Sorry this is boring!

    Well I found out last Saturday I had Pneumonia so that explains why I was feeling so lousy and not getting better as quickly as I normally do when I get sick. Thankfully with the help of antibiotics I'm finally feeling better. I'm still not at full capacity but I'm close, there's just a lingering cough and I'm still a tiny bit weak but I'm feeling much better and I'm definitely looking forward to a few days in St. George with Greg and what hopefully will be a sunny and warm week.
     I did do some spontaneous shopping this morning with McClane and Charlie who were so good and cute carrying their individual bags with their new winter coats for next year. (Sometimes you just can't pass up a bargain when you find one.)

Too sunny to look right at the camera.

  Now lets see if Kayli can handle these kids for four days on her own?!

A little decluttering and Valentine's Day.

    Saturday was a completely free day with no basketball games or anything else on the schedule so I decided it was a great time to empty out several bins of little boy clothes that I've been storing needlessly. I filled 12 garbage bags full of clothes and shoes and emptied seven or eight bins. The kids really enjoyed playing in the empty bins and Carter found a pair of shorts he was hoping he could keep.

They also found a packet of stickers and I found these little round circle stickers everywhere including all over Charlie!

Size 24 months might just be a bit on the small size for Mr. Carter.

     Greg was thrilled to have some shelves freed up in his garage and went ahead and cleaned up the garage and reorganized a few things, mainly helmets, the rest of our Saturday afternoon. Now I'm just waiting for my next burst of motivation so I can clean up the storage room.

      We also had fun celebrating Valentine's Day. We had a yummy dinner after church and watched the movie "Little Boy".

The top photo is of all 10 of us. (Kayli couldn't let us forget Smalls in the photo.)

     It was a great weekend and having Monday off from school and work was an added bonus. Unfortunately I started feeling sick on Monday and still haven't recovered so I have no further events or photos to share. I have no idea what I've got but it's pretty much knocked me out. I've been pretty useless all week and thankfully Greg has been a true champ and helped me out a ton as has Kayli. Here's hoping I recover soon and that no one else gets it.

Fun stuff

     Sunday we used the Super Bowl as a perfect opportunity to have yummy food and hang out with family. We didn't have much invested in the actual football teams but it's always fun to watch the commercials.

We had plenty of yummy food to enjoy.

Some spicy wings and little smokies.

Carter's thrilled.

It was extra fun having the Smith's visiting from Idaho.

These boys played a game of their own.

   I recently started watching a TV series on Netflix, "White Collar" (thanks Ralph for the recommendation) that I mostly watch because of the actor, Matt Bomer, who is quite the hottie. I was sure he was the same guy who played superman in "Man of Steel", Henry Cavill, but I did some research and found I was mistaken but I did a side-by-side just for fun and I'm going to share it because they're both quite attractive men and very similar looking and everyone should get to appreciate their good looks if they don't already.

          And Big Baby showed a new talent.

Climbing!

    And Charlie pulled another 'snip-snip' with the scissors. It's hard to see in a photo but it's right on the top of her head.

The pieces hanging out are what she cut.

    Thankfully she's still cute and fun. I'm including the YouTube video of her cup performance that is a few seconds longer than what I was able to post on Instagram and Facebook.

    And this last photo is of Smalls. Greg has gotten into the habit of taking the dog along in the car when he drops the boys off at school and Smalls has become quite the chauffeur attendant.

He's looking both ways before turning left. He's very safe!

    He's fun! Now on to our three day Valentine weekend.

Brock's big day!

    Today Brock became an official member of The Church of Jesus Christ of latter-day Saints. Turning eight is quite a big deal when you're a mormon, you get to be baptized. Brock's dad baptized and confirmed him. He is a happy boy and is determined to be a better kid now that he has the gift of the Holy Ghost.

     Almost all of Brock's Kmetzsch aunts, uncles and cousins came to support him as well as his Kmetzsch grandparents and his siblings. His aunt Kristin Page shared a nice talk on the gift of the Holy Ghost and had a nice white fleece blanket embroidered with Brock's name on it as a gift for him.

    We enjoyed a simple brunch at the house after the baptism and Brock was happy to spend some more time playing with his cousins.

Two of my handsome men.

A great opportunity for a family photo. 

