the white house at the right time

Apparently marshmallow peeps are for more than just eating.  Myself and my little peeps got a little creative and used our peeps to create some master"peeps".  O.k. kind of!  Twenty minutes later as we rushed to meet the noon deadline this is what we came up with...... Cayden's creation "Peeplix" Hernandez made it to the semifinals.  Obviously some Mariner fans were judges. (for those of you not from here,  Felix is known as "King Felix" and he throws heat for the Mariners Baseball team) Help him out by voting for his "Peep" between now and April 13.    You Peeps are the Best! Cayleb's "Grandma and Grandpa Peep" in Grandpa's red car! Kenzie's "Peep Peeping Out" I admit it, as of late, I've been smitten with all the Royal "Peep"'s wedding plans. Madalyn's "Dancing Peep- smack your good!"

The almost wasn't pinewood derby finally here. Cayden turned 11. Technically no longer a cub scout. However, since there was a delay on getting the track back in April, Cayden was grandfathered in Makenzy was very much into watching the races. The contenders. Cayden's car is at the top of the image. Army truck. It kind of is and it kind of isn't about the rankings, who is fastest, and who wins. But then it is. Randy gets more frustrated by this than me. He was the kid who entered the painted block. No saws to make the contours and cuts that turn the block into something Motor City would "ooh" and "aah" over. Bon (Mom) put in the wheels. No graphite. No spinning. No idea where to put the weights. He came in last place every year. It still is a little dark skid mark in his heart. Goal for his boys, not to come in last. Goal - achieved. Last year was the best performance, 3rd overall. Ribbon on uniform. This year, 3rd in his division...

Ryson , Brian, Cayden in the boys tent. bro. greenwood (nic went to high school with him - always a small world in the church), bro. jergensen, and the boys. cayden and randy love to camp. something about getting away. being in nature. using your gear. this time it was new sleeping bags, with built in pillows. fancy stuff! When Randy was in scouts, his dad worked out of state a lot. Though his mom filled in for just about everything she could, there were still some limitations. Accompanying your son scouting is one of them. As such, Randy has promised he will try to make every camp outing his sons and daughters have. This first one came already took some rearranging of his schedule, skipping Trek around the Trail and a work assignment. in my opinion, this camp out was an absolute tease for a first scout camp out . the overnighter camp out just happened to be on one of the nicest weekends we have had in...just about what seems like the unending sputter of winter. no mist. no rain...

Normally I am in big time on the birthday party. But this time, I let Randy take over. After gifts and cake and icecream, Randy loaded them up and took them to play laser tag and I stayed home. It is way cooler to play laser tag with your dad and brother than your mom and little sisters. Randy came home with a headache and ready to go to bed. I cleaned up the kitchen, jumped on the tramp with Kenzie, stunted with Makayla and Madalyn, and organized some files. Other than not taking as many pictures as I would have, birthday host Randy is my vote. Laser Tag birthday party at Odyssey 1. Boys loved it. They had the laser tag arena to themselves for a few games and afterwards thought we should have rented it for the whole night. Cayden had 45 seconds to catch as many tickets as he could. After a few seconds he changed his attack plan, instead of reaching out and grabbing for the ones being blown around, he cupped his hands and waited for the tickets to fall in. Smart! He ended up ...

Team name was Crush. And that is what they did. Every single game. 44 - 2 42 - 4 38 - 6 45 - 4 and so on...killer, crushing scores. Thirty to forty points more than the other team, every single game. Fantastic, if you were on Cayden's team. Otherwise, a little discouraging. Meeting up with the other undefeated team, was close, 42 to 24. This was a new team for Cayden this year, but he wanted to be on the same team as his friend Ethan. Luckily, he adjusted quickly. Ball hogging by the other boys is still a major frustration to Cayden, especially when he is open. Nonetheless, h e played awesome support throughout the season and was particularly on fire the last game, throwing up 8 buckets. Apparently, Randy made a deal with him that for every bucket he got, he also scored $2. Bribing or incentive? It was a great season!

