Bub's Birthday Party

Since William's birthday was on a holiday we had a big Pirate Party the Saturday after in the church gym.  We played 'Pin the Treasure Chest on the Map', 'Pirate, Pirate, Captain' (William's version of Duck, Duck, Goose), then we had a giant treasure hunt which led to a pirate ship pinata in the gym.  William and all his little friends had a ball!  Sadly, since I was the only adult in attendance the only pictures are of his cake.  It is a cool cake though.  The items on top are his candles.  He's a big 5-year-old now!

Rachel Turns 2!

I can't believe my baby is already two years old.  She is the sweetest girl and is talking up a storm these days.  What a cutie!

 

Oma sent some baby dolls, which Rachel loves, and I'm glad to say that the play kitchen we bought her was a hit!

  Her favorite thing in the world is her big brother and she pretty much copies everything he says, does, likes.

Snow Fun

The valley out here never get much snow and what does fall is gone by the next day.  So when we get the chance we have to bundle up and enjoy it quickly.

  

Our snowman is a little pathetic and only about 8 inches high, but then, snow in Utah is made for skiiing and just doesn't stick together.  We made a tiny snowbaby because it was the best we could do.

Thanksgiving 2010

We always start out our day by heading to the zoo for "Feast with the Beast".  Unfortunately, it was so stinkin' cold that I was too busy trying to keep my children happy and warm to take pictures.  Oh well.  The feast at home is the best anyway.  James worked for about 5 hours mid-day so we didn't get to eat until almost 6pm, but it was lovely!

Emily made these little cards at school.  I love them.  They remind me of Little House on the Prairie.  It is a great reminder of why we celebrate this day; besides the turkey of course.



We ended our day with an assortment of pies and a grand turkey cake for the birthday boy.  William is 5 years old now.  Wow!  Time flies.



Daddy bought this wolf at the Zoo Boutique.  William's favorite thing in the world are animals and he was quite delighted.

Rhino

William's fondest wish was to receive a hamster for his birthday.  Since his actual birthday was Thanksgiving we took a trip to the pet store the day before.  He fell in love with this fluffy guy and instantly announced that he had to have the gray one so he could name him 'Rhino'.



I have since been informed that his real name is 'Rhino-hamster'
and we are to call him by his true name. 



Blizzard?

The Tuesday before Thanksgiving the Salt Lake valley was issued a disastrous blizzard warning.  Businesses closed early, schools were cancelled, university events were post-poned; basically the entire city shut down around 3pm to prepare for the worst storm in 20 years!  As part of that James' work informed him that afternoon that he would have to stay in the hotel across the street so that he would be able to get to work the next day.  Well, James called me, I packed us all up, and we met James after work to check into the Hyatt.  It was a wonderfully cozy evening and quite an adventure as we watched the snow start to fall around 6pm.

My children all snuggled into one of the queen size beds (though we'd thought to bring Rachel's pack'n'play bed), they watched Pink Panther on our computer and were silly and giggly.  So much fun!

This is the view out the window of the hotel at about 9pm.  The snow was falling slowly but the wind whipped it up so that the roads truly were whitewashed and very dangerous.  Funny though that the total snowfall was only about 2 inches.  Turns out it was only the wind that was a problem overnight.  But we still had a luxurious hotel and dinner on Fidelity!

Ballet West

My Emily just got a chance to dance on stage.  She is in Ballet West Academy which is affiliated with the company.  Every fall the company does this huge fundraiser and the academy gets to do one of the peices.  This year Emily was old enough to participate since she meets the insurance requirements.  Unfortunately, all the dances and costumes are copyrighted so I couldn't take pictures of the event itself.  However, I did take a picture of my girl on her big night.

There was a gourmet dessert buffet in the
lobby of the Capitol Theater after the show.

Beauty Ballerina

James and I took her out for Chinese afterward.

So Hip

Rachel has taken to wearing William's baseball caps backwards.  It is pretty funny because no one in our house really wears them at all and she insists that this is the correct way.

Veterans Day

On Veterans Day a couple of the young men from our ward stopped by to salute my wonderful husband and veteran.  They delivered this gift and it just touched my heart.

It says: Thank you for letting your light shine for our country. 

Such a Boy

William cracks me up!  One day his pants kept falling down and finally I just said to him, "Empty your pockets, boy!"  Handful after handful of rocks, peices of plastic, string, elastics, marbles and so on came out of those pockets.  He is such a boy!

 

Halloween!

Cowgirl Emily

Egyptian Princess Esther

(she made a point of saying she is NOT Cleopatra!)

Skeleton William

Pumpkin Rachel

(She didn't take a nap that afternoon and was a terrible crab.  Only the lollipop made her happy.)

Trick-or-treat is so much fun.  We were rained out pretty early but what a delight it is to dress up each year and have such a time!!

Work Party

James' work is so cool.  They are a great company to work for and are very family friendly.  This year they hosted a trick-or-treat where the employees' children went from door to door collecting goodies and then ended in the event room where there were tons of games with cool prizes.

It was very fun because they really went all out with decorations and those volunteering even dressed in costume.

One of the "games" in the event room was a spot to listen to Halloween stories.  They were worried no one would sit there.  They needn't have feared....my children hogged all the seats for a half hour demanding "Now that one!" until they had been through each one and I insisted it was time for games so other people could participate.  It was funny but oh so gratifying to know they have a true love of reading.

Ring the witch hat.

Go Fish

We were there for two hours even though poor James was scheduled to work during the party and couldn't even come down to join us.