Moulton February

It's still cold and snowy here in Utah and I'm afraid I'm the only soul loving it! After staring out the same window for years (4 at Nature's Sunshine facing a parking lot and 2 at the Orthodontist office facing another parking lot), I'm loving the scenery! The snow doesn't bother me because now I don't HAVE to go out in it. Yipppeeee! I even put some snowmen up to commemorate winter! But now they've gone back into their box till next year. Good bye, Ol' Friends!

We've spent time helping Stephanie with the kids. It's amazing what an unsupervised 2 year old can accomplish! I hope Stephanie is keeping track! Just in the last little while, she dumped out 10 cups (at least) of flour all over the kitchen floor, plugged the sink with 4 rolls of toilet paper while the floor was quickly filling up with water, rubbed glue stick all over her body, walked around mooning Grandma, etc. It's been a wild month for Stephanie but we're glad to help now and again. Ella is putting on the chunk which is fun to watch.

 

We babysat Avery for Bryce and Amy a couple weeks ago. Avery liked showing us her bedroom and toys and definitely did NOT want to go to bed. Grandpa was just too much fun to play with! Bryce proposed to Amy recently up at Sundance Ski Resort under a full moon while snowshoeing.

 He picked out a gorgeous ring to match a gorgeous fiance! They've chosen June 1 for their wedding day in the Salt Lake Temple and a reception up at Solitude. Guess this is the location:  

We couldn't be happier for them all! Avery is now calling Bryce Daddy which just makes us smile!

Jess had a meeting in San Antonio and they flew me too which was nice. The hotel was right next to the famous River Walk which was so beautiful!  We just loved it! The company took us on a boat ride at night and it was a sight to see! Shops and restaurants are situated on both sides of the water as well as a sidewalk to enjoy the view. After his meetings, we hopped on a bus for Houston and met up with Marianne and Nic who took us to Nic's favorite bbq spot. They recently got a new puppy, Blazer, who is cute but loves to chew. Luckily, he'd only been in the house about a week so I survived. Next time could be interesting!!! Scott came over and we spent the day at Houston's Water Way: similar to the River Walk but without all the shops. There were big grassy areas for family play or puppy play which I'm sure they'll love. We walked around the Houston Temple grounds. I was shocked to see tulips in February. I forget it's not winter everywhere! Gorgeous! Makes me wonder if our Payson temple will look similar. (Can't figure out how to flip this. It was correct when I tried to upload it. Any suggestions???)

Scott took us all out to dinner to his favorite Mexican restaurant for my bday. Fabulous!!! We loved hearing him speak in Spanish with the waiter! He also took us on a tour of his office at Gallup. He has a GREAT corner office with big windows and a great view of Houston!  We also saw his apt and got to meet Sebastian. He was friskier than I expected. I keep hearing about what an old man he is. He did have trouble getting up the stairs but he seemed happy to meet us! Ha! We loved seeing Nic and Marianne's new home. It's beautiful! They've already made it feel like home. Marianne cooked a ham for us on Sunday which was yummy! We absolutely loved seeing the kids. We flew home on Monday and I was glad to be on earth again! I hate flying! 

Jess is being released from his Primary calling and I assume Scouts too but nothing official has been said yet. He's been called to be the new High Priest Group leader. As we were walking back to the car after his interview, he said, There goes my Sunday mornings again! Haha! He's so enjoyed his time off but I guess it only lasted about 2 years. I'll miss him in class. Sigh...

I think Spring is just around the corner....or summer for some! 

Happy whatever the season brings!

Love, Jess and Annette

Packers NL

This wont be a very detailed post because as soon as I'm done, I'm going to bed! As soon as I put the kids down for bed every night I pretty much fall into my own bed! haha.

DECEMBER Highlights

• We made gingerbread houses and lots of other Christmas crafts. 
• I got a Bosch for my anniversary/xmas gift. Luke decided he wanted to make a mixer for himself out of cardboard boxes. (This is so Luke!) He designed the whole thing himself. I just gave him the tape.
• Luke had his preschool Christmas program
• We had our Packer Christmas party. The entire family, 8 kids and their families, were there! It was a FULL house!
• Celebrating Christmas morning! Luke asked for star wars guys and a remote control car. Sophie asked for ponies. I surprised Rob with a new bike for his triathlons. Bryce helped by doing the research and picking it up for me.
• New Years eve at mom and dads with Chinese food for dinner.

JANUARY Highlights

• Birth of Ella Grace on the 14th. Couldn't have done it without grandma and grandpa's help! They helped with a weeks worth of babysitting, a freezer full of meals, and lots of TLC getting us all back on our feet!
• Yup-That pretty much sums up January.

