Temple Square

Every December we like to go to Salt Lake Temple Square and look at the lights. This year we invited Grandma Nae, took some hot chocolate, and had a nice time enjoying one of our holiday traditions.

Dallin's Baptism

So Dallin was baptized and confirmed over a month ago on December 1st. I don't know what my deal is, but I can't seem to either find the time or the energy to blog sometimes. But here it finally is.

It was a wonderful day with Grandma and Grandpa D, the Spragues, Grandpa Stevens, Quin and Vanessa and family, Becca, the Flints, and a couple of neighbors who showed their support. We enjoyed quite the snow storm that morning. Thank goodness we had several soups to choose from for the luncheon afterwards. It was the perfect meal for a cold, blustery day. Thanks to everyone who helped out by bringing a soup, for the gifts, and for showing up. I really appreciate everyone's love and support for our sweet Dallin. It was a special day for him. I am so happy that he has chosen to follow his Savior and gain the awesome gift of the Holy Ghost to help him in this life. I am really proud of him and his decisions. Here are some pictures from that day. Dallin isn't smiling in them because I think he doesn't like his smile (he has mentioned that once before). I know it was a happy day for him.

We Already Have to Deal With This?

There's a cute little girl from Taylor's class that keeps calling him--not just once in a while, but several times a day. They will talk about nothing for quite a while until we tell Taylor that he needs to get off. They are holding up the phone line to sit in silence sometimes while they do their own thing. It's really quite funny. . . or scary . . . I don't know what to think! Aren't we too young to be dealing with this? I know he has had his eye on her for a while. One of his best friends used to like her and she liked him. Taylor actually made a beaded necklace with her name on it for his friend to give to her while they were "going out". His friend, of course, didn't want to give it to her. Eventually they "broke up" and Taylor's friend was heart broken. I don't know if she broke up with him for Taylor or what. I sure hope not. We've talked to Taylor about him being too young to have a "girlfriend". He says that they are only friends, but I still can't help but wonder. Luckily at this age, not much harm can be done. We'll have to let you know how the saga ends.

Dallin's 8th Birthday

We celebrated Dallin's 8th birthday twice, once with Jarin's family the day before his birthday, and once again the day after his birthday with friends. Since his actual birthday was on a Sunday, it was very low key. We made his favorite meal: shrimp scampi, macaroni and cheese, and fruit (grapes, apples, and bananas). We served it on our nice china.

His birthday party was on Monday right after school. He had eight friends join him at a place called "Jump On It" in Lindon. The kids got to jump for an hour on a whole bunch of trampolines that are connected together in a 10,000 square foot warehouse. There were even trampolines on the side of the walls. Jarin said it was an awesome workout. I think he had as much fun as the kids. I just stood by and watched. Afterwards, we brought the kids back to our house for pizza, cake, ice cream, and presents. I think Dallin felt that it was a special birthday. He is so easy to please! Here are some pictures during his party.

I will blog about his baptism when I get the pictures from everyone. The battery to my camera died right when we were about to take pictures after the baptism.

Thanksgiving Feast

I wrote this blog last week but couldn't get the my computer to recognize my camera. For some reason it works now (thank goodness).

Phew! That was amazing! I have never hosted a Thanksgiving feast at my house before. It was a lot of work but very rewarding. We had 24 people over. That included many of Jarin's family members, Scott, Maran, Hannah, and two friends brought by Chalyce and Courtney. The food was incredible. We had a very yummy turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potato casserole, two kinds of fruit salads, broccoli salad, rolls, homemade gravy, stuffing, a green bean casserole, homemade macaroni and cheese, pies, pies, and more pies. Did I miss anything? It was wonderful. After lunch/dinner, we went to see the "Bee" movie with Jarin's family. It was pretty good. Kids and adults enjoyed it alike (however half of us were falling asleep due to the tryptophan in the turkey). We weren't in a rush ever and the day was just perfect. Here are some pictures. I didn't take as many as I had intended. I wish I would have taken a picture of the tables prior to eating so you could see how we fit that many people in such little space. These will have to do.

