Andrew's 4th Birthday/ Dance and Tumbling Show

Andrew's birthday was a busy day.  We had two soccer games, a scout jamboree, dance recital practice, dance recital and his party -- all squeezed into one day!  For once, it wasn't me that went to the scouting activity, so there are no pictures of it.
Andrew absolutely loved his tumbling class this year.  Their end of year program used the music "Kung Fu Fighting"  He thought is was the coolest ever. He had a huge smile on his face the whole time.   The pictures may look strange because I was backstage.  Hailey took a hip hop class this year.  Her show music was a tune called, "Monkey's Uncle".  (I forgot to take pictures while she danced.  we have a video, but aren't posting it).  They both did an outstanding job.  I was really upset that for a hip hop class there were no actual hip hop moves in her dance. However, she did very well and may be ready to move on to a more serious dance studio.  

Andrew's Fishing Trip

One of the best field trips of the year is the trip to the Cold Springs Trout Farm.  Everyone catches a fish within 20 seconds of dropping a hook into the water - regardless what is on it.  There are always squeals and giggles!  The best part is Andrew caught enough fish to feed the whole family for dinner!

Been Awhile

It always seems like I get around to this blog while I am working.  I have two computers sitting side by side.  I am having to re-image the other one for school so they can re-sell it (a long story I will get to at some point.)  The process is taking so long and all I can do is wait, so I figured I can finally write this again.  However, I am not really sure why I am writing other than for my own personal satisfaction.  I knew my mother read this, but she is no longer with us.  There are only very small handful of people who live out of state who might be interested in this.  I assume everyone else who is in the state is probably around me enough to know everything they need to know about me already.  However, the one thing that was really cool about my blog last year was when I published it into a book.  I never wanted to hand write another journal again, so this what you get.

Spring Break

So we pack up the car and drove to Delta, Utah.  Why?  Any reasonable person would ask...Well, because Ethan had just finished reading a book in class about the Topaz Internment camp, so I thought I would take him to see where it was.  On the way down we stopped at an old abandoned mine and looked around.  While we were down there we went on many rock-hounding trips too.  We went to Topaz Mountain and found Topaz and Apache Tears.  The kids had a great time scaling the mountain.  Rock collecting was fun, but I think they just had fun bashing rocks and running around the mountainside.  We went out to the Dugway geode beds and came home with a bucket or two full.  We went and found Sun-stones and Trilobites too.  Since it has done nothing but snow since we have been home, I actually haven't been able to go through the six five gallon buckets we brought home filled with rocks to see what we actually have.  Of, course, we drove out to Topaz.  It was exactly what I expected to see -- mostly nothing.  Mostly, it was a moment to stop and reflect about what a horrible thing our country did -- and wonder of the possibility of it ever happening again.   Our last night we stayed at a dive ON the border.  The boys thought it was hilarious to be in two states at once.  They kept going back and forth for a long time.  Our last day we went to Lehman Caves.  It was amazing how big and beautiful they were.  None of my pictures truly do it justice.  We were so tired from being cooped up in the truck together, that on the way home we decided to buy a new car.  Yeah, right!  Actually, the Lotus was parked next to us in the IKEA parking lot.  Anyway, except for when Brady got food poisoning, I think a good time was had by all...  Surprisingly, I can't wait for another trip to collect more rocks!

Easter Festivities

This year we helped play Easter Bunny.  We stuffed over a thousand eggs for South Ogden City and we didn't even go to the hunt. We did go to the school to do some fun Easter crafts like painting a pot and planting a flower.  We went on a trip for spring break and had to hurry home to make sure we were back in time for Easter.  We did the usual routine at home and then got to go to Grandma Cheryl's for another hunt.  Later that night we had Grandma Carol over to dinner at our house.  Overall, the kids had a very busy and spoiled day.  In fact, Andrew didn't wake up until noon the next day! 

Blue and Gold Banquet

Gee, I love scouting in January and February -- too much to do!  For our cake auction banquet, I made these two cakes.  One is supposed to be the moon and the other is a Foosball table.  Ethan's cake sold for $70 and Hayden's for $50.  Not too bad for a few hours of work. 

Pinewood Derby

Well, I think our track record proves that Dad can make a pretty mean derby car.  This year Ethan won Second overall in the whole pack.  Hayden won second place in his den.  Hayden knew he was sacrificing speed for the look of the car and he still placed in his den (we have 12 in his den).  Two winning years in a row.  Congrats boys!

Award Winners

Hailey made the top picture and Ethan made the bottom picture.  Both of them were made last year in school, but I entered them in an art contest and both of them won first place in their age categories.  Way to go!  Last year Hailey was quite successful in a few contests, but we just didn't have the same energy or time to enter them all this year.

