Snow Day...

So about a week ago we had a huge snow day! About two feet of snow!! It was nuts! Here's a few pictures.

Our walk way to our house.

It took us an hour just to get our car out of our driveway... and then we couldn't drive it anyway.

Jeff shoveled the entire driveway to try to get the car out... It took a LONG time!

Our backyard during the storm.

Our sweet old-school BBQ

I guess the weight of the snow was too much for our poor apple tree to handle.

So Dallin and I had fun inside... haha... This is one of our moments of fun during our great snow day... (sorry it's so shaky):

Christmas and New Years Fun...

Our Holidays were great! I love that Jeff is a teacher and has all of the holidays off!! We had a great Christmas. Went to Cedar with Jeff's family for Christmas Eve, My grandma's on Christmas Afternoon, My Mom's that evening, and My dad's in Vegas the next day. A lot of Traveling... But it was a lot of fun.

At my Grandma's on Christmas Day

Christmas Morning!

Dallin wanted to open everyone else's gifts instead of his own.

Yay! We got to talk to Dan in Germany! He sounded so good!

Dallin's new book from Grandma.

For New Years this year, we were in Cedar- so we got together with a bunch of our friends and their kids and had Ice Cream at Dennys. We had an early New Years celebration... (9:00), put the kids to bed, and then had a little party of our own and played games. Perfect! I would suggest it to everyone.

New Years Love...

Ow Ow Baby!

New Years "Hug"!

On New years day, I was trying to find Dallin and finally found him on the Piano upstairs at my mother in law's house. This is him at his finest... haha... If you can't tell- He sort of has an obsession with the movie "Cars". Nigh-Ning (Lightning), May-Moo (Mater), and Dah (Doc) come out in this masterpiece. But he can also say every character name in the movie, and loves to say quotes from the movie... here he is...

And for some reason- I just decided to add this pic of Dallin... :) haha:

P.S.

P.S. The first row, second row, third row thing on the Wiz pictures didn't really come out like how it was when I was creating the post... But I'm sure you got the gist... :)

November Tidbits...

November was a busy month- but it was great too...
Here's a little collage of the musical I put on at the high school this year. We put on the very fun musical, "The Wiz". This was my first year to actually direct, and it was a little scary... Being on the opposite side of the stage is a lot harder than being on stage I think. For my first time in this position, I would say everything went VERY well! It was weird being in charge of choreography, blocking, sound, costumes, set, etc. (for the most part) all at the same time. At first the kids were very skeptical at what they could actually pull off... But I was SOOO proud of them. They did such a great job!! Practically sold out every night. Dallin loved coming to rehearsal as well. He was always up there with them. Once day I couldn't find then anywhere, and I looked up and he was walking onto stage with the others dancing just like them. He was so cute with all the kids. His favorite was the gatekeeper and High Lord Underling- Bryce. During the performances, whenever he'd see him, he'd start yelling "BRYCE!!! HI BRYCE". He was a great audience member.

First row:

The Foursome... The Yellow Brick Road (One of the costumes I designed)... Death of the Witch

Second Row:
The foursome getting into Oz... The Wiz himself... The Gatekeeper... The Scarecrow and Dorothy
Third Row:
Evilene (Wicked Witch) and High Lord Underling... The Dancing Crows... The cast crew

Also in November, our town had their Lighting Ceremony after Thanksgiving. Our town meets at the church where there is a huge tree. They usually have some singing and a message from the mayor, and then they plug in the huge tree and leave the lights on until after New Years. Afterwards, for the past couple years, we've gone over to the little Soup Town restaurant and have seen Santa. Dallin was a little apprehensive at first, but that soon was over. He got on his lap and just kind of looked at him for a while... and then said "Bike Please". :) So cute... How could "Santa" not give in to that! :)

He's so happy... :)

After the Chocolate Santa...

We also started into Basketball season in November. This the Cheerleaders big season since we don't have football. This video is of Dallin trying to dance with a few of my cute chearleadies... I still can't believe I'm a cheer adviser sometimes... Crazy...

