Christmas Ice Skating Show

Sadie has been taking ice skating lessons since school started and last night was her first Christmas ice skating show! We are so proud of her! She did a fantastic job and looked so cute. In the video she is the short one wearing a black skirt with white skates. I think she starts second to the front and the camera pretty much follows her the whole time.

In the picture with her letter to Santa, the only things on her list are an Ipod and a reindeer! I hope she won't be too disappointed Christmas morning, because Santa told me she's not getting either one. :o)

Christmas Cards

We had so much fun taking pictures for our Christmas cards this year! I thought they made a cute slide show, too. The kids were cracking up! They loved the different props I had gathered and were so glad to do pictures where they weren't required to sit still and smile perfectly. :o)

Happy Halloween!!!

We had such a fun Halloween this year! This kids had a great time painting pumpkins with their Grandma Perkins and making graham cracker haunted houses with Grandma Krammer. We carved pumpkins and made some fabulous costumes. Nathan was determined to be a lemonade stand, and made the costume himself (with assistance from dad). Brandon made things easy for me and decided to be a ninja, a costume we already had from previous years. Sadie had her heart set on being a Pink Pirate Girl, which is not something they sell at the stores, so we had to get creative to make her costume. It turned out so cute! The weather was perfect on Halloween night; no jackets necessary, which made for some fabulous Trick-or-Treating. All in all, a very successful holiday, and the kids will have candy coming out their ears for a month! :o)

Night of the Running Dead

Nick and I both participated in the Night of the Running Dead 5k, with my sister-in-law Shelly, my sister Lori and her friend Megan. It was a fund-raiser for the Huntsman Cancer Center. We had fun dressing up like Zombies! There were some incredible costume jobs there and some who just came as humans. These are our before pictures:And our after picture: (when we really felt half-dead!)

School Choir

Sadie has joined the school choir this year, and they had their first performance yesterday. They sang at the school district's 100 birthday celebration.Way to go Sadie!!! You did great!

Tree House Museum

Sadie's class had a fabulous field trip to the Tree House Museum in Ogden. They have so much wonderful stuff to see and do! One of the best parts was the opportunity for the kids to act out a play: Cinderella. Sadie got to be one of the wicked step-sisters! Her favorite part was dancing with the prince. :o)

Sister Time

I had a wonderful trip back to North Carolina to visit my sweet sister, her hubby and my adorable new nephew! We had fun shopping, painting pumpkins, painting toenails, baking, scrapbooking, playing with baby, walking and of course, talking.Thanks for putting up with all the giggles and messes Ryan!

First Day of School

This year is my first year with all the kids in school all day long; Sadie in first grade, Brandon in fourth, and Nate in Junior High (yikes!) How did I suddenly become old enough to have children this age?

The kids are loving school, though Nate's not exactly thrilled about all the geometry homework. :o) I'm proud of each of them and so glad to be their mom.

Shakespeare Festival

Yes, I am just barely getting around to posting about this... As usual, I'm a bit behind. :o)
We saw all six plays! My personal favorite, and Nick's too, was definitely Midsummer Nights Dream. Though Romeo and Juliet is always good, and Richard III was surprisingly entertaining. (I must admit I tend to not expect much from the histories.) We also loved the Music Man and laughed like crazy through Noises Off. Glass Menagerie was definitely more somber, but very moving.
If you've never been before, it's so worth the trip! They do such a professional job; costumes and sets included. It's truly a magical experience... and the cream cheese tarts are scrumptious!

Special thanks to my Mother-In-Law for the tickets!!!

Goblin Valley and Arches

Feelin' HOT, HOT, HOT!!! But we had soooo much fun! We spent four nights/five days camping in sunny Goblin Valley with wonderful friends. The average temperature was about 97, there were no trees and plenty of ants. On the other hand, we saw incredible rock formations, beautiful slot canyons, numerous lizards and, of course... a Valley full of Goblins.

