The kids

It seems like the kids are always doing something which will require me to update my blog. I hope I'll be able to keep it pretty current. Well, this month, Sammi had to memorize a speech by Sojourner Truth and present it in class dressed up like her. We did our best, but Sojourner Truth was a slave that spoke at a woman's rights rally? or something like that. Sammi wanted to be as authentic as possible, and since I couldn't make her black, she wanted cuts on her arms like she'd been whipped. I told her that was beyond my makeup capablilities and she had to settle for a few bruises. Well, to say that Sammi really got into her part is probably an understatement. She said that at one point during her speech, she even pounded on a kid's desk to emphasize her point. When I asked her if everyone liked it, she said, "I felt like a star! Everyone was giving me high fives, trying to give me their pretzels, you know, and throwing flowers at me..." At this point I had to ask, "They were throwing flowers at you?" She smiled big and said, "Well, no, but it felt like it in my mind."

This past week, Noah had the Blue and Gold banquet for his cub scouts. They had a lot of food and everyone got to play some games. Our whole family had a great time. Noah even got his wolf patch and one gold arrow patch as well. I had forgot my camera, so you will have to look at the snapfish link on the side to see the pics that a friend took for me that night.

Kassi and Jessi are into dressing up and tricking mommy. One day Jessi told me to look for Kassi, and it wasn't until I looked under a big pile in the closet that I found her. Kassi has also discovered the layered look. She layers all her dress up clothes on all at once which kind of lends itself to the bag lady look as well.

Our New Addition to Our Family -- Meet Spike

At the beginning of February, we were able to bring home our new black lab. Mike's brother, Matt, has two labs, one black and one white. He told Noah two years ago that when they had puppies, he would get the first pick. So in Dec. when they had 10 puppies, Noah made sure he was on the list to get one. Uncle Matt saved the only black male for Noah, and he was eccstatic. After several times visiting Spike, we were finally able to bring him home. We are still trying to train him, but he is being stubborn. But he is really lovable, and just wants to sit in my lap. Which is going to get harder, the bigger he gets.

January 2007

Our January highlights mostly consist of our vacation to Monterey, CA to visit my sister Tiffany and her family. It just so happened that we weren't the only ones she invited to see her over New Year's weekend. My mom, step-dad, brothers, and sister-in-law all came as well. There were 18 of us in Tiffany's house. To say the least, it was an adventure. We had lots of fun staying up late into the night playing games, and we made sure to take lots of family pictures, since it isn't too often that my mom has all her kids together at one time. Most of the family left after New Year's weekend, but we stuck around to see more of the sights. (We had to make it worth our 12 hour drive.) We went to the Oakland Temple where my brother Jason got sealed to my mom and Glen. The next day we went whale watching and deep sea fishing at Monterey. Well, really Mike, Noah, and Keyth went deep sea fishing while the rest of us went whale watching. It was so much fun. I would have given anything at that moment to have a really good zoom lens for my camera. As it was, all you can see in my pictures is a big puff of water. The kids loved it. Sammi was a little nauseous, but Jessi seems to be at home on the sea. While the rest of us had to hold on to the rail to walk, Jessi was running on deck like it was standing still. Later that night, we had sand dabs, that the guys caught, they also brought home about 8 dungeness crab. We cooked it all up and had a big meal. The next day we went to San Francisco and met up with Mike's brother, Mark and his friend Brian. They took us on the grand tour of San Francisco. We went on a boat tour around the bay that took us under the Golden Gate Bridge and around Alcatraz. It was really informative and quite beautiful. Then we went to the Aquarium under the Bay. They simulate you being under the ocean, it was really cool. Then of course we finished our tour up at Ghiradelli Square with some nice hot cups of hot chocolate. They have this thing called liquid chocolate, which of course I had to get, it was basically melted chocolate chips that you drink, yep I gots a bit tipsy, but it was worth it. That was the highlights of our trip. Course my sister is probably wondering by now why I didn't mention my niece's first birthday yet. I just wanted to make you wonder, Tiff. My niece Annabella, who is of course adorable, turned one while we were there and the kids loved playing with her. She loved her aunt Nikki too of course.

I'm still working on getting pictures on my blog, but for now, I will just send you a link to Snapfish for all our vaction pictures. There is alot, so you will probably just want to scroll through them real quick. At the end are all the family pictures that we took across the street from Tiffany's house in front of a golf course. We thought the scenery was good enough. Well be sure to tell me what you all think of my new blog, I will try to be more current on it from now on.

We have a Blog!!

After much hassling from my sister, I finally started a blog. I was doing a family newsletter each month, but now I can update our blog more often.