Music

This month was full of concerts, performances, and fun.

Choir

and Orchestra

were the main events.

Tinkerbell's big day!

This week we celebrated Ella's 3rd birthday.

The highlight of the night was when Tinkerbell

and Queen Clarion joined the party.

Oh the joy of another Tinkerbell movie.


We had a green, lime cake this time with Tinkerbell on top.

Check out what happens when you put candles in a hot cake!

What a fun birthday!!!

Spooky

Halloween is always fun! This year we were haunted by

a pretty Witch

a scary vampire

and a sweet fairy that wanted to fly

but she quickly found out


nothing is as good as pixy dust.


No fear! Everyone was happy when the candy started rolling in!!!

Corn Maze

After spending the day with Randi getting pampered, the family decided it would be fun to go to the Corn Maze.

There were 6 check points throughout the maze. Each place had a different hole punch to mark our way through, on our cards.

Dad was so good at directing us through the maze, we all wanted to do more so we stopped by the Go-Carts.

Since the Go-Carts were to big for Ellie, we stopped by the tricycles too.

Even the big kids got in on that action!

Ellie stopped to talk to the cow before...

she milked it.

Everyone gave it a try.

This is the kind of cow us city folk milk.


We rounded out our night with a ride on the cow train.

with Ryder in front


and the girls on

THE END!

Girls Day Out!!

Randi has been bugging me for a few weeks now to get her hair cut. We have talked and dreamed of how it should be cut. Jokingly I told her I thought it should be only a couple inches on one side tapering to a long 8 or 9 inches on the other. She wasn't to happy with that. So I came up with another idea! Short, again only a couple of inches, in the back and longer in the front. That was it! She stuck to that style of haircut and begged to go to the salon every time she got a chance.

Finally, last Saturday morning, after a lot of tears while trying to brush the knots out, we talked Dad into the idea. When we walked in, we knew exactly what we were going to tell the stylist, and were hoping she could see the vision of what was needed in this little girls life without getting scared. But, as I started telling her what we wanted, Randi pointed to the hairstylist sitting just to the side of her and said "That is what I want!". The poor stylist got a scared look on her face when both Randi and I started getting excited that it could/would be that short. It only took her seconds to look over at the stylist and ask her to take over.

We were lucky! The stylist did a fantastic job!

But... she didn't look as good as the stylist looked... what was missing? Oh yea! The big BLOND spot. hummmm now what? With many people waiting for the stylist to get to them, we chose to leave and come back in an hour! Yep, we were taking the plunge! Two hours later we got....

Then had a great lunch at Appleby's! What a fun girls day out!

Reading Under The Stars!

Our family joined Ryder's first grade class in a night of 'Reading Under the Stars'. It took us a while to get Ella past the playground, but when we finally all got there we had a good time reading.

I am a bit slow some times and this was one of those times. I didn't pack a blanket or snacks... but we had our flashlight. So we found a table that wasn't being used and gathered around with our flashlight to read. When I asked Ryder for the book, he gave me a blank look. Uhhhh... Like Mother like Son I suppose! Luckily he had some good friends that lent us a few books to read. I think it was better then taking our own. We got to enjoy some new books.

The Beautiful Ella!

These fabulous photos of Ella were taken by the amazing Kara!

She needed a model to show off the beautiful earrings Caitlin made.

You can buy these earrings... I'll have to get you the site.

You can follow Kara on her blog http://illuminatedmoments.blogspot.com/ and on facebook http://facebook.com/illuminatedmoment.

We are so happy to have Kara around!

Our Wonderful Dad!

Kara, from Illuminated Moments, also took these incredible pictures of Jim.

He is the best Dad anyone could ever hope for!

We love it when he is around!!

The Amazing Randi!

My beautiful Randi is growing up so fast!

Kara, from Illuminated Moments, came over and took these a while ago. I am just slow at getting them posted.

My Randi is fun, loving, kind, happy, smart,

and Amazing!

