Sky Patterns

Yesterday morning, I went to let Toby (the dog) outside to go to the bathroom and saw this beautiful pattern in the sky. Of course I had to take a photo of it. We live underneath a flight route going to the airport, but these contrails look like the super high flying planes, and possibly just some clouds. Sooo pretty....

We had a fun adventure last night and I forgot the camera, but I did grab the video camera. Now...if I can figure out how to get video from my camera to the computer, I'll post some footage. Teresa (or anyone else), if you have any tips, I'd GREATLY appreciate them. :) Thanks!

12 Years

Jon and I have been married for 12 years today. The concept of time has really hit me the last little while. It seems like just yesterday was our wedding day, yet it seems like we've been married forever. I can't imagine NOT being married to my best friend.

Here are some of our engagement and wedding photos (and don't we look YOUNG?!):
And here's the two of us now:
It's been a great 12 years. I hope the next 12 are just as good.

Candy Cane and Snow Bear

Kristen just got her Christmas dance costume and it's one of my favorites of hers. I think she looks like a big candy cane--sweet and cute. Of course, she had to come home and try it on immediately. When Jenna saw the skirt, she about died--she wanted to try it on too. Kristen went and got Jenna a costume from a couple of years ago--Kristen had danced to a song about a polar bear, which fits Jenna, since she LOVES bears. They both looked sooo cute! I just wish Jenna would let me do her hair. It's at an awkward stage where it hangs in her eyes a lot, but it's still curly. :) Now we can call our girls....Candy Cane and Snow Bear.

Better Late Than Never....

We had a nice little 5 inch snow storm last week. The kids loved it--especially Jenna. She had me help her get all her snow gear on--hat, boots, gloves, and coat--and walked around and around. She came in and a little while later, I heard the door open--she was outside again. She'd put on one of Jarren's boots and one of Kristen's boots, her gloves, and a hat (no coat). She gathered up a big chunk of snow and brought it inside. She put it in a bowl and ate a few bites. She kept doing that off and on all day long. Cutie! The last time she went out, one of those too big boots fell off and she stepped in the snow. Brrr...that ended that---for the day.

It's Autumn Time

I'm mad at myself! The other day, I turned onto my street and was struck by how beautiful my street looked. You could see the snow-capped mountains in the background. And the street was lined with beautiful trees, in shades of green, yellow, orange, and red. I wanted to take a picture and forgot to. Two days ago, we were hit with a storm and yesterday we had a hard freeze. When that happens, half the trees on the street (fruitless mulberries) drop their leaves in a snap. We have 13 trees on our 1/4 acre property. Anyway...now the street isn't nearly as pretty and I never got my picture.

The kids are still enjoying the leaf raking. Grandma Watkins taught them how to build leaf forts and Jarren has made obstacle courses out of them for his Indiana Jones role playing. Yes, he's back into Indiana Jones again. That storm (as previously mentioned) dumped a lot of the leaves off the trees, but we were having trouble figuring out how to rake leaves off of the snow, so we saved it for today, when most of the snow is melted. Too bad the leaves didn't melt along with the snow--there are STILL lots of trees with leaves and I'm getting tired of the raking.

Cat Face Spider

I believe it was around the end of August sometime, we noticed a small cat face spider that had built a web just outside of the family room window. It got to be quite big! We saw it a few days ago, but on Saturday, it was gone. It was the neatest thing because #1 they aren't dangerous to humans and #2 we were able to observe it through the window. The kids would catch bugs and throw them into the web and we'd watch the spider wrap them up. It was just fascinating and as much as I hate spiders, I'm going to miss this one. We even named it Charlotte, in honor of the spider from the book "Charlotte's Web." Maybe it will come back next year....

Halloween Part II

The kids all made it out trick-or-treating. Kristen went with her friend Hannah and her cousin, Kendall went with a friend, and I took Jarren and Jenna around. They all got TONS of candy and had a lot of fun organizing it when we got back. It kept sprinkling on us, but it was one of the warmer Halloweens.

Charisse...I don't sew well at all, but thank you for thinking that.