FEBRUARY Highlights

• Making Valentines day bags for preschool, making decorations, and decorating cookies.
• Ella is a fussy baby, but we LOVE her to pieces!
• Sophie has turned into a mischief machine. She loves "wash" her own hair with lotion or hand soap. This occurs almost every day. I feel like I have to baby proof the house all over again! With me spending so much time feeding the baby, both her and Luke find lots of time to dismantle the house. Once day they opened up multiple Costco size boxes of diapers and wipes and made a "castle" out of them.

She only pretends to be happy in her sleep! :)

Van Natter - February

Goodbye to February! Hope you all had a great one. We sure did - with the usual ups and downs of every month!

Our biggest excitement was finding out Emily is having a boy!

Our biggest laugh came from Addie who saw Reba McIntyre on TV and thought it was "Gramma!"

Our greatest blessing came from John surviving being stranded at Antelope Island in a horrid snow storm, stuck in a drift. He wasn't dressed for the weather, got very wet very fast as he tried to dig out his tires only to have the snow blow right back. By the time Ian got out there to rescue him, the snow was clear up to his car window! They weren't able to get the car out even with both of them  and Ian's 4 wheel drive truck, so they had to leave it and go back the next morning. The park was just closing as this happened so the rangers were nowhere to be found. I tried calling all over the place to send someone official out to him, with no luck. It was a frightening experience. And wouldn't you know it - Ian reinjured his hip helping to shovel out the car the next day.

 

Speaking of Ian, Maverick has denied culpability for his fall in their parking lot. It was a sheet of ice, the employees were just walking out to throw down ice melt - and it was early evening so icy all day, their security camera showed his fall, but they aren't at fault. Hmmmm. He contacted a personal injury lawyer and is waiting to hear if he has a case. All he really wants is for them to cover his medical expenses. It's pretty frustrating. The letter they sent him wished him well in his recovery!

We had a nice, quiet Valentines Day. John got me flowers and coconut cashews, which I could eat. I got him See's candy. Best part of the day was Addie's Happy Valentines Day greeting in a video.

My birthday was really nice. Thanks for the good wishes, cards and gifts. I had visits and calls all day long. So lovely. And John brought home my requested Egg Fu Yung from a local restaurant. We are "connoisseurs" (in our minds)  of Egg Fu Yung and haven't found a good one in years. So we were tickled to find this place just down the road. That and Marie Callender's Double Cream Blueberry Pie, and I was a happy birthday girl!

I just finished a project of reading the entire Standard Works in one year. It was a wonderful experience but I am glad to be done! It helped that I found an outline which broke it all down into what chapters to read each day. Generally that meant one chapter from the New Testament, two from the Old, then one from the Book of Mormon, the D&C, or Pearl of Great Price. I don't think I'd ever read the entire Old Testament, so I feel great being able to say I've now done it!

Hope you have all had a wonderful month with great plans for March!

Happy Birthday to all you March babies!

Greg Cottrell Family

Sarah made decision to stop dancing after 11/2 years and is ready to move onto something else. Any suggestions? We switch studios last year because we thought we would have better luck with the costumes at the new one. We talked to the owner and teachers, they should us pictures and we felt more confortable with the studio then the last one. Boy were we wrong.


The kids all made trivia poster for the Show What You Know fair at school. This year it was on Yellowstone.


We had a wonderful Valentines day. I made pizzas and decorated the table. The kids all got a box of chocolate. Lindsey gave Greg a photo book of their trip to Washington DC and some chocolates. She even ordered some clothes for Greg to give to her.
The kids enjoyed a 4 days off from school, teacher work day, Presidents day, and 2 snow days. The snow didn’t actually hit until the afternoon one day so we went to McDonalds for lunch and picked up donuts for a snack later.
They really made the snow storm sound a lot worse than it was here. I’m sure it was really bad other places but they kept saying we were going to get 12-15 inches but we ended up with 5-8 inches. Because of the storm we were beginning to wonder if we would be plowed out for the Blue and Gold Banquet. Luckily we were and it went off with out a hitch. The theme was space. Greg is on the scout committee and was asked to bring table clothes, tableware for 64 people. Lindsey is a bear den leader and was in charge of decoration. Adam had to make cake. Stressful….but it did turn out really nice and it was a lot of fun. We had about 70 people that night.
Adam’s cupcakes. Decorated with gumball/peach ring plants, gold moons, and blue stars.

The wolves made some awesome solar system center pieces

Some more awesome cakes.
Trying to get the full affect in this one.

Scott's new address

Scott Moulton
8015 Ellinger Lane
Houston, TX 77040