Easter

We had fun decorating eggs with the missionaries(Elders Greene and Waite) after dinner today. David had green hands when he was done.

Amber carried the Easter egg theme into the cake she decorated for dessert. Great job! It was as delicious as it looks!

Spring Break 2009

So we decided to get away from the cold and go indoors for Spring Break. We drove the 3 and a half hours to Wisconsin Dells and played at waterparks for 3 days. We had a blast and the kids kept saying, "we need to bring Dad back here in the summer!" Poor Kelly had to work and couldn't join us. We stayed in a really nice condo with a jacuzzi tub which all of the kids took advantage of. There were 4 tv's, with cable. Now that we don't have cable, that made it even more special! There were two gas fireplaces which also kept the place cozy.

The waterparks were fun with two wave pools, lots of slides for all ages, a lazy river, a couple huge hot tubs and large buckets that dump a thousand gallons of water on top of you! The kids loved the black hole and hurricane slides that made you feel like you were getting flushed down a toilet! All in all it was a great week. We can't wait to go back and use the outdoor waterparks as well!

We finished off the trip with a game of lazer tag in downtown Wisconsin Dells.






For the last day of Spring Break the kids enjoyed a game of pretty, pretty princess, and David won! Now we are ready for the warm weather!

Liquid sunshine

In Oregon, liquid sunshine has a completely different meaning, but in the midst of this cold Minnesota winter, I have found something that brings a little sunshine and the promise of warm days ahead.  Lemonade!  I don't know what it is about this beverage, but it seems to make it a little summery even on the coldest days.  

David the movie star, director, technician, etc.

David loves to videotape himself on our computer.  Here are two funny videos he directed, starred in and edited.

Crazy photos

The kids love our photo booth feature on our i-mac. They come up with some crazy photos. Here is just a sampling.

Marissa and her twin

Megan as a fish

Amber and Megan

Megan

Negative David 

5 Kids swirled (the Jumanji effect?)

Steven the alien

Endure

I have decided that the way to describe winter in Minnesota is "Endure".  When I get really tired of having to bundle up every time I go outside, I try to remind myself that winter will end some day, maybe not soon, but it will end.  And then we get a day like today.  It was 42 degrees and Megan walked outside and said it felt like summer!
 Here is a picture of our van.  A majority of the cars on the road are just as filthy as our van, it only shows better on a white van!  It doesn't make sense to wash the van when sand and salt are constantly being splashed on to it. Also, the doors freeze shut if you wash the van when it is below 20 degrees.

Notice the dried up salt on the garage floor that has been building up over the last few months.
It is supposed to get back to the teens and below tomorrow, but we just have to remember, this too shall pass.

Minnesota teen passes driver test in snow storm!

Amber proved she is a true Minnesotan today. She passed her driving test with four inches of fresh snow and more falling! She almost postponed it until the weather was better, but decided to have a trial run anyway. She was so nervous, but she did great! I think the tester gave bonus points for trying to test in this weather. He mentioned a rolling stop that could have prevented her from passing, but he passed her anyway. She is floating now. She immediately texted her whole phone book on her cell phone to spread the news. Here are some pictures from the exciting event!

Wish me luck!

Waiting to start the test

Taking the test

"I did it!"

We are very proud of Amber.  She is a very good, safe driver.  Congratulations!!

Ice Skating

We went ice skating in downtown St. Paul on New Year's Eve. It was so cold! Only 6 degrees (that's Fahrenheit, not Celsius!) We were a little shaky, but it was fun!

Sledding

We decided to take Stephanie sledding, something she won't get to do in Texas very often. It was a blast!

Steven

Amber and David

Even Dad got in on the fun!


Megan
Marissa

Stephanie had a hard time going forward at first.


Can you tell we are having fun!

Christmas Day

We had a wonderful Christmas morning. David loved his very appropriate new shirt from his Hinton cousins.


Amber surprised us with beautiful artistically painted shirts. David got Curious George, Marissa got a butterfly themed shirt, Steven got a really cool tiger shirt, Megan's shirt was covered with images from the Twilight books, I got an amazing guitar shirt and Kelly got "the world's awesomest dad" shirt. We love them! Amber is very talented!




Thank you Amber! I love it!
Zoe even enjoyed her new candy cane bone!

Christmas Eve Fun

The kids got new homemade pajamas for Christmas. They loved them! I think they look great!


Here is our version of the Nativity Story with Aunt Stephanie. Mary holding baby Jesus (we don't seem to have any baby dolls anymore), Joseph, an angel, a couple shepherds and a wise guy!