Snow much fun.....

The kids have been having "snow" much fun! School is out and the snow is falling!!

Christmas Fun Run....

Tami and Logan ran in the YMCA's Christmas Fun Run last Saturday. Logan donned a tree skirt, Santa hat, and stripped socks as his costume. They ran the 2.5 miles in 32 minutes.

On Santa's Knee......

The Ward Christmas party always has that red-suited visitor at the end of the evening when the children are the most excited and hyper. Each year the waiting in line gets a little easier as the kids get older. We go to the party having discussed with the children that this is a family affair and it is NOT a time to run through the church. We sit and eat together and stay together. Well that doesn't last too long as my children are little social butterflies!!!! There are many discussions at our house whether Santa is real or not and how he can possibly do what he does in one night! We still have one or two who might still believe. And to those who claim he is not real I warn "those who don't believe, don't receive!" so don't spoil it for the younger kids!!!! (This applies to the Easter bunny and the Tooth Fairy too!) Our Santa asked for an Article of Faith to be recited in exchange for a candy cane!

Logan....

Carson

Emily... was not thrilled with the whole Santa thing!

Kristina....

Katie....

...And Jonny is finally too old to stand in line and await his turn.

Thanksgiving weekend fun....

Since it is almost Christmas I thought I should get the Thanksgiving activity pictures posted. We went with some friends, the Moxleys, to Table Rock in Boise. I wanted everyone except maybe Grandma, Emily, and Steve to climb up and have Steve drive to the top to meet us. We got a late start and so we drove to the top and we met our friends there who climbed up.

Victor Moxley had his gear all setup for everyone to go repelling. I could watch the Moxley family repel down the cliff, but watching my own children do it was really hard to do! I don't think I have ever been so nervous! Victor and Caleb were very good at teaching and supervising the repelling, but I was still so nervous I almost couldn't watch as they took that first step over the edge!Logan loved it! He wanted to go again but the sun was setting and it was getting colder too.
Grandpa Murphy was down below taking these great shots of the kids. Kristina did a great job repelling too. Carson and Katie were just too skinny for the belts to fit them and so they didn't get to go down the cliff. Kristina was borderline too skinny, but they tucked her coat into the harness and she was good to go!
As we were driving down you could see off in the distance a rainbow. It was beautiful! There was a double rainbow but it didn't photograph very well. It was a stunning sight!

Emily walks!!!!

Emily has been knee-walking for awhile now. It is the funniest thing to watch. She can pull herself up and walk along anything she can hang on to. But when you put her down to play she will put her feet down to stand and then drop to her knees and she is off and running. Well, tonight when I put her down she stood there a second and took off walking! She looked a little bit wobbly but everytime after that she would get a little better. Pretty soon the whole family came in the family room to cheer her on. Of course she loved being the center of attention and her face was just beaming!

Christmastime....by Hillary Weeks

I belong the Hillary Weeks fan club. If you ever have a chance to hear her perform it is worth it. She is very funny and very talented muscially too. She has performed or been the host to a couple of events that I have attended either at BYU or here in Boise for the Time Out for Women. If you aren't laughing at what she just said you will be needing kleenex after listening to her sing. This video came in the email newsletter that I get from "her". It is a beautiful song and a good message too!

Christmas Past....

My sister and me with Santa about 1970. I came across this photo recently and just had to post it! I hope my sister doesn't mind too much! It looks like she wasn't too excited about the picture the first time. I am sure my silly grin has something to do with getting a candy cane!!

Happy Birthday Katie!!

I have to keep the tradition going and post the birthday wish to each child, can't leave one out or they will let me know it! The kids will remind each other that Mom might blog what they are doing or they will suggest to me that I should blog something that is happening.
Katie got to celebrate her 10th birthday with the cousin's in Utah. This was fun! Her cake was actually a layer from Chrissy's wedding cake and it was yummy! Aunt Mary even did her birthday bucket. I had all of the birthday bucket stuff at home and forgot to bring it with us to Utah so Katie had two birthday buckets which didn't break her heart at all!

Funny Kid....

Carson had found a couple of items to take to school for the music program coming up. He was carrying them in his hands in the car on the way to the bus stop. When it was time to get out of the car he was trying to figure out the best way to carry them to school on the bus. He says to himself "I know..." and then he puts the scarf and hat on, turned to wave goodbye with the peace sign and off he ran to the bus!

