SHE MADE IT!!!

This week, Jamie attended an audition workshop with her two cousins, Autumn and Kaylee, to learn how to audition for Annie Jr. Wednesday night, they had their auditions - they did great!!! Jamie was called back to audition again for Annie and the main orphans, and Autumn was called back for Molly. Quite the experience - we've never done this before! Jamie and Kaylee both made the play as un-named orphans ( a perfect place to learn all about this stuff) and Autumn made the play as Molly! (fits the part to a T!) They all did so great and we're so glad they'll be in this together. We're proud of all of you - that's a huge thing to undertake!

More Garden Pictures

Sorry - are you sick of my garden yet? While I was taking pictures of the trees, I decided to get some closeups of the garden, etc. I LOVE close-ups of plants!

Peas

Carrots

Funky Carrots! Apparently if you have good seeds, you really only need one per hole :)

Lastly, my lemon tree.

I just love the lush green of growing plants!

TREES!!!!!!!!!!

My parents gave us money for trees for Christmas - yeah!!!!!!!! I've been so wanting trees! I just LOVE trees! So, last week we got bare-root Peach, Nectarine, Apricot, and Plum, but we couldn't plant them because of a major once-in-ten-year storm that FLOODED the backyard! (we loved it, by the way!) So, we hope they're o.k. because you're supposed to plant them right away. We did what they suggested, and planned on planting them today - it rained this morning. Luckily we could wait until this afternoon and still get them in the ground.

Talin helping fill the hole with his little shovel.

Planting the Plum tree.

This is our lemon tree that Lafe's sister gave us - she even sent her boys out to plant it for us! I was worried about it during our huge storm - those winds were really blowing! But, it faired just fine - good thing for those support sticks!

Ethan - 1st Class

Ethan got his 1st Class Rank for Scouting last night (finally!). He should have gotted it last May, but we were in the middle of a move and he missed one thing with his troop that we had to finish.

100th day of School!

If you remember our school's tradition from last year, they have all the students that haven't missed a day of school let off a balloon as part of Flag Ceremony. This year we had 2!!! Erin and Laura

Erin after she received her balloon

Laura with her balloon

There they go! (Erin is the ponytail in the right of the picture)

Erin with her certificate

Laura with certificate

It was fun because it was actually a surprise - we didn't realize they hadn't missed any days!

Snow fun!

Yesterday, we drove to find some snow - it was so fun! We took it as a family day and just enjoyed the drive and the snow fun.

Erin trying the "surfin" sled

Kelcie - she was a trooper! Climbing the hills and sledding over and over!
Laura - I love her face!!!

Ethan - LOVE this picture!!! He found a little jump and mastered it!

Jamie - I think she went the whole way backwards on this one.

Lafe :)

Talin - He LOVED it!!! (for a little while) Laughed all the way down.

After about 40 minutes, though, this is how he felt about it. His gloves kept falling off so then his hands would get wet and cold, and some of the snow was so deep you couldn't walk, so he was miserable.

Love her smile! (Erin)

Kelcie joined Talin soon after - stuck in the snow.

Ethan's snowman - nice job, eh?

Laura and Jamie's snowman

Erin's snowfort

It was really fun and the kids were awesome!!! Fun day.

Remember my Garden?

I just wanted to show it that it's working!!! I'm so excited! We've harvested lots of stuff, but yesterday I got the most all at once! We already used the main broccoli, so these are just the little extras. But, I got Swiss Chard - a little red because of the cold nights -green onions, radishes, and carrots - I've never gotten this far with the latter three!!!!!!!!!! AND, they taste good!!! It really does work to plant those in the fall instead of the spring!

Student of the Month

Jamie got Student of the Month for December!!! What was so fun is that one of her very best friends also got it (different classes this year) so they got to be up there together.

Rub-a-dub-dub!

Ever since we've moved in, Talin has been afraid of this tub (air-jet tub). Not just the jets, but just the size of it. The other day I had promised the little girls they could use it and asked him if he wanted to try it - without the jets. He decided that would be o.k., and we put bubbles in. Within a little while he said we could try the jets and he thought those were great! So, they played and played and, of course, I had to get some pictures!

I love how they're both looking at the bubbles.
Laura joined later, but sported a nice beard!

8:00 Church

8:00 Church can be tricky.......and early........and require lots of preparation....... BUT, it also allows for this!!!! LOVE Sunday afternoon naps!!!

Can I ride the tractor, Daddy?

Sooooo............ we bought a ride-on lawn mower from our cousin who's moving to a smaller yard. We got it when Talin was asleep, and when he woke up and told him to go see what Daddy got. BTW, He LOVES tractors!!!!!!!!! So, now, for the last 3 day, they have to go out and ride the "tractor" - it's cute. They all take rides and have a blast! I think Erin, Ethan, and Lafe are all going to fight over mowing the grass! Now, we just need to figure out some decent grass to choke out our Bermuda Hay Grass that came up from the field it was before we built.

Kelcie.

Had to add in a puppy-picture - Toby is 12 weeks now and is so smart. He got these little tennis balls in his stocking for Christmas and loves them! I was feeding grapes to the chicken one day and he stole one - I thought he wanted to eat it, but he was having the greatest time playing with it that I had to get him some little balls. Isn't he cute?

Christmas

O.k., update! We had a great Christmas!!! Christmas Eve we spent with Lafe's family enjoying Colombian Hotdogs and Thai Sticky Rice and acting out the nativity. Christmas morning was so fun! It was fun to let the kids come running down the stairs to the Christmas tree! Quick highlights of main gifts:

Erin got a camera! and a DS game. In fact, most of these pictures are from her camera!!! It's funny because her new camera is better (and was cheaper) than my old camera that just broke! Although, it had trouble with the LCD, so we had to return it and are anxiously waiting for the new one to come.

Ethan got a new, bigger bike and a BB gun!

Jamie got a new, bigger bike, too, and a microscope! (she's making a funny face because it's Erin taking the picture)

Laura got American Girl "Kit" (waited a long time for that!) and Pixos!

Since 3 of the girls have an American Girls now, I decided to make them each a nightgown for them for Christmas - this is Laura's.

Kelcie got a new scooter (her's got ran over about 6 wks ago - "I'll ask Santa for a new one!" cry, cry, cry) and Splatster - still trying to get that to work right.

Talin got a Train Table and some trains! (Santa likes Craig's list!) He really likes it - again, Erin taking the picture.

Lafe got a puppy - remember? - and we got a new camera - woohoooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!! I can finally take pictures!!!!!!!!! Although, I haven't taken many yet. Christmas morning we cooked a Lobster that Lafe's cousins gave him - it was HUGE and so yummy!!!!!! The whole street (relatives) came to taste it.

We had a great day - went up to my family for dinner and enjoyed the day.