Hail fascinates us...

It started raining on Sunday and has rained everyday for almost a week. We have seen breaks and the sun even, but crazy weather! All of us had trouble sleeping the other night because of the noise from the wind and thunder. Yesterday was by far the coldest day topping out at about 45 degrees. The wind was persistent all day as was the precipitation. But then we got a treat (those of you who actually get weather are probably laughing at this comment!). It hailed. The hail was about the size of peas and I thought for sure that it would dent my car as I drove home from taking Briley to lunch. It didn’t, but I sure had to slow down on the roads! I couldn’t believe that our street turned white! All the kids got another “recess” at school to go outside and check out the hail. We are easily amused around here. And it made me wonder as Briley told me that Mr. Parker (the principal) said the kids could have recess in the auditorium if they were too cold, what do kids in Utah do for recess in the winter? Do they bundle up and play outside anyway? Or do they have inside recess all winter?

Friends and Fun

On perfect winter days, when the temperatures are about 72 degrees, we love to be outside! We went downtown to our favorite picnic spot (that doesn't involve sand) to enjoy the beautiful weather...

eating lunch...

playing with dad...

watching a few airplanes fly over head...

playing some baseball...

and hanging out with friends...

what a perfect day!

a new perspective

As I sit here fixing the inconveniences of a crashed hard drive, I wandered to the blog of my favorite family and wedding photographer for inspiration. Her work inspires me to capture the love and relationships among my family. Her work guides me to be a better photographer. I want to be like her when I grow up. I received inspiration of another kind today. Her 8 week old son went into the hospital with a case of rsv that was not responding to treatment. That little one was called home a couple of weeks later to his Father in Heaven. My heart just broke for that family. But she is so full of faith and she is strong. And she reminded me just how much I love my family. Then I started to think about Briley's teacher. She is a brave woman. She lost her husband a year ago at Christmas. I don't know the specifics of her story, only that she gets up every morning to be mother to her children. She goes to work every day to be teacher to 24 8 and 9 year olds. Sometimes her eyes are sad, but she keeps moving forward. She keeps moving forward. My children are happy and healthy; their daddy loves me and thinks I am beautiful; "God is real. God is good. All the time." What more do I need?

Happy New Year's!

(sorry about the little finger-Cam had the camera)

After Christmas I took a break from my computer. Apparently it was insulted or something because my hard drive crashed the very day I got back to work catching up on things. After a heartbreaking few moments I discovered that all was not lost because I had backed up before we went to Virginia in October. Then my mom had grabbed a bunch of pictures and scrapbook pages off my drive while at her house last week. So I only lost about 20 pictures, my documents folder and my contacts list (forgot to back those up).All things considered, it could have been a tragedy. Needless to say I have determined to back everything up using an automatic system that backs up online all on it's own. Perfect. So I am recovering from that and New Year's Eve came along. Friends came over for dinner and I had prepared a couple yummy desserts in anticipation of a long, fun evening of movies and puzzles with the kids. It came fast and hard.

By 7:30 I was begging our friends with my thoughts to leave for their next evening activity. By 8:30 I was begging Andy to find the strongest pain killers he could find (my throat hurt so badly I was nearly crying to swallow). We celebrated the ringing in of the New Year with New York and I was in bed and asleep before 9:15. I'm not sure if the kids stayed up or not, but by morning, I felt ok. Strange one.

Christmas

Christmas morning was fun, though torturous (since my brother and sister in law stayed in a hotel and the kids all stayed at grandma's and had to wait till they showed up!).They were held at bay with Christmas cartoons on the Disney channel although Logan did discover a thing or two in his stocking long before he was supposed to!

After things calmed a bit, we attempted to do some family portraits. They turned out pretty good considering the light conditions and that I was photographer/subject. I had a lot of sourpuss possibilities and had to work fast, but it's nothing photoshop can't fix later so it worked out ok!

