The Past 3 months

It's really hard to believe that it's been nearly 3 months since I've posted anything. Once the girls birthday is here things just seem to fly by until after Christmas. They turned 9 this year and I'm still in shock that my little babies are that old. Two weeks later Mike turned 11 and now we're talking about when he gets the priesthood next year. I watch the deacons pass the sacrament on Sunday and shudder to think my baby boy will be old enough to do that in less than a year. How did he get that old???!!!

Aside from the month of birthdays, 8 in all, we've been busy with the usual. School started and with it a few more activities to add to our all ready busy lives. Olivia played soccer again this fall and had a blast as usual, although we're still working on focus on and off the field. She gets distracted so easily. Mike has started a drums class after school on Thursdays. DRUMS stand for discipline, respect, unity, music and I can never remember the S! The music teacher at school is just amazing so we thought this would be a great thing for Mike to do and he's enjoyed it so far. Emily is home as many of you all ready know and we are currently battling the school districts to have her in Bayfield. It's not going well which is really frustrating. It's upsetting that well educated parents like ourselves trying to do what's best for their child have no voice and are completely ignored. I'll stop there before I go on an angry tangent!

Our most exciting news is our new van! We just bought it two weeks ago and are trying to get everything together so we can convert it for two wheelchairs. It will be so great to just wheel everybody in, hook them in to the tie down system and be on our way. The picture doesn't do it justice, it is HUGE. It's great for youth temple trips as we found out this Saturday!

The other pictures are the kids birthdays. Mike is such a ham, I love it! He's also being silly with the chopsticks in the other picture. We stopped at this great Thai restaurant in Poncha Springs, halfway between here and Denver. The kids loved it! Yummy food!

Now we're enjoying the last few days of warm weather before winter is upon us. The mountains are blanketed in snow and I shiver every time I look up at them. It is pretty, but I'm not looking forward to shoveling, especially since the new van is too big for our garage door. It should be interesting!