A Boy and His Dog

Keaton and Chloe have a love/hate relationship.  Chloe loves to act annoyed that he's completely taken over her territory, but she'd never dare do anything to hurt him even if he is a nuisance.  In fact Tanner and Landon insist she sees him as her pup and is just lovingly correcting him when she gets frustrated by him.  Haha!  Either way I think they'll have a special bond as he continues to grow.  We had a rare, warm, sunny day this week, so Keaton and I took Chloe outside to play fetch and I introduced him to the grass in the yard.  Last summer he wasn't mobile so he had never experienced that.  He LOVED watching Chloe get the ball and bring it back, and he loved eating dirt and leaves from the lawn as well.  Haha!  Looking forward to lots more sunny days in the future.

Braddock's First Temple Trip

There was a youth temple trip planned for February and we were extra excited for Braddock to be able to go for his first time to do baptisms for the dead.  Tanner would also get to perform the baptisms, and I didn't want to miss out on being there with both of them for such a special day, so we made plans to all drive to Columbus as a family so I could pop into the baptistry for a bit.  My sweet friend Lisa Tatlow called and offered to watch Keaton on her break from her temple shift so that I could make that work.  We had all the car snacks prepped and everything was planned only for Landon to wake up with a fever that morning.  Dang it!  So we quickly adjusted our plan and sent Dean, Tanner, and Braddock while the rest of us stayed home and missed out.  I was bummed, but grateful Braddock and Tanner could still go and that Dean could be with them.  They had an awesome time and even stopped at "The Melt" on the way home for dinner.  Proud of these boys for their willingness to spend their whole day driving and serving in the temple.  Tanner even had to prep for his sacrament talk AND young men's lesson for the next day.  He spent his entire weekend in service and I hope he felt the blessings that came from that. 

Grandma Hilton texted Braddock and asked him how the temple trip went.  This was his sweet response,"It was amazing I loved being baptized for the dead it felt like I was being baptized but even better because it was for someone else. I'm sooo glad I can do it now. 😄"

 Here's the Beaver Valley Crew

Dean and Tanner got the Monte Cristo sandwich.

Braddock got the macaroni and cheese grilled cheese.  

Bridger's Valentines Class Party

I was lucky enough to get to help with Bridger's Class Valentines Party.  I love doing that so much.  The kids get so excited to have us there and are eager to try anything and everything we have planned for them.  I was in charge of games this time. Dean and I put together saran wrap balls full of prizes they had to try and unwrap with oven mitts on, while the person next to them hurried to roll doubles on a set of dice.  Bridger was SO good at it I had to stop him from taking any more turns.  Haha!  I think he got half the prizes in his one turn.  He was sweet and shared with his less skilled classmates though.  Then we played a get to know you bingo game where they had to go around finding friends that met the different requirements on their card. Things like, "has lived outside PA," or "has been to Disney World," or "wears glasses."  As soon as they got a bingo they could come get a prize.  We also handed out a bunch of snacks, and did a little Valentines craft.  Then they took time to handout their Valentines to each other which took far more help from us Moms than you would think!  Hahaha!  Shout out to Mom and Dad Nelson for watching Keaton while I was gone.  Grateful for these chances to be involved in my boys lives. 

Bridger was super proud of his Hedwig Valentine's Box.  I don't blame him!

Valentine's Bingo

Bridger's whole class showing off their "Teddy Grams."

Love spending time with this cool kid!

8th Grade Engineering Fair

Landon is SO cool!  He worked hard on this project and it shows.  He ended up winning the fair and getting a great grade on his project.  He had to come up with an issue and then plan and build something that would address that problem.  He made a trash can with an alarm that goes off when it's full and needs to be taken out.  In theory the alarm should inspire you(or your kids! ;)) to empty the trash immediately.  No one likes an overflowing garbage can.  Dean worked with him to wire it all and I jumped in to help with his poster.  Together we pulled off a pretty great project he was proud of.

Valentine's 2024

 We had some pretty cute Valentine’s twinners today. (and Landon even had his GIEP at school so he got to have Keaton come in their twinning outfits to his school!) 🥰 We celebrated with Chinese take out for dinner and Mom won Valentines by Rick-Rolling everyone with the coolest card ever!

Little Valentine's cuddle session with my favorite baby.

The card never stops playing Rick Astley's song unless you break it open and it explodes with glitter.  Hahahaha!  It was pretty epic!

Never been more grateful for my forever Valentine!

Tanner's Sweet 16

It's hard to even wrap my head around the fact that Tanner is 16 now.  It's true what they say, the days are long but the years fly by.  I feel like I blinked and I'm practically the mother of a man!  His birthday fell on a Saturday and leading up to it he planned a great party for him and his friends.  We did pork nachos and all sorts of drinks.  He's the master of specialty drinks.  We moved his arcade machine downstairs and they had everything they needed down there for a successful night.  We ended up with weather in the 60's that day so they even got to go outside and play laser tag which is pretty awesome for a February birthday.  Tanner even brought Keaton down to say hi to everyone and they ooh-ed and ahh-ed over him.  It was pretty cute.  Tanner's friends got him so really sweet gifts too and they had a great time.

Tanner mainly asked for money, but we couldn't help but grab a couple things he's wanted lately.  Then we filled the balloons with money.

A Wallows Vinyl, a new phone case and popsocket for his new phone, and rose hips for drink making.

A video call with Grandma and Grandpa Hilton

We also happened to get our new couch delivered on Tanner's birthday too.  Everyone was pretty excited about it.  It's got three recliners built in and we're loving the better support for our aging backs!

I'd tried to be the cool mom and not bug Tanner and his friends so I took zero pictures.  He got these gems....

Joey

Haley and Evelyn

Troy and Haley

I snapped this after everyone was gone.  He also had Mackenzie and Lily there too, but they didn't make it into any pictures.

Sunday Grandma let Tanner decided on dinner and she made sure to get in his ear tugs for Grandma Furin too.

The "birthday door" got displaced by the new couch and furniture shuffle, so this is our picture this time.  Haha!  Guess we'll be figuring out something different going forward.

RS Embroidery Night

Someone had the fabulous idea to have a Relief Society Activity embroidering handkerchiefs for the Pittsburgh Temple Dedication.  I was so excited to learn and make something meaningful to take with me to the dedication.  I minister to sweet April Fields, and I knew she was going to be one of the people teaching us to embroider so I definitely didn't want to miss out.  It was a simple evening but so fun to chat and learn together.  I'm happy with how my handkerchief turned out and I'll always remember these sisters when I use it!