My Beautiful Eight Year Old

Kristen took Isabelle's 8 yr old baptism pictures. They turned out beautifully! Izzy is excited for her special day on Saturday. Scott got to interview her which was pretty neat for her. We'll be sharing her baptism with our neighbor and friend Rilan Sigua. Isabelle asked Ryan to speak and wants the family to sing. It should be a beautiful day.

My Very Best Girls

We had Grandma and Grandpa over for dinner to celebrate Izzy and Grandpa's birthdays. We love having them over. They always manage to make everyone feel loved and special. We had a delicious dinner and Grandma provided yummy desserts.

Crazy Hair Day

We've had crazy hair day at school several times but somehow we've always missed it. The kids were excited to finally get to do their crazy hair. I had purchased colored hair spray after Halloween, so this was the end result. They were quite pleased. Mental note - spray their hair outside next time...the counter was tinted pink for several days after. Luckily they washed off.

Gingerbread Houses

One of the kids favorite activities at Christmas-time is making Gingerbread Houses. We usually buy a kit and work on it together. So far that's worked well but this year I figured Ashley would want in on the action so I made her a house to decorate using graham crackers. She enjoyed making her own and sampling the candy (of course). We discovered that the red frosting smelled funny (a lesson we learned from Grandpa Allen) but Ash refused to smell it. There was giggling, tasting, and silliness. Ryan also had to model his thinking pose. We love Christmas!!

Temple Square

We went to Temple Square this year during the day. We enjoyed walking around (even thought it was cold), checking out the view from the top of the Joseph Smith Building, and seeing Ashley's temple. She loves to see her temple and has decided that her favorite song is "I Love to See the Temple".

Ashley's Lips

This girl is truly a girl after my own heart...she loves lip gloss, or "yip gossies" as she called it for a while. Now she calls it lip stick but usually she is saying it without moving her lips (because you know that if you talk normal all that beauty wipes right off) so it's very hard to understand.

She also has decided that she isn't beautiful or cute or pretty unless she is dressed up. Otherwise she'll say, "I not beautiful, I in my pajamas!!" or whatever she happens to be wearing(or not wearing) that isn't up to snuff. She is a delightful little dazzler.

Singing Wicked

For our ward music night this past Saturday my friend Chelsea Frandsen and I put together a medley of Wicked songs.  I sang as Glinda and she sang as Elpheba (?).  We had been working on it for a while and we had such are marvelous time.

My Ryan also played "Axel F" on the piano.  He wasn't very pleased with his performance and is hoping to redeem himself at his recital next week.  He worked really hard to prepare himself for this performance and he loves playing this song.  He is quite the talented pianist.

Isabelle did a short clogging number with Hannah Fairbanks and her teacher, my friend, Bethany Hulse.  She did beautifully.  I love to watch her dance and she is really enjoying it.

Scott and I sang the song "Lucky" (sung by Jason Mraz and Colbie Caillat).  We have been working on that song for several months.  However, I still forget the words so fortunately our friends the Betham's brought their fancy karaoke setup so I was able to carefully cheat using her screen off to the side.  Scott knew it perfectly and sang really well.  I enjoy singing with him and in truth, I'm lucky to be in love with my best friend.

Unfortunately, our camera ran out of memory halfway through our song, sigh.  I'll just say that it was beautiful. (I'm sure)