Nobody like a Grandma

Grandma Pat came and spent the day with us last week. Although we hardly ever get to see her, she and the kids clicked instantly. Hope didn't want to leave her side. We had a great day at the Natural History Museum, opening late Christmas presents, taking lots of pictures (all of which Ben slept through), and just catching up. Hopefully someday we'll live much closer.

The Big 4!

Hope had her birthday. She's been so excited about it since about last February. She's been telling us about the fireworks they have for her and the great big party she was going to have. So on New Year's Eve she stayed up so we could take her down to watch the syncronized fireworks off of the hotels on the strip. We got to officially wish her happy birthday as we put her to bed totally exhausted, but she had made it. We had a fun family party for her on her birthday and she got to have her first friend party a week later. We had seven friends, two of their younger brothers, four other parents, and a great time. Notice the mountain of balloons behind her with her cake.. I asked Tony to do the balloons and he claims he didn't realize I hadn't meant the whole 80 count bag. Needless to say our house was full and I had a battle with Hope for the next two weeks convincing her to let me get rid of any of them.

Hope the Dancer

Hope had her very first recital. It was for her tap and jazz class and she did amazing. She knew all of the steps, and the gymnasium full of people didn't even phase her. It kind of made me wonder if she could really be my daughter to be so comfortable in the spotlight. Anyway, she was adorable and the whole thing helped me realize how grown up she is getting. They did their jazz dance to "We're the Doodlebops" and then waited patiently for all of the other ages to perform so they could tap to "Santa Clause is Coming to Town", now her favorite song.

Air Show

A couple of weeks ago we went to Nellis Air Force Base for the air show. I'm pretty sure this was a dream come true for Tony. We got to see the Stealth Fighter, and Predator which is flown by remote, amazing. The thunderbirds were very cool. We had a great time, all of us but Ben... It was so loud, I think he was trying to match the noise as he screamed.

Notice the side of the plane between us...my motivation for dieting.

Halloween

We got to be in Escalante for Halloween this year and I was so excited to be there for the annual tradition to mass produce homemade doughnuts. Every year I miss that, and it was so fun to get to help with that again. There is nothing like those homemade doughnuts, just ask every kid in Escalante, parents to for that matter. We made 30 dozen. Lots of work, lots of fun. The kids of course loved trick-or-treating. The nice thing about Escalante is the houses are far enough apart that you get to walk off everything you're about to eat.

The kids love their Grandpa Keven, he's great with them. See what I was saying about the faces. :)

That's Hope under that mask. Ben doesn't know what to think. It goes well with her princess dress though.

Fun in the Leaves

We loved the fall weather while we were in Escalante and everything that comes with it. Under all of those leaves are Ben's typical fists full of cars. Once they started playing he let go and then realized they were still in there somewhere, then came the fun search for "treasure"(they are to Ben anyway).

Emilee and Lehi

We've had lots of fun since I last posted. Emilee and Lehi got married, and Hope got to be the flower girl. That came with some confusion. After she figured out (and got over the disappointment) that she wasn't going to turn into a flower, she was so excited, and she did such a good job. It just didn't last quite long enough. Emilee and Lehi are a great couple and it was fun to get to share a special weekend with them. They are both lucky.

If Hope knows her picture is being taken, she has a very hard time not pulling a funny face, I'm pretty sure that come from Tony's side (Grandpa Keven)!!