St. Thomas, Nevada

Another historical site close to Overton that we visited was the flooded city of St. Thomas. Nate's brother-in-law, Dennis, had an ancestor who was the postmaster of St. Thomas back in the day. He was one of the last ones out of the city before it flooded, apparently trying to get all of the mail posted. The city was flooded with the building of the Boulder Dam in the mid 1930's. Most of the people settled in nearby Overton after their city was covered in water. That is how Dennis' family ended up residing there.
This is the sign that tells you something is out there. You would never know there was ruins of a city down in the valley below. I guess the area is only dry during drought seasons, which apparently is now. It has only been dry, not covered with the waters of Lake Mead, since 2002.
Here is what it looks like from the parking lot. Not much down there, I was thinking.
Here our some of the ruins. We had a map of St. Thomas and were trying to guess what the ruins were. I think we thought this was the hotel, or the school house.
We believed this to be a well, which was behind someone's house.
We were searching for the post office the whole time. I can't remember what we presumed this to be, but I think it was a residence with a soda shop in the front. Our kids were trying to look for lost "treasure" the whole time we were there. That's what kept them going on this long adventure. The only thing the kids found that they thought was of value was some glass.
The hike got a little long for Ella, so she hopped on her dad's back. Actually mid way through the hike Nate took her back to the car because she still wasn't feeling so great.

Hiking in Overton

This was our second annual trip to Logandale, Nevada to visit Nate's sister, Erika and her family. We have made quite a few after Christmas trips down to see her, and we decided this year to make it an annual thing. The kids have so much fun together and look forward to spending a whole week together with sleepovers and everything! Logandale is about 45 minutes away from Las Vegas. Typically we go to Las Vegas to entertain ourselves throughout the week, but this year we just hung around the Logandale/Overton area. There's not much to do, but there is a lot of hiking in the Valley of Fire State Park.
If you know my kids you know they love to climb. They climb wherever we go, even if they are not supposed to (like on the temple grounds!) We've had so broken limbs from climbing at our house, but rock formations like these are the perfect place to get the climb out of them!
Here is Grace and her sweet cousin Eden. The are inseparable the whole time they are together, and they email regularly to stay in touch.
Here is Miles climbing up high. He looks kind of scared way up there!
Here is Nate with all of the kids. We make quite a scene wherever we go because between the two of us we have 11 kids. Not a good adult to kid ratio when you're out on the town!
The kids spent the majority of the time at this park trying to catch chipmunks that were running around. They found these holes, which they thought the chipmunks lived in. Nate told them if they caught a chipmunk they could keep it for a pet! This is what drove their obsession to catch the darn things. They did get pretty creative in their contraptions to catch the creatures. They also used left over lunch scraps to lure the chipmunk into a chip bag, which they got pretty close to catching!
Here is Ella with her cousin, Brigham. They had a fun time together this week too. Ella actually wasn't feeling good this day. She ended up throwing up that evening. Poor thing. Also, Erika's 3 kids had the chicken pox this week. Ella was exposed, so we'll see if anything happens. The rest of us should be safe.
After lunch we headed over to another hike through Petroglyph Canyon. It lead us to a famous site called Mouse's Tank. It was really cool to look inside. First, we past all of these petrogyphs on our way up to the site. When we got there the rock formation was such that it looked like a "tank." The rock was surrounding a huge hole that went pretty deep. We explored inside too and had a hard time getting back out. I'm sad I didn't get any pictures of the actual tank. Our batteries ran out of our camera.
The legend has it that a Paiute Indian named Mouse hid out in this area from the "white man." He was apparently very upset the the white people were taking over all of his people's land. I guess he stole a knife from one of the whites in the area and became a huge target of whites in Southern Nevada. It is fun to learn a little history on our trips!

Christmas Day!

Welcome to Christmas day at the Pack's. We don't take many pictures because the video camera usually gets all of the footage, but I happen to take a few pictures of the kids with some of their presents!
Here is Isaiah with his new skateboard. One of Santa's "elves" painted the bottom to suit Isaiah's interests. He loves it!
Here is Grace in her Hannah Montana getup. She also got 2 web-kins and gave one away to Miles who decided on Christmas morning that he really wanted one too. She is such a sweetie!
Miles really wanted a lot of Lego's for his birthday and Christmas and Santa didn't disappoint. He also got a camera and some books.
Moses was a hard one to buy for this year because all he asked for for Christmas was a black bow tie. He got that plus a camera and a "light-up" light saber.
Little Ella was surprised with Wonder Pets stuffed animals. She played with them all morning and was so giddy and excited. Tuck immediately went for a swim in the toilet. I had to wash him right away. She was very creative and found a little shoe box that became the Fly Boat. Such a big girl with a BIG imagination!

