Valentine's and a little more.

     Let the photo fun begin.

McClane lost his third tooth and his first top front tooth. It won't be long now before his adventure in braces begins.

This is one of our favorite weekend night activities. Who doesn't love a good burn barrel on the streets of the neighborhood.

This is what happens when your teenager gets a hold of your phone during church. She looked cute despite the funny facial expression.

Then it was Valentine's day and Carter's turn to enjoy the 'torture' of the 6th grade Valentine dance. He's laughing in total embarrassment for having to dance with his mom.

Sixth grade buddies.

Plenty of cute girls to dance with. He wasn't embarrassed to dance with these cuties.

Of course he was most comfortable hanging out with his buddies.

We kept our Valentine dinner pretty simple this year. The bundt cake was a splurge and worth every penny and calorie.

Someone captured this little rascal in a posing mood.

And to avoid getting in trouble, Greg surprised me with this monster box of chocolates right before bed. I wasn't sad about this gift at all!

And then to finish off the week I treated myself to an hour at the salon with my great hairdresser and cousin. I'm loving all the new layers.

     So the hope was to work on the basement bathroom this weekend but it's not looking good. Greg has work tomorrow so I guess the rest of us will just enjoy the day off from school and look forward to the three day weekend with nothing on our schedule.

Fun and NO FUN!

     This week started out fun with the Superbowl and all the yummy food and visitors.

Crazy game!

   The week was going ok until Tuesday! Tuesday was one of the worst days ever! I had the most awful meeting at the middle school where I lost my cool with a teacher regarding Isaac. I was told by a counselor the next day that this particular teacher had never felt so attacked and offended by any parent in all her 25 years of teaching. It was a NIGHTMARE!! But the good news is, I was right, Isaac does not have any kind of learning disability. 

     Then after that debacle I got my new iPhone 7 and then spent the rest of the day trying to get it set up. I spent over four hours on the phone with Apple and it still wasn't working but finally I had a revelation on a password I needed and couldn't remember and I finally got everything restored and where I needed it to be back in full function mode. I love the new phone but I don't always love technology.

     Then Wednesday Charlie and I got to hang out in the waiting room at the dentist office while Brock had FIVE cavities filled. Charlie wanted to test out the camera on the new phone while we were waiting.

This was the best she could do after several tries.

     Thursday was a big day for Mark. He had his first, and hopefully his last, court hearing in regards to his 'hit and run' at the high school parking lot a few weeks ago. This was a bit daunting for Greg and me but Mark seemed to think it was pretty cool and he didn't even blink when the judge ordered him to pay a $500 fine. I was a bit surprised at the large amount, especially since our insurance covered the property damaged but it was a class C misdemeanor so the fine could have been as large as $1900 so I guess I should be grateful it wasn't more. He initially told the judge he would need to make lots of payments but I told him as we were leaving we needed to just pay it all that day so his case could be closed so we used nearly half his savings to pay the fine but I'd rather he was paying himself back instead of the court. We also had to meet with a DMV official the same day about the excessive amount of points on Mark's driving record and due to that excess of points he's been denied his license for a month and he'll have to pay $30 dollars to reinstate his license once the 30 days is up and then he'll also have to go to traffic school after the 30 days and if he does that he'll be back to a zero balance of points, which will be great and then we'll just hope and pray he doesn't get any more tickets or traffic violations. The kid is brain dead!

This was Carter's attempt at capturing the pretty sunset we had Thursday night. I'm glad he can appreciate a pretty sunset even if he can't photograph it quite right.

And this dog is obsessed with looking out the front window and nothing or no one will deny him that privilege.

     I'm so glad it's Friday and this week of craziness is over!

The cutest

     Not our busiest week but I did capture a couple cute moments with my two 'cutest'!

When it's cold outside we like to sit in front of the portable heater and let it blow 80 degree heat on us while we watch our favorite shows.

Their favorite show is Caillou on the tablet.

    And these two occasionally have a sweet moment like this. ↡ You'd never guess they were just arguing and fighting minutes before this reading session.

    And this dog was in desperate need of a shampoo and hair cut. What a difference an hour with the groomer can make!

These haircuts cost more than mine but I guess the groomer does a bit more 'detailed' work then a hairdresser does.

     We didn't do anything too exciting this week but we do have big 'food' plans for Superbowl Sunday. Any excuse to make my grandma's yummy slush and eat snack food for dinner! Go whoever!!

