First Blogged Picture of 2010

Happy New Year!!

First Dance

Rachel went to her first dance this evening.

Her grandmother wanted a picture (Hi, Mom!).


Rachel was more excited about going to the dance than she was about the photo session ;)

Rachel is old enough to go to dances now.

Happy Birthday Rachel!

Rachel wanted a day trip and finally decided on window shopping and a visit to an ice cream place I've been wanting to try. The ice cream was worth braving the freeway for, so I'm sure we'll go back :)

By the way, Summer is not being greedy, she is holding my cone for me while I take the picture.

And, once again...

Concert Videos

Elementary Strings Concert



Piano Recital



Choral Performance



High School Orchestra Concert

The Return of Posh Toes

After not being able to reach them very well to paint them for a few months...

(dah da da dah)

...my toes are back (with bells on)!

Christmas Day

Besides eating fudge, cookies, candy and leftover tamales until we all felt sick, we also burned a yule log...

...went on a hike and made button rings.

The week before Christmas...

...the kids did a Nativity play for FHE...

...Rachel wet and braided all the hair she could get her hands on...

...and three different kids had a stomach virus, but we don't have any pictures of that!

Ceramics by Rachel

In addition to her mermaid hippopotamus, Rachel has brought home some more projects from her ceramics class at school.

She made two thingamabobs that you put a tealight and scented oil into to make your house smell better.

She made this pretty box with a lid.

Here are two bowls, the second one is made of little balls of clay smushed together.

Another tealight holder in the shape of an owl...

...and a mask, which didn't make it home in one piece, but was glued back together and is being modeled by Kelly!

This past month...

...a lot has been going on around here, as I am sure has been the case in your families.

A couple of the things that kept us hopping in December were, four different concerts at school...


... and a piano recital...

...with videos to be posted in the near, or maybe distant future.

It also rained and the kids played in the backyard in the wet and mud.

It's all fun and games until you look down at your favorite dress and realize it does not look the way it used to.

Amazingly, all that mud came out of her clothes.

Ward Christmas Dinner

I told Summer and Rachel I'd give them a budget of $10 to spend at Michael's if they would make a centerpiece for the table I signed up to decorate. I think their snowmen were pretty cute. They had fun and I was off the hook.


The Primary put on a play that was just adorable. Michael was a shepherd, if you can't tell because the picture is so fuzzy.




Everyone was excited to see Santa...


...especially Naomi!

Gwen's Christmas Poem

Gwen wrote an acrostic poem for school that her teacher said was the best one she had read in years. This gives her some bragging rights here at home since it is the same class her three older sisters were in ;)

CHRISTMAS

Christmas is a very joyful and wonderful time of year.

Heavenly music fills the air as the stockings are gently turned over, their contents spilling out onto the rug.

Ripped snowman paper flies around the room as children utter cries of delight while they open their gifts.

In the kitchen sweet aromas float out of the oven, adding to the fragrance of melting candles.

Spicy smelling pine needles litter the floor, along with tinsel, ribbons and bits of colorful paper.

The glass nativity set on the mantle glows softly, reflecting the dancing fire in the hearth.

Merry children's faces shine as "Silver Bells" echoes through the lighted streets.

As weary children sit on the floor to eat their many cookies and sweets, they are tired and happy.

Sitting at their table covered with a delicious Christmas dinner, each family, filled with love for each other, reads the story of the first Christmas Eve.

Thanksgiving, finally!

We spent the week of Thanksgiving in St. George with family. It was really a lovely vacation. We relaxed and had a ton of fun. One of the days we were there, I took my two teenagers and their teenage cousin shopping for a girl's day out. We even did lunch :)

Stan took the five younger kids and some other cousins to feed the ducks.

The family dinner was on Friday to make it easier for everyone who wanted to see their in-laws, so for dinner Thursday, Stan, the kids and I went to the community Thanksgiving dinner. We thought it might be fun and would save Stan's mother at least one day of having to feed all nine of us!

It was pretty good, for cafeteria food. They even had live music and jugglers. The only drawback was that they gave us all way too much to eat! I kept saying, "Just a little, half of that, only a bit", but oh well.

After we ate, we took off to Snow Canyon, one of my favorite places in the universe, for a hike. We explored a split canyon...





...and then crossed the road to play in the sand dunes.

I found buckets of red sand in the laundry!

Niquelle helped Summer dye her hair a darker brunette while we were there.

The look on Kelly's face sums up the trip.

Woohoo!

Song of Solomon

Summer didn't have a Sunday School teacher today so the 2nd counselor in the bishopric suggested the class study scriptures together and he would quiz them later.

They started in Psalms, moved to Proverbs and happened upon the Song of Solomon. It was a bit shocking for the group. The five girls and the lone boy were all traumatized and decided to stick with 2nd Nephi for the rest of the hour.

Gwen's Birthday Rocket

Just over three months after her birthday, we finally set off the rocket Gwen got from Grandpa Dale and Grandma Buppie for her birthday. It took some time and instruction reading to get it set up.

Gwen and Stan filled the reservoir with water.

We took it to the south forty and Gwen started pumping it to get the pressure up.

Heather and Kelly got bored waiting, so they visited the neighbor's dog.

Rachel pitched in and helped.

Gwen tried and Rachel tried, but it took Stan's strength to set it off.

I'm dreaming of...

...lots of pomegranates!



A volunteer pomegranate bush grew from the compost Stan put out by some raspberry vines a couple of years ago and we harvested our first edible fruit last Saturday. Michael and Rachel peeled it for us. It was delicious :)

Not a Baby Anymore

This morning, while I was drying my hair, Naomi didn't want to be left alone, so she brought her project into the bathroom.

I turned around to see this...and was struck by how grown up she looked, like a kid, not a baby.

Pushing on the stapler took two hands, but she got the hang of it pretty quick.

Here is some of what she accomplished with all that effort.

Kelly has taken to...

...wearing an old pair of Rachel's glasses frames (sans lenses) around the house.