Two boys. 3 days practice. Monday, Wednesday, Thursday. 2 games Saturdays. Often overlapping. Lots of stinky socks. This was Cayden's first year playing soccer since "soccer groupie" age; the group chases the soccer ball. He wanted to play football. However, the football teams around here play on Sunday, have major time commitment (4 days a week for several hours) which doesn't gel with our family balance, and I think he could get injured more easily. So....he agreed to soccer. He played on the U-11 recreational league. Opposite of his brother, he is one of the younger players. The team has been together for about 3-4 years. During one of their games, the referee stated that he thought this was a select team because they played so well. His coaches were awesome. Very committed and great with the boys. Great conditioning program. They played them all well and played to their strengths. One incredible moment of the season was during an early October game. Mi...

Baltimore Orioles versus Seattle Mariners. Kenzie Koo's first Mariners Game, mine too! Randy has come with the kids a couple times before. Sitting in the cold or rain, even if there is a partial roof with an infant has held little appeal for me. But oh, this game was perfect baseball weather. After finding Cayleb at the guest service booth, who went missing for about 20 crazy minutes, he went out the portal we went up to our seats, we settled down and had famous Safeco Field garlic fries, great for game conversations, peanuts, slushies, and lots of other muchies. However, no matter how many munchies, Kenzie wasn't too interested in watching. So we walked the facilites, I walk the facilities a lot - fyi, the escalator changes directions from up to down after the 7th inning. Makayla and friend Maddie, who made this oh, so cute poster! We came for a couple of reasons, LDS family night, free t-shirts, and to see Ken Griffey Jr. #24, yeah, their marketing works. Randy's fri...

It's true what they say. No matter how early one gets the official BSA pinewood derby blank, you will still be sanding the weekend before the big race, AND it's hard for AKELA to keep their hands off! (for those that don't have scouts and have no clue who Akela is that is scout talk for parents or perhaps a great name for a dog). This year Cayden totally designed his car, cut some of it out, thanks Meyers for letting him use your cool tools, it was that or the kitchen knife, sanded it, painted it, o.k. and then I helped here after the paint gooped in spots to the point where his fingernail could scrape the paint off and frustration was getting high, and red wheels and decals came courtesy of Mark a big THANK YOU. Cayden took 2 nd in his division, way to go speed racer! Brent, his scout leader, made ALL the boys the neat wood display for their cars. Cayleb was so psyched, he can't wait to build his own, the girls cheered loudly every time Cayden's number...

From a little 5 lb. 8 oz. baby wearing preemie diapers to a football build body, this kid has finally gotten meat on his body. He loves sports - he is his dad's son. And for the second time, he wanted a sports party, time to hang out and play with his friends. What an easy party! We sent out sports themed invitations. Then as the boys arrived they put on their "team uniform." Cayden wanted to be the team captain, so his was a little different. Then they warmed up with some drills by Coach Randy. As a family we were already pretty warmed up, Randy and the boys arrived home from their father and son camp out about 45 min. before party "kick off" time. Coach Randy made a triple play as both the Coach, the ref, and sometimes the opposing team. The boys loved playing with "the man." a little football - a little basketball - Half-time. The heat (believe it or not it was a hot day here) started to melt the "threads" on the cake. This was so easy ...

Randy's tradition used to be.... go to priesthood session with his brothers and nephews, then hurry out to find a restaurant before all the other guys in suits line up for a table one version of guys night out. now the tradition is... take the boys out. they've been doing this for awhile, and the boys absolutely look forward to their dad dinner...contemplating where they want to go... and what they want to eat... and man to man talk about who is stronger...an army of jedi's, or army guys, or "fifty-hundred" (as Cayleb likes to say) clones. this is pretty much the stuff that memories are made of...

Sister Eria and Sister Bush- Sister Bush was here visiting on splits and stopped over to say, "hi". She has been out for almost 6 months and we were in her 1st area. They are working so hard to let people know the joy the gospel brings to lives. We love their visits! We also found out that Lindsay and Sylvia Thomas will be the new mission president in North Carolina. We have always been so impressed with them. What an awesome couple! Plus she makes amazing mints - I guess it is all "mint" to be. We enjoyed, or at least I enjoyed what I was there for, the Husband and Wife Conference. I stayed home one day because of sick kids. Anyhow, it consists of speakers, activities, time to spend with some of area faculty, and some dining. Here we are at Pier 66 in Seattle. After talking to some of the faculty in Alaska, I think I could spend a couple of years up there. Hiking as a family we would most likely be safe from bear attacks because so far no group larger than 7 has ev...