Big Machines

The excavation is complete and they hauled off 2 dump truck loads of dirt. The kids have loved watching the big machines work. We like to hike onto the trail and watch.

Piles of Dirt!!!

The girls were so excited to run up and climb on the huge mountain of dirt! It is going to be quite a challenge to keep Allana clean for kindergarten if we are visiting our building lot.

Gideon has a hard time walking on all the loose dirt and rocks, but he loves sitting down and throwing all the rocks within his reach.

Maybe we can keep it like this for a sandbox :)

Breaking Ground

Wow! After finding this lot for sale for such a great price, selling our home, moving, planning, getting financing, getting the permit we are finally breaking ground!!!

I hope those wild sunflowers grow back! We asked them to leave as many trees as possible and tried to design the house to fit within a small space to keep the beauty of this natural landscape. The kids have loved coming and collecting rocks. We've been trying to save all the rocks possible so that we can use the rock from our land on our house.

Children's Parade

The parade moves along more like a mob than a parade, but Andy helped the girls navigate their bikes to the open spaces.

"Look mom, one hand!"

It has been a fun family tradition to come ride in the children's parade. The girls like to have their faces painted. We ride down (about 5 miles each way) and on the way back we stopped for pizza.

This is the First Time in My Whole Life!

Allana likes to point out "firsts" to me. "Mom! This is Gideon's first time to the library!" or "Mom this is our my first time coming to this park when I am 5..."

Here is another first... Allana riding a 2-wheeler bike with no help or training wheels. This video clip is after practicing on the bike less than 5 minutes. She already has the balance down from riding her Strider Bike.

Ahoy Matey! Captain Allana be turnin' five

Andy turned the whole living room into a pirate ship with cardboard from Sears Outlet and some masking tape. It was so much fun! Corinne is already planning her pirate party when she turns five.

Happy Fall

With the craziness of volleyball season I feel like we have not been at home on a Saturday in ages. It was fun to spend some time out in the yard today.

Be Yourself

Tonight Andy was holding Corinne. She was resting her head on his shoulder and he began asking her what she wants to be when she grows up:

"Corinne, what are you going to be when you grow up? The president of the United States? or maybe a doctor? Or what about a..."

"No dad! I going to be Corinne!" (almost with tears in her eyes and in her cute high pitched voice)

Don't we all wish that we were happy with just wanting to be ourselves?

Allana's First Talk

Today Allana gave her first talk. She is 4 1/2 and didn't even need my help. She got up to the microphone with a beaming smile and a 3x5 index card with some picture reminders of her talk (and a few words). She did beautifully:

"Jesus Christ is the Savior and he is a God of miracles. My cousin Keith was in an accident and he was hurt really badly. The priesthood gave him a blessing. The doctors said it was a miracle that Keith was still alive. I know that Jesus blesses us....blesses us with miracles. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

I wish I had her speaking abilities! The greatest part about watching the sunbeams do the opening exercises is how huge their smile is when they are finished. You can tell that they are extremely pleased with themselves because of what they have just accomplished. After I give a talk I am relieved to be finished, but I probably spend the most time analyzing what I could have done better. How nice would it be for us to actually give ourselves a pat on the back and just to be content and happy with knowing we did our very best?

To add even more awe to how well she did... she was up until past midnight last night because she helped us clean-up from the reception. What a trooper. Here is the clean-up crew from Kristie's reception last night:

Be the Music

Andy is getting t-shirts printed for his ballroom company with a logo that developed toward the end of the year: "Be the Music". I think these pictures outside of a restaurant in Nephi, Utah on our way home from volleyball camp in St. George are great examples of being the music (not to mention that the girls have been giggling endlessly when they look at them).

Awwwww. Aren't we cute? We hardly ever actually sit next to each other in the car anymore. One of us usually sits back with the kids, so we have to cherish these moments.