Ananzi Cliff Dwelling....by Isaiah

Another one of Isaiah's art projects. This one was an actual assignment from school. I've decided to take pictures of these kind of projects so that I don't have a whole room dedicated to various school projects of the kids. I usually put Nate in charge of helping the kids with their school art projects. I help them learn math facts and read books, plus I help them with their daily homework! I think it is a great trade off, don't you?Also, congratulations to Isaiah who made the school musical this year at school. They work every Friday after school from January to April. This years is "The Jungle Book." Look for pics in early May!

Copperview Rec Center

January has been pretty uneventful. We have had sick kids and a sick mom for 3 weeks. Our computer also was out of commission for a couple of weeks. However, Nate was able to finish up a public art project that he is doing for the Copperview Rec Center in Midvale, UT. He is scheduled to install them in March. He has been working hard on them all summer and fall. We have also been working on his new website that is pretty close to being finished. Check it out: www.natepack.com!

Ballers.

Soccer players.
Playground.
Wheelchair basketball.

Youth theater.

Gymnast.

Karate.

Weightlifter.

Yoga.

Valley of Fire State Park

Our last day we spent at a Nevada State Park in Overton. We enjoyed the 1.5 mile hike with the younger kids. As you can see from the pictures, Ella had to be carried the whole time and Moses had to have help for part of the time too! The older kids stayed for an even longer time and hiked up and saw some prehistoric Indian petroglyphs and learned about the legend of Mouse's tank. They had a very fun day and the weather was perfect for hiking. Here is a collage of photos from our hike at Elephant Rock. You can click on the photo to see an enlarged version!

Here is the whole gang at the entrance to the park. At this point we thought we might be able to put Ella in a stroller. It is really hard to carry a 25 lb. baby for a while. But the trails were too bumpy so we took turns!

Las Vegas Baby!

Well, we didn't do the typical Las Vegas things because we've seen most of it before and we have children with us. So on this day we ventured over to the Children's Museum. This museum was really fun and the kids enjoyed it a lot. One of the bizarre things about it was that there was some sort of homeless shelter connected to it. There was a room where a bunch of homeless people were watching a movie, and then right outside the entrance was a smoking area. I guess I'm used to living in my Utah bubble. Don't get me wrong, we've seen a lot of homeless people around here, but they just aren't hanging out by the Children's museum. After the museum we had to hit In and Out to each lunch. We are a SCENE every time we go eat somewhere with our big clan. Nate's sister is prego and has 5 kids and we have our 5 kids. That's not including the 4 uncles and Grandma and Grandpa. People look at us like we are crazy. We probably are! The next stop was at the FAO Schwartz in the MGM Casino. It is a huge toy and candy store that my kids love to play in. Here is Miles playing on the big huge floor piano at the toy store. Isn't he handsome? I'll tell ya, he is going to break a lot of hearts. Well, actually he probably won't, he's too nice!

Here are Grace and Moses at the Museum. They spent a good amount of time in the theater area. Grace was a princess and Moses was trying to stuff himself into this Mickey Mouse costume. They made up several plays and are VERY dramatic!

Isaiah and his cousin Dennis got to roll around in some wheel chairs at the museum.

Moses and his cousin Joseph got to play basketball!

Here's Ella with her signature tongue that happens to always come out for pictures. She was a trooper all day with no nap!

Trip to Nevada

This year we went to visit with Nate's sister, Erika, and her family. We left the day after Christmas and were able to stay for about a week. We love spending time with the Whitmore family because they have children that match up with each of ours. They all seem to have the same personalities too! Our kids are always sad to leave because they love their cousins very much. On this particular day we went to a nearby park in Logandale. The kids played on the toys, had a fun time swinging, and ran around a skate park. The older boys played basketball and then later the whole clan played soccer. It was nice to be in sunny weather, although it wasn't THAT warm. I won't complain though because we left a blizzard in Utah! This is Grace and Eden. They both are "boy-trapped" as Grace would say. They both love spending time together singing, talking about High School Musical, and drawing. They always get along so well and appreciate the time they have playing with the girls.

Here is Grace and Moses playing on the ramp at the Skate park.

Here are Miles and Isaiah on the same ramp. They had such a fun time just running up and down the ramp. It is amazing how much time you can spend doing that!

Here is our sweet little Ella-Bella. She could have swung all day long. It was a little cold though.

Rockn' Christmas Day

Well, we finally did it. I think we were the last people on the planet to buy a game system. I have issues with children becoming addicted to them. But since there are the new musical games, we bit the bullet and the kids were VERY happy. Our family is learning to be rock stars with our new Rock Band game and great singers with the American Idol game. We also got a few the kids would appreciate like Disney Cars for Moses, Disney Sing It for Grace, Legos Star Wars for Miles, and Spiderman for Isaiah.

This is our family Rockn' out. Our band name is Pack Attack. Our main drummer is Goodness Gracie, our lead guitarist is Ice-aiah, and our drumfoot petal operator is Miles "Jo Smiley." Our lead singers are Nate-Dogg and The Claw. Our aspiring singers, Moses and Ella don't have names yet. We better get working on it! By the way, please don't mind the mounds of laundry in the picture. I spent all of Christmas Eve doing laundry for our Nevada trip.

Annual Christmas Tree Photos

I always take pictures in front of the Christmas tree each year. I guess it has become somewhat of a tradition. Here is a picture of the kids on Christmas Sunday. I love how the kids in the back row look like they love each other so much. Don't see that very often.

This is what our house is really like on Sundays, and usually how my kids are treating each other. Although they do look like they are having a good time here for the camera.

Every Christmas Eve the kids open up a gift from mom & dad. Usually the gift is a pair of PJ's, although some years we like to trick the kids and get them something else. Here are the kids on Christmas Eve all ready for bed!