Traditional Christmas Eve Pictures

One of the traditions that we have is to get pajamas for our Christmas Eve present! We have our little Christmas Eve program and then open up a gift from mom and dad. Surprisingly it is always PJ's.
It has become increasingly difficult to get a good picture with 5 children in it. Here was our best one. Moses and Ella are just constant little movers, especially with all the excitement of Santa and presents.
Just wanted to show that events in our house are always filled with drama...
and someone always gets hurt!

Miles' Birthday Party

Miles' birthday is always a hard one for me. It is 5 days before Christmas and it is very easy to forget it is coming with all of the other festivities going on. This year Miles wanted to invite his friends from school and have an all out boy party. I don't know who thought it was a good idea to invite 12 little 7-year-old boys over for a 4-hour late night! Things got very crazy. Did you know that when the birthday boy gets like 5 Nerf guns for his birthday, no boys are going to sit down and watch a movie? I know now, and I'll plan accordingly next time!
Here are most of the boys eating dinner. Miles' dinner of choice? Mac and Cheese and hot dogs, much to his mother's dismay! It was an easy dinner though.
Apparently, the kids were singing "Happy Birthday" very loud!
Miles blew out his 7 candles all in one breath. Isn't that good luck?
Isaiah and Grace made this birthday sign for Miles. I love seeing the kids do things for each other. I spend most of my time breaking up silly little fights all of the time, so to see them serve and love each other is a mother's greatest joy! Now, if I could only get them to do that when it wasn't some one's birthday!?

Family Christmas Party

We had a great time at our Grandma and Grandpa Anderson's house for our annual Christmas party. It is fun to get together with family that you don't see very often. Kids love to reunite with their cousins, and I love to spend time with my cousins, aunts, and uncles that I only see every few months it seems. We had delicious food (too much of it!), great conversation, a nativity reenactment, white elephant gifts, and formal gift exchanges. I loved the white elephant gift exchange because it helped me get rid of a bunch of toys and stuff that was headed to the DI!
OK. So, my children wanted to come up with their nativity costumes all on their own. I was grateful for this because I had a lot to get prepared with the presents and food I was bringing to the party. This is Grace as Mary, her cousin Jonah as Joseph, and Isaiah as the donkey. I thought Isaiah was pretty creative with his donkey face.
Here is our shepherd boy who looks more like his name sake then a shepherd. I think it is the HUGE staff that he was carrying around.
Here is our little happy wise man. He was very excited to find that gold box to hand over his present to little baby Jesus!

We sang lots of Christmas carols, and the kids got games for their gifts from Grandma and Grandpa Clawson. My favorite was the precious handmade gifts that Grandma Anderson made for all of the girls. Beautifully, creative homemade purses. The kind you see at boutiques. I don't know why I didn't inherit those crafty genes. Maybe because my husband might have divorced me if I brought home crafts to have around our house!

Sweet Ella

We just can't get enough of this sweet little girl. I just had to post this happy picture of Ella. We love you little sister!

Our Annual Christmas Card

Merry Christmas!

Slippery Ice

We went to see the lights at temple square, and wouldn't you know it I didn't get any pictures! We got back pretty late and all of the kids had fallen asleep in the car. I pulled Ella out of her car seat in a peaceful sleep and started to walk into the house to put her to bed. All of the sudden I slipped on a big sheet of ice in front of the stairs to our house. We both went tumbling down, and although I tried to land so that I could bear the brunt of the fall, Ella was a little topsy-turvy and went head first for the cement. Poor little girl. This is a picture of the damage. Just so everyone knows, I didn't make it out very well myself. It looks like I'm abusive, but my injuries are hidden by clothes. I have huge bruises on my leg and on my behind and a scrape on my arm.

December Performances

One of many fun things about December, aside from Christmas of course, is that we get to go to all types of music performances for the kids. Isaiah, Miles, and Grace are all involved in choirs at their school and they absolutely enjoy it. Isaiah made the audition choir this year and they get to do movement to their songs and the songs are really fun. One of the songs for their performance was done in the dark and the kids wore a bunch of glow necklaces and bracelets. It was a psychedelic Christmas tune and they had a great time. Grace was in the mixed choir and Miles was in the beginning choir. I took a bunch of pictures, but they turned out really dark in the auditorium at school.
Isaiah also had a piano recital. This year he played a song from Handel's Messiah. He did such a great job and I LOVE the song that he played. It is always great when you like the songs that they play because they practice them so much before hand.

