Happy Valentine's Day!

I Love Valentine's Day. I Love putting up heart wreaths and making heart sugar cookies. I Love helping the kids figure out what they are doing for their friends and classmates. I Love hearing all the drama that went on with each of them as they gave them out and got them. I Love getting a little something for each of the kids for their Valentine gift. I Love going out to dinner around Valentine's Day- this year we are going out on Valentines night with the 4 kids and the missionaries! Should be interesting...

Skiing Fun

Over MLK Day we went on a super fun ski get-away. We met our friends at Steamboat Springs for the long weekend and had SO much fun. We got there Thursday night, which happened to be Kim's Birthday! We left the kids and went out to dinner then had some delicious poppyseed cake.

Here is Kim with her famous blanket! Congrats, Kim you made the blog.

Friday was ski school. The girls had been whining for two weeks prior about learning how to ski. They were not happy about going skiing, at all- the poor things.

When Phil went to pick them up after the day they were so excited! They couldn't wait to show him their skills. They begged to go skiing the next day. So they spent Saturday skiing together. They went on a bunch of different runs and were so happy to tell me they went on blues (whatever that means, I am NOT a skier). Can you see them- the three skiers on the left. Kim and I took the little ones to the slopes on Saturday to have lunch all together.
Nate, Zach, Gavin and Ashlyn.
We spent each night soaking in the giant hot tub.
On Sunday we went for a little hike to see a frozen water fall. It was beautiful.The lovely Keate family.
Here are the kids having fun together.

The girls are asking when they can go skiing again. It is so funny that they don't like to try new things, they get that from their dad not their mom- for sure. :)

December 2010

In attempt to not be disowned by my Mother-in-law and Father-in-law blogging is coming back in full force. Here is what was happing December 2010...

Zachy helped decorate the Christmas tree. He loved looking at all the ornaments and putting them on the tree and taking them off the tree and then putting them on the tree. Once the tree was decorated no one was allowed to touch the ornaments which was a perfect rule to have or Zach would have re-done the tree every day.

McKell had her first real school project to do by herself at home. It was a family tree. She went back 5 generations all around.
We decorated cookies with the Henry kids. It is so fun to live close to them again.

The kids each had their own Christmas Programs for school and they all sang their heart out and did an awesome job. They each had Christmas Parties at school and decorated gingerbread houses and people. Which turned out cute and made it to the trash can in time for us to fly to St George for the week of Christmas.

While in St George we saw the Carters and carried on our tradition of making gingerbread houses.

The kids each sat on Santa's lap and told Santa what they wanted. It was fun to see the different way they did it. McKell looked at him and answered his questions and told him only one thing she wanted because she thinks it wasn't the real Santa.Alyssa jumped up on his lap and giggled and told him what she wanted. She kept looking at McKell for encouragement.Nate wanted to make sure Santa knew he wanted a DSI. Santa laughed and asked him how old he was, this is how Nate shows he is 3 years old.This picture is classic Zach. He does this with anyone he isn't sure of- turns his head to the side and looks away. He didn't cry or get sad as long as he doesn't have to see Santa so close. When we were facing Santa before and after he waved to him said "Santa" and "ho, ho, ho". We adopted one of the Brenchley traditions at the Kogan household this Christmas and I got everyone a 'family' gift. The kids all got shirts and the adults life strength bracelets. Everyone loved it and we are going to keep doing it. We had our Christmas Eve party at my moms and opened the traditional PJs. Christmas morning was filled with fun and excitement. Opening gifts and the traditional lox and bagels. I have been struggling with taking pictures lately and so I have decided to do the picture a day again for 2011. Wish me luck, hopefully this will help me remember to start taking pictures all the time like I use to. A new camera might help me remember to do that too-Phil, if you are reading this!

Hot and Fun

We always spend time in St George in the summer, I don't know why we go there the worst time of the year but we always do. Note to self, go to St George September through early June.
We have learned that if you can get to the splash pad or water park by 10 am you can get a few hours of fun in before it gets too hot. We love the water park downtown St George, wish they had it when I was young.

If you can get to the park before 10 am you might be able to run around the hills and actually play on the slides and things for a little bit, but not too long.

Grandma's house is always stocked with plenty of Popsicles. She gets the sugar free ones so we don't have a lot of sticky hands! The kids are all watching me perform a little musical that is super educational, they are not watching movies- that wouldn't be educational.

Nate has a cousin, Taylor, who is exactly his age. They play so cute together. Taylor is the king of boy dress-ups and when Nate plays with him he will do the dress-up thing a little bit.
One of our summer traditions is to go to Tuachan. We have done it for the past 5 years with the kids. This year it was amazing again.

I loved the Tarzan costumes. Doesn't this guy look like a real gorilla?! We went with my aunt, cousin, her boys, my mom, my nephew, and my girls.

This year we did something we haven't done before in St George. We took swim lessons. It was wonderful! Everyone improved so much. I am a huge fan of semi-private lessons now.

