Father Dominguez

Ethan was in his fourth grade school play, "Voyage Through Time." He played the role of Father Dominguez; a Spanish explorer who searched to find a shortcut from Santa Fe, NM to Monterey, CA through Utah. The play was all about the history of Utah as a modern day class of students used a time machine to travel back through time. It was very informative and entertaining at the same time.


Ethan is in the front, brown robe, by the microphone.


The group of five Spanish explorers sang a song about their journey.


Here is a closeup shot of Ethan in his priest robes and cross.

It's All Green to Me

St. Patrick's Day was great this year. Everyone was wearing the green and eating green all day long. For dinner we made German Pancakes, scrambled eggs, hasbrowns and sausage. Everything had to be colored green including the milk.

Catching Up

New cousin Kenadie was born on January 15th. She is a real cutie. Katelyn is enamored with her.


We went to the Bean Museum with the Ward's for a little fun in January for MLK day. No school and some good times with stuffed animals.


Yeah! Finally enough hair for some sponge rollers! Katelyn likes to be a curly girl too.


Just loved this picture. Katelyn really is a cutie and brings so much spunk into our family.


Ethan had a wipeout on his scooter.
Sidewalk 1, Ethan 0


Crazy K


March 13th brought the first visit from the tooth fairy, and March 15th brought another visit for Erin. Not to be outdone, Ethan pulled out his first molar two days later and the tooth fairy came again!


Easter preview. Which ends up being great since they didn't even wear their dresses on Easter Sunday. General Conference required more casual wear of jammies!


We also have had lots of family visiting. Unfortunately, I haven't been great at getting pictures during their visits. We have been having way to much fun! Heather, Jordan and Abram came to stay for a long weekend. It looks like we'll be seeing lots more of them in the fall as they will be moving back here. YEA!

My mom came out for her birthday for a visit. It was really fun celebrating with her. The kids are already missing grandma and can't wait for the beach vacation in 46 short days so we can see her again!

For Heather

So yeah, it's been a nice break from blogging. I got kind of overwhelmed by all the Christmas pictures to sort through, started a blog post for Christmas, and just never finished it. It's done now, but postdated so it will be in the right year. I have been working on making the last two years of my blog into a book through Blurb. It's coming slowly but surely.

January was kind of blah. I didn't take very many pictures. It was cold and wintry and we were mostly in the post-Christmas phase. Why does it have to be dark and cold after Christmas? Can't we just skip to spring?

February was really uneventful. I didn't even take any pictures. Which brings us to March. I have a few entries and pictures to post. I'm getting to it.

So...
I am still alive. I very much enjoyed my little hiatus. The guilt and pestering is getting to me so I am going to renew my blogging efforts. Mostly for family who is too far away to see what is happening in my family's life and because it is a good way to journal. Stay tuned.

Christmas Mayhem

We spent Christmas Eve at grandma's house. It is a great family tradition. We had dinner and then opened presents from grandma and grandpa with all the aunts, uncles and cousins around. All the girls got fancy aprons, and each kid family was given a grandfather clock so that we won't fight over mom and dad's when they die. And what Christmas would be complete without new pajama pants for the grandkids made with love by Grandma? Not ours!

After all the family festivities we headed home to continue the traditions. We put out cookies and egg nog for Santa. All the kids were dressed in their new pajama pants from grandma, and then they each opened one present before getting scooted off to bed. As we tucked Ethan in bed he asked, " Now, what are the rules for tomorrow again?" So we reminded him not to wake mom and dad before 7am, stay in bed tonight, etc.

At 7:03 Jeff and I were awakened by Ethan (who had already woken up Erin) proudly pronouncing that it was after 7:00. We sent them downstairs to investigate what Santa had brought while we took a few more minutes to wake up and get dressed. After having them come up every 30 seconds or so to show us something, we quickly got dressed and came downstairs too. There was plenty to see and do. Ethan got a Lego Indiana Jones II Wii game from Santa, Erin got a pink MP3 player, and K got a new purple and pink dress up skirt. The day was filled with cinnamon roll eating, Lego assembly, toys, a visit from Grandma, Grandpa and Suzy, and relaxing together.

My favorite moment of the day was when Miss K discovered the new roll of scotch tape in her stocking from Santa. K LOVES tape. She is always stealing mine. In fact it took me over three rolls of tape to wrap presents this year. Not because we had lots to wrap, but because she kept taking it! So very appropriate that Santa brought her some for her very own. For most of the afternoon (and since) she loves to play "tape store" with Erin in her play kitchen. Who knew??

Deck the Halls

The halls are literally decked at our house.

Christmas countdown chains, homemade snowflakes and reindeer cover the walls. The other wall contains our fireplace- complete with stockings hung by the paper fireplace with care... We have to have some way for Santa to make his grand entrance. Our tree is up, decorated, and glowing. I love this time of year! And since all the shopping, decorating, delivering, and wrapping is complete I still have a few days to relax and enjoy it all.

Last night for Family Home Evening we had a lesson on the true meaning of Christmas and retold the story of Jesus' birth. At the end of the lesson my sil, Kelly, challenged all the kids to think of one thing that they could do as a present for our Savior. This morning Ethan got dressed and cleaned his messy, messy room without being asked. It is spotless! He was so excited to show me what he had done. Erin got up this morning and wanted to make all the kids breakfast for me! Even though Katelyn didn't cooperate, Erin still did a great job. I love her so much! Today Katelyn is going to help me make her bed, and make a card for her daddy. I'm glad that my kids took Kelly's challenge to heart and did something for Jesus.

I hope that you all have a great holiday filled with love, family and friends!

Dancing Snowflakes

Erin has been wanting to take a dance class for ages. This summer she took a few weeks of classes through a community center and loved it. So we decided to put her in a dance class this year. She is taking it through BYU, and is in the children's creative dance program. Twice a semester the parents get to go and watch, so this was the Christmas "performance" that they did for the parents.



In Motion




Dancing in her snowflake costume for the parent performance.



Erin and her best friend Hannah Scott.