I got a new do!

Cute new haircut this week -Kali took these pictures of me

New Years in Illinois

Went went to Illinois for New Years Eve again this year. We have friends from Colorado - Jesse and Kaelee Horton, that come home for the Holidays to visit their family. They are nice enough to allow us to party with them. Off to Crystals for New Years Eve, we enjoyed lots of yummy food and played games.

Kijanna and Kaelee were excited to play American Girl Dolls together. Notice they have dolls that look like each other - not themselves

Kali, Alyssa and Rebecca had fun hanging out and texting all night.

Everyone had fun playing Rock Band!

Erek and Jesse rock!

Christmas

Wow! I am amazed at the lack of pictures I took this Christmas!~ Bad mom.





Kijanna had a school Christmas program the week before school let out. She had lots of fun learning the songs and singing them with the whole school. Hard to believe there is only a year and a half left of Elementary school left in our family!~







We had some snow! Not as much as all of our family in Utah, Colorado and Oregon, but the girls and Erek still had fun doing our tradition of running through the first snow barefoot. Notice that I did NOT participate. (And that I need a new camera for my birthday....)









The girls did a cookie exchange and caroling at the Church.









We went to see the Nutcracker at the PAC.






Of course the girls got new Christmas PJ's and had fun sprinkling the lawn with reindeer food on Christmas Eve!

Disney World 2008

We went to Disney World in November with Mum and Bepa. It was a long trip in the car there and back 12 hours each way - but we had tons of fun! We rented a 4 bedroom house that was just perfect, and only 15 minutes from the gates of Disney.

The first day we went to Animal Kingdom. It was especially fun to ride KALI's River Raft!

We had a laugh at the "feature film". (Kali was in Beauty and the Beast this summer)

Scary Buddha Statue!

We were the special musical guests at Mickeys Philharmonic ---- Special Indeed.

On our last day at Magic Kingdom we met up with our friends the Hardesty Family from Colorado Springs! We couldn't believe they were there at the same time we were - It's a Small World after all......

We'll be back in Jan 2010. Kali and Erek are planning on running the 1/2 marathon then.....

The Running Toothpick.....

Kali has been running Cross Country for our middle school this year. And she LOVES it! She has been beating her personal best each of the last three meets - yeah Kali! Right now she is running her 5K in just over 27 minutes.

Her friends call her "the Running Toothpick" They run with a combined middle school/high school team, and she is almost the smallest team member. The last few times they moved her up to run with the HS team. One more and she will letter in XC this year. I told her she still had to wait till she is a Sophomore to get her jacket. Maybe by then she won't be shopping in the children's section anymore....

HomeComing Parade 2008

Heartland Meet

Warming Up

County Fair

We went to the Meade County Fair! We met up with my friend Nita and her family. The girls enjoyed hanging out with their teenage friend Savannah. She was nice enough to let them tag along with her and her friends for a couple of hours riding rides.

We had fried corn on the cob-yum, and fresh made potato chips and lemonade.

To top it off we were there for the truck and tractor pull. Thousands of dollars invested to modify farm equipment-very redneck....Lots of national champions pullers were there-who knew there was such a thing! (of course who knew that there is also a national cow chip throwing championship.....) Gotta love the county fair!

Music in the Park

One of my favorite things about summer has always been music in the parks. Growing up in Portland, I always took advantage of going to Water Front Park to hear new up and coming music be it jazz, blues, or the ever poplar grunge music. And in Colorado we had tons of free music festivals around the city during the summer. My girls love music and I feel it is a good way to get them out and have fun at the same time.

This last week we went to a Pops in the Park. We heard a selection of music from John Williams which included Indiana Jones, Jaws, Star Wars and lots of other popular show tunes. The girls had fun-we went with neighbors and then met up with some friends of ours from church.

If you have the chance, check out your local area for FREE summer concerts!