Tal's blessing

Tal was blessed a few Sundays ago; he was quiet and sweet during the blessing. I was overwhelmed at the support from our families. It's support that we have for all of our events, but it was powerful to me that day. It's pretty great to have lots of siblings who live close who like us enough to spend time and energy on us. We had friends come to the blessing, too, and folks from the ward felt like it was an important day. I feel so blessed to be connected to so many great people.

It was Talmage's day and he was a darling for the whole of it. Talmage brings a sweetness and softness into our home. We wanted him and are grateful for him.

rock climbing & swimming

We spent New Years Eve at the South Summit Aquatic and Fitness Center in Kamas, Utah, with (who else?) our cousins. We discovered that the one fee included everything in the center. So we started by rock climbing, and finished up with a few hours in the pool.

We enjoyed a nice and reasonably quiet evening and at midnight we threw confetti on the front porch and the kids ran around the front yard with sparklers. Happy New Year! We welcome 2012 and look forward to the adventures that life has in store for us!

ice skating

Thank goodness for holidays and cousins! We spent a delightful afternoon at the Olympic Oval in Kearns. It was a first time experience for most of our kids and after a couple of hours they got pretty good. We ended the day at our house with dinner and more playing. It was a good, good day.

Merry Christmas

What a Christmas! Santa Claus came! We opened gifts and shared excitement. There were surprises and laughs. We went to Sacrament Meeting and had Grandma & Grandpa Wright and Suzy and Autumn over for a bit. We visited the wonderful neighbors to the east, and Gary, the guitar teacher, brought his amp over to jam with the kids on their new guitars. We had a sleepover with the Techmeyers and played loads of games. My heart is full. We are blessed.

matching pajamas

Friday night, 9:15ish, December 23:
Anna: Mom, did you make Christmas pajamas?
Me: No, it felt a little overwhelming so I decided not to.
Anna: But didn't you say that it's not really that hard?
Me: Well, yes, it's not really that hard, but we have to make 6 pair.
Anna: Oh. [pause] Where's the pattern?
So I tell her where the pattern is and which fabric I intended to use and she disappears. My mind is 100 other places. Anna comes back to my room with everything to make 6 pair of pajamas.
Anna: Do you think we can make pajamas tomorrow?
Me: [Sigh] Sure. It'll be a fair amount of work, but we can probably do it.
Anna goes to bed happy, I go to bed hoping she forgets about the pajamas.

Saturday morning, 9:15ish, December 24:
I start cutting fabric, Anna reads the instructions, and starts sewing the inside seams. Jane helps put elastic in the waistbands, Lincoln carries around scraps of fabric. Mid-afternoon we finish. I'm very proud of Anna. She stuck with the project the entire day.

Saturday night, 9:15ish, Christmas Eve:
We set out cookies and eggnog for Santa (and carrots for the reindeer). We chitter chatter by the Christmas tree in 4 pair of matching monster jammies and 2 pair of matching orange with pink dot jammies.

Temple Square

28 degrees + a bagillion lights + cousins + mittens + hot chocolate = a very nice evening.

nice voice!

With no dance or piano recitals this month, the voice recital last night was especially enjoyable. Anna made her teacher cry. :) Anna's been taking for a year and a half, Zachary since September.

Here are some pictures from the last week that I like.

passwords

Hi loyal friends. :)

Yep, I had to look up my password to get into my blog. That's bad.

We have a darling baby boy. We just finished soccer (girls) and football (boys) (well, we have a championship game tomorrow, then two banquets, and THEN we'll be done with football). Jer's playing in a volleyball league now, the boys have started basketball and Anna is working on her foot skills once a week in Utah County with her team.

We've got a house full of guitar players and piano players, 3 kids at the elementary and one in middle school. We enjoyed October and Halloween and having cousins in town. We're loving the crunchy leaves and fall weather.

I will post pictures. It's good to be back. :)

at the drive-in

One of our funnest summer traditions is going to the drive-in. We had some cousins and friends join us for Cars 2 and Pirates 4. We didn't all manage to stay awake for both movies so we'll have to see them again.

at the cabin

We spent several days at the cabin with my mom, siblings, and nieces. My aunt and uncle even joined us for a couple of days. It was beautiful and green, thanks to all the snow and rain this spring. We visited and relaxed. The kids enjoyed the zip line and a treasure hunt and playing on the ponds. The sheep arrived the same day we did and we had a very nice visit with Tony, the sheepherder, who offered to let us ride his horses. The kids had a grand time riding, as did some of my siblings and even my mom! We did some stargazing and smores making, and listened to my boys play their guitars. Zachary built a raft and the kids had a good time with that. We took the buckets off the sprinklers and got the snowmobiles moved. We enjoyed a full afternoon at the Kamas pool, and cake and ice cream for my birthday. It was a good time.