Rice Crispie Treat Houses

When mom was here for Thanksgiving she brought a really fun Holiday Cooking magazine. In it was a great idea for making houses out of rice crispy treats. BEST IDEA EVER!. They stay together!!!! So I took the idea and did it for our YW's activity last Tues Night, we had some left over so I let the boys create. They had sooo much fun creating their little houses. JT won the prize for covering every centimeter of his house. Brevin won for nicest house and Zack won for cutest face on the house. I was very impressed with their creativity. Hope everyone is enjoying the Holiday Season like we are!

It's Beginning to Look a lot like Christmas!

For FHE we decorated the tree! We can't wait for Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a great Thanksgiving. Jodie's and Justin's families both came. Mom and Dad, Grandma Minick, Kaarynn, and Jackie(with Emma). We had a house full, but it was a great time. The kids loved playing in the garage and outside. We had lots of yummy food, thanks to everyones help! The kids all crashed on the floor in the front room as you can see from the picture. We got a lot of shopping in, while taking turns babysitting. We also spent a day at the beach. The kids loved the water and it took no time at all for Marin to completely get wet. Good thing her mom was prepared. They had a lot of fun running from waves! Hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving!

Pumpkin Patch!

On Brevin's Birthday we went to a local pumpkin patch and let the boys pick out some pumpkins. They had a lot of fun finding the perfect ones. Then we took them home and started carving. Zack thought the pumpkins gut were pretty cool, but too gross to touch, so mom did most of the cleaning and dad did most of the carving. We had fun and the pumpkins turned out pretty dang good.

Brevin's Birthday

We celebrated Brevin's Birthday on Halloween this year. He decided that he would like to have his two friends Hector and Niko(both are neighbor boys) come for a sleepover. The party began at 4:30 with going to Chevy's for an early dinner. Then we came back, got costumes on and went Trick or Treating. Brevin was the creepy stick figure with a Santa hat. JT was MR. MET only we don't like the Mets so he actually was MR. Brave. Zack was many things. At Pre-school he went as a Ninja Turtle, then he was going to be Darth Varder, then a Pirate as shown in the picture, then by the time we actually left for trick or treating, he was a dragon. Good thing we had all these costumes on hand and did not purchase any new ones. The boys came home with loads of candy and should last them until next year. After the Trick or Treating, the boys came home had some birthday cake(which is supposed to be an iPod) and soon after that they began playing wii until 10 and then were up at 5:30am playing wii again. To say they least we are all tired and a little on the grumpy side today. But, the bottom line, Brevin had a great Birthday!

Flag Football

Brevin and JT played flag football this fall. They just ended their season last week. They both got to play different positions, including quarterback. I think they both really liked playing that position. JT had 3 completed passed for touchdowns!! I still can't believe it. Brevin also average about 1 touchdown pass a game. In the last game, on the last play of the game JT caught a pass and ran it in for a touchdown. Then he was the quarterback and completed the pass for a 2pt conversion. Very Exciting!! They had a really good time and I think they are both excited to play again next year.

Surfing with the Bartons

Joe and Amy Barton so kindly invited us to go surfing with them. I have to say that they are wonderful surf coaches, including their very cute girls. They suited all the kids up and the dad's(Amy and I opted to sit on the beach and visit) and headed out to the waves. Each of the boys took a turn on the long board and each of them got up, and each of the crashed and tumbled(except Zack because Joe caught him just in time). We had such a great time and look forward to another invite.

Bad Luck

Recently I have been having problems with breaking things. Some of the things I'm breaking are not a big deal, but I have moved on to some more expensive items. I stepped on my phone and broke the screen on it. I can only read the bottom half of my screen now, so if I don't call you back try again, because I might not be able to tell that you called me. Next I broke the screen of my camera. Yes, there is something about a screen that is becoming bad luck for me. I wasn't sure how Clint would react to me breaking the camera screen. The only thing he said was,"stay away from my TV". Yes, this is how much my husband trusts me right now, I'm actually surprised he's letting me use the computer.

