Go Orange!

Ren is playing basketball!  He is fun to watch.  He loves playing and you can tell.  It seems he is always trying his best!  His tongue is often hanging out too.  He is on the Kinder orange team and we like to cheer for him!  He is pretty good, not the best out there or anything, but he knows how to dribble and shoot and rebound and keep his hands up to block.  For kinders, that's not bad!  He scored once in this game, and had the ball a lot!  We are happy that he is enjoying playing basketball!

Taking the ball to the hoop!

Block!

Hustle!

You aren't allowed to steel the ball at this level.  They are encouraging the kids to learn the basics, dribbling and all.  But Ren steels often and they have to stop the game and remind him not to.  :)

He shoots!  He scores!

Actually, I don't that was the one that went in. :)

This was when his teammate scored and he raised his arms and yelled, "Yes!"  Too funny!

Sunset, Moonrise

 This was the view from our windows tonight!  Amazing right?  The moon looked huge and bright!

City lights, so pretty.

Sledding

 Sledding with the youth and some families in our ward was a blast!  Above, Ren is riding a very dangerous contraption, while Dad videos to the side.  :)  The kids had so much fun!  As did I, though I just watched.  

 Ren treks it up the hill for another run!

 MJ and Evva are set to go barreling down the hill, while Chase watches on.

 Enjoying the ride!

 That was fun, let's do it again!

 Porter's turn!

 And he takes flight!

The boys built a mogul to do some jumps.  Don't you love his sunglasses?  Well, they broke by the end of the day, as you can imagine!

 Ellie chills out.

 Porter brought his snowboard, just in case....

 Yes, he must test it out...

 So cool

 Mom, did you get that?!

It ended up to be the perfect day for sledding, warm but plenty of snow.  In case you were wondering, Chloe is not in the pics, cause she was not there.  She refused to go because she looks like a marshmallow in her snow clothes.  She really needs new ones.  A few days later, she had some new, cute snow pants to sport for the next time!  Typical.  :)

Another Birthday!

 The big 38 this year.  My cake was pretty psychedelic, right?  And the little kitty characters were a nice touch too.  Just trying to keep me young, I guess?  We were putting pink candles on to match, and Ren really though it needed a blue one too, so there you go!

 Me and my hunny

 Here all my babies!  Can you believe how big they are?!  

Rusty and I spent New Year's Eve at the Regional youth dance that our stake puts on.  We were chaperones in charge of a game room.  We may have played a raging game of Apples to Apples!  :)  Porter was at the dance, while Chloe had made plans at her friends house.  It was fun and reminded me of a dance I may have gone to back in the day. :)  Ellie babysat the 2 little kiddos.  They all fell asleep and missed the ball drop on TV.  Not to worry, it's usually not all it's cracked up to be!

Chloe

 It's basketball season!  I do enjoy basketball, but I enjoy watching Chloe cheer more.  She is spunky and cute.  She is co-captain with another girl on the team and gets to call many of the cheers.  I don't really know exactly what that means but she does, so that's all that matters.  :)

 Ponytails are flying!

 Go Galena!

She is enjoying cheer.  I enjoy it cause it is a way for her to be involved and keep busy.  :)  She is good at it too.  Her coach is always telling me that she is the perfect cheerleader.  Always smiling and positive and peppy!  So, best of both.

MJ's school choir

 MJ joined her elementary school choir.  They met after school twice a week to rehearse for their concert and performances at a few rest homes and the mall.  MJ really liked it and has a very nice singing voice.  When she tried out, she even had to sing by herself (which sounds scary for a 9 year old, or a 38 year old for that matter) and she did great and was told she was to sing alto.  :)  These pics are from the mall performance. 

Two turtle doves...

 Rockin' around the Christmas tree...

 Jingle bell, jingle bell, jingle bell rock...

 Shake that!

 Rudolph the red nosed reindeer...

 Jingle bells...

MJ is adorbs!  :) She maybe should smile a little more!  I think her nervousness she forgot!  She manages it all the rest of the time!

Winter Formal

 Porter & Bonnie doubled with Eli & Rachel to Winter Formal.  They were very cute.  All dolled up and ready for the party.  There were actually 2 different locations for the dance.  One was the military ball, and since Bonnie's dad is military, they attended that one.

 Please don't stick me.

 Cute

 Really cute

 Chloe, Olivia and Annie went to the regular winter formal.  They spent hours, literally, on their hair.  So, of course we need to commemorate with a picture.

 Beautiful

Merry Christmas!