Hello again. . . Hello

Here are some videos of the girls at their dance class. . .

Anna is taking pre-ballet.

Olivia is taking a ballet/tap combo class.

They have a Christmas recital coming up in a few weeks and these are the dances they'll be performing. Olivia is especially excited about tap and is definitely NOT shy about adding a little drama to her performance. :)

say what?

Busy Boy

"No time for sleep!"

That is what Nathan would be chanting if he could speak. I took some video the other day to document what Nathan is like when he is awake. I think once he starts walking I'm going to be done for. Actually, I don't think he'll start with walking. I think as soon as he has enough balance to stand for more than 10 seconds and get a step in, he'll just start running. Watch out! Here he comes. . .

What's there not to love?

Nathan's been cracking us up lately. . .

Here he is giving himself kisses in the mirror.

Can you blame him really? He IS pretty handsome!

Here he is sharing his new found vocal skills.

If you come to visit, pack your earplugs. . .

a masterpiece

Near the end of the school year, Jack came home from school with a note that he excitedly handed me and asked me to read. As he watched me read, I could see the HUGE grin spreading across his face (he'd opened and read the note on the way home from school on the bus). Jack's art teacher at school had written to announce that one of the drawings Jack did was selected to be displayed at the local art museum in a special exhibit for the school district. Needless to say, Jack was beyond excited and thrilled with the idea that HIS art was going to hang in a museum for others to see. He was invited to attend a special reception on the first day of the exhibit. Very exciting indeed. At the reception we were lucky enough to run into his art teacher who explained that Jack's picture was theresult of the unit they did on Renaissance art. He proudly told me it was a picture of me holding him. . . they had seen paintings of the Madonna and this was Jack's interpretation. Of course, we are very proud of Mr. Jack and his accomplishment. It was so fun to see his artwork in the museum, but even more fun to see the joy on his face at seeing his art on display! And so, without further adieu, here is Jack's masterpiece. . .

for sale?

In a recent (and exasperated) attempt to dissuade the kids from using bad/naughty words I threatened them at the dinner table (where the offenses usually occur) that I would start fining them for saying bad words.

After hearing the explanation that they'd have to take money from their own piggy banks and give it to me if they said a naughty word they sat in silence for a moment.

Then Olivia said,

"SO if I want to say one of those words, all I have to do is give you some of my money first?"

Awesome.

No. I am not selling naughty words.

Olivia was intrigued by the thought of it though and was willing to pay a pretty penny or two.

a good laugh

Nathan is officially laughing.

Mostly at Jarom.

Maybe because he has more hair than his Daddy-O.

We love it all the same!

A dream is a wish your heart makes. . .

Jarom surprised the girls with a fancy date last week to see the Disney Princesses on Ice show. Olivia and Anna got all dressed up in their princess dresses and waited for Jarom to pick them up for their special date. Jarom arrived home from work and gave the girls each a small bouquet of roses and off they went. I wish I could have gone as a fly on the wall to watch them! They were so excited!

Here's a short video clip with a little bit of their reaction. . .

The night was a smashing success and the girls are still admiring their flowers. Hooray for Daddy Daughter Dates!!

Blessing Day

Here are a few pictures of Nathan is his blessing outfit after church today. He was as quiet as could be during the blessing and Jarom did a great job. It was especially nice to have Jarom's parents here for this special event.

Nathan even gave us a big ol' happy grin!

(despite the major wedgie he was suffering from)

Merry Christmas. . . a little late.

I know I'm a little late with this, but figured I'd just extend the spirit of Christmas into the New Year. This year we got some good video of the kids acting out the Nativity as we read from the scriptures. Thanks to Jarom, now it's all pieced together and set to music.

Merry Christmas!

want some more?

Nathan is on the verge of smiling real smiles for us. He's flashed us a few ear to ear grins over the past few weeks, but they've seemed a little more intestinally motivated than the social smiles we're starting to see now. Jarom and I have especially enjoyed coaxing the smiles out of him later in the evening after the other kiddos have gone to bed. Having a new baby in the house is the best!

Don't you just want to kiss those chubby cheeks?

The beginning of a grin.

Big smile.

Nathan melts our hearts. . .

even when he's mad.

for the fam. . .

I've been terrible about posting pictures of Nathan here for our far away family to see. Here are just a few for now. . .

Nathan with all his Christmas loot. I love the "cheerio mouth" stage. It never lasts long enough for me. . .