Season's First Snow

I am a really boring winter mom. I do not look forward to the snow season. I think it is because it lasts so long and it makes me cold. I just want to curl up in a blanket and have chicken noodle soup everyday. I remember the days of Seattle when you were lucky to have it snow once in four years and the whole town shut down to have a great time! Not so much here in Utah. Life just goes on as normal and it's not as fun.
I'm glad that the kids are old enough to go outside and just enjoy the snow all on their own. We've been collecting "snow clothes" for the last few years and it's nice to have good clothing for the kids to go outside for hours. Here are Isaiah and Miles with their friends Xane and Tyler. They had a great time!

Here is Ella all decked out for the first time in her snow clothes. She loves being outside, but hates being cold. She lasted a few minutes out there!

Grace Performing

Grace has been in a performance group this year. It's kind of a long drive, but luckily we found someone to carpool with. She enjoys learning new songs and dance moves. This really is the perfect activity for her!
Here's Grace singing with the WHOLE group. To her right is her friend McKenna that she met when we set up our carpool. They have really hit-it-off and have become really good friends.
It's really hard to get a good picture of people in the motion of singing. I know because when I was practicing for the Relief Society General Meeting Choir, the chorister wanted us to all smile while we sang. I practiced in front of the mirror once and was embarrassed by what I saw. I can't smile and sing and look normal. I know that some women can do it, but it's not in my genetic make up. I thought this one was pretty good of Grace, but you should have seen some of the funny ones.
Grace had a chance to sing a solo at the Festival of the Trees celebration. I was really sick this weekend and couldn't go. I am so disappointed that I missed it. Nate said that she did a perfect job. There were about 450 people in the audience. She is getting lots of practice singing in front of big groups of people. Watch out American Idol, here she is in another 8 or 9 years!

Christmas Celebrations

December is a month of excitement and dread. I love the feel of the holidays. Everyone is on the move trying to get all of their shopping done, decorations are up and enjoyed, and all of the children have 50 programs to go to. I love the programs, and despise the programs. With so many kids it really busies up your month and it is hard to enjoy the real spirit of Christmas. I do LOVE watching my kids perform though.
The kids come home with lots of Christmas costumes to share. Here is Moses with his reindeer antlers. I'm not sure why he has a blue sticker on his nose. Shouldn't it be blue?
Here's Ella enjoying the fought over Santa hat. I need to get one per child so our problems will be solved.
Here is Moses with Santa. Do you know what he asked for? A black bow tie. Yes, that's right. Even Santa looked at me and said, "Did he just say he wanted a bow tie?" Crazy kid.
Here is Moses' preschool class with Santa. He has really enjoyed preschool and making new friends. He comes home with stories everyday about them all. If their parents only knew... I wish I knew the stories that come home about Moses too! I'm sure they're great!

Thanksgiving

We had a great Thanksgiving with Nate's family this year. It started off with a turkey bowl football game with the Pack's vs. the Clawson's. I was recruited for the Clawson team because they are my genes you know. We had a great time. I haven't played football in a very long time and didn't realize how many muscles you use when you play. I was sore for DAYS after. Really sore. The Clawson's ended up pulling out the win. I'm glad that I got to play with both of my families on this day. I'm very blessed!
Grandma let the kids make their own personal pudding pies. They had such a great time making the pudding and pressing out the crust. These were their prized possessions all day and for days afterward. It was a great idea to get the kids involved.
I always like to have the kids dress up for Thanksgiving. We have been reading a book about the Pilgrims this month as a family. The book had lots of pictures and it was fun "reenacting" the first Thanksgiving with them. I don't think anyone else was really all that excited about making the costumes. I put Nate in charge of making them while I was helping prepare food and he delegated it to his brothers. They were complaining the whole time. That's Nate for you -- the master delegator. Ella didn't keep her hat on for long, but she looked so sweet with it on.
Here is our little Pilgrim boy. He was enjoying his candy/nut cup before the feast began.
Here is our Indian and our little Pilgrim girl. We had the best food at Thanksgiving this year. Everyone brought such creative things to share and it was all so delicious. We ended the night going up to Grandma and Grandpa Clawson's for pie. It is so fun having both of our families live 10 minutes away from each other because it allows us to spend time with both of them more often. We have so many blessings to be thankful for this year and it was a great day to ponder all of them.

