Birthday boy

Kurt turned 2 yesterday. What a beautiful day outside. It was 65 degrees. One of those days where you remember that it's not always going to be wet and cold outside. I was craving springtime and all the beauty that comes with it. We went on our first stroller ride in a long time and brought Daisy along with. Then we ate lunch at McDonalds. Kurt is all about trucks right now. All vehicles are trucks...trains, vans, cars, motorcycles. According to Kurt, Dad has a truck (Honda Civic) and so do I (minivan). He even calls the movie Cars...Trucks.

Growing...

Derek came home from school the other day and I looked at his shoes. His toes were sticking out of a hole in the front. He literally grew out of his shoes at school. We went to the shoe store...

Sunrise Sunset

Nicole turned 12 a week ago. Everyday I love her more.

The words from one of my favorite musicals

Fiddler on the Roof comes to mind as I think about her growing older...

Is this the little girl I carried?

Is this the little girl at play?

I don't remember growing older.

When did she?

When did she get to be a beauty?

When did she grow to be so tall?

Wasn't it yesterday when she was small?

Sunrise, sunset

Sunrise, sunset

Swiftly flow the days.

Seedlings turn overnight to sunflowers,

Blossoming even as we gaze;

Sunrise, sunset

Sunrise, sunset

Swiftly fly the years.

One season following another

Laden with happiness and tears.

Why we have a dog...

That is why we have a dog.

All I wanted for Christmas

Those who know me well know that I am a big Michael Jackson fan. All I wanted for Christmas this year was Michael Jackson's music video collection. Love it!

A fresh new look for a fresh new year

I love before and after pics. Here's Nicole before her haircut...

and here she is after I cut her beautiful golden locks...
I love this daughter of mine who is going to be in young womens in two weeks!!!

A very merry Christmas Eve

For Christmas Eve we went to Estacada to be with Grandma and Grandpa Baird and Brig and Ty's family. We had the traditional beef steak pie then did the nativity and read Candle in the Forest.

Seeing the Lights

We met Grandma and Grandpa Baird at the Colton lights.

Kurt loved the trains...really loved them!

Tyra and Brigham's kids were there for some cousin fun.

Nathan, Derek and cousin Lliam doing a little miniature golfing.
Three happy snowmen.

Happy Birthday to Dad

Happy Birthday Daddy! We love you.

Finding the perfect tree

One of our favorite family outings of the whole year is going to a Christmas tree farm and cutting our own tree. This year a nice mexican man with a chain saw offered to cut ours down. It was awesome.

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Finally

Today Kurt started talking. He said about a dozen words that he has never said before including...apple, Elmo, moon, truck, hot, ball,cracker and Daisy. Yay!

Veteran's Day Primary Activity

For our Primary Activity we decided to do a service project on Veteran's Day. I put this video together
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Em5OkOeXm2Q to show the kids, then we wrote letters and put packages together for some brothers in our ward serving in Iraq and also thank you cards for the men and women in our ward who are Veterans. The kids wore red white and blue and decorated patriotic cupcakes. Can I just say I LOVE saying the Pledge of Allegiance with children. It was a beautiful experience to be involved with.

For Sale

Our house is officially for sale. In this market it'll probably have a sign out front for a while, but the ball is officially rolling. We hope to be able to buy a couple acres about 10 minutes away. Same ward. Same school...different surroundings...deer and forest instead of wandering cats and stop signs. It will be awesome if it all works out. If not, we're good here too. We'll wait and see!

Halloween

Halloween this year was a bit different for us because Kurt was sick with the flu and to get him into his monkey costume (even for the pictures) was not an option so here's Nicole as an army girl, Nathan as Darth Maul, Derek as a jawa from Star Wars, Lauren as Dorothy and Kurt as a toddler who is sick and gets his pacifier whenever he wants.

Star Wars in Concert

Dave and I took the kids to Star Wars in Concert at the RoseGarden last week with my parents. It was an amazing orchestra with a huge screen with scenes from all the movies. The guy who played C3PO was there narrating. It was awesome. The kids were in Galactic heaven.

Ramen noodles

I came into the kitchen looking for Kurt and this is what I found...Are you hungry Kurt?...

Woolly Bears?

Anyone else not know that these caterpillars are referred to as woolly bears? My boys found these at school today and begged to bring home their little woolly bears. So they brought them home for the night and set them free the next day.

Baptism

Nicole's good friend Ashlynn has been taking the missionary discussions for the past month and has been coming to church with us for 4 months now. What a wonderful blessing it has been for our family to see her testimony grow and to see her so excited to be baptized.