{ Winter Recap 2010 - Part IV }

Christmas morning!

Noah 1.5 - busy, busy Boy (nothing has changed!)

{Winter Recap 2010 - Part III}

Mary and Sterling were married in the Ochre Mountain Temple in December of 2010. We love a chance to go celebrate with family so we made the drive down. The sword Sterling is holding was their blade of choice to cut the cake. It was kinda fun!

Then the dancing began!

It was a fun day and always great to spend time with family and cousins!

On another day we visited Dan and Jessi's house. All the kids loved their personal petting zoo!

And we even got them all to sit for a picture... pretty amazing!












We of course saw the Hendershot's while we were in town.

Mitch patiently taught Tanner a little about chess.

{ Winter Recap - Part II }

We were lucky enough to have Grammy Sherri with us for Thanksgiving, when we also happened to get a lot of snow. Uncle Ian was supposed to fly in from Seattle, but because of all the snow the planes couldn't (or wouldn't) land. He was on two different flights that both turned back around after flying to the Pasco airport and flew all the way back to Seattle. Grammy Sherri finally just drove there to pick him up herself.

In any case, we went sledding the day before all that happened and we had a great time.

. . . well, most of us did. This was the most pleasant picture we got of Noah that day. He seemed to be thinking, "We've put on all this stuff and gone to all this trouble for this??" I thought he would get more of a kick out of sliding down the hill but he seemed unimpressed.

Hailey and Tanner, on the other hand, were into it.

Prep'in the board and sportin' the gear.

Sledding seemed to make them pretty happy!

{ Winter Recap - Part I }

I love summer. This spring was cold so I feel like I've been waiting an extra long time for the warmth to arrive. Now, I am doing my best to enjoy all the sticky, sweaty, glorious heat of the summer! However, I am trying to catch up on our blog chronologically so, though it's currently July, here are some glimpses of winter past . . .

I guess I do have something to look forward to next winter . . . these kids are pretty darn cute all bundled up playing in the snow!

{Fall Recap}

This was Hailey's first day of 1st grade! A big step for her and mom, to have her gone at school all day. She handled it great though; she was ready for this next big kid step!

Here's Ms. Elliot welcoming her to class.

It's kind of ironic that I am finally posting about this now, because tomorrow is Hailey's last day of 1st grade. (It's been way too long since I've posted!) She has had such a great year and learned so much! She thrives in school and we are so proud of the responsible young lady she is growing into. I can hardly believe how big she is getting! When Hailey was a tiny thing sitting the grocery cart, the little old ladies at the store always told me how quickly they grow up. I believe them. Childhood has a way of slipping gracefully through your fingers, as it should. I wouldn't want her not to progress, I just feel like I'm anxiously chasing a dancing ribbon in the breeze, propelled by my maternal questions: "Have I taught her enough to do it on her own? Will she make the right choices? Am I enjoying each day of her youth and innocence to the fullest?" It goes so quickly. One more school year gone.

. . . getting back on track . . .

Brandon and I celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary last September. For part of our date night, we decided to hike Badger Mountain. We laugh a little about that title due to our Utah and Idaho roots; if you can walk to the top and back down to the bottom in under an hour, it seems to be a bit more like a "hill" than a "mountain." But that's alright, we don't mind that Tri-Citian's take pride in their landmasses!

This kinda gives you a feel for the area: what's not sagebrush is farm land, unless your by the river. It's hard to see here, but the river is beautiful along with it's surrounding areas.

I miss real mountains, but it still felt good to hike to the top of something and glory in God's good earth.

Later in September, Hailey and Tanner got dressed up for the "Mustang Round-Up," a fair that the school puts on each year. (Their mascot is a mustang.)

They were supper excited to go, but apparently being a cowboy is very serious business.

We discovered a walking trail near the river here that we really enjoy. The river really is a redeeming part of the landscape here.

It's an adventure for the kids to explore this mini forest. (We did have to reassure them that there were no wolves or bears lurking among the trees.) It kinda reminds me of the gully near my house growing up that we used to hike through.

Follow the leader . . .

We always love a visit from Grandma!

(A little side note about Hailey's pose here: she was wearing brand new shoes and brand new pants so she already started the day feeling like a million bucks. At school, someone told her that she looked like a rock star. So she ended her day feeling like more than a million bucks -- she felt like a rock star! I think that added a little more sass to her pose; as if she needed any help striking a sassy pose!)

For Halloween we had a ninja . . .

a clone-trooper . . .

and a mini Clark Kent . . . (a repeat of Tanner's a couple years ago, but still cute!)

. . . a force to be reckoned with! (with or without Halloween costumes!)

p.s. Kalila didn't make it.

Kalila the Caterpillar - (Authored by Hailey)

Tanner found a caterpillar. I named it Kalila and put it into some tupperware with some grass, two rocks, and two branches with little leaves. A couple days later, I found Kalila

inside a cocoon on a rock. I will let it go when it is a butterfly.

The Gospel According to Tanner

A few weeks ago, we were sitting in sacrament meeting getting ready to sing "I Stand All Amazed." Tanner surprised us at the end of the intro by singing the last line of the chorus, "...oh, it is wonderful, wonderful to me." Then he turned to us with a smile and said, "Hey! It's the 'Oh Wonderful to Me' song!"

While praying for his lunch last week, Tanner added at the end of his prayer, "and thank you that Jesus lives far, far away so the bad guys don't know where to find Him."

We were reading scriptures one night and we were talking about being resurrected. At one point in the conversation Tanner slightly concerned stated, "But when we are resurrected, we won't wear shoes anymore!" Have you ever seen a painting of the resurrected Savoir wearing shoes? Neither has Tanner. I'm glad to know that he is paying attention.