Go Cougars!

Maddie prepared an excellent presentation on BYU for her English class' "college fair" yesterday.

There was a little drama due to the computer crashing over the weekend when her flash drive was installed, causing a glitch in the Power Point presentation that went along with her display, but...all's well that ends well.

This is one of the things I admire most about Maddie. Even though she would much rather be doing this...



...or reading, or dancing, or watching a movie, or almost ANYthing else...she always gets right to her homework and works on it till it's done. I never have to hound her about it.

No wonder she's such a good student.

Short Hair

Amy, Susan, and I are all sporting new "do's."

I was petrified to cut mine, but I'm glad I did. I can actually make it look fairly professional if I need to! Don't Amy and Susan look cute?

(Sorry about the tree "sprouting" from Susan's head. We need to learn to frame our photos better...)

Baby Martin

When we were in Mt. Pleasant we went over the mountain and saw Sam and Ashley's baby, Martin.



Isn't he cute?

His mommy looks pretty darn good too!

New Year in Mt. Pleasant

We spent a few days after Christmas in Mt. Pleasant. The kids had a great time playing in the abundant snow.


Aubrey in her snow gear.


Tyler WALLOWED in the snow. He LOVED it!


We used the new sled on the dirt mound in the side pasture.


Cousin Jenny spent the day and night before New Year's with us. She, Brian, Tyler, and Maddie made a very cool snow dragon named Herald in the front yard. Notice the egg he is guarding next to him.


Jenny and Aubrey dancing to beautiful music.


Marc and Sarah brought all the fixings for New Year's fondue.


It was delish!


Grandma S. also made some yummy chicken and dumplings.


The kids (Eliie, Ben, Aubrey, and Maddie) had fun playing with new Christmas toys and the Mt. Pleasant staples...


...and each other! (Tyler and Isabel.)




If you made it this far in the post you'll want to be sure and hear the "beautiful" music being created to ring in the new year. It's amazing what you can do with a crystal glass and a little Martinelli's or water! So much talent concentrated in one small family...

Happy New Year!

Christmas Kite

Christmas afternoon we went to the park and Brian flew his kite. I love this video, because we get so few days like this. It did rain a little, but while we were at the park it was just cloudy, windy, and cold. Almost felt spooky. The noise you hear is the kite flying through the air. Tyler thought it sounded like a dragon! It was all Brian and Dad could do to hold on to it. It is quite a feat to keep a kite up in this much wind. Also, Brian said, you have to count how many circles you do in one direction, then guide the kite back through the same circles and swoops in the opposite direction to keep it from getting all tangled up. We kept all the kids behind the kite flyers, as at this speed the kite could do real damage if it hit anyone!

Twilight Quilt

Remember Julie's present I was so excited about? She is totally obsessed with the Twilight books and movie, so I made her this quilt.


It is a Trip Around the World pattern with photos from the movie and book covers appliqued onto some of the squares. Maddie copied and enlarged the TWILIGHT letters from the book and I appliqued those across the middle. My friend Georgia quilted it on her longarm machine and it turned out pretty cool!


This is what Julie looked like when she opened the quilt!


I told her it was the next best thing to being wrapped in Edward Cullen's arms!

Merry Christmas!

It has come and gone...and we sure had a good time!

Sydney, waiting for Santa, in her curlers for dinner with Grandma & Grandpa N.


The traditional "waiting on the stairs" photo. The "kids" are never allowed to come down till the tree-lights are on and Mom is ready with the camera!


Sometimes this causes stress...


Dad drives us crazy, carefully opening each of his gifts with a sharpened pocketknife!


Grandma D. was so excited to get here - she came with "bed head!" (She claims the WIND did it on the way over!)


Amy made Julie and Ally really cool Twilight bookmarks. (They were kinda hopin' there were tickets to Forks, Washington in there :)


Maddie and Amy got new bikes for Christmas.


Other than almost blowing away in the wind, they really enjoyed them! They have been on several rides already, even in our unseasonable cold!


Merry Christmas everyone! Hope yours was as great as ours was.