Happy 8th Birthday Abi!

I can't believe that Abi is 8 years old. All of sudden she seems so grown up. Abi was sick with a 102 fever all day Sunday (the day before her birthday). We thought it was the swine flu and she was going to have to stay home from school for a week . But the next morning she came bounding into our room ready to open her presents. She got this adorable dress from Grandma Sharon and a barbie Jeep and doll, among other things. Per Abi's request, we went swimming and had an ice cream cake to celebrate. Abi is a great help to me. She is such a good big sister and helps with Porter and Jack a lot. (she even changes wet diapers) she is very excited to be baptized in a few weeks. I am so proud of the young woman she is becoming.

Halloween

The kids are posing with, believe it or not, our Relief Society President. Her motorcycle completed the costume. She kept having to remind the kids that it was a costume and the piercings and tattoos were not real.

We had a fun and fast Halloween. With all of the play stuff going on, I was really glad we had figured out costumes early in the month. I kept having to remind myself about Halloween. We didn't even get a chance to carve pumpkins this year, much to the disappointment of the kids. Our ward had a trunk or treat (I love those!) And it was warm!! (Even better!) All three wards in our building had a trunk-or-treat so the kids got a lot of candy and we ran out and got out of there pretty fast. (And we bought a lot of candy.) Afterwards we had some friends over for scones and hot chocolate.

Little Cosette Video

I finally had to post the video of Abi on YouTube. It was just too big for blogger to handle. So, click here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFaV9zsWCp8 to watch the video, or look up Abi's Little Cosette on youtube.com. I had to make it really short because of the free video editing software I was using.

Abi's Stage Debut

Abigail finished her run as Little Cosette in Les Miserables about a week ago. It was a great experience but a lot of work. Luckily Abi was off track the whole week and a half, there were quite a few late nights. I was relieved when it was over but Abi cried all the way home on the last night. Jesse was especially glad it was over as he got to take care of the rest of the kids while Abi and I were at most of the performances. The students and teachers that she worked with were so supportive and cute with Abi. She also made good friends with the girl that played Little Eponine and they played when they weren't on stage. Abi did a great job. She only acted nervous once, because there was a packed house (about 1000 people). But when she went on stage she was as cool as could be. I know that I was more nervous than she was. Our kids are still singing songs from the show, it was cute at first. It is a great show but I watched it about 8 times and so I am loosing patience with the constant singing. I have a video that I want to post but I have to figure out how to edit it a little bit first. (They didn't take all the questionable words out of the show and I don't want to get in trouble.) Stay Tuned!

Jack's 1st Birthday

Jack had a fun birthday. Present opening was very exciting. He also got free reign over his own cake and with a little help from friends got very messy. We love having Jack Jack in our familty. I can't imagine life with out him.

Washington DC Getaway

Jesse and I had the chance to go to Washington DC in September. Jesse had a business conference he had to be to and I tagged along. It was a lot of fun and a great break. Jesse only had a day and a half of meetings and so we had 4 1/2 days to explore. There is so much to do and see. We had fun figuring out the metro and negotiating the city. I was plagued with a planters wart on my foot that became an infected blister. The one time in my life I really need to be able to walk all day long and I get this problem. It was a challenge and we didn't get to do quite as much as we would have liked, but we made the best of it and had fun anyway. We ended up renting bikes to make our way around the national mall because I just couldn't walk anymore. That was actually one of the highlights of the trip. I think a grandma with a walker could move faster than I was going. This may sound a bit dramatic, but at one point I was positive that the pain in my foot was as bad if not worse than labor. When we got home Jesse was picking at the wart and all this nasty puss came out. It felt better almost immediately. I am sure there is some lesson that I was supposed to learn from this experience and I will be thankful for it some day. The kids had their Grandparents taking care of them and they made it through the week in one piece. (And so did their Grandparents)

We had a fun but busy summer. We did so many fun things that I just didn't have time to blog and it would take too much time to catch up. It was a quick 6 weeks out of school, but we were all ready when it was over. Abi started 2nd grade on Aug 18th. Her teachers name is Mrs. Matsumura and we think this is going to be a great year. She is just growing up so fast. A few weeks ago she auditioned for Taylorsville High Schools production of Le Miserables, the part of Little Cosette. We finally heard last Monday that they picked her for the part. She is really excited for her big debut on stage.

Anna started kindergarten on Aug 25th. We have waited a very long time for this day. She missed the deadline to go to school last year by 2 days. Her teacher's name is Mrs. Hansen. Anna loves every minute of school, like we knew she would. She has learned some really fun songs and made lots of friends. There are 5 kids from our ward in her class (pictured above). The second boy from the left had his birthday on the deadline (Sept 1) and he turned 5. So he and Anna are two days shy of one year apart but they are still in the same class. Weird hugh!

Jack is just a smiley guy, most of the time. He is all done with nursing, which has been really nice. He gets around with the army crawl or walking around furniture, but not on his knees. He is still pretty attached to his mom (he is crying right now because I am doing this and not holding him). His first tooth came in last Sunday (we stopped nursing just in time).

Porter is turning into a little man. We went on a search for little boy church clothes yesterday and this is what we came up with. It only took us 4 stores and 3 hours (they are hard to find). He was especially excited about the belt. He has been my little helper while Anna and Abi are at school. He follows me around and keeps himself pretty entertained. It is like night and day with he and Anna separated for 3 hours. He is a much more pleasant kid. We are all excited to get into our new routine. BYU football has now officially started with the awesome win over Oklahoma last night so Jesse is in seventh heaven. I have been staying busy with relief society and running around with the kids. Jesse and I are looking forward to our trip to D.C. next week. We are going to celebrate our 10th anniversary. We are both excited to have some much needed time alone. (Thanks Mom and Eloise for making that possible.)

Brian is Home!

We had a fun and exhausting week! Brian is officially home from his mission. We spent a few days at a cabin in Oakley as a family and then attended the Oquirrh Mountain Temple open house. Brian reported his mission in Taylorsville on Sunday to cap it all off. It was good to all be together!

Abi's New Talent

Abi's Piano Recital

Jesse has been teaching Abi to play the piano from an old book we borrowed from my parents. A neighbor of ours teaches piano and invited Abigail to play in her spring recital. I am really proud of her. I am not biased at all, but I think she is doing very well. (And Jesse hasn't done too bad either!)

Blog Amnesia

Eight months ago today, life got a lot busier. I managed to get a few posts written but then suddenly came down with a case of Blog Amnesia. I believe that it must have been quite a severe case as it has taken so very long to recover. While I am not completely out of the woods, things are looking up and I expect to fully recover. While things have been crazy we have also had some great times in the last eight months. Jack is cute as a button. We found some pictures of Anna at 8 months and it was almost scary how much her and Jack look alike. He is sitting up but not crawling yet (Thank goodness!). He is painfully attached to me and while that is endearing it also make like difficult sometimes. Porter is now 3 and I have decided that the twos are terrible and the threes are more terrible. He is like a grenade with the word NO for a trigger. Anna is finished with preschool and anxiously awaiting kindergarten. She will be starting Aug. 24 in the am class. Abi is growing up fast. She got her ears pierced and dreams of the day she can wear danglers. Jesse was released from the Young Men's and called to be the Ward Mission Leader. I was just put in as the 1st counselor in the Relief Society Presidency after an 8 month break. We are excited for the summer and spending time outside in the warm weather