Happy Birthday Erin

Erin turned 2.

We kept things simple.

What do you get a girl who has everything?Two gifts for turning two! A New Outfit.

That is not a hand-me-down. And a Little Miss Muffin doll so she can leave Meagan's alone. Happy Birthday to our Little Sweet Heart.

Meagan's School Music Program

All the kindergarten classes put on a music program.

Meagan was sooooo excited. We took terrible pictures. We need a new camera. 99% of the pictures came out blurry in some way. I was so sad because she was so cute and fun to watch! Good Job Meagan.

End of Soccer - Finally!

Rebecca's team participated in a tournament and so the season didn't officially end for her until mid-way through December.

She really enjoyed playing keeper this season.Her games seemed to bring out the wildlife.

A ground squirrel kept popping his head up out of this hole. My camera was too slow to get him. During another one of her games there was a snake on the field - good times!

Tyler's A Good Brother

After begging and begging for someone to paint her nails . . .

Tyler agreed to do it!

A Fun Saturday

Our fun began with Rebecca's school music program.

We were impressed. The music was great. We also lucked out because they had the entire 5th grade on the stage and Rebecca and her good friend Payton were on the very edge, so we could see them perfectly!

After her program, we came home and decorated for Christmas. Then after dinner we hit Dairy Queen to celebrate Rebecca's latest Progress Report. Next time Erin gets her own. She can really pack it away - and fast.

One of Erin's Favorite Foods

Sugar Snap Peas

She downs them just as fast as you can get them out of the pod.

Happy Birthday Meagan!

Tyler's creation to celebrate Meagan's day.Meagan requested the Christmas wrapping paper.

She got what she asked for:

According to Meagan, her boots are "fabulous."

She is 6 going on 16 and yes we are in trouble! Erin is jealous of her Little Miss Muffin doll.

Too bad Erin's birthday isn't for another two weeks.The Brentons joined us for presents and desert.

Thanks Guys for the book. Meagan chose to celebrate with brownies and ice cream.

We also celebrated by going to the movies over the weekend.

Brett and the kids saw The Muppet Movie.

Black Friday

We spent Black Friday doing yard work.

That evening we went to a wedding reception.

On the way, we had the following conversation with Tyler!

Tyler in a panic: "Mom, today was Black Friday and you didn't take me shopping for toys."

Mom: "That's right. We did yard work instead."

Tyler: "But today was the lowest prices of the year."

If you believe commercials don't influence people, you don't live with Tyler.

Thanksgiving

After the Turkey Trot we headed up to Wendi's for dinner.

It was quiet this year.We really missed Spencer and Lauren.The food was great - as always!
We had dinner, cleaned up, had dessert, visited a little, and then headed home.

It was simple and quiet and a lot of fun.

Turkey Trot

For several years my friend Rik has tried to get me to sign up and run a 5k Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving morning with him. Several times I had told him that I would, but then backed out when I didn't feel like my ego could handle the pounding it would get from my slow time. Well, after running the Ragnar I decided that I could run a 5k, so Michelle and I signed up to run it with him this year. It is a "cross-country" run, two loops around the park in the center of town, with hay bales and water puddles to jump over. On Michelle's first loop she got held up at the puddle because too many of the women didn't want to risk getting their feet wet and they stopped to negotiate how they would jump over the puddle.

For her second loop, the crowd had thinned out and she wasn't as bunched up with other runners as the first time. She was ble to continue running and she didn't even slow down as she put her foot in the puddle and got her shoes wet.
She cleared the first puddle, but the second was a little wider and she got her foot wet on that one.

Here she is coming into the finishing lane.

The lady in yellow is in our ward and we didn't realize she was there until we got home and got the pictures loaded onto the computer.

Michelle did great. She beat her goal time by a lot. I was really proud of how well she did.

Here is the starting crowd for the men's run. We started about an hour after the women's run. there were a lot fewer men than women and you can see how crowded the men's start was.

If you know what to look for, you can see me and Rik starting in this picture. Rik is in the grey T-shirt and I am in the blue long-sleeve shirt.
Rik is number 107.
I was number 43. Numbers were assigned alphabetically, not by ability.
Here's me at my second time through the water features. My first time through was a lot more crowded and I go cut-off at the second puddle and had to get my foot wet.
We had a great time. We will plan on doing it again next year. That just means that we have to keep running so that we can be in shape to improve our times next year.

End of Soccer - almost!

Saturday was Tyler's last day of soccer. He had a scrimmage against the parents, a pizza lunch, and then a skills event that ended with trophies! Rebecca's team is participating in a tournament mid-December. That means she has a couple more weeks of practice.

Way to go Tyler!

We Rock!

Friday morning we had 10 tons of landscape rock delivered.

For the slope in our backyard. Each rock was supposed to be between 4" and 10" in size.
What we got was a lot bigger.

I am not even sure Brett can lift this guy! The first wheel barrow load - 999 more to go.Our good friend Rik offered to help.The kids had fun.What was left at the end of the day.The finished product.We have a little left to finish on Monday.