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.
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!!!
Three happy snowmen.
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.
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. 
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.
Are you hungry Kurt?...
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. 
Lauren turned 5 on Tuesday. She had a Hello Kitty party and invited her close little friends. What a sweet group of girls. They decorated cupcakes and ate popcorn and then they played outside (thank goodness for beautiful 75 degree fall days). We had a great time.
Audrey, Hannah, Lauren, Mari, Emily and Sarah 
We had her family party after dinner. Brigham and Tyra's kids came over with Grandma Baird and Grandpa Pederson also came over. Here's Lauren with cousin Nedra enjoying some cake with way too much frosting. 
Charity and Artyom came for a visit last week. It was so great to see them. We had cousin Sofia sleep over with Lauren one night. Here's the slumber cousins all ready for bed
