Share the Love

The High School does a Share the Love fundraiser every year for a family in need.  They have lots of events and  stuff.  Nicole was voted Share the Love princess for the sophomores.....and since she can officially go on group dates now she was asked to the dance by her friend Will and they met over at our house for pizza before the dance and I took them to the dance.  They had a great time.  I'm not so sure I am ready for this new phase of Nicole's life (dating!!!), but she has a good head on her shoulders and some really great friends. 

A few family pictures

 This year we didn't quite get around to the family pictures that we usually do, but at Dave's work picnic they had a photographer there so we got a few nice pictures.  Since I wasn't really prepared for it being a photo shoot we aren't all matchy like I would have liked;) but they turned out very nice and very real (the boys wearing their under armour and nike shirts). 

I love this family of mine!

Baker baker pumpkin roll maker

Lauren and I have a pumpkin roll tradition on Christmas Eve.  With all the fun and activities we didn't get to bake up these yummies until the day after Christmas.  It was still delicious!  Lauren is a baker and loves tradition!  

           

Check out the cute apron and matching bow tie that my sister Tess made.  Super cute!!!  She sells bow ties called Timberbeasts and she made Lauren's into a hair bow.  And just a note, Derek is wearing his Timberbeast in the previous post as part of his munchkin costume.  Which by the way he wears to church every few weeks and lets out his inner beast during Primary.
http://thetimberbeast.com/

Singing Christmas Tree

This year the theme for the High School Singing Christmas Tree was Christmas in Oz.  The Primary was invited  for the fourth year now to be the featured children's choir, however instead of doing one out of the four performances we were asked to do all four plus a dress rehearsal!  Which equals craziness!    It turned out to be so much fun though even through all the chaos,  and the kids had a great time dressing up like munchkins!  The whole performance was done so well.  Nicole's best friend Brooke did a fabulous job playing the part of Dorothy (yay Brooke!) and Nicole played the piano for a few of the choir numbers and had a solo.   Nathan snuck out of being involved at all since he's not in high school or in primary.  He was laughing all the way to his basketball games and not sorry a bit to not have to dress up and sing in front of hundreds of people.  It was a fun way to start the season and really got us in the Christmas mood:)  My kids are pretty cute munchkins I must say.

 

 

What a great picture;)

Nicole in the talent show

Here's my daughter singing in the talent show.  Love her to pieces!
You can also catch it here on youtube....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jW1cUgJrZTU

A new smile

 So our little Kurt has been getting some loose teeth lately.  Here he is with one bottom one out and the next bottom tooth super loose.......and then we go down to the next picture.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Our little man a couple weeks later after a very rough day of falling down at school and taking a small bite out of the cold hard pavement.  Two teeth out that were never meant to come out so soon....gone.  My little boy's smile will never be quite the same.  And judging from the roots that were still completely on his baby teeth, he may be a toothless wonder for a year or two.

 He was such a trooper.  Especially considering all the B-L-O-O-D that came along with the fall.

It's all good.  When I asked him how he fell down so hard just walking in line out to recess he stated very simply, "Well, I was doing the Moonwalk, because my friends don't know how to do it and then I turned around and fell on the ramp."  My little baby doing the Moonwalk for his friends!!!!!
So proud!!!!!

A little Halloween madness.  Halloween is not what it use to be around here.  We use to plan months in advance and have costumes and hair and makeup all ready for the big day.  Now we just go to the dress-ups and see what we can come up with:)  So much fun!  Lauren took it all very seriously and tried on multiple multiple options.  Undecided up until an hour before we left finally deciding on a snow fairy.  Notice the older boys doing tip toes again!

Our Rainbow Girl

Happy Birthday Lauren!!!



Nicole worked on this rainbow trail, starting at the girls bedroom on down the stairs, for over an hour:)

Love you 9 year old !!!
 

First day...

All our kids have officially started school.  That means for the first time in 15 years I am home by myself for 6 hours every day! Wow.  I never thought this day would come!  I sobbed like a baby all the way home from dropping off Kurt at school.  But of course he loves kindergarten and his new teacher and friends and recess and music and art and on and on.  He loves it.  My kids are growing up.  Dang it. How do I slow this process down?  Look at Nathan's feet.  He and Derek have this thing where they stand on their tip toes at the last second to try to look much taller than the other.  They are both on their tip toes for this one.

 Here is Kurt with his AWESOME teacher Mrs. Ally.

 Bring out legos and Kurt is a happy boy.  Insta-happy.

 Here's my high school sophomore getting ready to go to the football game and dance.  My baby's all grown up and savin China...can anyone name that movie??

Happy Birthday

This is one of my new favorite music videos-  Thanks to my sister Tess for showing me!!!!  Happy Birthday to Michael Jackson today!  This is a video worth watching:)

Tribute to my piano students

We recently had our spring piano recital!  It was lots of fun and the kids worked really hard on their songs.  I won't be teaching next year so I am really going to miss all my sweet piano students.  They are the best!  Miss you guys:)  Of course I still have my own kids to teach and this year we will get more practicing in.  Right guys?

 

 

 

 

Aren't they beautiful.