A Little Birthday Fun

Bradley's birthday is next week, but he wanted to have a little party today, so we invited a few of his friends over to play.

He had a small cake, and we sang "Happy Birthday."



He opened a few gifts, which really thrilled him -- he got some really fun toys and was quite excited. (He's wearing the In-N-Out hat because Chris took him out for a special father/son lunch right before the party.)

He got a cool Mario Bros. chess set, which he really loved. Cute little Toad is the rook.

We took everyone over to Baskin Robbins for ice cream -- everyone had a great time.

More to come on my baby boy Bradley's birthday next week, when the actual day arrives.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like . . .

. . . CHRISTMAS!!!! Hooray! Each year as the holiday season approaches, I am always amazed that so much time has passed so quickly. But it doesn't take long before I'm in the Christmas spirit, so excited to celebrate this joyful time with those I love.

As December approached, we discussed at Family Home Evening some of the things we wanted to do as a family to keep Jesus Christ at the center of our Christmas celebration. My heart melted as I listened to the kids cheerfully suggesting things they wanted to do to serve others, and we decided that there were several little "projects" we wanted to participate in. We also chose to put a picture of Jesus next to the tree so that each time we look at it we will think of Him. In addition, we decided that each night, after scripture study, we would read a Christmas-related story or additional scriptures about Christ's birth. We'll continue the traditions of using the Nativity sets we have to tell the story to the children and also of reading the Luke account on Christmas Eve.

We put up the tree and decorated the house, which always brings a wonderful feeling to our home. The kids get so excited about everything, and I especially loved seeing Joseph's reaction to the tree and the lights. I love being with them and seeing the wonder in their eyes.










Merry Christmas, from our family to yours.

Scouts and Other Stuff

Nathaniel has been working really hard in Scouts, as always. Recently he and Chris were working on a requirement that had him building at shelter in our living room -- tying knots in a blanket strung between several pieces of furniture.

Pack Meeting is always lots of fun. All the kids took on Brother Bell in tug-of-war, and they played a hilarious game of Win, Lose, or Draw.

That night Nathaniel earned his Citizenship and Outdoorsman pins. We're always so proud of him for his efforts and for working so hard and being such a wonderful Scout. We're also thankful to his awesome leaders.

Other happenings: Here are the kids lined up for questioning . . . not sure what that was about.

Here's a series of funny (and cute) shots of my baby boy. We laugh at his antics all day long, and he adores the attention.

Rockin' out on Guitar Hero.

Chowing down!

Providing a little hoe down music. (It looks like he only wears those overalls and no shirt, but these were all taken the same day.)

He discovered he LOVES sweet potato pie. He devoured almost a whole pie on his own -- took it out of the fridge, grabbed a fork, and started walking around the house eating.

Catching Up

Finally getting around to posting a few photos -- actually, I'm finally feeling good enough to do so. If any of you hadn't heard (which I'm sure you have), I've been sick for quite some time, and it's only recently that I've come through it and have started getting back to normal.

So here are some updates.

Lindsey is my beautiful princess, always.



Chris took the kids on one last camping trip a couple of months ago. They absolutely love going.



A princess is a princess, even in the woods.



A cute little Bradley monkey in a tree.

Mel always handles the kids' Halloween costumes because she loves to and because she's so good at it. That was especially important this year as I never would have been able to get anything together for them. And to complicate matters, the boys had to have separate costumes for school. Each grade level had a theme, and costumes had to match the theme -- 1st grade was Egypt, and Bradley wanted to be a mummy. 6th grade was Greek gods and goddesses, and Nathaniel went as Atlas. (Thanks to Uncle Matt Cox for the drawings on the globe.) I thought they looked great!

Of course their REAL costumes were all Harry Potter themed. Lindsey made the world's cutest Hermione, complete with "Hogwarts: A History" and Crookshanks.

Nathaniel is the perfect Harry.

And Bradley is an adorable Ron Weasley. (Not pictured: Scabbers, courtesy of Kirsten.)

Joseph made a cute and cuddly Voldemort. He was so darn cute, walking around casting spells wth his wand, looking so proud in his robe. I have to check the other camera for more photos of him -- I know Chris took some of him in action.

We also recently celebrated Lindsey's 5th birthday -- my baby girl is growing up. We had, what else, another Princess Party.

Modeling some new jewelry.

She got a cute little set of hair care stuff -- dryer, flat iron, etc. The boys were thrilled to try them out! It was too funny! (And a little disconcerting.)

Her cake was Tinkerbell themed. Mel did a great job, as always. (Thank goodness for Mel.)

Happy Birthday, baby. I love you more than I can say. Every day you make me proud to be your mom. You are funny, adorable, kind, and the sweetest girl ever. I couldn't love you more.

Random shots -- Joseph likes to do housework in just a diaper!

(Mom, don't kill me.) When mom visited, she and Joseph had fun reading together. Look how happy he is to have his Marmee read to him!

Some of my cuties. I love this family. Life is good.

Fun With Brooke and Michael

Saturday night, Mel and I (along with our super-cool friend Kirsten) went to see one of my favorite performers in concert -- Brooke White. She is touring with fellow former American Idol finalist Michael Johns, and opening for them is a really cool local artist named Benton Paul.



The concert was at a really small venue -- the Murray Theater. As we waited in line out front for the doors to open, we were literally standing right next to the tour bus. Before long, Brooke started getting on and off the bus quite often, chatting with friends and family who had come to see her show. That was pretty cool.

Michael Johns rocked the house -- he likes to play very loud, and our ears were numb by the time he finished his set. But he was in great voice, and we really enjoyed his new music. Knowing he writes his own stuff makes it even better.




Of course, speaking of an awesome singer-songwriter, Brooke was amazing. I really love her new album -- and I love her old album, and everything she did on Idol. I just really relate to her voice. She started off with "You're So Vain," which was one of my favorites she did on Idol.

She had Michael come back out and they performed their duet, "Life Is Okay," which is an awesome song. They have a great chemistry and sound so good together.



After the show, all 3 artists stayed around to spend a few minutes with everyone who wanted to get an autograph or photos. Even when the rude theater management started turning off the lights, they kept right on signing and talking. Brooke was so sweet and thanked us profusely for coming to see her.



Michael is so cool and fun to talk to. Mel and I had already spent several minutes talking to him last year after the American Idol Tour came to Salt Lake. (Mel has a crush.) He's just the most laid-back, easy going guy. We talked about being from Georgia, Chick-Fil-A (he said, "I have 12 nuggets waiting for me on the bus!"), and lots of other stuff. Very cool guy.



For anyone interested, here are a couple of videos. I would like to have posted more, but they take forever, and I just don't have the patience.

Well, I tried for over an hour to post one more video, with no luck. So I will just have to describe it. A few seconds after I stopped recording the above video, we got a BIG surprise. . .

. . . out of nowhere came David Archuleta. Yes, mom, that's right, David came out and the place went into pandemonium. I nearly went deaf, which was amazing given the relatively small number of people in the place.

Anyway, there was David, singing "Let It Be" with Brooke and Michael, and though Brooke had already said that would be the last song, they decided to sing one more since everyone was having such a good time. They did "Proud Mary," and then left the stage.

Brooke came out for one more encore and sang her most recent single, "Radio Radio," which was, of course, awesome. The whole concert was just wonderful. We had so much fun!