O Christmas Tree

For Family Home Evening this week

we set up and decorated our Christmas Tree.

I wanted a nice photo of the kids with

their handiwork, but I got this one instead.

It is actually better than the one other photo we took.

Not even Judy's mad Photoshop skills could have helped us this time.

9/12

together at the Huntington Gardens last week

We spent the last week with family in California

and are happy and grateful to have made it home safely.

It was wonderful to spend time with our family -

why doesn't everybody move to Utah???

I'd like to do a couple of posts about our trip;

but we'll see how busy this week gets . . .

Second Generation

Bentley is growing up.

Recently he has asked for his own

email address, blog, and facebook.

Two of the three requests have been denied,

but tonight he began his own blog.

(following the example of his cousins)

He is hoping that a few of his relatives will look at it. Hint, hint.

The blog is called, "Dude, Look at This!"

You can visit it HERE.

Outtakes

Over the summer, Ruby took a

Fairy Tale Ballet class at The Dance Club.

Near the end of the term, they filmed a

commercial, and asked Ruby to participate.

We went to the studio, waited around for the crew

to be ready (they were late), and then the

little girls and their teacher did the same

things over and over and over again.

It took a really long time, and it was really boring.

The girls were troopers, and as a reward

they were given special suckers before they left.

Here are a few shots from the day.

First, the storybook scene.

Then, getting ready for the Princess scene.

The bottom two shots were of Snow White

and the Dwarves. Ruby is in the green hat.

The Dwarf scenes didn't make it to the commercial.

I took one video while we waited.

It's from the Snow White scene, and all the

screaming is from the many girls waiting

out in the hall for their turn to be filmed.

I'm not sure how they are still smiling in

their parts of the commercial. They had been there

for over two hours, just waiting, when we left.

A friend of mine let me know that she saw

Ruby on TV Sunday night, or I wouldn't have

seen the commercial. Ruby takes dance at BYU

now, so we hadn't heard anything more about it.

Anyway, here's the link to the Snow White video,

and here's one to the finished commercial.

Song and Dance

Our family sang this song in Sacrament meeting

yesterday. Liz was kind enough to accompany us.

Thanks Elizabeth!

I think that our musical number was a success because:

a. Milo didn't scream when he realized

we weren't singing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star"

b. Ruby only danced a little,

c. no one punched or slugged their sibling

d. we made it off the stand without anyone

making a goofy or rude gesture

and

e. we remembered the words

My standards might be low,

but I am counting this as a Win.

Contradiction

Eating ice cream while sitting on the heater vent.

Our BYU fans toughed it out and sat at the table.

Well, Bentley sat at the table on purpose.

Milo would have liked to join the others

on the heater, but he was buckled in.

Nine

Our "B-Dude" turned 9 today.

He was kind and cheerful and helpful

and hardworking and sweet today.

He said it's because we bought him presents.

It was a win-win situation.

Happy Birthday Bentley!

Pictures of Birthdays Past

Eight

Seven

Six

Birth Day - Five

Belated Halloween Craft Report

I almost forgot to post these pictures, and I know Maxwell

and Jonah would be disappointed if I didn't record their

creative efforts for posterity, so I'm going to post them LATE.

The second grade classes each year take home

a little paper doll and are given the assignment

of dressing it in "their costume."

Here's Maxwell's art work:

Jonah REALLY wanted to enter a pumpkin

in the school Pumpkin Parade this year.

He currently loves all things polar bear,

so that's the theme he chose for his pumpkin.

Meet Jonah's Polar Bear Pumpkin.

He has since scraped off almost every last bit of

white paint (with a small stick) in the hope that

we will help him carve his little pumpkin tomorrow.

I'm not sure I posted these last year, although I

probably did. Bentley made a paper doll in

his costume (the white ninja), and the other

three "big kids" insisted on making their own dolls.

Here are 2009's costumed paper dolls.