Images of winter

This is what it looks like here after a big snow storm. This is winter in Minnesota!

David's letters

Marissa got the game "Bananagrams" for Christmas (it is kind of like scrabble). David spent a lot of time Sunday morning putting the letters in alphabet order and then knocking them down like dominoes.

We also worked on some simple words to read and then put together a special message!

Christmas morning

Christmas morning was enjoyed by all.

Christmas Nativity

Here are some pictures from our make shift nativity. David played Joseph and a shepherd, Marissa was Mary, Steven was a wise man, Megan was a shepherd with her sheep dog and Amber was an angel (see her holding up her halo?).

Christmas Eve Snow

Christmas Eve we got a good 7 inches of snow. The kids, and dog, had some fun in the heavy, wet snow.

We had to clear a path to get the van out.

Clearing the deck!

Megan got me with a snow ball!

Zoe loved to catch the snowballs in her mouth!

Time to take the mat down off of the trampoline!

December concerts

December is a time of concerts. David was a star in his preschool Christmas program. Steven played the trumpet in his band concert and Amber and Megan sang in their choir concert (Megan's picture didn't turn out).

Here is a video of Amber's choir singing 'Betelehemu', an African carol.

Decorating the tree

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it is time to decorate the tree! It is always fun to reminisce as we hang ornaments from years past and various countries. Good times.

Cousins in Kansas

We had a great weekend in Kansas for Thanksgiving. (thanks Larry and Heather!) The kids love to be with their cousins!

A pile of cousins!

Cousins at Moon Marble Company

Megan violinist

Megan did a great job at her symphony concert November 21.

Family picture time

The kids and pets before heading off for family pictures!

BYU Days remembered

When we moved to Minnesota we discovered a family in another ward in our stake who lived in the BYU 1st ward with us 18 years ago. We decided to take a group photo of our two families and send it in a Christmas card to our former bishop, along with a picture of us from long ago. Have we changed much? We have surely multiplied!


Maria, Kelly and Amber on Amber's blessing day in October 1992

On to the next season

Halloween is over and it is time to say goodbye to our pumpkins. This picture says it all!

Time to get ready for winter. I decided to put the Christmas lights up before I needed to use gloves and snow boots. Megan helped by putting the lights on the tree. She is always willing to climb a tree!
Now we will wait until Thanksgiving to turn them on! And then we won't take them down again until March, April or even May, depending on how the winter goes! Megan thinks we should just leave them up year round. An idea that is worth considering!

Fall choir concert

Amber and Megan had their fall choir concert this week. They both sang beautifully. I took a couple pictures from the night.
Megan sang in two choirs: the 9th grade all girl Choraliers and the mixed 9th-10th grade choir Varsity Edition.

Amber's choir, Valley Select Chorale; Amber is the beautiful young woman with her hair up. The 7th one from the right in the second row.

Greta, Shekinah and Marissa came to support the girls at their concert.

Halloween pumpkins

We found the regular pumpkins very hard to carve this year, but we did our best. Here are the finished products.

Steven's sad face pumpkin.

I don't think he really wanted it sad, but that is the only way the knife would go into the pumpkin; it was so hard!

Amber got very creative with her cinderella pumpkin (this was not made with a kit or anything!)

Marissa and David went with the scary look.

Megan made the best use of her pumpkins unique shape!

Marissa as a hatless witch, David as Darth Vader and Steven as ?

Happy Halloween!