Brock and his cousin Sam Smith all the way down from Idaho.

Everyone seemed to enjoy the food.

     The rest of our week has been pretty low-key. I had a phone issue, (only my third new phone in a year) so I lost a few photos in the process but nothing too important and most of the vital ones I'd already saved to my Chatbook app so they're not completely lost. Technology is amazing and a total nightmare all at the same time. Anyway, so glad today went so well for Brock and I can't believe we've got five out of seven kids baptized!?

Date night, Cub Scout and baby

     Greg gets a kick out of visiting the D.I. so after dinner with friends last weekend we stopped by the D.I. to see what we could find.

Sweet vest and a fur lined jean jacket is a true fashion statement.

      We enjoyed celebrating our niece/cousin Lexi's first birthday.

She wasn't sure about touching this cake with her bare hands but she finally got into it.

Opening a little gift from her cousins.

    Brock attended his first pack meeting as a new Wolf and he loved it.

Brock was officially welcomed into the wolf den with a little 'war' paint and being carried in on a 'spirit' stick.

     And to complete the week we got to meet our newest niece, Elsie.

She's so sweet and photos do not do her justice.

I'm so happy to finally have a new baby close by that I can love on.

        Tomorrow I've got a Webelos pow wow to attend with my Webelos group and then a couple basketball games in the afternoon for Carter and Isaac. It should be a fun Saturday.

Basketball and Big Baby

     Carter and Isaac have started a new season of basketball. Mark did not sign up for basketball because they don't have a city league for high school students but he did sign up for a club at school, skills USA and it's a media centered club. He'll be doing radio broadcasting. Brock has another year to wait before he can sign up for basketball but he's actually more interested in soccer but that sign up has come and gone so again he'll have to wait until he's in third grade for any sports.

He loves this sport!

Isaac's team played pretty well for the first game of the season but they didn't win.

     And we have found Big Baby in a couple different scenarios recently.

And here's a few cute photos of Charlie from this past week.

Kayli took her for the cupcake at Dear Lizzie's where Kayli works. And I'm in love with the black and white outfit. And of course what 2 year old doesn't have their 'margaritas' in the hallway?!

      So that's our week in a nutshell. Not a whole lot going on in the month of January. Plenty of snow and lots of time spent inside.

Brock's birthday party!

    Tomorrow Brock Garrett will officially turn 8 years old! Tomorrow is also the first day of basketball games for Carter and Isaac as well as the adult session of our semi-annual stake conference so we decided to celebrate Brock's birthday today, a day early. Brock requested a friend birthday party, which his mother reluctantly agreed to. Miraculously everyone survived and seemed to have a fun time. There was a pirate ship piñata, cake and ice cream and gifts. Brock was allowed to invite four friends and all four friends arrived on time and ready to celebrate.

Brock and four of his best buddies.

And the traditional birthday card and cash from G & G Baker all the way from Australia! (Brock says, "Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!)

Pirate themed cake.

Brock was thrilled with all these cool gifts.

Please ignore the huge mess but the garage was our only option for hitting the piñata. 

And of course we can't forget the traditional birthday balloons.

    The rest of the week has been relatively easy going for us here in Alpine but it hasn't been easy going for everyone. We had a new nephew/cousin join the family. My youngest sister, Marie had her third baby on January 12 in Oregon. Little Brigham Patrick joined the Bowlby/Baker clans on Tuesday making 24 grandkids, so far, for my parents, which is pretty exciting! Now the big question is when will all the Baker clan be together at the same time???

      Now here are a few random photos from the week. There were haircuts given to both the boys and the dog as well as some fun photos of Charlie.

Surprisingly Mark allowed me to cut his hair and it turned out ok, it's definitely better than it was before the haircut.

     I didn't take any photos of the other boys and their haircuts because they weren't quite as dramatic as Mark's but everyone looks great even the puppy got a nice short haircut.

It might be a little shorter than expected but at least we can put off another grooming session for several months.

She's always sweet when she's sleeping.

Charlie was the only girl allowed at Brock's party and she had a blast.

    For now we're all looking forward to a long weekend and are especially happy it's Stake Conference weekend so there's no classes to teach. Let's just hope the promised snow storms don't put a damper on our free time.