Happy Birthday, Mom!

My mom's birthday is March 1st. Her and my dad came in to town this weekend for my cousin's missionary farewell so we threw her a small surprise party. I tried to surprise her with Turtle Brownies with homemade caramel sauce but my first 2 attempts failed so she helped successfully make the sauce - always a mom!

The Newest Talented Bear Cub

Caleb's first ever piano performance was at the Ward talent show. He did really well considering there were a lot more people than either of us was expecting.

At Pack meeting this month, Caleb received his Bear Award, a gold arrow, 3 silver arrows, and the astronomy belt loop. I must say he's the cutest Bear I've ever seen. By the way, he was also awarded "Scout of the Month" for his den!

Megan - Student of the week

Megan was Student of the Week and got to color a poster telling all about herself.
If I could have one wish, I'd wish for a...dog
My favorite thing to do is...watch tv
When I grow up I want to be a...doctor
Nauvoo was my favorite vacation

BYU Basketball

This was our first ever sporting event we went to as an ENTIRE family. I was a little leary of how well Gabriella would do during the 2 hour women's basketball game but she was pretty well behaved - especially while she was napping ;)

Three years ago, our first Valentine's after Gabriella was born we took her with us to a men's BYU basketball game. Here she is 3 years later and taking another nap! Don't you love the tutu she put on her stuffed kitty.

Megan drove us crazy about wanting to meet Cosmo. We chased him down and Megan was thrilled to give him a hug.

Caleb was a little leary about meeting Cosmo but I know he would've regretted it. Michelle had come a few weeks ago with Trevor to a game so she didn't need to meet Cosmo again.

I couldn't believe that I actually caught one of the shirts that the cheerleaders throw to the crowd. That was the greatness of coming to a women's game. We sat on the 11th row - close enough to catch the goods.

Caleb the Bear Scout

Caleb's grandma gave him his first pocketknife. Within 1 hour of receiving the knife he earned the Whittling Chip Award and passed off the requirements needed towards his Bear patch. Below is the penguin he carved out of a 3 inch bar of soap.

Last night was the Pinewood Derby. Caleb came up with his car design and helped in every aspect of the car building. Unfortunately things didn't work out fast for his car. I was REALLY impressed with his good sportsmanship. Any other 9 year old I know that would've lost every race (not even finishing the last race) would've broke down crying. But Caleb held it together even though he was devastated. For that we treated him to a great big ice cream cone!

Near Death

Thank heavens Megan was being watched over last night. An hour after we put her to bed, Megan came out crying about how her night light wasn't working. Trevor and I couldn't understand why that was such a big deal until she explained (after the tears stopped we could finally understand her) that she'd stuck a "penny" in it then it stopped working. Needless to say we asked if she was okay, realizing that she blew the circuit breaker, the nightlight and burned the side of the nickel. If she would've been electrocuted we'd have never known it for a few hours (when we check in on the kids before we go to bed). Once again I'm so grateful she was being protected from above.

New....

Gabriella's first day of primary was "awesome". She has a great and creative teacher. Gabriella hasn't even once asked "where's the toys".

For Christmas we gave the older 3 kids desks. Megan loves hers a lot. Even during Christmas vacation she'd spent hours at her desk drawing pictures.

For Christmas I asked Trevor for a way to display the family's accomplishments. He gave me the words "Family Glory Wall" and together we came up with this layout. The smaller pictures are the photos of each of us doing something notable like.... Michelle's is one of her leading music at her Christmas program, Caleb is running a 5k with his grandpa, Megan won 2nd place at the County Fair Art Show, Gabriella started primary, Trevor is running a personal best in a half marathon and I won 3rd place in my age group in a 5k.

Christmas

Santa did bring me a new camera and I'm sure all of you will appreciate the clearer pictures. Santa also brought our family a Wii and Caleb and Michelle wasted no time in playing.