Faith, Prayer, and Family

When I was young, I remember my family kneeling along my Grandparents couch, praying. We weren't just praying for anything! We were praying for a miracle. Being so young I don't remember all of the tiny details, but I do remember the sound of my Grandpa's voice, the tears running down everyones faces, and knowing without a doubt that my Heavenly Father would take care of it. There were many other times I remember seeing and experiencing blessings, kneeling with the family, and knowing without a doubt that everything would be okay because we had asked our Heavenly Father for help.

Over the past few years, as my kids have gotten older, I have wondered if I would ever have the opportunity to teach them about prayer. I know that teaching them to say their prayers every morning and night, before meals, and making sure we have our two family prayers a day is teaching them something. But nothing can compare to the experience of a family joining together to ask for something as important as a life. Our family is small and there just isn't much that happens. Until a few weeks ago.

It started with Chai, my nephew. His appendix burst and he ended up being flown to University Medical Center in Salt Lake City. Living so far away, there wasn't much we could do for him or his family. So while we talked as a family about all the things we could do, we finally decided that a special fast and prayer for him would be the best. We knelt along our couch...

A couple of weeks later, Randi got a cold. Being the great Mom that I am, I gently consoled her and told her that she would be well in a few days. One night, I even told Jim that the fever she had developed would burn it out of her and she would be fine. I finally gave in and took her to the doctor when she cried all night because her ears hurt. Four hours, three prescriptions, two chest x-rays, talks of sending her to the hospital, and a diagnosis of pneumonia later, we were lucky to be heading home. Really, she wasn't all that sick... Randi became the main subject of our prayers and was better by the time Jim got back into town. A blessing was no longer needed... or so I thought!

At her recheck appointment a couple of days later, all the doctor could do was shake his head. This time we left with more prescriptions and orders to "stay in bed!!" -- HUH? ... and we had missed our opportunity for a blessing because Jim was already off again, this time to Milwaukee. But, we kept kneeling along our couch as a family... The next appointment was just a few days later and she was finally improving.

On the heals of getting the good news about Randi, we received news that Derek, my cousins son, was hurt while scuba diving. With Jim still in Milwaukee, I gathered my kids around and told them what happened with Derek. The first thing Ryder said was "Mom, we need to say a prayer!" Although Derek has a long hard road ahead of him, he is improving and I believe that all the fasting and prayers for him haven't gone unnoticed.

In a crazy sort of way, I appreciate the trials we have gone through the past little while. I appreciate our extended family allowing us to learn through their trials. I am thanking my Heavenly Father tonight for giving us a chance to kneel along our couch as a family.

Boys will be Boys!

Ryder had the ride of his life this week.

Jim called to tell me the party he was supposed to go to that day had been canceled but they had given him two tickets to the Rockies v Dodgers game that night. He wondered if Ryder could come up and go with him. I found a flight leaving at 3, so I threw some clothes into a suitcase, and ran to the school.

Fully expecting, Ryder to say NO WAY! After all, he is only 6. I got him out of class to explain what was going on and asked him if he wanted to go. I about fell of my chair when he jumped at the idea of going and ran back into his room to tell his teacher and gather his stuff.

Where did my little boy go?

We made it to the airport just in time, got through security, and to the plane with enough time to eat a hot dog and board. It was exciting to be able to walk all the way to the gate to see him off. I tried to give him a hug, but with 2 cute girls traveling with him (also unaccompanied) he wasn't going to have any of that. All I got was "Bye Mom".

Just before they pushed back the plane the gate attendant called me. Knowing he wouldn't go without me I said "Did he melt down?", She said "No, he lost his tooth". She took Randi down the Jetway to get his tooth. Shortly after, they were on their way.

(second window from the front)

Yep! This crazy mom cried!

and so did his sisters.

Dad was there to pick him up and they made it to the game!

Look at the missing tooth!


What a night! They called me after the game singing "Take me out to the ball game".


The next day they stopped by to see Ryder's friend Riley. They checked him out of school for lunch.

of all places to go for lunch! Couldn't they have picked something better than McDonalds?

Ryder came home with a buck, proving the tooth fairy can find you anywhere!

Jim came home with my Ry, who I can't call my little boy any longer!

WHAT A FUN TRIP!