Favorite snack

Abby tried a new snack this summer, and she asks for it all the time. We took nutella and dipped different things in it to find our favorites. Apples, marshmallows, ritz, and of course fingers. Abby's favorite is graham crackers, I like the pringles honey butter stix. Pretty fattening, but definitely yummy!

Shou Shu

Chance, Alyssa, Emma, Justin & I have been studying Shou Shu at a great studio in Monterey. It's a form of Kung Fu. Our friend from China told me the chinese characters on our Shou Shu shirts mean "animal style fighting". It has been good for the kids to learn how to put effort into classes, and work hard even when they "don't feel like it" (insert whiny teenager voice). I like knowing I have a few good moves that would hopefully come out if I were ever in danger. The more you practice, the better muscle memory you have and you can react in an emergency. Plus, it's just a lot of fun to hit and kick stuff.

Abby's unplanned hair cut

I had a fun present on my birthday this year, I found Abby behind the living room chair with a pair of scissors and her hair on the floor around her. Alyssa always tells her they are "same, same sisters" because they both have blonde hair, blue eyes, and like the same things. When asked why she cut her hair, she said she had to be "same same like Lyssa". That's my Abby, always trying to be 10 years older!

Oakland Temple

We took these pictures on a temple trip in August. It was a bright sunny day-not that common in the bay area, although the temple usually gets up above the fog. The girls love the fountains. The picture of Kyra and Emma is from the garden walkway on top of the temple (kind of like the conference ctr). You can look out across Oakland, the bay, and San Francisco (top left). It's an amazing spot.

Abby's message to Kenzie

This was right after Abby cut her own hair off. She sings songs for us every day. They are usually about her family or friends, and dancing in the flowers. She is so much like Alyssa. Lyss sang made up songs so much, that Chance's most common phrase in 2000 was "just stop singing, Alyssa!!

Kyra's message to Kenzie

These were made @ a little cove near lover's point. Kyra had a class picnic to meet the other kids in 2nd grade at her charter school.

Book for Emma

I made this book for Emma on Shutterfly.com because I had a free book coupon. It is so easy & hopefully makes her feel special. Actually, Abby has hogged the book since we got it. She "reads" it, & the story is different every time, but always about Abby and Emma. I made one for Abby and for Kyra last year on Snapfish.com, but I don't like their site as well. They do have cuter books at snapfish though, and you can get an 8 x 11 for $20 (they are $30 @ shutterfly). I highly recommend both sites.
The book is hard to read on the online version because the words are so small. But the story is about a girl named Emma, who had a lot of friends & family in Utah, her dad had to leave again with the Army, and she got to go with him to California for 1 year. She missed her friends & family in UT and got to visit them, and she also had a lot of fun in CA at the beach etc. The end basically says life can be good no matter where you are.

Shared photo book from Andie

Click here to view this photo book larger

Chance Junior ROTC

Chance has joined a Junior Officer Training program at his high school. It gives him PE credits, and they do a lot of competitions and awards. I worried about him moving from junior high to high school, but he has friends in early morning seminary who are in the JROTC program at his school, and he has done great. He had an award ceremony and got a "good conduct" award, "academic award" for good grades, "raider team member" award (raider team is a competition team, they do obstacle courses and drills), and the prestigious"Senior Army Insructor's Leadership Award" for displaying outstanding leadership skills. WOW, what a kid! He has also grown 3 more inches, and thinks it's funny to pat me on top of my head. He is not perfect, he likes to hide in his room reading when it's time to clean the house, and can have a temper when arguing with Alyssa. But he is very helpful, and patient with the little girls-I couldn't have asked for a better son in the whole world.

Fun With Cousins (and Police)

Natalie & her family came to visit a few weeks ago. The kids are all sitting in the "ice plant" that grows all over our neighborhood. We have heard it's actually a tropical plant, but someone planted it all over the military base to keep the sand dunes from eroding. It hasn't really worked, because some of the buildings on the west side have fallen off the cliffs onto the beach. The playground behind them is right outside Abby's window, and she always want to go play. It's been a pretty good bribe to get her to pick up her toys etc. It was just too tempting one day last month though, and she ran outside in her underwear to go to the park. Unfortunately, one of the base police was driving by, and saw her. Kyra saw the officer talking to Abby. & ran in to tell me He then called for backup (they must be really bored), and the two officers got all kinds of information from me to write up a report. Hopefully that will be Abby's first and last criminal encounter with the police.

Abby and Ellie are standing in front of a rock wall at lover's point. This is in Pacific Grove, which is about as far west as you can get in the U.S. except Alaska and Hawaii. At lover's point, there are rock outcroppings along the beach, with about a 30 feet down to the water. Everyone was sitting up on top of the rocks, watching the surf that crashes up against them. There were some pretty high waves that day, and the water was splashing all the way to the top of the rocks. The last picture is moments before Natalie, Ellie, & Elaine were drenched by a wave. They didn't see it coming because they had turned around to pose for Rob to take the picture.

The 4th picture is everyone on a beach in Big Sur, right after we all watched the sun set. This is one of our favorite beaches because the water crashes between the rocks and shoots up like a fountain. There are also cool purple streaks in the sand that I've never seen anywhere else.

The 5th picture is some of the kids in front of a section of redwood., showing the dates some of the rings were made (clear back to the time of Christ). We love going to the redwood forests along the coast. The smell is wonderful, and they are soooo tall, you fell like a tiny little bug.

Legoland

For a Christmas present, we took the whole family to Legoland in San Diego. Chance has wanted to go since it opened when he was about 4 years old, so we decided to finally go since it's a shorter drive now. Chance has collected every boinicle ever made, and he got some pictures with life size bionicles. Everything in the park is made of legos- a lego animal safari, lego castles, and miniature NYC, Las Vegas, and other cities made legos. There is a factory that shows how legos are made, and you can race each other in big lego firetrucks. It's not as big as Disneyland, but if you have a lego fan in the family, is is definitely worth a visit.

We made it to CA in one piece, but I don't have any pictures yet. These are some pictures Ethan took of us on an old train right before we left. The trains are on the old DDO in Ogden. I love the peeling paint and rusty metal, I hope they don't get rid of them before we get back.

We have been pretty busy, but loving the complete absence of snow to shovel. Justin is doing well in class, and Chance loves High School. Alyssa doesn't like her school, but have made some friends at church. Abby started joyschool and has been using the potty be herself (this is VERY exciting- she had been refusing to go unless we sat next to her). She definitely got a stubborn streak from somewhere.