I Hate Spiders!

Spiders are not my thing.  They are really not my thing.  But I was out picking tomatoes the other day and came across this big one.  My first thought was "I hope it isn't poisonous!"  So I went and read about it online.  Turns out she isn't poisonous and she is great at eating bad bugs.  So she stays.  But Scott gets to pick the rest of the tomatoes....

I Love a Parade!

What a bad blogger I am! Maybe I'll catch up someday.

Adam marched in the Homecoming Parade today. Doesn't he look sharp in his band uniform? Bekah, Caleb & Emma also had a great time at the parade. What a candy stash--I guess we can skip trick-or-treating!

Adam's Solo/Ensemble

Several months ago Adam participated in a Solo/Ensemble competition. He performed a trumpet duet with one of his friends. As of 2 weeks before the competition he knew very little of the piece. He isn't always great at practicing... Anyway, Scott told him if he didn't get moving he was setting himself up for one of the most embarassing moments of his life thus far. He did dig in and learned the piece pretty well.

They ended up getting a 1, which is the highest score. I'm not sure either one of the boys could actually play the ending line of the piece. Thank goodness for a coda, which allowed them to repeat the first line of the song and end on a good note! This video is actually only the first half of the song. Halfway through his partner stopped and said, "Can we take a major break here?" Too funny.

A bit of catch-up...

Coming soon. I can't get a video to load!

So Caleb

I mentioned earlier that Caleb is "Gadget Guy..."

Several weeks ago while Bekah had a friend over, Caleb came up to me and said, "Mom, I figured out how to keep the girls out of my bedroom."

"Really?" I said.

"Yeah. I took my doorknob off." With a screwdriver. And that is SO Caleb!

Spelling Bee

Bekah recently took second place in her school spelling bee. Not too shabby considering she is in 5th grade and the bee included 5th-8th graders. She then went on to compete in the Tazwood Spelling Bee (Tazwell and Woodford Counties). She was one of the last 10 still in the competition. She and six others got out in the same round. She missed the word "feudal." Not a word she has come across in her reading. I think it is part of next year's curriculum.

Way to go Bekah!

Caleb's Birthday

A bit of catch-up...

Caleb turned 6 near the end of January. For his party we took one of his friends (and his family) with us to Chuck-E-Cheese. Not exactly my favorite place, but not so bad when you go on a Tuesday evening. Here is a picture of the Birthday Boy.

Emma and her little friend spent the entire evening on the Chuck-E-Cheese ride and the fire engine ride. Who wouldn't love to ride with Chuck-E?

Caleb is a "Gadget Guy." He loves to mess around with interesting gadgets--padlocks, flashlights, Scott's tools, cameras, etc. What better birthday gift than a spy kit. He loved it!

Sledding

We finally had warm enough weather (still only about 20 degrees but it beat our -20 low on Thursday night!) and enough snow to go sledding. We had so much fun on Saturday that we went again on Monday with some friends!

Here are Scott and Emma on their way to the hill.

Sledding Ninjas!

Adam without his glove in front of his face to avoid a picture! Go Mom!

Emma and Bekah getting ready to go.

We love our toboggans! What a great garage sale find!


Emma didn't like riding in the front--she is trying to lick off the snow that sprayed in her face.

Proof that Mom did actually go down the hill on a sled.

Further proof that Mom did actually go down the hill on a sled!

I was on the toboggan with our friends' son. A little boy ran in front of us as we reached the bottom of the hill and we hit him. He hit our friend on the forehead with his chin and me in the cheek with the top of his head (at least that is our best guess--it all happened too fast.). The two boys both seemed to be ok. My first shiner ever! Do battle wounds get me more "mom points"?

Moral of the story: Never take that "last time down the hill."

New Year's Eve

For New Year's Eve we invited another family over to play games. They had a daughter Bekah's age. Surprisingly enough, both Caleb and Emma fell asleep before midnight. (I really was surprised that Caleb didn't make it.)

Bekah and her friend Randi had a great time decorating the Christmas tree with the streamers. It brought back fun memories of doing the same thing when I was a child.

Christmas Morning

With the older kids out of school and Scott home from work I find I have to compete for computer time. I am finally getting around to posting a few pics of our Christmas morning. I'm sure other moms can relate when I say that after all the planning and shopping I breathed a sigh of relief that I seemed to get it all right. Everyone was pleased with their gifts and had a great day. Whew!

Adam and Bekah have already learned to solve the Rubik's Cube since Christmas!

Christmas Eve Pageant

Every Christmas Eve we hold our own Christmas Pageant. This year Caleb was Joseph and Emma was Mary. Emma wasn't quite sure what to think of the whole thing. Even though she generally loves dolls, she was a bit more interested in claiming Caleb's broomstick! I was able to get her to sit with the baby Jesus long enough to get a few pictures.

Of course, with the cool crowns from our Christmas crackers (A leftover tradition from our time in England), Emma also wanted to be one of the wiseman. Notice the broomstick handle (green bit) she insisted on holding again.

And here is Adam playing Herod the King. I'm not sure where the Cars slipper fits into the story...

This year (after listening to President Eyring's First Presidency Christmas Devotional talk) we added Samuel the Lamanite to our production. Bekah really got into her part--she even spent time beforehand memorizing lines. I think a favorite part of the whole play was when Adam and Caleb threw balls at her while she gave her message up on the wall.

Come back soon!

Thanks for coming to take a look at our blog. Things got a little crazy around here getting ready for Christmas, so I didn't get the updates on each of our children finished. I should have some time during the next week to put some pictures up. Come back soon and give us another look!

Adam in 2008

Because this blog is new, I wanted to give a quick update on each of the children...

Adam's great love is soccer. He played on a travel team both Spring and Fall of this year. It was the best kind of travel team, because all of the other teams travelled to play at the park within walking distance of our house!

Adam also participated for the third year on the local swim team this summer. It is fun to see how much he has improved--it was exciting to see him winning races this year.

Family Picture

This is our most recent family picture. It was taken in Fenwick Island in July of 2007. We really need to get a new family picture taken!

Here we go!

I have long avoided the whole blog scene, thinking I don't have a lot to say that anyone would want to read, but I have decided to jump in so I can post pictures and videos to show our friends and family what we are up to.