Saturday, April 30, 2011

Spring Break in Moab





















Had a great time with family in Moab a few weeks ago.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Wow and sorry...

I can't believe it has been 10 months since our last entry. I spoke with Tasha the other day about our blog...life just gets in the way along with Facebook...We are going to make an attempt to have another go at our blog hopefully with new photos and all.

Monday, April 19, 2010

Gavin's Baptism

Gavin was baptized April 10 by J.D! We are so excited for him, and appreciate so much what a good kid he is trying to be. Congratulations Gavin, we love you soooo much! We had Sande, John, Sheri, and Jordan all come up and spend a few days with us and it was so much fun to be together and make a fuss over Gavin. We also had my parents, Todd's family, Tyson's family, and Trevor all attend the baptism. Thanks guys for coming to support Gavin!

And here is Lily Sue pretty close to getting whatever it is that she wanted. Lily and Grace sang "I am like a star" at Gavin's baptism. It was adorable. It always amazes me how much my two little girls love to sing, and even more that they have no fear in public. We were all very proud of them.

Tasha

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Too Cute

So, my little girls love to play house almost daily. It is so fun to watch because it reminds me of being a little girl and playing with Tamie. We would play dolls, house, restaurant, any sort of make believe...so I love watching these two play. This picture is one morning that Lily was being the Dad and making us call her JD, and Grace was the mom - but her name was Aliya (not sure where that came from). There is one main rule in the kitchen at our house - stay off the table (bar). Lily is constantly trying to see if I am serious about rules...and then trying to tie me around her little finger to get out of trouble. Look at that face! I think it worked this time.
Gavin got new glasses. It is so funny because he has always wanted them. Who would have thought! In this picture he is also modeling his "get out of my face" expression, or is that the "you are an idiot" expression...they are pretty close.
And here are my two sweeties again. They are at such a fun picture age. They were modeling mine and Hanna's fluffy socks. I got about 5 pictures, I know, I am in trouble.
And here is the little "schmunchkin" as we call her. The other day she came up to me and said, "Daddy calls me schmunchkin," and then she gave me a disgusted look and said, "stintin Daddy!" I gather it isn't her favorite nickname, but it is ours - so I guess she will have to live with it.
Poor Sully. I think that face says it all..."the next person who comes near me will die!" The girls don't actually pull off dressing him very often, so this was a rare occasion. Lets just say - he dishes it out as well as they do. He is a cat of retribution!
And here are the culprits who are in for it...watch out kids, he will get you! (and, yes I do realize that Gavin is doing a cross-eye, and who knows what Gunnar is doing...boys!)
Gunnar had a class play yesterday. It was "Lewis and Clark". They did an amazing job! Gunnar was a drummer for one of the songs, and is dressed as a mountain man with a raccoon vest and hat. (Sadly, in this video the hat just looks like fuzzy hair on his head) Enjoy!


More to come...Tasha

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Catching Up!

Ok, so it has been horribly long since I posted any pictures of our family, so this is a post to catch it all up. I won't go back as far as Christmas (though I did miss blogging that) - but, here are just some things, good and bad that have happened in our lives. First of all - we have had snow, snow, snow...

In January, my Hanna turned 12! It is amazing to think of how fast it has gone. She is so much fun, and is always the life of the party. She is in young women's now and is loving it. We love her very much.


Next was Gracie's birthday party. I can't beleive my little girl is 5 already...she is getting so big. She wanted a princess birthday (like most 5 year old girls), so we made it fun by all dressing up.

Grace was the princess, I was the Queen Mom, Lily Sue was a fairy, Gunnar and Gavin were castle guards, and Hanna was a servant girl...she actually thought of that - it was really fun.
J.D. was a good sport and dressed up like the king for this picture...it didn't last much longer than that, but we will take it!
This is the "servant girl" painting all the princesses' fingernails.

Now the bad, January 30th my Uncle Scott was killed in an avalanche. He is my dad's baby brother and lifelong business partner. It was a very sad blow to all of us, and we miss him greatly.


Tasha (more to come, soon...I promise!)

Sunday, April 4, 2010

Cakes

Tasha loves making cakes and we love eating them. For birthdays and other special occasions she always asks the kids what kind of cake they would like, I think she takes it as a personal challenge...

Washington State cake for my last birthday.




This was for Lily Sue during the summer.






Liz graduated from BYU-Idaho in the Fall and we held a little gathering at our house and this was the cake Tasha made for Liz...




This was for a late night party Hanna had which was suppose to represent a sleep over....



Gracie's princess birthday cake...



Gunnar's alien cupcakes...


Blue and gold banquet....




Gavin's birthday cake...




Sunday, January 31, 2010

Sunday in Ghana

This is a photo of dinner with the Seminary and Institute Teachers taken on Saturday night.


I finally bugged the hotel computer person enough that he brought a modem straight to my room which has helped tremendously with the Internet. Rather than try and catch up on my past 4 days in Ghana, I will start with today.

President Emanuel Nelson (an Institute Administrator in Ghana) invited us to the Winneba Branch where he is the Branch President. There are actually 7 Stakes in Ghana, but we were excited to visit the Winneba Branch since it was an hours drive outside of Accra where we have been staying all week. I was excited to see the country side on our drive out there. No lions or elephants, but plenty of small villages with shacks and thatched roofs.

The Winneba Branch has a nice building and averages about 150 people each Sunday. We arrived early and were greeted by 4 full-time missionaries. Two of the missionaries were from Utah and they were very excited to see Americans again. One Elder from Morgan, Utah who had been out for 16 months said we were about the 6th or 7th Americans he had seen during his mission. There is no air conditioning in the building, but they do have lots of ceiling fans and the windows on all sides of the chapel open up to create a breeze, although not enough of a breeze!

The Sisters in Ghana wear very colorful dresses with bright patterns. The Brothers, including the Priesthood leaders were white shirts and ties; no suit coats thank goodness.

Of course, we were asked to sit on the stand and to speak in Sacrament (the Branch President asked about 15 minutes before the meeting). They had two youth speakers and then the rest of the time was turned over to the three of us. They very seldom have visitors and they made us feel very welcomed.

During the third hour I went with the Deacon's quorum (because that is what I do at home and it just felt more comfortable). There were 3 deacons. They starred at me most of the time but a lot of it had to do with the fact the teacher kept asking me to give my thoughts on every question from the manual. I did find out the teacher was the first missionary from Ghana to serve in Nigeria.

After church the people lined up to say goodbye. I tried to take pictures but felt a little silly doing so. I loved seeing the little children. I did sneak into nursery and take one photo during the block (and I made a little girl cry, she was not use to seeing a digital camera, I tried to show her the photo on the LED screen but that just made it worse. We went to the Branch President's home after church. Very humble home but seems to be better than most which I was glad to see being he was a church employee.


This is President Nelson and his family.




The Deacon's Quorum. Our lesson was on the Plan of Salvation and you can see the notes on the chalkboard. The Deacon in the t-shirt didn't have scriptures, I asked if he owned any and he said he has never had a set, I almost gave him mine right there on the spot...




Photo of snack time in Nursery...notice the little girl on the left starting to cry.



Photo of the meeting house...notice the chickens on the lawn in front and the basketball hoop in the parking lot which to be honest looked like it never gets used. There were over a hundred people at church but probably only about 10 cars. Many walked or rode the bus.