Happy Holidays from the Liddell's

Our nice family picture was taken at the school after the kids finished their Christmas program.  They all did a really great job!  The other picture is from Christmas morning (if that wasn't obvious).  As usual we said we were going to do less, but you can't tell by looking at the mess!

We had a very nice holiday break.  We were so lucky because dad was able to have two weeks off to be home with us over break.  Our highlight was going to visit my cousin in Eagle Mountain and ride her horse.  Hailey will be very sad I didn't post a picture of her.  I got a new camera for Christmas and it it so sensitive that many of my pictures turn out blurry.

Brady and I also went to an 80's prom that our friends put together.  It was fun hanging out with friends and looking at all the old pictures.  The best part though, was when we were the only two dancing together on the floor and Brady was singing to me.  I am such a sucker for a guy who sings. 

December

Even though we are only a few days into December we have already done a lot. Last weekend we went to see the decorated trees at the Eccles center and then went for ice cream. I was given 12 free tickets to the Nutcracker by Ballet West, so after ice cream we took the whole family to their first live performance. Since I had so many tickets, I even gave some to our favorite neighbors, the Minucci's. Hayden was pretty squiggly and Andrew fell asleep sometime before intermission, but all things considered I think we all had a good time.
I am usually done with my holiday shopping by now, but this year has been a tough time all around, so I am not even close to done this year. I was having a really hard time deciding what to get the kids this year, since they have almost everything, but my parents helped out with this problem. They are getting us a Wii for Christmas. (Shh! Nobody say anything until Christmas!) But, now I can go get all sorts of new games and accessories!
It is also tradition in our house to make some sort of homemade gifts for the holidays and this year is no different. One of the things I did this year was make holiday cards that I passed out at Thanksgiving so people could send them during December. We also have been working on a cool little wood project, but I am not going to give too much more of those details away.
The kids are working hard for all of their holiday programs. They will perform a small operetta with the school and their holiday music recitals. We are also really looking forward to all the church dinners and programs going this month. There are three dinners just in the next week. We are also really looking forward to going to the live Nativity procession that a local church performs next weekend.
We are all counting down the days. We have a little thing that hangs with little pieces of the Nativity to hang up each day to count down to Christmas Day and the kids have been fighting over the order they put them up in, because they all want to do baby Jesus. What do you do when you have four kids and only 1 baby Jesus?
It has been a good year and I am thankful for my beautiful family and all of our many blessings!

November

Like everything else in our life November came and went very quickly.

Some of the teachers at the school wanted to have a Veteran's Day program this year. The weekend before plans were still finalized. I mentioned I might know someone who could speak and the next thing you know, I was in charge of the whole thing. So, of course, I fell back on the trusty boy scouts. I had my wolves each say a little thing and I used Ethan's webelo's for my color guard. Although, some people noticed we did not correctly fold the flag (give my poor 9 years old a break!) overall, I think it turned out really well.

The other big even at the school was the the second and third grade Thanksgiving program. They made a stew and all sorts of crafts. They performed a little play and fed the audience. They were really lucky because dad took the day off the work to come and ALL the grandparents came to watch too. Hayden brought home his lines the night before and that was when we found out he had the biggest part, and he did a stellar job. Yeah, my man!

During November most of the family has been battling illness. I been sick all month with a terrible cough. Everyone else has gone in and out sick times. I have been told it isn't the dreaded H1N1, just some other flu, but it has been really annoying. In fact because I was sick we didn't go over to my dad's for Thanksgiving. Nor, did I get to see my grandma, whom they just moved into an assisted living center over the long weekend. The Liddell's didn't seem to mind our illness too much, so we were able to go over to their house for dinner.

I made my turkey the next day and I was so proud of myself because it was really juicy. Hayden even said my turkey was better than grandma's! Maybe someday soon I'll feel more qualified to host dinner at my house!

Halloween!

I'm only a month late, but hey, I finally had a day to sit down and pull stuff off my camera. (Okay, I really had to pull school stuff off the home camera and happened to find these, but whatever works!) As you can see pumpkin carving at our house is a big event. It is always scary to put carving tools into the hands of young children. I have to admit, if it hadn't been for the kids teacher letting them carve pumpkins at school, I probably would not have allowed it. However, they came home from school whining, "but we got to carve the pumpkin at school!" UGH! And between school and scout field trips, we end up with quite a few pumpkins by the time the season is all said and done!

I have included the obligatory costume shot. Can you tell by their faces they were all mad at me because I wouldn't buy them new costumes this year? We have so much costume stuff. I told them they had to deal with what we already had. Oh, well! You still get the same amount of candy no matter what your costume looks like, and we still have a giant bowl of candy left! Even though I siphoned off a big bag for dad's work, put some in the freezer for later and sent at least 1 piece in their lunch boxes every day for weeks!