One of these things is not like the other...

So you know when you are playing basketball and having a great time and all of the sudden when you turn, your foot stays in the same place and doesn't come with you? Well, that is what happened to Megan yesterday. Now, we have managed to be pretty healthy and accident free in our family (knock on wood) so we hardly know what to do with her. Ice, elevate, wrap? Thank you Jared for some sound advice. And thank you Megan for doing this now so you have a whole week to get better before spring break:)
PS-you know, there are less painful ways to get out of PE!

The coast

Since we had my Mom, Dad and sister Cindy here for the baptism, we tried to keep everyone entertained with a day trip to the coast.
I know the spots on Melissa's face look like freckles, but some of it is just sand. Don't ask how it got there!

My kids are pretty easy to please when it comes to the coast: just some freezing cold water to play in in the middle of the winter, some sand they can cake to every square inch of their bodies and some sticks for Max to practice his fencing skills with.
Don't let Cindy fool you, she is standing on a pretty big rock.
Everyone was worn out by the time we left. Fortunately, Dad and I stayed awake long enough to get us all safely home!

Happy 8th Birthday Miranda

We have been pretty busy lately with all things Miranda. On Feb 8th, she turned 8 years old. I can hardly believe it.

The next weekend, it was time for her baptism. She was so excited and a little anxious. She kept asking her Grandpa's if they had their talks ready.

Everything went great. Thank you to everyone who made the trip out for this special occasion.

Happy Birthday Melissa

Today is Melissa's birthday. Fortunately for her, we are far too busy on Wednesdays so she was able to celebrate early!!

We started our day seeing Paul Blart, Mall Cop (a movie that you should not put on your must see list, but Melissa liked it so that is all that mattered:) Then we were off to Hometown Buffet. I am not sure why she picked that restaurant since I have never ever taken her there, but this is what you get when you let the birthday girl make all of the decisions for the day!

Then she was spoiled with the usual presents.

Here is her new bike which she can barely ride!! I thought she was getting taller, but maybe not so much!! She does love it though, and I am pretty sure the chain will not fall off every time she tries to ride which will be a great improvement from her last bike.

I'm pretty sure she got some help with all of those candles! No wonder she got them all out on the first try:)

Another year in the record books! And the best part is now she can babysit for me when Megan is busy. Hum, I think I will have Megan babysit every Friday night and Melissa every Saturday night. This is looking better to me all of the time!!! Thank you Arlene and Tony for making the trip down, we had a great time. Also thanks to Gina!! She loves the scrapbook and even asked me to day if you were going to add next seasons pictures. I guess you are stuck since I can't scrapbook!

Happy New Year!!

I hope you all had a great start to 2009. I have been promising Miranda that I would put this on the blog for her. Sorry about the lighting, I am working with a new camcorder and still need to practice.



I have been very impressed with Miranda and her dedication to her new love. It seems like she is always practicing. I will have to take the camera to practice so you can all see what she can do on the bars. It is unbelievable!!

Happy Birthday Me!

I thought to celebrate my birthday, instead of doing the mountain of housework awaiting me upstairs, I would blog. Sounds reasonable to me. I can't believe I am actually 35 today. I remember when my sister Cindy turned 35 and I thought, Oh my, that is soooooo old. It is not seeming that old to me anymore:) Birthdays always make me think about the things we have done in the past year and this one has been very full, some good and some bad. Probably the most significant part of last year was me testing out my nursing skills taking care of Brian after his back surgery. As we were on a walk last night and Brian was probably wondering why he couldn't walk farther, I was just grateful that we were able to go on a walk together at all. It is great to be able to do that again (especially the part where we leave the kids home alone and get some time to actually to talk without interuption!) This year, I also sent my baby to kindergarten. I was not very excited about that, but he is doing so well and everytime he sounds out a word, it makes me so proud of the progress he is making. I was beginning to think that he was never going to be interested in anything academic, but he loves to learn! This year I also got to end my job in Young Women's and move onto Primary which I LOVE!!! If I had known how much I would love primary I would have started lobbying for it a long time ago! It is so fun to be in there with Melissa, Miranda, and Max. And I think they like having me in there too! I am excited for what this next year will bring. I am sure it will be different since Brian was called as our new Bishop. It is taking a little adjusting to the family schedule, but we know he is doing what the Lord wants him to and he is going to do a great job. Well, enough blogging for one day. Since they haven't make my birthday a national holiday yet, I am off to work!

Happy Birthday Megan

This year we got to combine our Thanksgiving Celebration with Megan's birthday. It was a lot of fun to be able to have turkey and birthday cake!

This is pretty much our attitude regarding having a teenage living in our mist. We frequently get requests for things like staying up late to watch PG-13 movies that she has been dying to see, more time with friends, and more time on the computer to "check my email".

The first 12 years with Megan have been wonderful--accept for about a year when she was the tantrum queen when she was 3. We are looking forward to great things from her as she becomes our first full fledge teen. (sniff, sniff-can I really be that old?)