Easter 2010

We had a nice Easter this year. Even though we didn't have snow (yay!), we opted to have an indoor egg hunt on Saturday. Here's a couple pictures of the kids finding their baskets and eggs.

Emma - she is proudly wearing her princess crown that she found in her basket.

Josh with his basket.

Rachel is counting her eggs.

David is hoping to find some more in the couch.

Church this year was our semi-annual conference where we watch talks on TV. So, the following Sunday I had the kids dress up in their new Easter clothes. Who wants to dress up when you get to stay home?


Rachel

Josh

David


Emma

My pretty girls

My handsome boys

The whole crew!

I'm so thankful for this time of year. We remember the Savior's Resurrection and it's the beginning of my favorite season - Spring! I love it when it starts to get warm again, the flowers come out, and everything comes to life again. Spring takes a while in Colorado - and we tend to get a lot of snow - but when it comes around, it's beautiful!

Temple Square

While in Utah we also made a visit to Temple Square. We visited the Temple grounds and visitor's center, the Joseph Smith Memorial Building, the Church Office Building (and we went up on the observation deck on the 26th floor), the Conference Center, and the Church History Museum. I didn't take a ton of pictures but it was fun showing the kids around.









In the Church History Museum they had a new exhibit on the Tabernacle. Here is a representation of the trusses:


They had some of the actual benches. I remember going there as a kid and how uncomfortable they were to sit on.


Here's David at the podium. Future general authority?


Looks like Josh has something important to say.


Another new exhibit was called "I am a Child of God". It is a place for kids to play and explore. The kids were excited they finally had something fun to do.

Rachel playing dress up:



David building a stain glass window:


Emma rocking a baby:


Here are the kids by a representation of the Angel Moroni - it tops temples around the world.


It was fun to see some Church History.

BYU Campus

For Spring Break this year, we decided to make a trip to Utah. We get to see Amanda's family and also Aaron's sisters. We made a trip down to BYU - a little walk down memory lane for Mom & Dad.

We stopped in the Art Museum and the kids posed by this LOVE sculpture.


Emma is always my willing photo subject.


Having been away for so long we totally forgot that campus pretty much shuts down at 11:00 am on Tuesdays. That was right when we got to the book store, so we had a little bit of time to kill. I made Josh pose by this statue of kids playing with a frog. Kind of sounds like something Josh would do :)



The kids by the "Tree of Life" or is it the "Tree of Knowledge", I can't remember...


The Eyring Science Center.

It's kind of funny - the buildings that have looked the same forever are the science and the computer science buildings (where we met). The big, brand new one is the Smith Family Living Center. I guess that's BYU for you. We did walk around the old Talmadge Building (Computer Science) and it looks exactly the same. They have updated the computers though...

Anyway, it was fun to go back and visit. I will always cherish my days at BYU.

Congratulations are in Order

I have such great kids - I just have to brag a little bit here. In March, David got his Bear Badge in Cub Scouting along with several belt loops, a gold arrow, and 3 silver arrows. I am now an assistant Den Leader and we get to do the Scouts thing together. It's fun to see him so excited about the things that he is learning and doing.



Rachel was inducted in the National Junior Honor Society. She has earned straight As so far in 6th grade and was so excited to make it into the NJHS. Funny story about the ceremony: All the new inductees were sitting in alphabetical order ready to walk up, receive a candle, and shake all the officer's hands. The student officers were taking turns reading the names of the new members. Right when it was Rachel's turn, they switched the person that was reading names. He skipped over the rest of the Bs and went straight to the Cs. I wasn't sitting by Rachel, and I was sure she was thinking that for some reason she didn't make it in. After they got done with entire alphabet, they went back and read the names of those that had been skipped. I'm glad they finally got it right in the end! I only had my cell phone camera, so the pictures aren't that great.

Here's Rachel with her candle.


I'm so proud of her!

Air Force Academy

While Amanda's Dad was here we also made a trip to the Air Force Academy. The visitor's center was a little lacking (is there a museum here or something that we missed?) Here are a couple pictures from the visitor's center.







We took the short hike to the Cadet Chapel. It's probably one of the most interesting buildings I've ever seen.





Here's a shot from the inside that my Dad took. I don't really know how to change the setting on my camera and all of my pictures came out really dark.


Emma in the chapel:


It was really interesting - and probably would have been better if the kids weren't all cold and tired :) But I'm glad that we were able to see it.

Garden of the Gods

Amanda's Dad surprised us with an impromptu visit to Colorado Springs in February. His original flight to Maryland got delayed because of a snowstorm. Since he already had the time off - and really wanted to see some grandkids, he got his flight changed to Colorado. It was fun to have him for a few days. We actually visited some of the places here that we had never been to. Our first stop was to the Garden of the Gods.

Here's Emma and Grandpa with the beautiful rocks in the background.


Rachel at the visitor's center


You can't really see the rocks but I couldn't resist this cute one of Emma


The huge rock formations are really impressive up close and in person.




The kids all had to get in this crevice.


And Grandpa had to get in on the fun as well.


Here's Rachel and Grandpa with the "kissing camels" in the background.


And here's why they call it that.


Here are the rest of the photos:

We had a nice time - despite it being a little bit cold. We'll have to go back in the summer and walk around a bit more.

Family Update January 2010

I need to be far better updating our blog on a regular basis! I will forget the fun things that happen and also the boring day to day stuff if I don't write it down. So, here's a little January update. January started off with every one getting back into the swing of things - the kids in school, Dad with new responsibilities at work and Church, and me focusing on getting back to the gym and getting the house organized.

The kids have been doing great at school. Rachel has managed to get straight As so far in middle school and is adjusting really well. When the weather has been nice, the kids have been enjoying jumping on a trampoline that we got for Christmas. I enjoy them getting a little bit of outdoor time! I'm looking forward to the Spring and Summer when they can use it a little bit more. I finally organized all the toys in the house (they've just been in boxes since we moved here) and the kids are having fun rediscovering old things that they had forgotten about. I also moved a bunch of furniture around and now the kids all feel like they have a new room.

David and Josh had crazy hair day at school. They had fun creating their hairstyles but I think they ended up taking them out at school. Something about looking like girls...



Both of them actually really need haircuts so there was a lot to work with.


David went with the "pony hawk".


Josh added these little clips - I think he ended up regretting it :)

I almost gave them a real mohawk - and then I was going to give them a haircut the next day, but decided against it. I didn't want to mess it up too badly!

Anyway, those are some of the things we did this month. I promise more blogging in the future :)

Christmas 2009

Despite the fact that it's taken me over a month to post our Christmas pictures, we had a nice Christmas. We spent Christmas at home and then spent the week after in New Mexico (we didn't really take any pictures there - it was just a nice time visiting with family). We had a wonderful Christmas Eve and morning and the kids were happy with their gifts. It all started the night before with some new Christmas pajamas.



The kids were all happy to get "footie" pajamas that I found in all the sizes.


Here's David going through his stocking while waiting for presents.



Josh, looking at his lifesaver book.

Emma found a lot of treasures in her stocking.

Emma loves pigs and was happy to add one to her collection.


Another webkinz for Josh.


David found his most sought after present first - the long awaited microscope.


Rachel was more than thrilled to get the next Leven Thumps book.

Be sure to check out the rest of the photos in the slide show!