Courtney and his friend Diane. She brought some yummy homemade macaroni and cheese.

This is a picture of Chalyce's friend Mark. He is an amazing pianist. He accompanied Jarin's song "The Spirit of Nativity" while he was hearing Jarin sing and play it on his guitar for the first time. It was absolutely gorgeous!

Halloween

We had a cute little lamb (I think), a beautiful princess, a mighty ninja, and Skullzor the scary dude. We found Sienna's costume in our closet full of dress-ups. I'm not sure where we got it from and if it is a lamb or white teddy bear costume. But she was cute and warm anyway. Kamrie's costume came from Grandpa Price last Christmas. She was very excited to wear make-up and had sparkles all over her face and hair. This is the third year in a row that she has been some kind of princess. I keep trying to convince her to be something else, but she just loves princesses. I'm afraid we're in for it when she becomes a teenager. Dallin found his costume at Target. I think he was more excited to buy the little ninja swords than the costume. He likes to play fight with Taylor and his buddies. I'm not sure if he was just playing the part in his pictures or if he just couldn't see with that costume and without his glasses. Taylor wanted to be something "scary" this year. I tried to suggest two other costumes we already had in the dress-up closet--Sulley from Monsters, Inc. or Stitch from Lilo and Stitch. Unfortunately he is old enough now that anything cutesie is WAY OUT. Then I tried to convince him to be something funny or cool like Napoleon Dynamite or a hippie. But he would have nothing to do with those either. I can't stand scary costumes. Fortunately, I don't think he scared anyone with that smile and those glasses (although Hannah doesn't look so sure in the picture). It was fun to have Scott, Maran, and Hannah come over for a pizza dinner and trick or treating. It was a perfect Halloween. The weather was much better than in the past and because the time change isn't until this Sunday, it was actually somewhat light out when we started. We all had a great time. Now we have to just control the sugar consumption. We have way too much candy because they did a trunk or treat on Tuesday as well. We let them pick about 15-20 pieces of candy that they just can't do without and keep them in their pumpkins. The rest of it went into a community pile. I have hidden that. For now they get to pick five pieces of candy a day to eat at their leisure. I'm not sure how long I will let that go on. I'm hoping the excitement of it all will fade soon. It's a good thing they have dentist appointments in a couple of weeks.

Clips from the Lives of My Kids

I know, I know. It's been way too long. Well here are some pictures of my kids recently. There isn't anything new or exciting going on our lives (unless you count Sisi's 2 year old adventures).

Sienna is so proud of her "lip gloss" that she put on. She found Kamrie's red stamp and stamped her lips a million times. It took a couple of days for it to completely disappear.

Here she is "potty training". I told her to pretend she was going poo poo. She recognizes that she has gone poo. But she won't tell me before. In fact, she hides somewhere and then tells me that she went potty. I hope to have her trained by Christmas. But I won't officially try until she poos pretty regularly in the toilet. I don't feel like throwing away brand new underwear every time there's an accident. Pee washes out just fine. But poo, well . . .gross and I won't even try.

This is Sisi and Grandma "Nae" (who is our adopted grandma) enjoying the beautiful outdoors during a scenic drive we took. She lives on our street and is the sweetest lady. We just love her. By the way, Sienna's hair is done every day of her life. But you couldn't tell by the pics since she constantly pulls out her hair things.

This picture may not be appropriate . . . but here it is anyway. They all thought it was funny to dress like Sienna and put her diapers on. I'm surprised they all fit into her size four diaper!

Typically we discourage these two from taking baths together. Here's just one reason why. It took quite a bit of water to clear out these bubbles made from a jetted tub.

The following are pictures of Kamrie and some classmates on her field trip to Hee Haw's Farm yesterday. I was lucky enough to be one of the parents who got to accompany them.

They each got to pick a small pumpkin from the pumpkin patch. Up above is Kamrie sliding down a 30 foot slide. She was very afraid to do it alone but finally mustered up the courage and took the plunge.