Zachy spent every morning watching and waiting until he could throw the pool toys in for the kids at the end of the lesson.

We spend everyday with my brothers cute kids, Austin and Taylor. The kids get along so well and have so much fun together!

Other highlights not pictured- Eclipse movie premier, Eclipse movie, Pizza Factory, home decor shopping, Cafe Rio, swimming, and Mortal instrument book series read.

What a fun 2 weeks!!

The drive and The Brenchley's

I'm on a roll so I better keep going and update through my trips. My beautiful, talented, wonderful, amazing, etc., etc., sister-in-law, Mandy, flew to my aid and helped me drive out from Iowa through Wyoming to Utah. We had a great time pelting my children with snacks from the front of the van. Everyone did really good on the drive to Cheyenne. We were all excited to see our new house.

Everyone checked out their new rooms and ran around and around looking in every corner. It was fun for me to see the house again after 3 months of only looking at pictures.

I was a little overwhelmed with everything since we were only going to be staying for 36 hours before we headed out for Utah. Mandy suggested we paint something so we ran to Home Depot that night and got our supplies to paint the girls room. We picked a bright canary yellow. It turned out really cute with the white trims on their three windows. I also unpacked the kitchen and decided that would have to do until we came back in a month.

We headed out to Utah to the Brenchley family reunion. We had a blast with everyone. Almost everyone in Phil's family was able to be there for a little while. We stayed the whole 5 nights and it was so fun for the kids to play with cousins, catch up with everyone, play games, and eat yummy food. Thanks Dean and Marsha!

Zach loved throwing the balls and rings in the pool to the girls, he did it over and over again. Sometimes he got a little close for our comfort but he never went in.

McKell had a blast playing tennis. Zach loved his bottle time with Grandpa and Grandma before bed. Nate doesn't have any cousins his age but he always is able to find someone to play with. Here he is with the oldest cousin, Ryan. The kids also found bugs and snakes. They were holding them and wanting to take them home. Disgusting!

After the family reunion we went to Centerville and spent 2 more nights. One of the nights we were able to attend the temple together. Everyone was there except Phil (finishing residency)and Julie (new baby and watched all our kids). It was fun to be with everyone. Phil's parents got there mission call that day and opened it before we left for the temple. They are headed to Pennsylvania for a 12 month mission. So exciting!

Our last days in Iowa

All of the kids played soccer this spring. We were going to soccer 4 nights a week. Nate did good if you were calling his name and cheering for him. He loves his girl friend Avy.
I have loved the program McKell has done the past 3 years, we will miss it. McKell is doing so great and she really loves it, it is really fun to watch her. Alyssa went to a few of McKells practices and had fun. Alyssa is so fast and runs around taking the ball from people every once in a while the other part of the time she sits back and day dreams. She has opted out for soccer this coming year.

School trips. This is McKells 2nd grade class.

Our moving truck came and took all of our things to Wyoming.

Phil had surgery on his elbow. We closed on our house in Cheyenne.
Phil went to Des Moines to work and flew to Wyoming for his state license interview and to get the keys to our new home. Our boxes were delivered and beds set up. The kids and I stayed and cleaned out our house in Iowa and had one last party. The last splash!
Nate got a few good shots in. He holds his own with the older kids!

Alyssa graduated from preschool. Here she is with her friends she calls Lawson 'lovebird' . She cracks us up!

We said goodbye to friends.

We had such a good time in Iowa. The 4 years went by so fast. We met so many wonderful people and made many friends we will have for life. We are excited for our new adventures in Wyoming.

Wild Time

Poor Zach. Can you tell he is the 4th child? He did get a one year old party on his big day but I am now just getting around to posting the pictures.

He had a jungle party and LOVED the balloons!

He enjoyed opening his gifts.

He had lots of help with everything from his siblings.
He had fun with his friends he invited.

I made him a monkey cake for him to dig into and jungle animal cupcakes for everyone else. Can you tell what the animals are? (lion, tiger, zebra,monkey) We had bbq pork sandwiches for dinner and of course some frozen chocolate bananas on a stick- delish! Which reminds me we should make those again this summer, they were a hit.

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He didn't really know what to do with his cake especially when we lit the candle. McKell helped him out.

But then he wouldn't eat his cake. He kept grunting at it. So I grabbed a fork and showed him he could eat. Again he grunted and grunted until I handed him the fork, then he went to town.

Zachary is such a fun addition to our family. He loves his siblings and laughs at whatever they do. He loves his dad and mom and prefers dad when we are both together. He sleeps through the night and takes 2 naps everyday- delightful! He eats whatever you give him, except for bread and meat. He likes to be outside, he loves animals especially dogs. When you get mad at him or tell him NO he pauses sticks his bottom lip out and then starts to cry (it is the cutest thing). He likes balls and cars. He is a pretty melow kid and we love him to pieces!