Recitals

Over the last week or so we've had a few little performances to attend. Here's some photos from those.
First Celeste performing on the piano. With as little as this girl practiced, it wasn't bad. During the last 9 months she has probably only practiced a total of what she should have done in a week. Pretty bad. I think she could be good if she actually would work at it!
Blythe and Anna above doing a duet. Micah below.

Hayden- the Cold Play addict.

Anna's singing group "The Rising Stars." The kids you may know are: Eden, Micah, Tucker and Blythe. Anna did an awesome job with these kids -- and her piano students.

Eden's 2nd grade singing performance. We couldn't get a good photo from where we sat, but I liked this one with her head peaking out from her part of the flag.

Tucker at the Rising Stars performance. Blythe in the background.

Good times.

For the sake of it

I haven't felt like blogging lately. But I'm getting tired of that old post. I know, that's been said lots before by myself and others. But for the sake of something different, here's a very boring update on our family.

Steve- He's got a great job. Works hard. Makes his time with us count. Still running. Started biking again in the hills above our home. Got called as Primary Teacher to a large class of 5 year-olds with me.

Me- With the exception of being tired so much, I feel great! Baby in utero is doing good. I have a "to-do list" that has remained almost untouched for weeks with items such as: Unpack the mountain of junk in our garage, finish up the cleaning of old rental house and turn keys in, paint and decorate baby's room, get yard landscaped... but have lacked the energy and I guess motivation to tackle it in any real way.

Celeste- Getting better about her drama antics. In fact, she's been pretty sweet and helpful to me lately. She's growing up to be my big helper. Bookaholic. Excited about tutoring other kids in reading this Summer as a volunteer at the Literacy Center.

Jonah- Emotionally doing pretty good; currently. Has gotten to be way better about doing homework lately. Looking forward to school getting out next week!

Eden- Had her singing group performance last weekend and loved it. Being happy, sweet and obedient as usual. Anxious for her birthday in a month. 8!!!

Becca- Can't wait for school to get out too. Asks multiple times a day when she gets to do her Summer Camp and activities I have planned. Still teeny and makes mom and dad smile a lot by her little body and huge personality.

Picture Bonanza

This post is loaded with photos. We didn't get photos of everything we saw, but I've included a lot here. I decided to go ahead and tell you and show you our Boston trip all in one post. So get ready for a biggie.
I can describe this trip in 3 words: It was AWESOME!
We left Thursday morning. We didn't do much that day other than traveling.
I became the driver for our trip and Steve the navigator. We've found we're a great team getting around when we do it that way.
Friday we spent most of the day in downtown Boston seeing the sights. My favorite place in Boston was probably Faneuil Hall. I loved seeing all the really old hand written letters they had on display from famous patriots. Plus uniforms, hats, and other memorabilia. Trinity Church was pretty amazing. The inside-

The outside-

Boston's first public library was quite impressive too-

I love libraries.

On a ferry ride back into the city for dinner-

Besides the wind, the weather for us behaved quite well all weekend.

Saturday morning we did a session at the Boston Temple. Lovely!

Then we went to Plymouth Plantation. Cute cute cute baby goats there-

They had what they called "Interpreters" there acting and living like the Pilgrims did back in the 1600's. Even children interpreters playing a game-

They stay in character whatever you do. This guy asked us what Steve did for trade and we told him "computer work". He acted like he thought we said "pewter work" as in the metal. Then gave us this big long speech about that and Christianity among other things. His accent was cute and I got a kick out of watching him play this all up.

Looking over the plantation and the coast-

Steve on the Mayflower II. It's a remake of the original and has actually made the trip from Plymouth England to Plymouth Mass in modern day. We learned so much on this and really appreciated the trial this voyage must have been on those poor people!

At Plymouth Rock-

The actual rock-

Sunday we went to church at a ward that met near the temple. Clayton Christianson who Steve tells me is a famous professor at Harvard spoke. It was a really good talk. Afterwards we changed our clothes and took a walk through the gorgeous wooded path up to the temple.

This is when we found out about poor Molly back at home being taken away on an ambulance. She had a cold and blew her nose and burst an artery!!! Blood was gushing out of her nose and mouth so heavily they took her to the hospital to cauterize the artery. She was a good sport and Anna and Trent stepped up to take care of her and the kids. When we got back, I found remnants of blood all over our bathroom and the walls even. It was like a crime scene.

We then went to Lexington where we ate lunch and walked Lexington Commons. This is where the first battle of the American Revolution happened. This 15 year-old kid was there to tell us all about it. We were impressed with all he taught us. Nice kid.

As we walked away, Steve decided he wanted to give the kid a pass along card. I laughed pretty hard as I watched my cute husband run after the kid to give him one.

As Steve runs back to me- kid looking at card and saying "um thanks." But I was proud of Steve for doing that. I didn't have the guts.

Then we went to the airport, boarded a plane and went home.

We were grateful to find all well at home.

This mini-moon won the award for "Best Food We've Eaten On a Trip". We found the best restaurants there! I'm dreaming of that food still.

So it's been 11 happy years for us. This past year for us has been quite the challenge, but I think we're a lot closer and more in love than ever for it. I get excited at the thought of the years ahead with Steve!

Jonah's room

I've always really liked astronomy. This is the third time Jonah has had his bedroom decorated--different homes of course. And every time he's had the same theme. But I think he really likes astronomy now too. Here's his room all around.

The silver stars on the lighter blue walls do not glow in the dark, but the ones in the dark blue do.

The planets on the dark blue glow in the dark too.

He's got constellations on the ceiling which glow as well. In the dark, his room is pretty cool!

Tomorrow morning Steve and I leave for Boston! We are so excited to finally have a trip together with him missing out on the last two. We'll be celebrating our 11th anniversary on Friday. We come home Sunday. My amazing sister Molly is flying up to take care of our kids while we're gone. Whoohoooooooooooo!!! We love our kids a ton and will miss them, but we always look forward to these yearly Mini-moons together.

Family Reunion in Idaho

It's taken me a while to get myself back on the computer. And now this seems like such old news.
Sunday after church the kids and I drove to Albion Idaho for a little family reunion with my mom's side of the family. The campus was great and I really liked the accommodations. The company was the best part though. We played games for hours and stuffed our faces with junk food.
The frousins- Katie, Sara, Me, Anna, Amy, Meghan, Cristin, Jenny. The ladies man hot tubbing- Becca, Tucker, Blythe, Eden and Celeste.

The crowd of crazy fowl- Some of these birds were vicious.

Eden and Blythe on the banana bikes-

Becca, Thomas and Winni in the volleyball pit-

Cord, Micah, Celeste, Blythe, Tucker and Eden on the hike at City of Rocks-

We had such a great time! I highly recommend this place for a family reunion. Thanks Amy for organizing it. You did a fantastic job.

We got back late Tuesday night. Wednesday was a busy day catching up. That night Emily and her sister in-law Becky came to town. Thursday and Friday was busy attending Women's Conference at BYU with Anna, Emily, Becky and I. It was really nice. We especially enjoyed the concert on Thursday night. I came out of that all pumped up to be a better wife, mother and person.
Emily left today :( Thanks for coming sis!