Thanks, Mom!

A big, heart-felt (and a little chagrined) THANK YOU goes out to my awesome mom! She is a much better blogger and commenter than I will ever be. I'm including a couple of links to her blog about my kids and our family since she's done such a great job of covering events that I have neglected!

You really do always need your mom!

Todd Turns 12

Todd Recieves the Priesthood

More about Our Trip to Jackson Hole

Hansel and Gretel 2010

Kate just finished her second year in the beautiful ballet "Hansel and Gretel" put on by her ballet company "The Ballet Conservatory". It is an absolutely fabulous production. The costumes, sets, choreography, and DANCERS are amazing! It's so much fun to watch Kate learn and grow each year. This year she was a Bread Crumb Bird and a Troll. I'll try to attach some short videos from dress rehearsal. We'll have a DVD of the whole production in about a month if anyone is interested in watching it.

Personalize your own free collage

Sorry about the AWFUL camera work, but at least this gives you a taste. Kate is the 2nd Bread Crumb Bird when they fly in a circle, and she is a troll with a black hat. It's hard to pick her out, and she disappears quite often, but use your imagination! A real DVD of the performance is forthcoming...

Jackson Hole Trip - 2010

We just got back from our annual trip to Jackson Hole, WY. This year Mike and Amber Tribe and their kids joined us. We had a fabulous time and I really HATED coming home! We only got about 3 1/2 days this year because Todd received the priesthood on the Sunday before our trip (cutting 2 days off the front end) and Kate had to be back for dress rehearsal for "Hansel and Gretel" on Thursday afternoon (cutting 2 days off the back end)! Why do our kids have to have lives of their own???!!! It's really cramping our style!

At any rate, we packed a lot of fun into those 3-4 days! We ice skated, visited museums and visitors centers, shopped, hit the candy store and several book stores, vegged out, ate great food, stayed up late, and laughed a lot!!!

Our Baby Is 12?

Can it be? It's seems impossible that our baby boy is already 12 years old. He is such a special, smart, kind, witty, and wise boy. We love him with all our hearts. He is the best big brother, always looking after Kate and Jack. Even though he has the occasional "teenage" moment, he is a wonderful and easy boy to raise. He passed the sacrament for the first time on Sunday and did a great job. I'm absolutely amazed at how quickly the time is passing. 2/3 of my time with him at home is already gone -- AAAAAAHHHH... I need more time!

Principal's Walk

Another year of a fun tradition: The Principal's Walk! It's a fun way to motivate the kids to keep reading. Good work, Kate!

It's Autumn-time

"Fall" is definitely the appropriate word for Autumn at our house. We have no shortage of leaves courtesy of the many, many large and prolific trees in our yard. The kids are getting to be more and more help as the years go by, but they're not too old that they don't enjoy raking and diving into the leaves for hours at a time! I never did get a good shot of Jack since he was completely buried 97% of the time!

Trick-or-Treating

This was Todd's last year of Trick-or-Treating. Hard to believe he's 12! We enjoyed visiting all the sweet grandma's in the ward. They spoil the kids rotten.