Preschool Thanksgiving Party

It is always fun to have preschoolers who have fabulous school celebrations. Here is Moses with all of his "prizes" from his Thanksgiving party at school!
He made a turkey out of a Styrofoam cup and painted feathers on a paper plate turkey. Can't ever have too many turkeys! I happened to love his Indian headdress the best! He had a great time and LOVES to go to school!
Ella wanted me to take a picture of her too! I thought it turned out pretty cute!

Isaiah's Bedroom

As you all know by now, Isaiah is quite the history and geography buff. His own space by his bunk bed (which is his only "me" space) has transformed into a crazy collage.
He has put up multiple maps. One of the world, North America, Utah, and Davis County. He now wants a Clinton map to put up. He also has little photos of all of the Presidents and some larger pictures of his favorite presidents. Those include George Washington, Abe Lincoln, and Thomas Jefferson. At least he has a couple of temples thrown in there.

Here I Go! by Isaiah

Here is a story that Isaiah wrote based on a leaf falling off of a tree:

When I fell off, the positive things I felt were: courageous, being a leader, and growing up. I felt very courageous when I left the tree and started falling. I felt like I've escaped from prison or something like that. But I also felt scared, or frightened. I felt like I wasn't wanted in the group.

When the wind first turned me loose, I thought I would be killed. You see, this is what happened. First, I was sound asleep. Then, I woke up when I heard a crackle of thunder. I was about to go back to sleep, when a giant gust of wind hurled me off the tree. I plunged towards the grass below.

I was plunging towards the ground. Suddenly, another gust of air took me into a cave. It was so dark, I couldn't see anything. I felt like somebody was playing catch with me. Suddenly, another gush of air pushed me through more darkness.

Air was whooshing past me on every side. I kept on smashing into walls. It hurt really bad since it was solid rock. I kept spinning in circles and bringing down fragile stalactites. Suddenly, everything stopped and gravity sucked me down to the surface.

I landed on something very soft. I landed very lightly, and felt very weird. I felt I used to be strong and powerful. Then I was tiny and fragile. So, I just laid down and took a rest.

I had no more friends. I would never see my family again. Suddenly, I heard a soft sound beside me. It was my best friend! Oh, what a joy this was! This was the time of my life.

HALLOWEEN!

We had an eventful Halloween this year. Nate's mom always throws a Halloween party right before Halloween, but with it being on a Saturday this year we had it on the actual day! She always goes all out! We had stories, games, songs, a pinata, and of course, lots of treats. I was a little disappointed in the photos because my camera started dying this day. Luckily you can actually see what the picture is of. You can tell that some of them are starting to go a little psychedelic. The next week I tried to take pictures and you couldn't see anything. After the party we went up to my parents' in Draper and went trick-or-treating. This was a posh place to get the goods. My kids EACH came back with, not exaggerating, 10 regular size candy bars, 2 cans of soda, and 4 huge pixie sticks. And of course lots of fun size stuff!
Here is our track star. Isaiah always has these amazing, original ideas for costumes. He always wants to make them. This year his dream was to be a centaur. For those of you who don't know that is a half-horse, half-man. He was planning on having Nate help him make the costume. It just became too complicated and he decided he would "just be a track star." His primary reason for this, he said, was so that he could run faster than everyone and get the most candy.
Grace was going to be Hermione from Harry Potter this year, but she ended up finding this hand-me-down Little Bo Peep costume instead. She looked really cute in it. The only thing I had to buy were the tights!
Here is Miles in his pirate costume. Don't you just love the beard? He had a great time being able to go trick-or-treating with just him and Isaiah. They ran from house to house and came back with a lot of loot!
Here's our Moses. I tried and tried to get him to be some cute little hand-me-down costume this year. I knew this was the last year that he would fit into any of them! I had a dog, a lion, a horse, and a really cool Power Ranger costume, but Qui-Gon-Jin from Star Wars won out. He calls him "the mustache guy." I think that is why he wouldn't relent because he wanted a beard and a mustache on his costume!
Here is our sweet little Monkey. If you only knew Ella's obsession with animals, monkeys being one of her favs. She played the perfect part with sound effects and everything. I loved the costume because it kept her so warm.