Jr. Jazz

Daddy Daughter Date

The girls had a daddy daughter date at the school a while back. They were so cute about it and had a great time! (It was a sock hop theme, in case you were wondering.)

A few miscellaneous pictures:

Lia's favorite new pose.

I finally gave in to the pillow pets craze and it was totally worth it. They love them!!

Making cupcakes.
Making snowmen.

And feeding Elmo. Megan had tubes put it last month and got this Elmo from my mom after the surgery. She loves it! So far the tubes haven't helped the infections, but I'm hoping the further away from winter we get, the less infections we'll get. And it could be worse. If that's my only complaint right now, things are looking pretty good.

Amelia's Baptism

Lia's baptism was a couple weeks ago and everything went really well. She was so excited and so sweet. I wish we could do it all again because it was one of the greatest days I've had as a mother, next to the days our kids were born. I worried about pretty much anything I could worry about in the weeks before, but the day of everything went perfect! We are so grateful for Lia. I am grateful for her enthusiasm about the gospel and her testimony, which before her baptism I knew she had but hadn't ever heard her share. She bore her testimony after she was confirmed and it was simple and sweet and heartfelt. I am grateful for Nate for being the dad and person he is. I'm grateful he was able to conduct the baptism, Lia's will probably be the only one he'll have the opportunity to do that at. And finally I'm grateful for our family and friends who were there to share the special day with us, and for the ones who wanted to be but couldn't. We feel so blessed to have all of you in our lives.

Lia wanted to get her picture taken in her baptism dress at the temple. They turned out to be my favorite pictures. 

Amelia's Birthday

Our not-so-little-anymore Lia turned eight a couple weeks ago. We've been looking forward to this birthday for a long time. She had a birthday party with her friends the night before and then celebrated the day of by getting her ears pierced and having family over for dinner and a party. She was so cute about getting her ears pierced, and was so brave. I'm pretty sure she wanted to cry, but she held it in. We are so grateful for Lia. She is such a blessing in our family. Laura and Josh and Megan love her and she is a great example to them. I sorted through hundreds of pictures of Lia for a DVD we made for her baptism and I couldn't believe how much she's changed in what seems like such a short amount of time. We love you Lia. Next I'll post the pictures from her baptism.

San Francisco

Nate and I were lucky enough to take a little vacation to San Francisco over the weekend. Nate wanted to check out a company or two down there and invited me along. And thanks to our wonderful parents who took great care of our kids while we were gone, we went and had an incredible time!The first night we went to a Shawn Colvin concert at Yoshi's Jazz Club. We'd never been to a jazz club and it was great! If you're ever in the area, check out who's playing there.

We then visited the "Tonga Room" in our hotel. I guess it was a pretty happening place a while back. It was hopping the night we were there too.

This was at the Japanese Tea Gardens in Golden Gate Park. The park was really pretty and even with my stuffy nose I loved the smell of the trees there.

I swear I'm burning this sweater! No more vacations in this sweater. But the bridge is pretty.
We rented a tandem bike and rode through the city, through the park, across the bridge, and ended in Sausalito where we caught a ferry back to the city. We stopped for lunch first though at a restaurant out on the water.

The ride was great, and it was so fun to go with Nate, once we got the hang of the tandem. But I have to admit I was glad to turn that bike back in! I don't get out on 3 hour bike rides very often and let's just say I was more than happy to sit on a comfy seat on the ferry.

You can't go to San Francisco without going to Chinatown. We did a little shopping and had lunch before heading out of town. We wouldn't have taken the trip if Nate didn't need to go down there and I'm so glad he did. I feel like we can breath again and get through the next few months of craziness! Why didn't anyone tell us it would be so hard to go back to school? I know it will be worth it though when it's all said and done. Thanks for the great trip Nate!

January

Josh has been fascinated with violins and cellos since my family reunion last summer when he begged to play my sister's cello. So when Nate's parents sent us home with an old violin for him to practice on and he didn't want to put it down (even when he was sleeping), we decided to get him one his own size and find him a teacher. He had his first lesson today and was so excited! His teacher is fantastic and was so cute with him.

This was the day he got his new one. It is the cutest thing I have ever seen! This is Nate's dad, who plays the violin, showing him how to play.

These pictures are for Lia. She's always asking me to take pictures of different things and put them on the blog. Lucy is my niece who just moved across the country--they miss her a lot.

Getting ready for our New Year's Eve get together. Don't I have great helpers? For some reason they love cleaning the fridge, which is great because it's something I never get to.

Lia was invited to a fairy birthday party and Laura wanted to join in on the fun too.
This is Megan's outfit of choice. Lately she's been trying to take her clothes off the minute she hears the word "bath" and she'll even put her clothes in her hamper for me. It's really cute.
I love Josh and Megan in this picture, which is why I'm including it. This is where I spend most nights from about 9:30 to who knows when. It gets Megan to sleep and gives Nate a chance to study, but at some point I'd like to lay her down and walk away and spend those evening hours awake keeping Nate company and getting some projects done.
Josh loves fire engines and for a while was always asking me to draw them for him. Well now he can draw his own, complete with a fireman. I was so impressed I had to take a picture.