Mark

     Last Saturday Mark went to Preference with this cute girl. She asked him nearly two months ago. You may remember the post with all the frozen peas that he had to dig through to find the letters of her name. They had a great time and she's the girl that makes the best sugar cookies I've ever tasted so she's a keeper.

     And remember when this was literally the only photo I've taken all week. Enjoy!

Brock

     This handsome boy turned 9 Monday! There were a few mild issues throughout the day but he ended the day happy.

Fun stuff.

Lunch at Taco Bell! He loves their spicy hot hard taco shells.

Thanks to G & G Baker for the card and cash. He couldn't wait to spend it on a stuffed animal he'd had his eye on for awhile.

      In addition to celebrating Brock's birthday we also celebrated/forced Kayli into a new car. Her car was starting to have some major issues and after 2 years of driving "POS Carl" it was time to move on and up. This car is quite a leap above her first car. There's more bells and whistles on this beauty then she could have dreamed of. She needed a little push but she woke up the next day happy and excited so I guess she's not mad at me for encouraging her to go into car debt.

2007 Nissan Altima. It has a sunroof, push start ignition and a very nice Bose stereo system including a fancy navigation screen.

    Charlie can be kind of silly when it comes to taking naps. I guess the middle of the kitchen floor is as good a place as any.

    And some might say these two are my favorites because they get random toys from me for no reason but look how happy they are.

Charlie's become a little obsessed with "The Secret Life of Pets" and Gidget especially.

     So that's not all the excitement from our week but it is all the photos I've taken. As of right now Mark is back on the 'no drive' list. The kid is making some pretty poor choices lately. The latest was a hit and run in the high school parking lot. I don't know what we're going to do with him but as of right now he's not allowed to drive and he will never own a motorcycle while he lives with us. The motorcycle isn't technically involved in his poor choices lately but it is the most painful punishment we have and he's earned the worst we've got to dish out after all the stress and frustration he's caused us. On a happy note, he did get a better job working at Dominos that will give him more hours and it's right next door to Subway, where he's been working, so driving him to and from work isn't going to be any worse then before. Lets hope he starts to see the light and makes better choices in the future because if not his dad and I just might not live through this and we still have FIVE more teenagers to go!!!!! Heaven help us!!

Basketball 2017

     Basketball season has officially begun! The first practices and games were last week and we have 3 of the boys playing this season so our Saturdays are going to be busy for the next several weeks. Brock was especially excited to play and despite what the photo shows he had a blast at his first game even if he was clueless of the rules, strategy, and over all know how. He'll figure it out soon enough.

Getting a pep talk from Dad on how to be a star ball player and the only decent photo I got at his first game.

Carter's pretty sure he's one of the best on his team, he thinks this every year even when his team gets slammed by their opponents.

Isaac wasn't necessarily begging to play but he does have some skills and it's good for him. He also had the cutest cheerleader there.

     And some times you just have to get silly with your dog. Yes, this was my idea with a little inspiration from Carter who started him off with the pearl necklace. This dog is such a good sport. He puts up with a lot!

Probably not the first cross-dressing dog to be photographed.

     We're headed into another busy weekend with basketball games, preference dance for Mark tomorrow night and Stake Conference. I'm singing in the choir for Saturday evenings adult session and Carter's singing in the primary choir for Sunday's session. I'm actually sitting and singing by/with a former Mormon Tabernacle Choir singer, which is pretty cool. She'd still be singing with them but apparently once you turn 60 they immediately retire you. Anyway, fun stuff. We're also looking forward to celebrating Brock's birthday Monday. Personally I'd like to be on vacation away from my kids, especially the teenagers who are giving me a lot of white hairs, but I'll just have to settle on the rare quiet moments when they're at school or work. Parenting is no joke!

Happy New Year!

      We had a fun New Year weekend in Idaho with my brother Tad and his cute family. We also had my parents there for the visit and it was a great time as you can see from the following photos.

The only time this device is actually fun instead of torturous. Fun and silly!

The main reason for our visit, seeing cute baby Ford be blessed by his dad.

Fun times.

All the adults there to support the Baker's.

Pie in the face was McClane's favorite game.

Not everyone got 'pie' in their face but the suspense is what makes it fun.

Enjoying these cute poodles.

But nothing can replace the love and cuddles from your own dog at home. (We won't discuss the mess he left me when we got home from our trip.)

     It was a fun trip and the kids really had fun reacquainting themselves with their Baker cousins. It's good to have Tad and his family a little closer to home. It's about as central a meeting place between us and our parents as anywhere so hopefully we can get together a little more often. Bring on 2017 whatever it may be!