Matt and Livvy

Here comes Mr. Matt...in his first running club race this year. Kresten ran with him and said he did a great job! He kept up a steady pace the whole time. Good job, Matthew!

Coming up...on your left!

Olivia...dancing around the house. She kept turning up the music and skipping through to find the Jonas Brothers, David Archuleta, Taylor Swift, etc. 7 going on 17?

Can we do it?

About a week after Christmas we decided to figure out our vacation plans for 2009. We knew we wanted to spend a week on the beach in California in October, but other than that didn't have anything planned. So we started to think about what else we would like to do. Hmm...how about Cedar City, to go see a play at Tuacahn amphitheater? (This was a recycled idea...rejected from the family reunion planning committee. There is a KOA there that we had considered for the reunion.) Well, this thought just took on a life of its own.

We could camp!
It would be fun!
Hey...we could camp on the beach in California!
I wonder how much a used pop-up camper would cost?

Craigslist was pulled up within the minute, and the search for a camper began. One thing about Kresten and I--once we get excited about an idea we have a hard time dropping it. So we searched, studied, and pursued numerous pop-up campers for the next, oh, I'd say about 4 days. Now, mind you, neither of us have ever been huge campers. We have gone a time or two, but something about sleeping on the ground with no bathroom nearby never really appealed to us. And once we rented an RV, but thought it was a little too clausterphobic. But a pop-up camper...now that is a different story!

Beds!
A heater!
An air conditioner!
And maybe even...a bathroom!

All while still having lots of windows and fresh air.

So...here is the result of our pop-up camper obsession:

A king bed, a queen bed, and a full bed! A heater and an air conditioner! And yes, that is a little porta-potty/shower situation there. It is a little weathered on the outside, but perfect on the inside! It has hardly ever been used. We are having so much fun with this thing and we haven't even gone anywhere yet. We have lots of fun ideas of places to go. Now we hope we can actually sleep in it! Our maiden voyage/test camping trip will be February 27-28. We are going to camp out at Usery Mountain Park, not too far away. That is the weekend of Kate Eliza's birthday, and we like to celebrate her day with a fun family activity. So we know it will be a family activity...now let's hope it is actually a fun one!

Urban Fishing

Matthew got a fishing pole for Christmas so today was the day to test it out. Kresten took the trio fishing at a nearby park.

Good cast Abby!

It turns out the lake is inhabited by large, smart fish who sit at the bottom of the lake and chuckle at the children who try to catch them.

2nd grade Christmas parties

When is the last time you attended a 2nd grade Christmas party? I got to go to THREE of them this year! Here is Olivia's cute reindeer--I love it! She also made a picture frame with snowflakes and snowmen around the edges.

Abby's class made little santa hats, and a candy reindeer out of plastic cups.

Matthew's class rotated to different stations. I got there just as he was painting a little Santa.

This was in the center of the table. A little TOO much fun!

Happy 40th Birthday!

Kresten's 40th birthday was yesterday! Wow--40 years old! That just sounds so grown up! Here is the cake I made for him in the morning. Carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. It is the first layer cake I have made in a loooong time. I am so happy it turned out nice--thanks to the 10 minute video I found when I googled "how to frost a layer cake".

Here we are. It was also the night of Hannah's piano recital. Did I mention it was also the last day of school before Christmas break? That meant 4 last minute teacher gifts, 1 healthy party food tray, and then 4 parties in 60 minutes. Then home to make a birthday dinner, rush off to the piano recital, then come back for dessert and presents. How did so much fun get packed into one day? I was a bit stressed, to say the least.

Home sweet home. We had a lot of fun celebrating after the recital. Thanks Carol and Paul for getting a babysitter and coming over--on a school night--at bedtime, Rudy for stopping by, Grandma McGrath for hanging out with us for the evening, Darren for visiting and entertaining us, Gorgus and Betsy for coming to the recital and then--even farther--to our house, and Mom and Richard for coming and for taking these pictures!

Happy Birthday Kresten!!!

Gingerbread House Party

We had our gingerbread house party today. It was so much fun! We invited our good friends Paul and Carol over. We had a yummy lunch and then started working on our gingerbread (aka graham cracker) houses. Grammy and Grandpa came too...Grammy made her famous "mortar" frosting. Grandpa planted our 2 new citrus trees for us in lieu of making gingerbread houses. Nice!

Hannah had such a neat and tidy house! It was very cute. Look at that detailed red and green roof! She is working on a sleigh out of candy canes and graham crackers.

Abby decorating her house...or maybe her yard. She was totally in her element with the 3 C's...crafts, construction, and candy!

Olivia made a horse stable this year. There is even a horse stall inside. I love the walls lined with gumballs.

More gingerbread party pictures

Miles was so cute! He really got into building his little house.

Liesl was a master decorator.

Such beautiful masterpieces!

And more pictures...

Matthew's house. A definite focus on construction. Look at that amazing roof! And a slide for Santa. Creative kid!

Graham is working hard...applying frosting detail to his house. He had 2 buildings on his tray.

Paul with little Julia. This year a bottle, next year a gingerbread house!

REAL gingerbread house

Look at this cute gingerbread house! Chloe got invited to a gingerbread house party at her friend Allison's house. They made cute houses out of real gingerbread. She has a little battery votive candle flickering inside.

Little snowman out of sugar cubes.

Here piggy piggy!

Our neighbors are raising pigs for 4H. Did I mention we live in the country? Well, we do, sort of. Just enough country that your neighbors might be raising pigs. But with houses far enough apart that you are not in smelling distance of said pigs. So they invited us over to see them while they are still little, cute, and not stinky yet.

Kind of a cool saddle on this pig! I didn't realize it, but there is no such thing as a pink pig. They are black, white, brown, etc. So where did the pink pig idea come from?

Our neighbors Randy and Jeanelle, pro pig-wranglers.

I love this picture with the sun going down and the kids running. They loved the very tall slide!

Spelling Bee

Hannah was in the school Spelling Bee this year. She was the representative from her 6th grade class. She did great...she lasted 3 rounds and went out on the word "talc". Talc? Who would have thought it ended in a c? We don't really use a lot of talc around here I guess. She ended up getting 6th place, and a ton of screaming applause when she went up to collect her certificate.

There she is! Spelling in front of a big crowd like that! It woud maik me verry nirvus.

Here are the contestants. They wear uniforms at their school--red, white, and blue. This was on a Friday, on which day they can also wear a patriotic t-shirt.

14 days to go

Today is Thursday. Christmas is on a Thursday. Just 2 weeks to go!

yikes!

Trim Up the Tree!

We decorated the Christmas tree Monday night. The kids had so much fun re-discovering favorite ornaments and hanging them on the tree. One tradition we started when we got married was that when we go on a vacation, we buy a Christmas tree ornament to remind us of that place. I write the location and date somewhere on the ornament. It is fun to pull those out and remember fun times we have had. We also have lots of cute homemade ornaments from the kids, plus others we have collected along the way. The kids decorated the whole tree and did a great job!