As a result of breaking the camera, I don't have any back to school pics. But I'm letting you all know that the boys looked great. They both have teachers they're excited about, so that makes life happy for all of us. Zack has his first day of pre-school on Weds. He's so excited and will be in pre-school with his best buddy Luke. The only thing he's worried about is that mom is going to make him wear a different outfit for each day of preschool. Hopefully we'll get past this with very little fight and or tears.

End of Summer Fun

We had such a great summer. It went by way too fast! One of the last weeks of summer Clint's family came out for a visit. We had such a great time and just really enjoyed having them here. We did some shopping(Brittany needed to get ready for school), we went to the beach, the boys did some golfing, did some swimming at the hotel, baseball game, and of course did lots of yummy eating. When ever the Zollinger's are in town we have to hit IN-OUT and Cheesecake Factory. Honestly what more could we need. We found out about the great beach south of Carmel. It's called Pfiffer Beach(I think, and I'm not sure about the spelling) and it was such a great beach. The pictures above are at the beach, they had these cool boulders out in the water that the waves would crash against. Behind you was a wall, some of it was rocks, and plants, but in one section there was sand. The boys had so much fun jumping and rolling down the hill of sand. It really was a fun and beautiful beach.

It was a great way to end our summer. We always love having family come and visit.

Here we are waiting to get into the A's/Rays game. It was a great game, the A's even won. During warm-ups Zack got a homerun ball from a lady. She only asked for a hug in return. Clint caught one off the grill during batting practice and then saved Brittany and I from a foul ball during the game. We always have a great time at the ballgames.

Idaho

It was really neat to see the Twin Falls Temple. This is a picture of the back of the temple. JT and Brevin loved the ATV's. Brevin did flip his over to the side one time and scraped his side up, then Clint had JT on the big one and they dropped off a jump and landed pretty hard. Good thing JT had his helmet on because he hit his head pretty hard on the handle bars.
My dad gave JT and Brevin a quick lesson on skeet shooting. After firing the shotgun the first time, JT went back to the ATV's and Brevin held it under his arm. Here he's shooting with his Uncle Justin.
Zack got up! Second time we went, he wouldn't stand up, he just sat on his skiis, it was really funny!

After our time at Bear Lake, we drove to Gooding to spend time with my family. We had so much fun. We were all together for the first time since Duke and Morghan's wedding. Just like Bear Lake, the boys had a great time. They got to golf, water ski, tubing, ATV's, skeet shooting, ping pong, temple, horses, and food. There was never a dole moment, the kids slept great every night. Dad and Mom have been helping with the opening of the Twin Falls Temple, so we got to spend some time on the temple grounds with them while they fulfilled some of their responsibilities. The boys even got to help put up a tent for the open house. My dad was able to take Clint and I on a private tour of the temple on one of the days. It was so amazing and we look forward to our next trip so we can go inside again. We went boating a couple days. All the boys tried water skiing. JT and Zack each got up, not for a long time, but they were up. Brevin tried and was soooo close, but didn't quit make it. Zacks favorite was the tubing. He could not get enough of it. He wanted to go faster and have lots of bumps. One time he just about bounce right out, he just laughed and told my dad to go faster. They all loved the ATV's despite the few crashes Brevin and JT had. Thanks Mom and Dad for planning such a great family reunion.

Bear Lake

Zack had a really great time with cousin John at the beach one day. Zack has really been missing his cousins since we've been home. We played many rounds of mini golf. Zack got 6 hole-in-1's in one rounds!!!
Cousins having fun together at the pool. Brevin loved hanging with the older cousins.

We went on our annual trip to Bear Lake with Clint's family. Grandpa and Grandma Hanks(Clint's mom's parents) rent condo's at Bear Lake every year for all their family members that can come. We look forward to it all year and can't stop thinking about it until we're there, then when we leave we start thinking about the next year. There was about 50-60 family member there during the week. The boys get to go swimming at the pools, play at the beach, boating with Uncle Jason and Aunt Jamie, golfing, mini golf, volleyball, baseball, tennis, and food. I'm sure I'm leaving something out, but you get the idea. The boys had so much fun with all the cousins. I felt like the only time I saw the boys was when it was time to eat. We had so much fun. Thank you to Grandpa and Grandma for making it happen!

