Primary Plinko

So this is just a post to show off my latest project.

I've been in primary for the last 7 years now. First as a teacher, then a counselor, then the president, and now the chorister. Which, by the way, is the most awesome calling ever! I love it. And I've always wanted to make a Plinko game. There's so many ways I could use it. Apparently, my sister-in-law, Augusta, thought the same thing because she got my brother, Jeff, and my dad to design and make one for her. I saw hers when I was in Portland a few weeks ago and decided I had to make one. Jeff was super nice and sent me the plans to make my own.

So on Friday night, I headed to Home Depot, put the kids to bed and pulled out my power tools. (Robby's been working late every night since its the end of tax season.) It took me a couple of hours on Friday night (sorry to my neighbors who had to listen to my miter saw, jigsaw, belt sander, and drill) and a few more Saturday morning. But it was totally worth it in the end because it turned out even better than I hoped.

Here's the final result. Sorry, just an iPhone picture.


I used it today in Primary and it was a huge hit. The kids asked if I would bring it back next week to play again.

Happy 7th Birthday Owen!

We decided to go all out and let Owen have a real friend birthday party this year. He decided he wanted to go ice skating. I was a little nervous about taking a bunch of 4 to 8-year olds ice skating but we did it anyway and it was a blast. They started out with a little party with pizza and ice cream and then went ice skating. We figured the kids would last less than an hour ice skating but they surprised us and we literally had to drag them off the ice after almost 3 hours! Owen got to ride the zamboni, then a sled, then got to race a big tricycle on the ice since he was the birthday boy. We couldn't have imagined a better party and he said it was the best birthday ever, although we've realized he says this every year.

Having pizza and ice cream.

Ice skating lesson before they got on the ice.

Tricycle race.

Singing happy birthday to Owen.

Watching the zamboni.

All the kids on the ice.

Owen riding the zamboni. (You can see his legs hanging off the side.)

Getting ready to ride the zamboni.

Getting pushed around on a sled.

Owen and Mike, the guy in charge of the party.

Jack skating. We're were shocked that Jack stayed on the ice the whole time. He pushed buckets around the whole time for balance and didn't want to leave.

Owen skating. He'd only been once before but he did really well.

The birthday boy.

Christmas

I know I'm a little behind but here's our pictures from Christmas.

The boys woke up Christmas morning and opened gifts from Santa. We then went to church with Grandma and Grandpa Walker and almost all of Robby's family. Then we went to Robby's parents to open up the rest of the presents. As usual the kids got way more presents than they needed. Owen got new shoes (bright blue and green Reebok Zigs that he'd been begging to have for months), Beyblades, a Kings hat, and some books. Jack got a dinosaur, a Kings hat, a Hot Wheels Wall Track and some books. They both got a cool car track from Grandma Jane and Grandpa Jim and BYU Football uniforms from Grandma and Grandpa Walker. Emmett got some new sippy cups, socks, and a Cars race track.

Opening up presents from Santa.

This is what Emmett usually looks like. He sucks his left thumb while rubbing his hair with his right hand. It is very cute.

The boys in their football helmets, new shirts and Owen in his new shoes.

Jack in the full football uniform.

The boys opening presents at the Walkers'.

I've decided Christmas is so much fun now that I have kids. It is so fun to watch them open presents and get so excited. Its hard not to get them everything they ask for.

We're back...for now

Can you tell we've been a little busy around here? Once tax season hits, I can't seem to get anything done. By the time I get the kids in bed I'm exhausted and collapse in bed. Only a few more weeks left. Oh, and we had about two weeks of the stomach flu, terrible colds, sinus infections, ear infections and pink eye. It was awesome.

Here's what's been going on in the mean time.

We took the kids to the Sacramento Kings fan night. All day long Jack talked about meeting Jimmer, but as you can see (or not see) he completely chickened out once we got there and wouldn't even get in the picture.

I made Robby's brother a chocolate mousse crunch cake for his birthday one Sunday. While we were eating lunch we realized Emmett was being very quiet and found him in the fridge helping himself to cake by the fistful. Luckily, the cake was mostly okay and everyone still ate it!


We took Owen and Jack to a Kings game against the Celtics. It was the day before St. Patrick's day and Jack kept asking us if BYU was winning or the leprechauns. Let's just say he was there mostly for the food. I think he had cotton candy, popcorn, root beer, licorice rope, a Hershey bar, and Dibs ice cream.

Fallyn, Owen and Payton took an introductory ice hockey class. Owen liked it, the girls hated it. And I mean they really hated it. I don't think we'll see them in hockey gear again.

I learned not to tell the boys we're going to visit Grandma Jane and Grandpa Jim too early. I told them a month before, so all day they would ask how many days until we leave. Finally, we made a paper chain to keep track.

Visitors and a Renovation

This last week my parents came out to visit. So of course I had to come up with a project for them to help me with - the fireplace. But to really appreciate the results, you have to see what we were working with. I never took a picture but when we moved in the house the family room walls were wood paneling. Taking it down required ripping the walls down all the way to the studs. Here's Robby and his brother Jake (yup, that's him with the curly red afro and Mom Squad t-shirt) tearing out the walls.


So we put up new walls and refinished the hardwood floors and had this:


Still not pretty by any means but at the time it was a huge improvement. Isn't the blue gas insert lovely? When my parents came to visit a couple of years ago, we decided we could at least fix up the insert with a little black heatproof paint. Here's the improvement:


Better, but still pretty ugly. (I couldn't find another picture and realized I needed to take one right when I started tearing out the hearth last week.) I got the idea to totally renovate the whole fireplace off of Pinterest, of course. It seemed easy enough (haha...right) but I wanted to add some extras so the week before my parents came I tore out the hearth and had a guy come and put some slate in. I considered doing it myself but chickened out after realizing that in our 50-year old house nothing is level or square.


Then my parents came and we really got to work. Luckily, I got a compound miter saw and belt sander for Christmas last year so all we needed to buy as far as tools was a jigsaw (which is awesome). My dad did an awesome job drawing out and planning the whole project. Robby, my mom and I took turns helping him and watching kids. It took pretty much a whole week to complete and was a lot of work. Here's the final result.


It looks SO good. After making the fireplace looks so nice we decided we should finally mount the TV on the wall to make it all look nice. All I have left to do is cover up the cords coming down from the TV. My dad and brother were geniuses and made it so the mantel has channels in it to hide the rest of the cords. You can still see them right now because I have to get some longer cords but we're almost there.

In all, it was tons of work and would have been a fair amount of money, but I was able to sell our gas insert on Craiglist and come close to breaking even. Thanks Mom and Dad for coming out and letting us put you to work! We promise next time you come we'll let you relax a little bit...probably.

Now all I have to do is somehow convince my husband to get rid of the awful teal couch. I think the only way that's going to happen is if I destroy it. I'm getting desperate. It think I might start leaving scissors lying around in hopes that someone will cut up the leather.

Other Stuff

Here's some other pictures that we've taken over the last couple of months.

Emmett showing off his new shoes.

The boys taking a skip on the Scuttle Bug.

Owen and Jack and their Trio tower.

The boys and our neighbor Margaret.

Jack's Christmas Program

The preschool that Jack and Owen have both gone to does a really cute Christmas program. However, I've never had a kid that would participate! My kids are not fans of performing. Luckily, I was able to bribe Jack this year (with our go-to bribe, a Hot Wheel) and he actually dressed up and sang with the other kids! I was most surprised that he put on the shepherd costume, most of it anyway (not the head covering).


Here's the video of him singing: http://youtu.be/HRcR1MrRgmk