October: Pumpkins, Performing, and Pirates

We had a really fun October! Every year, our neighbors, Barbara and Norman, have a Pumpkin Party for all of their kids and grandkids. This year they invited Dallin and us to come join in on the fun! They had a huge spread for dinner, and everything that they made had pumpkin in it (which, to my surprise- EVERYTHING was so good!) Barbara also came up with a bunch of activities for the kids- A witch pinata, a pumpkin toss, catching the "ghosts" (white balloons with faces), witch songs, and they got witches brooms (they were cut up paper bags with candy inside, and a stick out the top). She's so creative. At the end of the evening, everyone gets to pick a pumpkin that was grown in their patch. Dallin had a hard time choosing, but he finally picked one that was just right- and he was VERY proud!

Dallin was trying to decide which one he wanted... It took a while.

"Cheese", At first he picked the smallest "baby" one.

Yay! He finally found the perfect one! He wouldn't let it go.

Our family with our pumpkins.
(Notice the gourds in the trees? I thought that was fun.)

Jeff and I were asked to sing with the Symphony of the Canyons. It was such a fun experience. We traveled with them one of the nights, and then sang at the Kanab High School as well. Jeff sang a few pieces from "Phantom of the Opera", and he did a wonderful job! He has the perfect voice for that! It was awesome. Unfortunately, the felmale parts of the piece were WAY to high for me to sing, so a lady named Jimmy Baker (actually- my friend Jake Baker's sister in law) sang the pieces with him. She has an amazing voice though- It was great! I sang some songs from the musical "Wicked". It was a fun experience. I LOVE the musical anyway, and have memorized all the songs, so it was great to actually perform them... It was sort of difficult to have to follow the orchestra and how the conductor thought it should go, after I had listened to the soundtrack over and over and over... But I thought it turned out pretty well. Here's a few videos:

Here's my hubby singing one of his songs from Phantom of the Opera.
Yay Honey!


Well, This is me singing one of my songs from the Wicked music... You can't really see anything I'm doing because it was dark and Jeff was so far away... But I guess you can hear me...
so oh well.

Our family after singing...
(My face is supposed to be green... I wasn't just nervous... :)

Halloween is also a pretty big deal in Orderville. I like it. I went down to Jeff's classroom for a little while and fun with his kids. The high school in Kanab did a little fairytale play for the whole elementary. Later that night, we came home and all dressed up like pirates. I thought we did pretty well. Jeff actually went all out! Some people didn't recognize him. We did the usual trick or treating and saw our friends the Blodgetts and the Roses. It was a lot of fun.

Dallin in his cute little costume. He was even really good about letting me put on his mustache.

Well, aren't we a good looking couple! ow-ow!

Dallin's cute new words that he learned for Halloween.

A Real Boy...

We have some of the best neighbors ever! One one side are our landlords Barbara and Norman of course, and on the other is our Bishop (Shane), and his wife Judy. They love to come steal Dallin from us and play with him for a few hours. They have a 12 year old daughter Brittany, who Dallin loves to flirt with :), and two older boys in high school, who also love Dallin. Their two boys, Anthony and Shaun, are real boys! They love Rodeo, Cars, Motorbikes, Dune buggies, tractors, and everything else a boy could love. Everyday after school, Dallin loves to listen for their Motorbikes, or whatever they chose to ride that day, and watch them out the window or from our front lawn. They other day, they had their tractor outside, working on something. Dallin watched for a long time, until mom and dad were ready to come inside. Of course- Dallin didn't like that too much. Jeff thought of great way to calm him down though. He got on the internet and looked up pictures of tractors, motorcycles, and cars. Dallin was amazed! Now, whenever he hears them outside, he'll come get on the computer to see the pictures.

