my dress

(holding a bar of chocolate)

after church

before church

My exuberant little girl bouncing out of the picture frame.

I love this picture.

This is me wearing the same dress when I was little (about 5 in this picture).

This is probably my favorite family pictures of when we were little.

This is a dress my mom saved and mow my little girl can wear it. We switched the ribbon color and made a new under-dress.

She loves to twirl and dance when she wears it. She knows that Grandma made it and calls it the Grandma dress.

Hello and Goodbye Kitty

Well, Santa brought the family a cat for Christmas. The kids (Claire) loved it. Mom and Dad did not like cleaning up after it (apparently it was not well litter trained) and constantly getting it off the counters and table and keeping it from scratching the furniture.

So we said good-bye.

Somehow the kids are ok with it.

The best part about this cat was that he let Claire do anything with him and he never got feisty with her.

Thanks Tiger for an exciting three weeks. I hope you make some other little girl really happy.

Mike style sledding

This is the way Mike goes sledding: we are in Utah so why not just drive up the canyon and find a good mountain to cruise down. There was no way I was going to hike up and down a mountain, but I had fun watching from the van. It was quite an adventure. A bit rocky though. When they were done sledding they climbed the mountain and threw sticks and snowballs from the top. Mike was so patient with Claire all the way up and all the way down.

My kids have a good Daddy.

snow day

self-made sledding hill

this is a ruler on our back porch!

The day before winter break we got a snow day! bonus. All the kids on the street were out playing and all the dads were out shoveling. (I don't understand why they didn't have to work)

We have a great street and the kids loved the day. It was so story-book/romantic.

gingerbread house

The whole second grade class made gingerbread houses and I went in to help Ethan and the other kids. We had a good time. I was trying to convince Ethan he needed to cram as much candy on his board as possible so we could take it home and eat it. It was a big hit and a big mess.

Andrew's b-day

Andrew has turned 10! It feels like a whole new age category. Everyone keeps telling me I am not old enough to have a ten year old.

We had a simple party. pizza and cake and a trip to the dollar movies with a few friends. It was my kind of party. simple. Andrew and the kids were happy too.

plungers are the next legos

We bought new plungers for our new house. They were a big hit. Don't worry these were clean and new and we explained to them this is a one time thing and they are NOT to be played with again.