My grandparents and the kids:

4 generations:

And the big picture:

San Francisco

We traveled to the Bay Area to celebrate Christmas with my family. We decided to take a day and head to San Francisco. It was a chilly day! I think it might have hit 50 degrees

in the warmest part of the day in direct sunshine! But we handled it (with only a little whining!) We started off at Crissy Field so Andy could get in a little kiteboarding. After some technical difficulties, Andy finally got his kite in the air and had a great time. He came in after about half an hour because the wind was dying and his head was cold. Afterwards we found out that Crissy Field is one of the most dangerous places to kite and more rescues occur than nearly any other place in the United States. The current is really strong and pulls you out 1 mile for every 10 minutes you are down in the water. Thankfully we had no Coast Guard rescues! It was freezing out there, and my kids seriously are missing the beach. It's been about 2 months since they have been and the really need to go back. It's not a want but a need! So today, they got to play a little. This was mine and Logan's conversation as soon as his little feet hit the sand,

Logan: "Mommy, can I take off

my shoes and socks? I want to play in

the water."

Me: "Umm, no. It's too cold."

Logan:"Can I take off my shoes and socks to play in the sand?"

Me: "No. It's cold, Kid."

Logan: "So. I just want to play in the sand."

And there it is...beach withdrawls. Guess we are going to have to go soon.

After kiting, we (my mom and step dad were with us too) met my brother and his boys at Pier 39 for lunch. Mmmm...hot clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl...there is nothing like it on a cold day! The kids really enjoyed all the boats and seeing the Golden Gate Bridge. I think the best part was just getting to hang out with their cousins!

After Pier 39 we drove over to the Golden Gate Bridge and walked across it. I don't think the kids cared much for the history of the bridge, including their family legend that their 3rd great grandfather was killed during its construction, but we sure had fun! We then headed up to Union Square to have dinner and see the amazing Christmas tree they have there. I think I would have to say it was near to a perfect day (we were missing my sister in law...)!

A Rainy Day

I saw a picture in a magazine with a little girl running in the rain with her umbrella and decided I had to have something like that of my kids. Yesterday the weather called for rain, though I didn't believe it and we were planning on going to the zoo anyway. Then the kids come running inside, their faces flushed with excitement, asking if we had any umbrellas. My moment came and here are a couple of photos in the rain!

Native American Day

Each year, the Kindergarteners celebrate Native American Day right before Thanksgiving. It's a fun day where the kids get to learn about the Native Americans that helped out the Pilgrams. They learn things like hunting buffalo (which I think was Cameron's favorite part!) using little dowels with pencil erasers on the end for their spears; and gathering berries and trying a recipe made with those berries, and also about building a campfire. So they go and "collect" their fire wood and come back to the ring. All the kids dump their wood into the ring and sit down. Cameron looks at the pile and says, "Guys. That's not how you do it. You do it like this!"

Perhaps he's seen the technique before!

Camping in the cold

Andy took the kids camping a couple of weeks back. Some friends let us know they were going and asked if anyone else wanted to go. Camping in 30 degree weather is just not my thing. But the kids were all excited about going! We have really discovered that Cameron is built just like his daddy. Did you notice all the others are are bundled as much as they could be considering they have no cold weather gear? But Cameron is still wearing shorts! It was about 35 degrees outside when Andy took that picture! BRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!! They all had so much fun though, despite the cold. And what did I do while they were all gone? Well, my friend who also sent her husband and kids camping, and I went out for dessert and then went Christmas shopping. We had fun too!

It finally came out!

Emma went her entire kindergarten year without losing a single tooth. Friends all around her were losing teeth and hers stayed in. Her adult teeth came in, but those stubborn baby teeth would not budge! Back in September, one started to wiggle (you may remember that post about tying her tooth to a door knob). But still it would not come out. A few days back, Em came to me and showed me that she could feel the bottom of her tooth.

Sure enough it was hanging on by a thread. So I told her to grab on to that tooth and just yank it. My brave little one did just that and was certainly rewarded as the shock that it actually came out melted quickly into pure happiness!