Future Chef of America

The last couple of days, Dallin has been really interested in what Mommy is making. So He's been helping me with the easy parts of Dinner. Hey- never too early to start I guess! :) He'll definitely be ready when his mission and college come, and he has to cook on his own! Here's a few of his "helping moments" (although I don't know if I totally call it HELPING... ) The other night we had some scones, and he helped me flatten out the dough. He's pretty good at it! :) He liked to put them in a pile afterwards, and he really wanted to eat the dough. By the time the scones were ready though, he didn't want to eat them anymore. Tonight, was breakfast night. He mixed up the pancake batter for me, (while flicking half of it across the room)! :) He also decided that while I wasn't looking, that he was going to further his art abilities by painting with syrup on the table... After I cleaned it up, I realized that I should have taken a picture of it... :). Good thing he had an apron on I guess. He sure is getting bigger and bigger (and much more independent) everyday.

Dallin's first Haircut!

Well- my mom kept reminding me that it was definitely time for Dallin to get a haircut! (and now I agree!) Jeff gave me the honors, and I had no idea how it was going to turn out! In order to keep Dallin still, Jeff read him one of his favorite books in front of him, and I somehow got it done! What can I say- we work well as a team! :)

BEFORE:

AFTER:
I'd say a job well done! :)

We're back!!

Hello everyone! Wow... ok... I know it took me a long time to post again since our last one, but I got so tired of waiting and hour or more for one picture to upload! So... I got lazy and didn't post for a long time. But now- Jeff and I finally decided to upgrade to a fast internet, so I'm able to do this a LOT easier!
We had a great summer! It was hard to see it end, but also great to start school. I wanted to put a few pictures of our highlights of the rest of the summer: (Sorry there's a lot- like I said- we had a great summer!)

We were able to go to the lake with our friends the Blodgetts this summer. We had so much fun! We were out there all day, and even got all four kids to fall asleep at the same time for and hour and a half. It was great! :) Dallin didn't know what to think of the water though. Give him time I suppose... :)
It was also Mine and Jeff's 2 year anniversary! Woohoo!

My family goes up to Pine Valley every year for my great-grandma Ilean's birthday. This year she turned 86. Doesn't she look great?! We also took a family picture of everyone, including Kellie's boyfriend, Garrett.

Jeff's family has a huge family reunion every year up at his family's property. It lasts three days and there are so many people there! We had a great time. This is Jeff's dad and his famous hat that Dallin loved.
Jeff's "little" Brother Danny left on his mission to Germany in July. He's going to be a great missionary! (He's inbetween me and Laura.)

We went with the Blodgetts again on a one night camping trip, on our neighbor Norman's property. The kids and us had a lot of fun. We even went on a little hike to a place where there was a cabin over a hundred years old... Well what was left of it. It finally collapsed this last winter in a snow storm.
I just thought this picture was cute... :) He's reading about his favorite thing, in his favorite person's hat (daddy!).

Well, Our summer is over, and now we're into the school year! Jeff and I are both busy bees as usual. Jeff has an awesome third grade class this year, and he has a great time with them! They went to the Grand Canyon on a field trip yesterday. I'm busy with being the cheer advisor and drama teacher! Talk about a full plate! :) I only have six girls on our squad, but trust me, even six girls can have hormones! And drama is going really well. We are doing "The Wiz" this year. It's a musical, and it's like a "hipper" version of "Wizard of Oz". Our performances are next month, but I know it's going to come fast.

Dallin is changing SOOO much. He just turned 18 months this week. He says around 50-60 words now, and a few sentences. His favorites (of course) are "What's that?", and "Where's Dada?", and "That's Cool Dude" (instead of doing a thumbs up, he puts his pointer finger out). He's also really good and "Please" and "Thank-you"! :) He's jabbering ALL the time, and constantly learning new things! He knows his abc's up to E, and "one, two, three, GO", and a few shapes like the start, circle, and flower. It amazes me! He loves to sing "Hokey Pokey", "Three Little Monkeys", and "Three in the Bed". He sure is a funny guy.

Anyway- I know this is a super long blog, but I definately needed to catch up!