Gabriella loved all the new clothes she got. In fact instead of carrying around her new toys she carried her clothes around all day, or at least the 2 shirts, 1 skirt and 1 pair of pants that she was already wearing.

Megan loves the new home she got for her stuffed animals. Can you believe that ALL of these animals were previously on her bed all the time - even when she slept. I'm sure she's sleeping more soundly now that she has the majority of her bed back (she still has 3 large teddy bears on her bed).

Here's the family the Sunday after Christmas. If you look close enough you can see the necklaces that Michelle made for each of us from her new kit.

Merry Christmas to all........

Kids' Programs

On Wednesday, Caleb's 3rd grade class had an afternoon Christmas program (last 15 minutes of school) and we were all amazed that Trevor was able to squeeze away from work long enough to come see Caleb sing a few songs.

Later on Wednesday night, Michelle's 2nd grade class had a sing-a-long. Her teacher played the accordion and the kids took turns leading the audience in singing Christmas carols.

Caleb and Michelle practiced their songs so frequently around the house that now even Megan and Gabriella have the lyrics memorized.

On Thursday night Michelle's clogging group had their Christmas performance. It was Michelle's first large performance and she enjoyed the limelight.

Gabriella's 3rd Birthday

I was pretty proud of my first attempt at using actual cake decorating tools...then I realized I left off the "e". Oh well, she loved the chocolate cake with pink frosting and everyone scarfed it down so fast it must've tasted pretty good too.

She looks so grown up. I can't believe my youngest is already 3!

Gabriella's own picture of Megan putting together Gabriella's new puzzle set.

It was a long exciting day. This is how we found Gabriella shortly after dinnertime...all bundled up in the bean bag chair with a good book. I hope she keeps that love of books alive for years to come.

I love you my precious Gabriella!

Gabriella

Yesterday we had a combined family birthday/Christmas party at my sister's house. We were only able to take these couple of photos due to a full memory card (Oh I so hope Santa brings a new camera with a huge memory card). Gabriella's favorite pie is pumpkin so that was her birthday "cake". She had a hard time with everyone's attention focused on her (hence the scene below) but she livened right back up as soon as the singing was done and the pie was served.

Substitute Pet

The kids woke me up this morning yelling something about a dog on our porch. We at first thought that it was Caleb's piano teacher's dog but it wasn't. It seemed content to just hang out on our porch out of the snow and wind-which was fine until I realized it shredded our welcome mat and the cushions on our porch swing. Caleb and Michelle spent a couple of hours playing with the dog in the snow and having it fetch a tennis ball. Eventually it just wondered off and we haven't seen it since-although it did leave someone's snow boot on our front lawn that it drug off of someone else's porch.

Meg: Our Budding Photographer

More often than not, I'll try to take a quick pic of something only to find there's no memory left. When I scan through the most recent photos I'll find several pictures of the couch, the fridge, or the kitchen. These are the subjects Megan most likes to photograph. I delete most of them because I need the memory space for things like birthdays, etc but here are a few of hers I've kept.

Me next to our gigantic Christmas tree.


A stolen kiss.

Megan spent lots of time posing her Bear in just the right position.

Megan was the only one that thought to take a picture of the shoes filled with goodies by Saint Nicholas.

St Nicholas

I took the kids up to The Dutch Store (owned by my Uncle Pete and Tante Mietsie) to see St Nicholas and his helper black Peter (blackened by the soot in all the chimneys he goes down seeing if kids have been naughty or nice). It brought back memories from when I was a kid and the Dutch community in Salt Lake was so strong they'd have a huge dinner celebration where St Nicholas actually rode his white horse into the dining hall. It was funny to see my kids have the same reaction I remember having as a kid: fear of these strange dressed people. Although nowadays things have softened a bit and black Peter doesn't carry around a big sack to fill up with naughty kids.

Good Times

Gabriella loves her new church shoes so much she even wore them over her footed pjs.

Gabriella and Megan had a great time playing with/in/around the box from our tv.