Video For Derek's Reflection Project

Dallan is an a Chinese immersion program at his school.  At first I wasn't that interested, but after having several people, including his teachers tell me I was crazy not to do it, I decided it might be a good challenge for him.  I am so glad I did it.  He has a cute little teacher straight from China and half of every classroom day is spent learning only in Chinese.  Last night they put on a Chinese New Year program.  It was very cute!

Crazy Hair day

 

Every year my boys look forward to crazy hair day during red ribbon week at their school.  This year I remembered to wait on the hair cuts so we could go all out.  This is what we came up with.  :o)

New family pictures

So we finally broke down and took a family picture, or actually my good friend came over and snapped one for us.  It's been fun playing with the camera again.

Merry Christmas (for our grandmas and grandpas)

This is what we do on a long Sunday afternoon.  If I were more tech savvy this video would be a little more HD quality, but it is what it is.  :o)  We had fun!

Happy Birthday Tom!!

By far the weirdest and coolest $5 I've ever spent online.  Happy Birthday Honey!!! Thanks for being an awesome dad, husband and friend!!!

Baby Blessing, Brothers, Broken Arm and the Bolt

Karlie's blessing day, we had lots of family and lots of fun.  Wish we would have gotten more pictures of everyone, but I am terrible at taking pictures when company is here.

Dallan fell while using our rolling office chair as a ladder.  Broke his right radius.  Poor guy.  At least he is learning to write Chinese this year so it doesn't make much difference with his left hand.  :)

Jace LOVES Karlie now. He spends lots of time trying to make her smile and bringing her toys. 

Karlie's cute smile

Almost 3 months

Derek, Derek, Derek doin' the bolt.

I love this picture

Karlie at 3 weeks

Dallan's new pics

And I have to post these new portraits I took of Dallan a few weeks ago, he is such a cutie!

She's HERE!!!

 Karlie Jane joined our family last Tuesday the 3rd!  She is so adorable and cuddly! She was a whopping 10lbs even and was 21" long. She has lots of curly hair which is this beautiful light brown, silvery color.
 

 

I think she looks JUST like Dallan when he was born, except with darker hair.

   

And, as promised, here are some pics of our new house.  We have the kids rooms mostly done, and Tom has been working hard on our crazy yard. 

Front

Front

Half of the backyard

Living Room

Entry

Dining

2nd dining

Jace's roon

Derek/Dallan Room

Karlie's Room

Almost Here....

As usual, I am as big as a house now, but totally worth it.  :o)  Just a few more days...

And we are all settled in our new place, now.  It is a LOT more space, and the ward and neighborhood has been really good to us.  It still will take a while to feel like "home" I think, and I will miss our old friends, but it is so nice to be able to do things like walk around the kitchen table and have enough room to set a blow dryer down on the bathroom vanity.  :o)  The yard is so big it kind of stresses me out, but I haven't lifted a finger in it so far, so I can't complain.  Tom has been doing everything, he is AWESOME!!!  I'll post some pictures of the house when we finish up a couple things.

Big Life Changes Ahead!!!

I have been so busy that I haven't posted about some very big changes coming up in our lives soon.

First and Foremost.....

WE ARE HAVING A BABY GIRL!! Due around July 9th. So excited and so nervous! I have no idea what it will be like to have a daughter, but I guess I will figure it out. The pregnancy hasn't been too bad so far, minus all the crazy flu bugs at the start. Now I'm feeling fine and getting huge and trying to figure out a girl name.

Also....

We are moving! Just across town, but it's still a big change for us. I love our little house, our neighborhood, our ward, the school....everything, but we would like to have a little more room. Mostly in the kitchen. And it would be nice to have more than 3 inches of counter space in a bathroom for a change. Since interest rates are so low we thought it might be a good time to look for a bigger place. We've been looking for quite a while and finally found something we agreed on. It's not anything new or fancy, an older rambler like the one we're in, and the outside could probably use a little updating, but the inside is nice and it has a LOT more room so that will be really nice. It even has extra bedrooms and I'm thinking of using one of them as an art classroom to start teaching kids beginning drawing classes. Just an idea, but I think it might work. The yard is a lot bigger, too. Which seems a little overwhelming right now, but the kids will love it.

Our current house was listed and sold in 4 days, so that was great! We move around May 24. The kids are excited but I really wish they could stay in the same school.

Jace's New Pic

Merry Christmas

Halloween

So we didn't get any Halloween pictures this year as our camera battery was dead. :o( I'm really tempted to make the kids dress up again today just to take a picture, but as it took Tom and I a good 10 minutes to wrestle a kicking and screaming Jace into his little cowboy outfit, I don't really want to try again. He screamed last year when we put a costume on him, too. I was hoping he would outgrow it by this year. He was happy, though, when he figured out what "trick or treating" was all about people loading you up with candy. :o)

Dallan was a fireman for the Carnival, then Harry Potter for trick or treating (he decided the Fireman suit was too uncomfortable). Derek was a viking. They were really cute and excited. Having little kiddos makes holidays so much fun.

Temporarily Un-facebooked

Just a notice that I am no longer on Facebook, so if any of you out there try to contact me that way, don't think I have ditched you as a friend. Just took a break. :o)

For Maria

This is a post especially for my friend Maria B., whose blog I enjoy reading from time to time but if ever I try to post a comment it tells me I am not authorized. Just letting you know I'm still thinking about ya and enjoy reading about your cute fam! :o)

Piano Recital

We just had our first piano recital. I think it went really well and the kids seemed to enjoy it. I have eight students currently, plus my Derek and Dallan.

Here are some videos of the boys playing their songs. They were a little nervous but they did a great job. And Dallan got a few extra laughs. :o)