We also spent one day at Arches National Park! I been there before, but it was the first time for Nick and the kids. The youngest ones LOVED the Sand Dune Arch; what's not to love about a large, shady, cool sandbox the size of a house? The second favorite memory of Arches is a cute little prairie dog, who was not shy and obviously used to being fed by tourists.

Little Wild Horse Canyon was a fun hike, just outside Goblin Valley Park. It's an 8 mile loop, but we made it about a mile before turning back. The kids have become expert rock climbers thanks to this hike. There were several places that were perfect for little ones to scramble up, and a few places where we all had to do a little climbing!
We're still in Southern Utah and we still have almost a week before we come home, so I'm sure I'll have more pictures to post soon!

Catching up on life...

Is that even possible? I'll give it a shot!

School's out, for another few weeks, and the kids have been loving summer. Hurray for warm weather, sleeping in, swimming and vacations! The kids each got to take a small summer class; Nate chose art, Brandon did soccer and Sadie chose dance.Nathan has been working hard at scouting, (and so has Nick!) They enjoyed a long hike up Big Cottonwood Canyon.Brandon had the exciting experience of getting stitches for the first time! He collided with someone while playing laser tag and got three small stitches up by his left eye.Sadie celebrated her 6th birthday! She had a super-fun pool party, complete with mermaid & sand castle cake.

Happy Birthday Brandon!

Brandon is now NINE years old! He is such a sweet boy, always kind to the younger kids and so willing to share. His smile is contagious and frequent! Brandon only recently began piano lessons but he's doing so well! I have never even had to ask him to practice, he just does it on his own. Brandon has also developed an interest in soccer. He plays every recess (when its not raining) and is excited to be on a team.

For his birthday, he wanted to have a Phineas and Ferb party. It was a blast! First they played “Busted!” in which they had balloons tied to each leg. They attempted to pop other kids’ balloons while keeping their own safe. So much fun! They also had a treasure hunt where they found Frankenstein’s brain (this actually makes sense if you’ve ever seen the Phineas and Ferb TV show!)
Then they split into groups and made “Inator” inventions, including a hypnotizinator, a ticklinator and a squashinator.
We then played a quick game of “Where’s Perry?” and enjoyed a dinner of grilled cheese sandwiches and jello jigglers, followed by a Perry the Platypus cake and an Ice cream sundae-inator. Everyone had a great time and we are so glad to have Brandon be a part of our family!!! Happy Birthday Brandon!!!

More Camping!

After petrified dunes, we went to the White Rock trail. Surrounded by all the red rocks and sand, this hill really stood out. Thinking back, I wish I had picked up some samples of the different sands, red, white and even black. Anyway, it was cool. A short hike took us to a natural amphitheater where the kids, once again, scrambled up and down the rocks. It's amazing how tired they can be on the path, then as soon as we get somewhere with rocks, they are bouncing with energy! We finished the day with Tinfoil dinners, more hot cocoa and gooey s'mores around a wonderfully warm campfire. I have to say, Snow Canyon State Park has an awesome campground! I loved the warm showers and flush toilets in clean bathrooms, and the kids loved to ride their scooters around. Combined with the incredible natural beauty of the canyon, all this made it a place we can't wait to go to again!
Sadie and her cousin loved being "Twinners" in their matching PJ's! And, of course, we couldn't go camping without some injuries... I think everyone but Sadie ended up with a few band-aids and scrapes. Nathan topped them all though, when he crashed his scooter! This picture doesn't quite do justice to the bloody mess he was before I cleaned him up. Luckily nothing was deep and no stitches were needed. He just scraped off a lot of skin on his hand, arm, knee and chest (that part isn't pictured). By the time we left camp, my first aid kit was almost completely empty!
I'm just glad we all ended up home, safe and sound, and a little sunburned. It was quite a shock to the system to get back and find everything blanketed with snow! It makes me especially glad we took the trip and got to bask in the sun for a few days.