school, wherever. she is so very smart. she's improved so much on reading this year and loves to read to others. mabel is a great organizer and helper around the house. many times she's the first one done with her jobs and helps the others with theirs. and sometimes she surprises us with making our bed or connor or elsie's bed. we love our miss mae!

she asked to have a friend party this year, and since i put it off last year and told her this year would be the year, i had to agree. it was so very fun to plan though and was a fun princess party with the cutest princesses ever! mabel just wanted to play games and that was easy enough to plan. so we played pin the crown on the princess, musical thrones, princess bingo, opened presents, and had a treasure hunt that led to cake and ice cream. very fun indeed.

the invites. attached to a pink polkadot balloon.

off to deliver the invites.

the birthday girl with her princess cake.

the spread.

playing musical thrones to "let it go". 

cutest girls belting out all the words with hand actions and all.

a group shot of all the princesses with their must have princess crowns/party hats.

eight is pretty great.

oh what a day saturday was! connor's baptism day. felt lots of emotions. felt so very blessed. i have to admit, i kept it together really well until i saw connor and cory in their whites and i lost it from there on. cried through my talk. cried through the baptism. cried through the confirmation. i had to clarify with connor later that the tears were happy tears and that i was so very proud of him for his decision to be baptized and for the very good boy that he is. :) we were very blessed to have so many family and friends there to enjoy the day with. we had many come from afar and we are grateful. it was powerful to watch as connor was surrounded by such great men as he was given the gift of the Holy Ghost and was confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Lattery-day Saints. 3 great-grandpas, 3 grandpas, 7 uncles {missed you nate} and cory. it was very special. we are so grateful for the Christ & gospel and the joy & fullness it gives to us personally and together as a family.

{at the stake center before}

{in their whites}

will you be mine?

we had a fun valentines! the kids made valentines for their friends, bubbles for the girls and staches for connor. i got to help at mabel's class party. i was in charge of the sugar cookie decorating station. the kids loved their traditional flip flops. they are always a hit!

i sewed the flip flops in wrapping paper shaped as hearts! 

turned out super cute and easy, fun way to wrap.

i tried my hand at making a heart pizza. 

it turned out looking great and tasting yummy!

eagle day 2014.

we love going to eagle day each year. i hope the kids never tire of admiring the beautiful creatures/world around us. this year grandpa packer came with us. it's always fun when he joins us on our adventures! there weren't very many eagles because they aren't leaving out the dead carp for them to eat. they are worried about the sickness that's been showing up throughout the state with the bald eagles. we did see a handful or so. no pheasants this time, but we did see quite a few pelicans fly over.

it was a bit dangerous out here! 

{snow and ice + rain = one slippery mess}

i don't think i've ever walked on ice so slippery!!

feeling the animal pelts.

making animal footprints with grandpa.

checking out a barn owl pellet.

one of the few eagles we saw. {it's the black dot on the ice}

2 birds were brought in for the morning. 

this great-horned owl and a red-tailed hawk. 

they are such beautiful creatures!!

getting excited for the olympics.

a while ago, we got so excited about the olympics as we went to the short track olympic qualifying races! it was so fun!! it was at the olympic oval. the 2002 olympics happened while i was on my mission, so this gave me a glimpse of what i missed. it was so fun for all of us! we watched some races and then tried our hand at hockey, curling, and riding skeleton during the intermission. we also got to sit in one of the bmw bobsleds. it was a fun, fun day!

those clappers were very exciting!!

shooting the pucks into the net.

it was pretty cool, they had a gun that timed how fast the puck was going.

connor on the skeleton.

mabel would only go if cory went too!

this one is so blurry, but you can see how happy mabel is! that girl loves to go fast!!

showing off their face painting. elsie's face kills me!