Our Christmas

Welcome, new family members

Sophie (may also be Pipa or Mazey) the rat
Angel and Squeaky the guinea pigs
Slick Slack the leopard gecko
Padmé the kitten

You don't have to live in NY to get snow

Thanksgiving slideshow

Live Nativity

Orion and Meri with their friend Shelby at the Lancaster Creche festival. We loved seeing all the nativities and enjoyed the children's room with lots of fun activities. Christmas is here!

Halloween lineup

Watch out neighbors, these trick-or-treaters are about to be set loose.

Cast of the year

Due to a plethora of favorable comments, here is a close-up of the cast. Even the missionaries signed it.

Jessica, Dorothy Jr

Meri, Dorothy Sr

Orion M&M, color: red

Jango "Ethan" Fett

Brayton, Clone Trooper

Broken bone number 2

A first in our family - a leg cast. This is Orion's second cast (he slightly fractured his wrist when he was three). After a fall from some playground equipment, Orion went to the doctor. No bone breaks were apparent from the x-rays but they said sometimes bones grind together enough to cause a problem. They recommended a cast for two weeks. Once he got the cast, he tried to stand on it and collapsed in pain so something is going in there. They thoughtfully applied a festive orange and black cast. Trick-or-treating should be fun.

Jessica

First baby tooth to go!

Orion's first tooth loss.

Hoop dreams

Orion and Meri are attending a basketball class.

Walking amongst the stars

After almost three years in the greater Los Angeles area, we finally visited Hollywood. We saw the Hollywood Sign, the Walk of Fame, Kodak Theater, Grauman's Chinese Theater, random people dressed up as movie characters, Rodeo Drive, the Los Angeles Temple, among other things. Everyone had a good time (except Meri was upset by a giant Elmo).

One more room

Not sure why all the house photos did not upload together. Here is the last one. We are missing a photo of the master bathroom which is not a room to be missed. Stay tuned.

More house

Boys' room, other side.













Fish bathroom.













Girls' room.


















Garage.

The greatest decade in history

Hard to believe but the decade of our youth is being memorialized. Friday was 80's dressup day at Tompkins Elementary School. These kids look great. We will continue to play 80's music (and that is some great music!) in the car and in our home and maybe they will want to dress like this all the time. I just wish I had some parachute pants to share with the boys. Awesome!