Luke sledding

Luke had a hard time not hitting the wall in the parking lot. He loved it and kept saying, "How do you steer this thing? (I don't think you can steer a cookie sheet.) His final take though was that snow would be a lot more fun if it weren't so cold. I think I would have to agree.

Snow in Oregon!

Last Sunday as we went out the door to leave for church, we heard a squeal of delight from the kids and saw…snow!!! We tried to leave but quickly realized that if we left we might never be able to get back so we parked the van and went back in. Church was cancelled anyway so it was good that we stayed home. We enjoyed comfy clothes, naps, games, and sipping hot chocolate while the kids played outside. It was a nice, rare treat to be home together all day! School was even cancelled for Michael on Monday and Allie’s school was cancelled for the entire week. A week later, we are still pretty much stuck at home with the weather, but enjoying our time together. We don’t get that very often and it couldn’t make for a better Christmas.

Cute Kate

I've been bad about updating the blog so now that we've been snowed and iced in for so long I have some time. Here are some cute shots of Kate that I took around Halloween that I wanted to post.

Elder Wirthlin

I just found out that Elder Wirthlin, an apostle passed away last night. He is one of our favorite speakers and has touched our lives with his words many times. He spoke at the Elementary Ed. portion of my BYU graduation. Just last night before I went to bed I was listening to a talk that he gave in October. It's a really funny talk, but contains such great advice and counsel that I know I will refer to it a lot. Here is a link to it and even if you are not a member of my church, I think that you will find it worth your time to read.

http://lds.org/conference/talk/display/0,5232,23-1-947-9,00.html

Riding the tram

Michael's parents were up for Thanksgiving and on Saturday we went to ride the tram in Portland. The kids loved it, but I was a little nervous being up so high. We had a great view of the city.
I also took Kate in for her 9 month check up last week. She is 27 1/2 inches long (50%) and 15lbs11oz (6%) My new goal is to get her weight up so we can turn her car seat around when she's 1!

Electric Kate

I'm feeling bad that I haven't posted in a while, so I thought I could do this quickly. I guess the fact that Kate is now officially mobile has cut down on my ability to get things done. In the matter of a few short, frenzied weeks she has gone from an army crawl, to crawling, to pulling up and walking alongside things. She is into everything and eats EVERYTHING she finds in her path (my poor ficus needs to be relocated). It may be worse than a puppy. It has certainly made life more interesting. Anyway, I've always used the electrical outlet plugs recommended for babyproofing. It's never been a need--I don't think Allie or Luke ever noticed them. I just installed them because that's what everything said you needed to do to be a good parent. Well, now I know why. The other day, after Kate was tired of playing with my cell phone (which I have no idea how she got ahold of), she made a beeline to the electrical outlet. I have no clue why--there is nothing else on the wall that would attract her attention. At this point she tried to reach up to play with it, but couldn't quite reach. Thank goodness!

Kate abandons the cell phone for a more "stimulating" diversion.


Attempting the innocent look

Now she knows she's cute--her favorite face when I say "no".


Probably thinking, "If I close my eyes, she'll go away and let me finish playing"

Allie's Piano Recital--Purple Mountains

Allie had another piano recital last weekend. This time she performed a piece called "Purple Mountains" that she wrote all by herself. Her teacher Maria was the one who suggested that she play it for the recital and Allie was thrilled. I think it's pretty good--especially for a 7 yr old! She messed up once--she always does at the recital. I think she gets distracted thinking about all the people watching her. I have to comment on her outfit too. All of the teenage "cool" kids wear regular clothes to the recitals. So she had to too. You probably can't see from the video, but she is wearing her red, glitter Dorothy shoes from Halloween. Very cool! I'm posting the sheet music as well if you want to try to play her song! It's actually kind of fun to play! Luke sings it all the time, I think he's heard it so much is just get stuck in his head. By the way, I know the video is horrible--I was holding Kate and whenever Allie plays that song she dances. I was trying to hang on to her and keep her quiet and forgot about keeping the camera steady!