Wilcox family photos

Love these guys! 

Cousin Lance's party

After the museum and family pictures, we went to my parent's house for cake and presents.  These boys got in a wrestling match.  Seth especially LOVED doing it.

We played Giraffe, giraffe, elephant instead of Duck, duck, goose.

Sam was saying that this giraffe had an odd tail.

Cousin Lance's birthday

For Lance's birthday, we went to the Bean Museum for a Safari.  Sharon found these cute plastic hats and made binoculars for everyone.Seth particularly loved it.

She scheduled a live animal show.  It was all free, and absolutely amazing.  Sam LOVED the live show.  He wanted to answer all the questions.  We had to reel him in just a little so that others could participate.

There was also a special exhibit on an extinct snake. 

Evelyn decided that she would take some pictures... She started with me....

Then she moved on to taking pictures of Grandma, and my favorite that she took was this one with Uncle McKay boxing a bear.

Then they made us sandwiches in the parking lot before we went to take some family pictures.

Wilcox cousins

Wilcox cousins from oldest to youngest.  Mom wanted a picture of them all lined up on the stairs before she left.  I can't believe that all these cute cousins have gotten this big.

Aubrey & Devin (10)

Ada (10)

Emma (10)

Sam (8)

Michelle and Isaiah (8)

Lance (7)

Evelyn (6)

Jordan (5)

Seth (3)

Vivien (1)

Scouts

Yes, Sam is the short one.  I'm guessing he'll catch up in high school.  We've been terrible about getting Sam to scouts.  It was scheduled during my fencing classes, then they changed it to the middle of Sam's piano lessons... so we switched those and hopefully we can get him there.  This is really the best social activity that Sam has for kids his age.  It's something that he actually gets time to be a real boy around other boys.  I really appreciate that because his only brother is 6 years younger than him.  He's been working on some of his badges at home though.  He's earned 4 this last time and he has 5 more that he's finished and hasn't received yet.

Foot update

My foot is progressively getting better.  It's a really slow process though.  It hurts in places that I didn't know existed.  The scar tissue from tearing the tendon over and over has been thinning and hopefully the tendon will heal itself without any surgery.  My job is to 1) exercise it regularly to strengthen the tendon and 2) don't over exercise it so that it will actually heal for reals this time.  That's a hard line to distinguish.  I walked a couple miles the other day and was fine.  Then I walked on our treadmill for 2 miles and it hurt for the next 2 days.  I think the difference was our treadmill.  I'm so excited for it to get better though.  It's no longer painful to the touch, but it's still painful to wear shoes.

Thinking back, I think I know some of the times when I tore it.  In college, I "sprained" my ankle practicing the organ.... this was the same time that I was fencing for several hours a week and running a lot.  I think I was straining it and tore it while playing the organ.  I think I tore it again running the Bear Lake Half Marathon.  I remember a hike where it really hurt a couple years ago.  I probably tore it several times fencing and didn't realize it.  Those are the times when I thought it was Plantar Fasciitis, but it turns out it wasn't.  I was SOOOOO glad that the podiatrist didn't have to give me another steroid shot though.  Those KILL!  Now it's just being patient enough to let it heal before we go hiking or anything this summer.  I'm also grateful for our Germany trip.  It showed me that there was something wrong and to the podiatrist for getting me on the right path. 

I was kind of curious to see how much I'd written about my foot on my blog, so I did a search.  While I found a couple of entries, the one from 2009 was my favorite.  I was talking about getting over the baby blues after Sam was born and mentioned that I went to the doctor because I kept spraining my ankle.  He never really checked out my foot, he just gave me an anti-inflammatory and sent me on my way.... Now almost 9 years later I'm still dealing with it.  Thanks doctor for checking out my problem so thoroughly ;)

Keep on the Covenant Path

We're pretty lucky.  Jer's work asked him to stay home and watch/attend President Monson's funeral, so we got to watch it together.  I loved hearing Anne's testimony.  It was simple, but you could see it in her. 

Then his work told him to watch the special announcement on the next Tuesday.  I love feeling the confirmation of the Spirit whenever we receive a new prophet.  It's a beautiful thing.  I felt it when Pres Hunter was called, Pres Hinckley, Pres Monson and now with Pres Nelson.  I love that Heavenly Father thinks it's important enough for me to receive that confirmation with each one.  I've never doubted the Prophet, but I've always been given that sign of love and trust.  I want my kids to be able to receive the same confirmation.  I've been telling them that they need to pray, but I'm wondering what I can do to help with that.  My favorite thing that Pres. Nelson said was, "Keep on the Covenant Path."  That could and should be our motto forever.

Mission call!

You know, my Mom and Dad got married right after my Dad returned from his mission and my Mom had her papers.  I'm pretty sure that she doesn't regret staying to get married, but this mission was 40 years in the making.  It was fun to be able to see them open their call. 

They're going to Spokane, Washington mission.  My Mom is going to be the mission nurse and my Dad will work in the office.  And something fun to go with it?  They turned the page to see who their mission president is and they know him very well.  My Mom gave a big laugh of surprise.  Apparently my Dad and him were both Seminary teachers when we lived up in Wyoming.  During the Summer and after hours, they worked doing construction together to augment their income.  He taught my Dad dry walling and my Dad taught him decks.  I love that they'll be able to work together again for a little while. 

Their call was pretty neat too.  Instead of being issued under the First Presidency, it was issued under the Quorum of the Apostles and signed by President Nelson.  They said that they have never done that before, but they had such a back log of calls that needed to get out that they did it.  My parents only had a month to get out there.  They're taking their truck, bikes and mission gear. 

My sister and brother are living in the downstairs and they'll be renting out the upstairs.  I think it will work out well.

They've been getting projects and to-dos done for a while, but now that they have a departure date they are working over time.  Sam is sad that they'll be gone, but everyone else is excited for them. 

Maisy

I thought this was adorable.  Our niece, Maisy, was asked to draw what makes her happy in Primary.  She drew a picture of her, her mom and Uncle Jerermy (UJ for short).  She wrote, "Me being related to Jerame."  Me too kiddo, me too.  I rather like him.

It finally snowed!

I have never seen a winter so dry!  Jer was looking up on NASA's website for something and found that the magnetic poles are shifting.  It's going to eventually change the weather in lots of places.  It will be an interesting adjustment.

Evelyn stayed inside mostly.  She decided she was too cold.  She loved sledding later, but the morning was spent cuddled up in her favorite blanket.

This face pretty much summed up how everyone felt about finally getting snow.  They had snowball fights and played for hours.  Then Jer took them sledding while I did a family photo shoot.  I'll have to post some of Jer's pictures.  They were adorable. 

family time

Janelle is the best Aunt ever.  She heard that Ada really wanted to go to The Greatest Showman.  She had three free tickets, so she took us.  The kids loved playing with the chairs... you could hear Evelyn and Sam putting their chairs up and down during the movie.  It was funny for a while, but got old after a bit.  Ada's eyes didn't move from the screen.  Seth was bored when the popcorn was gone.  Sam and Evelyn said they loved it, but they were fairly wiggly.  Thank goodness for Grandpa, Nella and potty breaks.

This cute girl discovered selfies.... We started playing with the Google Arts and Culture app and she was dying.  Every time it came up with something really funny you could hear her guffawing.

Evelyn got a Lego Elves set for Christmas.  Today the kids finished building it.  They played dragons all day long.  They had the mom, dad and baby dragons.... they would all trade around who had which dragon.