Eight is Great!

The birthday boy woke up and opened his first present before his big sister left to take the ACT. He was planning to ride bikes all morning, but it actually rained in the desert.  So he tried out his bike in the house.

He requested a Lego cake, for his Lego birthday.  He decorated with some of his favorite lego pieces.

His red haired sister built this for his birthday. 

 He had a wonderful party, with pizza, and games, and magic tricks...

 One of his favorite presents.

Eight is great!  His big baptism date will be April 23rd.

Our Trip To Tombstone

The kids had a couple of days off for "rodeo days" and so we decided to take a family trip to Tombstone, Arizona, "the town too tough to die." Brent was able to take a day off, so off we went to get some Western culture.

Who knew that an old phone booth was so facinating? 

We went for a ride on the trolley tour, and saw a lot of places where outlaws were made sherriffs, and sherriffs made a few less outlaws.

We took in a show, where we hissed the bad guys (wearing a red scarf on their belts, in case we couldn't tell them apart), and cheered on the good guys.

A nice lady offered to take our family picture. She wasn't wearing a gun, or a red scarf on her belt, so we let her. 

Who says Wyatt Earp wasn't bigger than life? 

The kids got a kick out of this.... 

...until the rules were enforced! 

 See if you can see what was totally wrong in these pictures....

 I'm just saying...

 At the tail end of our day, we made one last stop.

A sobering thought.  

Good Times

Here's the note that we received after we were "Twelve Days of Christmassed".  This year was a lot of fun, hearing the doorbell ring, and all the kids racing to the door to try and catch the elusive family that was dropping off gifts on the doorstep.

We never actually caught the culprits, as Mom always seemed to be mopping, or ironing in front of the door each day.  Quite the coincidence.  But when we finally found out who it was, we discovered that they had been wearing ski masks, and parking around the corner, to avoid detection.  Luckily they also avoided police detection!  We loved it.

Another tradition is feeding the reindeer on Christmas Eve.

And leaving out cookies for Santa, and a wee glass of milk. 

This thoughtfulness obviously paid off.

Good Times.

December Birthdays

It always feels like such a whirlwind during December, with two birthdays and Christmas. So here's some pictures of our new ten year old, who had her birthday first!

It's our tradition to help bake the birthday masterpiece.

 Wow, candles in double digits!

 The gang all helping with the magic cake disappearing trick.

 Awesome super powers.

The loot.

The loot unveiled.

And wearing the one gift mom made especially...

Aah. A good birthday.

And to keep the month exciting, another birthday four days after Christmas. . .

Our youngest asked for a tire cake, so he could have a Cars birthday party.  Here's the result.

 He was so excited to have his cousins come, and join in all the games, like the Mater obstacle course, where you had a mirror and had to "drive" backwards...

And of course, eating spare tires, or "tires on a rope."

And more presents.

And blowing out six candles. 

Michael even had face painting. 

Although in his case, it was hand painting. And at the last minute he decided not to have a lightning bolt, but a Christmas tree for his birthday.



It's Beginning to Feel a Lot Like Christmas

One of the benefits of having moved around quite a bit is that we have picked up different traditions from various good friends we have made around the country.  Every time we perform the family Christmas Nativity play we will remember our good friends the Perkes.

This year our Wise Man #2 was very excited not to be a shepherd. (She has been a shepherd every year in various church plays for years.)  Our kimono clothed shepherd could actually read the script, and our little angel just glowed.  Our red clad shepherd made sure his little brother acted out his parts properly. And our Wise Man #1 got to act in the play and not be the piano accompanist.

Not seen in the play is the said accompanist (aka Mom) and the Angel Gabriel (aka Dad.)  We loved having our cousins and their families over as we performed our play this year.  And we tried out one of their Christmas traditions this year: fondue. 

It really is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas.  Even with the cactus and sunshine.

Spelling Bees and Band Concerts and Choir

We've hung up our lights and decorated our Christmas trees. We've exchanged names for Christmas gifts, and the giggling and whispering has begun. One more week of school left, and already we've competed in spelling bees, and performed in jazz band, band, and choir. 

What a wonderful time of the year. 

Tomorrow we celebrate Karina's 10th birthday and we'll have a piano recital in the evening. Half the family will sing, or play, in the choir at church.  And Christmas is still a couple of weeks away.

7th grade band concert.

10th grade art show

Jazz band concert

Kindergarten spelling bee--2nd place.

2nd grade spelling bee--1st place. 

4th grade spelling bee--2nd place. 

7th grade spelling bee--2nd place.

What a wonderful time of the year.