Hannah Girls

Here is Maggie and her friends Ashlynn and Riley at their first practice for the school variety show. It's pretty fun. We'll be sure to post when they have costumes and wigs.

John Walks

I've never posted a video before, but Joe got this cool flip video for Christmas, so I thought I'd try it out. Here is a clip of John walking today. He's finally started walking as a mode of transportation, and not just as a cool party trick to make his siblings laugh and clap. Enjoy!

Time to Catch Up

Well, time to play a little catch up...why is it that I can do this faithfully for a few weeks and then completely fall off the wagon? I suspect it has something to do with a little thing called Christmas Vacation...meaning no school and five kids at home ALL THE LIVE LONG DAY!

At any rate, we had a wonderful Christmas. Joe's brother and sister and their families all joined us here in San Luis, and we enjoyed a nice visit together. Christmas morning becomes more and more fun the older the kids get. I think we might be in the golden years as far as that goes. Here are some of the highlights as far as gifts go.

Harry and Charlie each got Obi Wan Kenobi costumes and matching Jedi Robes. The robes were my favorite part. I made them for each of them, and there's something fun about watching children so enjoy something that I made.

Grandpa Steve and Grandma Lark sent the boys Lego Star Wars Complete Saga for Wii. We have had a lot of fun starting to unlock all the new levels...our favorite so far has been watching Indiana Jones fight snakes in space. (Clever marketing tactic by the way, seeing as Lego Indiana Jones game will be released later this year.)

Maggie received a Hannah Montanah costume, complete with glittery silver jacket. This has quickly become her all the time jacket. It's funny to be old enough to see these trends come back around. I'm pretty sure I would have LOVED a jacket like this sometime around 5th or 6th grade.

Uncle Nate and Aunt Kate decided to bring a little nature into our lives and got the kids strawberry plants for Christmas. Nate came over one afternoon and helped the boys plant them. I'm not known for my green thumb, so hopefully some of my children inherited one from their uncle. Just so you know, Nate, we've been watering (okay, so it's been raining a lot, but that still counts right?) and yesterday we spied a few little green berries! That was very exciting...especially after I spent $8.00 for two pounds of strawberries yesterday!

On Christmas Day we suprised the kids and took them ice skating. This is quite a novelty for our children. We had a great time, and it was nice to have an outing after all the present opening.

This was about the extent of Charlie's ice skating....

And finally, some milestones that have happened in the past few weeks.

1. Charlie started pre-school. This is great...for three hours, three days a week, I have just one child. And he's usually asleep during school hours! Charlie also started primary this week. It's always so fun to watch those cute new Sunbeams each year.

2. Joe was released from the Bishopric last Sunday and was given the call to teach early morning seminary. For any of you who know Joe at all, you know that the early morning part of this assignment is going to be tough for him. But, I know Joe will be an excellent teacher and that he and the students will learn a lot. For my part, I'll be glad to have Joe sitting back with us on Sundays!

3. I decided to go back to my natural hair color (not that I know exactly what that is anymore!) But this is as close as the colorist could guess. I just got so sick of seeing those dark roots growing in every few weeks. So, this should take care of the problem! The irony of this will probably be that I've colored my hair needlessly for the past ten years, and now I'll probably find out that I've got gray hair and will HAVE to color it!

4. I also took a couple of days last week and had a vein in my leg collapsed. This was an interesting and somewhat painful experience where the doctor inserted a catheter up the length of an unsightly vericose vein in my leg. Once it was in place (from mid-calf all the way up to the top of my leg) he heated it up and the vein collapsed and sealed itself shut. What would have been a painful surgery 10 years ago is now an in-office procedure without anesthesia. It's really amazing to see the results. Although I'm still pretty bruised, the vein is completely gone!

5. Finally, here is a picture of John...I just realized he wasn't in any of the other pictures, and he's just too dang cute to leave out! He took his first couple of steps on Christmas Day and is finally starting to venture out on his own. I don't know what he'll do when he takes his first step without the applause of all his siblings - I think that's his favorite part of the process - and really my favorite part too.