The Pros of Winter

Fall Update

School is officially started and life is full of homework and kid activities! Here's the scoop on us all!

Addi: FINALLY turned 8! She could not have been more excited! We didn't have school on her special day so we took the camper out one last time this season and headed to Warm Lake. It was so beautiful! The kids got the raft out and rowed around the lake. The best part of camping in the fall is we pretty much had the lake and campsite to ourselves. Addi's baptism was on Halloween. She looked so beautiful and grown up! She was so ready for this day and loved sharing it with her family. Addi continues to do gymnastics and really loves 2nd grade. She is looking forward to playing basketball in January.

Blake: Has had an exciting soccer season. His team has done really well and made it to the championship game, which happened to be on Halloween! It was so fun to have family there (for the baptism) to watch him play in the final game of the season. Blake's team was down 2-1 with 5 minutes to go. Then Blake scored and tied it up! The game ended in a shoot out with Blake's team taking the win. He is excited to play futsal this winter and hopefully his mom can talk him into playing some basketball. Blake also received his Webelos award and is working towards his Arrow of Light.

Blake was chosen from his school to participate in a sac race competition. He enjoyed going to a college bowl game (not as exciting as watching BSU but...) and being on the blue turf. He even received some prizes just for participating.

Emmalee: is now officially a teenager! And unfortunately sure knows how to play the part..... She is loving junior high and is getting good grades thus far! (Yeah!!) She is loving Young Women's and has served as a counselor and is now the secretary. Em is looking forward to skiing this winter and then volleyball in the spring. 

Me: I was looking forward to the kids going off to school and getting some projects (painting!) finished around the house. But I have been working full time as a long term PE sub at the kids' school since the beginning of October. It has been quite a learning experience with classroom management, lesson plans, grading, and getting up every.day. At least I can still wear sweats to school..... The kids now feel pretty lucky if they get a home cooked meal for dinner and clean clothes to wear. 

Jerek: who knows what this man does. He goes to work every day without complaint and is always happy to help out. He is no longer serving in the bishopric (yeah!) but gets to go to all the same meetings as the Young Men's president. At least we get to go to church together now and SIT by each other. Jerek is building a shed/in-law suite/man cave in our yard. I'm amazed at what he can do with a little youtube and lumber and nails. I just hope he can put it to good use when it comes to remodeling our kitchen...

Happy FALL!

Summertime = Funtime

We had a WONDERFUL summer of pure laziness and lots of family time. We are so grateful to be able to spend time with all of our family members. It makes me sad to realize that we probably won't see some of them until summertime rolls around again! We really do treasure the time we had with each of our family members. 

We sure love summer around here. Probably a little too much as it takes us awhile to get use to school schedules again. We kicked off the summer by sending Jerek to High Adventure and the rest of us took a road trip to see Rachel in Washington. We got to drive thru Mt. Rainer Park and it was absolutely beautiful!

We survived the 8+hr drive there and back. Barely. But we did.

June was also filled with swimming lessons for all, scout day camp for Blake, and volleyball camp for Em. We also celebrated Blake's 10th birthday with family in Hansen. It's always fun with cousins! We also very much enjoyed our first Stanger family reunion in Bear Lake. The kids still talk about it! We can't wait for the next one! Bear Lake is such a beautiful place and we are so glad that every family member was there.

July we had even more family fun with cousin camp!  We made marshmallow shooters, went 4-wheeling, night games, and even some crafts. We left Addi and Blake with Aunt Rachel and Emmalee and I headed back to Boise to get ready for Girls Camp! It was our first ward camp in a long time. As camp director, it was a lot of work. But totally worth it! We went to Cascade and went white water rafting, hiked to Blue Lake, boating, and then all the fun girls camp stuff! We had a great time and I think Em had a great first time experience!

August was spent getting ready for school and all our last of summer hurrah activities. We had an Anderson get-together in Hansen with all of Jerek's siblings. We had fun exploring small town Idaho, playing games, and just being together. This month Jerek and I also celebrated 15 YEARS together! It's crazy how much fun we have together. I'm so lucky to have him in my life and especially as my eternal companion!

Woops

I had forgotten what my blog looked like...guess it's time to catch up. Again.

And then there's the holidays....

We went to Provo for Thanksgiving this year to be with Jerek's family. It was so nice to be together again! Ashley had a baby not to long ago so we got to meet Sabrie for the first time. We stayed at a hotel super close by and the kids got to swim everyday. It was fantastic.

Em's piano recital. I stopped teaching piano this year so I moved her to Joan Morris Piano. She is doing so great and loving it. I guess she does better without her mom teaching her.

This picture cracks me up. Em got a candy bar for playing at the recital and the other two were less than happy for her.

Addi's performance at school for the Christmas program. We got a new music teacher this year and he is FANTASTIC! Best Christmas Program we have been to since......ever.

Christmas Activities:

We decided to help out a family in our ward for Christmas. They have 3 kids close to our kids ages and so our kids picked out all the gifts including toys and clothes.  We dropped it off at their doorstep without being caught! And they had a dog so we had a lot of fun running through the streets!

Since we had no family around for Christmas this year, we planned some fun activities with some dear friends. We went caroling around our neighborhood delivering goodies that we prepared with the Cutlers. I think the were posing as minecraft villagers....

Annual tradition of building gingerbread houses with the Bishops. 

We also had two double date nights with friends seeing all the fun movies there are during the holidays. We are so grateful for those we were able to spend this special time of year with!

Especially these sweet ladies. LOVE our sister missionaries!

Christmas Morning

We got to talk to grandparents on their mission and grandparents in Hawaii. Who sent us a whopping ben franklin and macadamia nuts!

New Years with some Family! Jerek's brother Brady and his wife, Ruth, stopped by on their way home from Australia. SO FUN with game nights!

Recreating picture...