Soccer!

Sam had his first soccer lesson this weekend. His team is the Elephants. He has been so excited to wear his new soccer shoes and use his new soccer ball!

Meeting his teammates and coach

Getting a little pep talk from Dad when he got a little nervous

Learning to dribble the ball to the goal

Bill keeping Daniel occupied with his own ball

Trying to kick the cones over

He loved it and looks like a natural!

Bowling, bowling, bowling

We took the boys bowling for the first time for Family Home Evening. It might be a while before we take Daniel along with us again, but Sam had a blast and did great!

So excited!

Which color do I choose?!

I didn't write down our scores, but I will admit that Sam's and my scores were quite close! He keeps asking when we're going bowling again.

And on a random note, our neighbors keep chickens in their back yard and one decided to visit us the other day. Daniel chased the poor thing all over, but Sam was careful to stay away.

Sam's swim lessons and other things that keep us busy...

We signed Sam up for a session of swim lessons at the YMCA. He is loving it and looks forward to every Tuesday and Thursday evening.

He loves his teacher, Lexi

Since we got our Vitamix, we've been experimenting with yummy smoothies. This one was a hit with the boys!

Much to my ears' dismay, the boys love to get out all the lids to my pots and pans and perform a lovely musical.

The valentine's Sam chose to give his friends included pencils to go along with the cards. The day before Valentine's Day, Sam came in to my bathroom after my shower and told me he ate the "red valentine's". I couldn't figure out what he meant, so I asked him to show me. We went down to the kitchen and he pointed to the pencils. He had chewed off, not one, but six erasers! Luckily, we had just enough pencils left over to replace them.

Playdate with cousins!

We love living near so many cousins so we decided to have them over for a play/lunch date. Well, the kids played and the moms ate lunch...

Sam, Whit, Lucy, Cael & Daniel

Zoo

We were spoiled this weekend and got to have Bill home with us! It was a beautiful, sunny day so we went to the zoo. Sam was so excited to show Bill all of his favorite animals...

Playing with the groundhogs

It's so fun to see Daniel noticing animals and getting so excited

A spontaneous kiss for little bro

Couldn't be happier. It was a great day!

Temple trip

The Boise temple has been closed for renovations since mid-June, so we have not been to the temple in a long time! We finally took my sister up on her offer and left the boys with her and drove two hours to Twin Falls. Apart from my mission I've never lived more than 30 minutes from a temple, so it's been tricky figuring out how to go.

We left late Friday afternoon, spent the night at the Shiloh Inn and woke up early for the 7 o'clock session. It is a beautiful temple and was so nice to be able to go again after many months. We can't wait for the Meridian temple to get started!!

6 Inches!

We woke up to snow this morning and it didn't stop ALL DAY LONG!! Sam was so excited to finally be able to make a snow angel and build a snow man!

I went out to shovel the driveway at nap time and measured the center of the lawn at six inches!

Daniel was a little hesitant to go outside at first, but slowly ventured out. He didn't last very long.

Bill came home a bit early to have some time to play with Sam before it got too dark (still around 5:30!)