The General Authority Song

This is fun!

I love the mountains of Utah....

We were blessed this Thanksgiving break to make a trip to Utah for my niece's wedding. We pulled the kids from the last day of school and away we went. We came home on Wednesday, just in time for Thanksgiving! We spent Thanksgiving day with our good friends the Moxley's, my sister, my mother, and Steve's parents. We had lots of good food and good company!

There is a beautiful park just a block or two away from my sister-in-law's home. The kids loved our visits to this park.
And of course these trips provided some "Kodak" moments!

More to come....

Baby walk...

Emily does this new kind of walk, on her knees. It is the funniest thing to watch as she crosses the room on her knees. It makes us laugh every time!

Happy Birthday Kristina!

Kristina turned 12 yesterday, Nov. 17th.
Some of the items on her birthday wish list were:

German Chocolate cake with My Little Pony toppers.More accessories for her doll house.She wanted more clothes. She also got a sewing machine from her Aunt and a movie and doll house people from Grandma.For her dinner choice, Aunt Tami's homemade chicken noodle soup! Yum!

Baby in a hotel bathroom.........

This is what happens when you let your baby have the run of a hotel room and you leave the bathroom door open!

Happy 14th Birthday Jonny!

Jonny turned 14 this last Sunday. I can't believe how time just flies by! He is a good boy who is taller than me, his mother, and almost as tall as his father. He is working on his next Scout rank of Life and trying to conquer the 7th grade! He has always loved building with Legos since he was a toddler with the Duplo blocks. He gets Legos for every birthday and Christmas. He had put specific things on his Wish List and he was happy with all he recieved! One word, SPOILED!The kids can request their dinner and cake on their birthdays. The newest craze at our house is the ice cream cake. My sister makes a three layered ice cream cake with Oreos as the crust and the filling between the layers of ice cream. The ice cream flavors she usually uses are chocoloate, mint choc. chip, and oreo cookie. I tried decorating the top with my regular frosting and it froze and fell off. So the only frills on this cake was the traditional Happy 14th Birthday Jonny!

Hello........

Steve was returning home from a meeting tonight and called ahead to have the garage door opened for him, his clicker has left the premises. The phone is answered and Steve says "Hello.......Hello......Hellooooo?" and gets no response. Then, this unintelligible chatter begins and then CLICK and the phone line is dead. Emily had answered the phone, spoke and then hung it up! This little girl LOVES the phone. EVERYTHING becomes a phone. If she doesn't have a toy to use as a phone, she will just turn her hand in and put it up to her ear. And then she talks and talks. I think we are in trouble with this one!

A funny potato

Some friends gleaned potatos and shared a box with us. This potato was in that box. I just had to take a picture! Maybe I should send it to Jay Leno, his potato "J" from Idaho!

Emily loves Po!

For Halloween one year(2000), when the kids were all preschool aged, they were all a Teletubby. My sister found these great sweatshirt material costumes back east on one of her business trips. They were all so cute! They all had a talking Teletubby too.

Logan's Teletubby, Po, is the only one that hasn't run away from home!

And now Emily meets Po! She loves this toy. She will crawl across the room, ignoring any toy along the way, and grab Po and give it hugs. If you push on the tummy it has 3 or 4 different sayings and Emily's face lights up when she hears her stuffed friend talk.

I can see clearly now the blur is gone....

Logan got glasses when he was in second grade and almost blind. He literally couldn't see the fingers you were holding up. We spent the next few years going to the eye doctor every 6 months. Patching his good eye for 6 hours a day, forcing the weak one to work. He had eye drops to blur the good eye, film on his glasses to blur the good eye, and the patching too. He didn't have to do this all at once. Oh, and part of his "prescription" to help his weak eye, play hand-held games ie., Gameboy/DS for 2 hours a day. He was heartbroken!!!

Logan lost his glasses this summer so we had to go get new ones. About two years ago Carson got his glasses. And now the girls got them too. Kristina has been squinting at everything for awhile now. We would all tell her not to squint. Katie has been complaining of headaches and things being hard to see. Now everyone can see clearly! And 4 out of 6 kids are now in glasses. Aren't they cute! They couldn't be happier!