JT's out of there!

JT is very excited to be leaving kindergarten. He's really looking forward to 1st grade next year. He had a great teacher this year, Mrs Sturla. I was able to help out in the class once a week for the year and I really got to know the class well. Mrs Sturla makes learning fun for the kids and I hope that Zack gets her in a couple of years. Here's a picture of JT with his teacher at his Kindergarten Ceremony. The video is a little dance they performed for the parents. I don't know where JT got his dancing skills, certainly not from Clint or I.

First Year of Violin

This year Brevin and JT were in the Suzuki Method Violin Program through their school. They both did extremely well and it was very fun for me so see how much progress they made in just those nine months. Each week they had a 30 minute lesson with another student and then a 1 hour group lesson on Fridays after school. They each completed level one and continue to move right along. Here are some pics from their end of year concert and a video clip of one of the songs they played. JT is not shown in the video but is playing.

today Zack gave his 1st talk in Primary. he has been excited about it all week. just to tell you how excited he was, he was in my room before 7am asking me to help him get his church clothes on. for anyone that really knows Zack, you know he hates wearing anything but 2 outfits. i always have to bribe him on sundays to get him dressed. so, clint and i got some pictures together for him to color so he could hold them up during his talk and tell about them. i asked him who he wanted to help him during the talk and he said,"I want to do it all by myself". Clint asked, "what are you going to say", Zack says"I don't know". so we let it go and decide that he would want help once he got there. well we show up to the primary room and he mouths to me "don't help me" with a big smile on his face. i just smiled and sat down. the little girl in his class was before him and she said the article of faith and after they are supposed to sing the article of faith song, but before the music leader can get up there, Zack pops up and goes the to stand to give his talk. clint jumps up and tells him that they are going to sing first. Zack must not of heard clearly because he starts singing "I am a Child of God" in front of the whole primary. i started filming it, but i was laughing and crying all at the same time because it was just so cute, so it's a little wigglely. after he sang, all of the senior primary children broke out in spontaneous clapping for him. we weren't sure if we should go up and help him with his talk that he prepared, but before we decided the primary leader got up and thanked him for his message. in the end, Zack did give his talk all by himself.

i made some brownies for family home evening and the boys found the bowl. i think they enjoyed that more the the actual brownies:)

hot day

recently we had some really warm days, so the boys went out back and tried to cool off.

We just celebrated Zack and Clint's Birthdays. Clint took the day off today and went golfing. You get to golf free at Eagle Ridge on your Birthday so he took advantage. He had a great time and only hit one house. Then, since Zack's birthday was on Sunday, we celebrated today by going to Chuck E Cheese. His best buddy Luke came with us and they had a great time. We came home and enjoyed birthday cake with Luke and found all the neighbor boys and had them come over to help eat all the cake. Thanks for all the calls, card, and presents, they both had greaat birthdays!

Happy Birthday

Baseball season is going well. Brevin wishes his team was winning more, but he is performing very well himself. Clint's been keeping track of his hitting and he's hitting around 500 right now. He's playing 2nd base and pitcher. The video is of a triple that Brevin had in a recent game. JT's team is doing great. They don't keep score yet, but his team usually scores every inning and many times will get the max runs(5 per inning). They also are great on defense and make a lot of outs. JT's coaches are great about switching up positions every game. JT says he likes 3rd base. The pictures are of him when he was the catcher. I love how the gear covers them head to toe. Very Cute!

While mom and dad were in town they treated us as Cheesecake Factory in San Fran. As you can see the boys enjoyed dessert. Zack got the dessert that has 3 Godiva Choc Brownies layered with icecream and fudge. Clint and I helped him, but not much. JT had no problem downing his Cherry Cheesecake. After we let the kids run around Union Square. It was so much fun having mom and dad around. The Boyz sure enjoy spending time with them.