Kate's character convention...Kate becomes "Fancy Nancy"

So all 2nd graders have to participate in the annual "Character Convention" at the school.  This is where you pick your favorite character from a book, dress up like them and tell your classmates all about yourself.  Kate chose Fancy Nancy...it's fitting right?   She and Heather had a blast putting this ensemble together.  Fancy Nancy likes everything "fancy", even using fancy words like "exquisite" and "fuschia".  She even passed out "bon bons" to the class after she was done with her presentation.

Eli's birthday

Eli's birthday...you'll be able to tell by the pictures below that this was a very unique birthday on many levels.  The first pic shows his first gift and one that he's been requesting for quite a while...a new set of large scriptures.  Yeah, these are what I call the old man scriptures, you know the ones where the words are so big they jump off the page and they weigh about a 100 pounds?  He was so happy to get these...

and of course, Eli's in to music so much lately on his Ipod so he's requested an ihome 

Eli also wanted to decorate his own cake which you can see here....oh my,...not sure what happened but he seemed pretty pleased with it...

Here's about half of the kids that came to the party all jammed into the hot tub at Lori's house.  

The party was a lot of fun and quite memorable.  Happy 15th birthday Eli!!!

Piano Recital

The kids had their piano recital recently and did a fantastic job!  Kate played "Pop Goes the Weasel", Chloe played "Tribute" by John Schmidt and Eli wrapped it up by playing "The Entertainer" by...I forget his name.  I did get a video of their tunes but for some reason or another I'm not able to upload them.  After the recital I wanted to get a close up of each of the kids at the piano but Kate was the only one who would let me-go figure...teenagers.

Labor Day...at the Cabin

We decided to head off to the cabin for Labor Day weekend.  Usually we don't try and attempt this since Heather starts teaching preschool the following day but she felt confident enough with her preparations that we went.  We had a good time together and found plenty of things to do as usual.  One of the sights we decided to go see was the Johnny Sacks cabin.  This cabin was built and lived in by a German immigrant in the early 1900s.  The unique thing about this cabin is that "Johnny", who was only 4 feet and a few inches tall, designed his cabin to "fit" himself.  All of the architecture on the interior of the cabin reflects that.  Unfortunately we had to peer in from the windows since it had just closed for the day when we arrived. 

 The kids spent a lot of time painting these wooden dolls for fun.  Heather had a great idea to have a Halloween collection that we could put out every year.  Eli was the first to jump on that idea.  Here is his Dracula doll he designed:

and a little closer:

So....I wanted something to work on too.  For the past year or so I've wanted to make my own gravestones for decorating our front yard at Halloween.  I've bought the styrofoam ones that look great for one season, then they're toast.  I asked Grandpa Danny if he had any old wood that I could use...he told me there was plenty under the cabin.  I was excited when I saw the condition it was in...old and weathered.  Perfect.  I used some of the paint the kids were using and painted the "gravestones".  Here's one for you to see:

The kids love to try their hand at driving on the dirt road going back and forth to the cabin.  I've decided that it's one of the things they'll always remember about this place.  Here's a pic of Kate sitting on my lap and "driving" on the dirt road.  She's kind of a wild driver...

Liam had to go fishing.  Fortunately we didn't find any dead guys in the woods this trip.

 Eli just hangin out in the woods

Hangin out in front of the cabin.  Seriously had the best weather for 3 days: in the 70's.  It felt so great coming from mid 90s in Kaysville. 

 This is rare: Kate taking a breather...

The love of my life...celebrating 16 years this year!



The first day of school!

You gotta love the first day of school pictures. Everyone looks genuinely happy about it...

...even Clayton!   He's now living and going to college at Utah State University in Logan!  These are his roommates:

Now you see 'em, now you don't...

It was time for Chloe to get her braces off.  She's been ready for this to happen since the first day she came home with them.  Here's the before and after...

Chloe's Birthday!

Yep, it's official-Chloe is a teenager.  Turned 13 on August 7th!  Dang, it's already felt like she's been one for at least 2 years already.  Since we had just gotten home from trek the day before it was a pretty low key birthday but full of fun and surprises.  

A few of her cousins came over as well as Aunt Lori, Aunt Amy, Uncle Josh and Grandma and Grandpa.  See Clayton there in the background?  He had just gotten home from working at Aspen Ridge  the night before.

So, of course the question is: what did Chloe get for her birthday?  Well, she's wanted a "beach cruiser" type bike for a while and we found the perfect one for her.  Where's the pic?  Hmmmm-got to get on that one.  Also, she's been begging for a whole year for a cell phone which we said no to over and over.  Yep, she got one of those too which completely surprised her.  She also got some new school clothes, etc which made her quite happy.