The kid is going to need a haircut soon. . . he's got an impressive head of hair! Jarom's a little jealous.

Our Boys

Olivia requested that we take a picture of her with Nathan this particular day. She really wanted to include her birthday crown and candy cane art work. Apparently, Nathan didn't like fighting for the spotlight.

timely

At the end of a mentally (and sometimes physically) difficult pregnancy, I was especially glad to have had this reminder and thought it was quite timely. Thanks LL for sharing the link!

I hope anyone who still checks my blog and hasn't seen this, enjoys the message.

It made me smile to think about all I have to be thankful for. . .

BoO!

Here are a few spooky images from this last week. . .

We took the kids to the pumpkin farm down the road to choose their pumpkins. We didn't bring any ginormous ones like these home, but the kids had fun walking through them.

The kids had a chance to debut their costumes this weekend at two HalLOweEn parties.

Jack had been set on being an eyeball since last Halloween (he was certain that I could just whip that costume up no problem), but happily/lucky for me he changed his mind at the last minute and opted for a spooky ghost. Phew! Hooray for having an old white sheet on hand. . .

Olivia set her heart on being a cowgirl after watching the Oakley Rodeo this past June. Impressively she didn't waver once from her decision and lucky for me sewing her costume was much less difficult than I'd imagined. Hooray for Target and their cute cowgirl boots and the cowboy store in UT for stocking pink cowgirl hats. . .

Anna made life easy for me this year by declaring that she wanted to be a "stay-wee witch" with a green face. She did try to change her mind a few times (a fish and skeleton were both on her list), but luckily I was able to steer her back to the scary witch costume we already had. Hooray for recycled costumes and for awesome "stay-wee" faces. . .

As far as spooky goes, this one takes the cake.

Four weeks and counting.

What in the world???

a little lesson from Jack. . .

Jack brought this book home on the second day of school.

He wrote it (well, dictated to his teacher) and illustrated it during his "free choice" time and was beyond excited to read it to me when he got off the bus. I was quite enlightened and impressed by his artistic details (let alone the subject matter). . . as was his teacher.

For your reading pleasure I thought I'd share it here too.

Enjoy!

Awesome.

First Day

We had a fun filled week last week. . . two first days of school. One for Jack on Tuesday and then Olivia's on Wednesday. I did take pictures and then our camera died (taking all the pictures of Jack's first day with it). Boo. Jarom took some pictures the next day of Olivia and Jack, but I haven't pulled them off his phone yet. I'll post them soon. . . promise.

Daddy, I love you as much as . . .

an ONION!

Who am I to tell a little girl that she shouldn't give her Dad an onion for Valentines?? Olivia's got class (and creativity). It was (obviously, I hope) all her idea. She and I were visiting a family who had just moved into our ward and while we were chatting, Olivia spotted the onions. She very politely asked if she could please have an onion in a little baggie to take home. I tried to give an easy out to the woman we were visiting, but she was more than happy to oblige Olivia's odd request. Bewildered, I asked Olivia as I was helping her get buckled into the car what she wanted an onion for and she excitedly exclaimed that it was for Dad for Valentines Day! So if you ever wonder what to give the one you love for Valentines Day, Olivia would suggest an onion. Why not??

two things. . .

First - For anyone who wondered (even just a little bit) if Jarom's birthday gift to me was serious, let me clarify. . . I never intend to wear that stunning article of clothing again and thankfully, Jarom never expected me too. It was all a big fat joke. Apparently there was some confusion out there about the joke part of that lovely dress. I just wanted to make sure y'all didn't give Jarom less credit than he deserved at making my birthday awesome. I'll take an ugly dress and a pre-arranged day of babysitting so that I can go shopping anyday!

Second - The cat's out of the bag now. Or maybe I should say the baby is. OR maybe I should say the news about baby quatro is out. . . since little four has another six months to hang out in utero. We are all very excited to welcome another little to our family. I'm "due" November 28th. Obviously in these last months my blog has been horribly neglected. I think I'll blame the "morning" sickness that in the beginning was my companion 24 hours a day and has finally (in the last week) mellowed to hanging around for only 4-6 hours in the evening. So, I make no promises that my poor little blog won't see more days of neglect, but I'll try really hard to be better about posting stuff. I've got a long old list of pictures and stories to post. . .

what's in the bag?

coming soon from a slacker you know. . .

an actual blog post.

with real pictures.

and real updates on our happenings here.

seriously.




did you fall off your chair?

i'm back.

shocking.

i know.