Christmas 2013

We love Christmas! We love spending time with family and celebrating the birth of Christ, we know that this is the true meaning of Christmas. The kids make it even more of a special time with their countdowns and constantly asking if it is time to open presents. Well the time finally came! Here are some shots from the "event".

Our Costco Christmas tree died about 10 days ago, we did not dare to turn the lights on for fear it might spontaneously combust...
 

 

They were held in check for as long as we could, even the dog wanted to tear into the gifts...

 

She might have only wanted 2 front teeth (although she was in need of about 5), but she got cute clothes, Pajamas and a bike from Grandpa Orchard, a huge case of makeup and monster high dolls...

 

Ethan got some watercolors and paper, a few new drawing tools, some tools and a new hat...

its a good thing these kids like to read...
 

Millie is the essence of a Childlike Christmas Spirit. It was her sweet and loud voice that announced this morning "its Christmas!!!!" from the top of the stairs... she got fairy dolls and strawberry shortcake Pajamas, along with some watercolor supplies...

 

Aaron and his PS Vita are now inseparable, he also got a sketch book and a some drawing tools, notice Ivie's reaction to the iPhone5 c she and Ethan both got...

Ivie and Ethan... techno geeks,, blue and green Iphones

We found these great pop up books at Costco.. "the Wizard of Oz", "the Little Mermaid", and " Alice in wonderland"... I can;t wait to read these to them.

Isobell got this miniature compound bow; she will have to get a bit more strength in her arms to pull the string to full draw...

Ivie wanted only a few things; a Cross Bow, miniature Scriptures, and a case of chili... this was her plan and provisions to face the zombie apocalypses... she didn't get the case of chili.

What a wonderful and spirited Christmas we have enjoyed. We love you all. Merry Christmas.

new chick

We found a couple of free chickens on the free classified ads the other day, so I spent 10 dollars in gas to get what would have been $5 in chickens... but they are a little older and so don't require all the fuss that new chicks would. One of the chicks is a Rooster... he will hang around for  awhile until his antics annoy me or the neighbors, or he starts being mean to the kids.

this little chick, a Wyandotte breed, is very sweet. only about 3 months old. she was obviously handled a lot by the family that gave her to us. She likes to be held and lets you catch her.

 On another unrelated note, my good wife Lara is busy working her self to death. She claims it is only 12 hours a week, but I swear she puts in more hours... evidence here. Lara trying to do some more work at night in bed...

Ivie's sweet 16

Ivie turned 16 this week! Lara stayed up with a friend in the ward the night before and made this awesome "little red riding hood" cake complete with wolf tracks...

we sang the song, ate some cake, then Ivie had to go baby sitting. It turns out that the lady she was baby sitting for did not need her that night so we whisked her away to go eat. We ended up at the Macaroni Grill in Orem.

Happy Birthday Ivie!

Todd's Birthday in the car

We spent the day in the car driving to St. George to deliver some paintings to Dixie Museum (sears Gallery). Ivie needs to have 40 hours of practice drive time to get her license in March, so she was the driver. She did pretty good for 7 hours on the freeway, passing tractor trailers and crazy drivers trying to get through central Utah ASAP. We drove Linda's Chevy Impala.... on the way back Linda and Bob called the car through the Onstar system, our music stopped and there was a phone ringing in the cars speakers. Ivie yelled " the Stupid space car made a call!" we couldn't figure out how to answer the car phone....

A few pictures from a warmer day.....

I looked at the temperature online today, it said it was -8 degrees. It felt colder yesterday when it was 3 degrees outside, but I guess it could be -8... anyway all the cold weather had me feeling nostalgic for warmer days. I started looking trough pictures of the kids and found these great images of the kids at Lagoon and the first day of school. Enjoy.

Izzy and Rose at Lagoon...

Todd and Amelia on the train that goes around the lake, and past the animals....

Picture from the train of the swings.....

Ethan age 14, 5' 10"

First day of school for the fair and golden (Elise, 1st grade age 6) and the dark and beautiful (Isobell, 3rd grade age 8)

Cute sisters and Aaron (6th grade age 11)

Trampoline girls with the movie screen in the background...

working Mom

Lara has the hardest of all jobs raising our kids, but on top of thast she has 3 other jobs. Between her calling as primary secretary, doing some invoicing for his dad, and the work she does for Family Chart Masters... she has little time left for other things. This is not a rare thing to see; Lara at work with two devices going!

Scout the Beagle... and heres to the New Year!

Happy New Year! 2013 is here......

We finally named the Dog; Scout, as in the character from "to kill a mocking bird". We couldn't it call it Toby (like Lara's Childhood Beagle was named) because Aaron's best friend Tobias goes by Toby (just by Aaron) Isobell really didn't like the name snoopy, I said that snoopy is a boys name and we could femme it up a bit and call her Snookie, but that was quickly shot down. Everyone likes Scout.

We have a interesting deal with the Universe; we stay mostly poor, but when ever when ever we have a need for a certain thing we are sure to find that item at DI (goodwill store). We had been housing scout in two laundry baskets tied together with a Sunday tie. So we put on our list " find Kennel at DI". and new years eve we went and sure enough there it was sitting there waiting for me. $15 seemed like a lot for me at this time of year, but much better than a new price. now if we could just get the kids to find their own playhouse.