Wacky Day

The week before Spring Break is Spirit Week at Nate and Haley's elementary school. Today was "Wacky Day" and the kids were encouraged to dress and do their hair "wacky". Haley got into it and wore a Halloween shirt with one Halloween sock and one Christmas sock. Nate just wore one of his t-shirts and I asked him if he was going to dress wacky. His reply? "I'm wearing gray socks!" The kids had fun making their hair-dos. We also hairspray painted their little sections of hair, but you can't tell. The girl in the middle of Nate and Haley is our friend Tressa who comes over some mornings before school. Andy and Michael did not want to do it with them this year, which is fine. However, Michael is going through a pj stage and all he wants to wear during the day is pajamas! That's kind of wacky!

Tae Kwon Do

Nate started taking Tae Kwon Do about a year ago. He has progresses quickly through his belts. He started as a white belt and then moved to orange and then to yellow. The video above is his testing routine for his Camo belt. He did well and earned his belt. He was so happy! We're glad that he's been able to find something that he enjoys doing! Way to go Nate!!

Haley's Baptism

Haley was baptized on Feb. 27th with her great friend Tessa Paulsen. It was a wonderful day and the two girls sure enjoyed themselves (especially after they were baptized, they both kept giggling in the bathroom while we tried to get them into dry dresses)!!

The baptism girl herself. There were no dresses for the girls to be baptized in and Haley didn't want to be baptized in the jumpsuit they had, so my mom and I made her a simple skirt the night before. What we won't do for our children! Thanks Mom!

Haley and Tessa. These girls have a lot in common. They are both the only girls in their families, they go to the same elementary school, and they are only a couple of weeks apart in age. Tessa could have been baptized in January but she waited so that she could be baptized with Haley.

My mom got the towels for each of the girls and they sure came in handy!

My mom also got this cake from Sam's Club! I love their buttercream frosting! Yum!

Tessa's grandmother gave a talk on the Holy Ghost. As part of her talk, she read a book to the girls about the Holy Ghost. It was a really neat book.
My mom gave a talk on Baptism. She had some cheese whiz that she sprayed on the girls pictures to represent sin. She then used a white washcloth, representing baptism, to wipe away the cheese whiz. The girls really enjoyed that!
One of their Primary teachers, Sister Smith, gave the girls a bouquet of flowers. Their other Primary teacher, Sister Thompson, conducted the music and Nathan's Mom played the piano.
Haley with Grandpa and Grandma Bice. I know we have a picture of Haley with Grandpa and Grandma Taggart, but I couldn't find one. If I find one I will post it. It may be on their camera and we didn't get the pictures (send it to us if you've got one Grandpa T.!)

Haley Baby turns 8!

Back to updating...Haley turned 8 on February 13. I can't believe my baby girl turned 8! All day long she kept saying, "Mom, I can't believe I'm 8! I still feel like I'm 7!" This year Haley did not have a friend birthday party, but she was just as happy with a family party.

This is the second time she's had a "Barbie" birthday cake. "Barbie's" arm fell off before I could put her in the cake, so Nathan had to "jimmy" it with a paper clip. You can hardly tell.

The boys had more fun popping packing bubbles than watching their sister open presents.

"Are you..."

Yesterday, St. Patrick's Day, Nate was asked a question:

"Are you Irish?"

"No, I'm North Carolinian."

Andy's birthday Party

Andy had his very first birthday party the week after his 5th birthday. He shared a birthday party with his good friend Abel Paulsen. It was a Lego themed party and all who came really enjoyed it. The kids got to paint t-shirts using Mega-Blocks and see who could build the tallest Lego tower in 2 mintues. It was a lot of fun to spend the morning with 5 year olds!

Dum Dum

"Dum, Dum give me Gum, Gum!" This snow sculpture was in the front yard of a house we drive by every day. The first time the kids saw it, they said it looked like the sculpture from "The Night at the Museum" movie that asked Ben Stiller's character for some gum. Every time we passed it the kids would say, "There goes Dum, Dum!" This picture is a little out of date because all of our snow is melted, yipee!! Hopefully we won't get that last snow fall of the year (knock on wood)!

St. Patty's

I'm going to deviate from my updating to wish everyone a Happy St. Patrick's Day! Nate and Haley were VERY excited for this day to come! They both worked hard on building a "house" to catch a leprechaun and trick him out of his gold. They wrote this note to go with the house:
Nate had his heart set on catching the leprechaun and getting rich. He told Nathan that he would soon have a "pocket full of gold." Unfortunately their trick didn't work! They didn't catch the leprechaun but he left everyone green bubbles and M&M's. He also turned our milk green. Notice how the leprechaun tells the kids the real way to get rich: work hard and save your money!

Andy turns 5!

My Andy Bug turned 5 on Janurary 16th. In some ways I can't believe he's already 5 and in others I can't believe that he's only 5! He's been reading since before he turned 4 and sometimes he can speak so well that I forget he's really still a little boy. Andy still can throw quite the fit and currently he is going through a "tattle-telling" stage. He has grown into a fun little guy and we enjoy having him in our family. Andy thought that as soon as he turned 5 he would stop going to preschool and start Kindergarten, it was a hard fact for him that he had to wait until after summer when school started again. Then a week after turning 5, he started telling people he was already 5 1/2!

Okay, so this cake looked better in my head. Andy wanted a Lego Batman cake and this is what I came up with. He really liked it and so I guess that's all that matters!

Christmas in Raleigh

***WARNING: This is a loooong blog entry***

We drove to Raleigh to celebrate Christmas with Nathan's family. All of us were there except Ben and his family, who we missed much! It was great weather while we were there, for us anyway! One morning Nathan and Marilyn were looking at the weather forecast on the computer and it said that the high would be 45 degrees. Nathan said "Yes!" and Marilyn said "Oh, Man!" I guess it's just your point of view.

The following pictures are from the Children's Museum in downtown Raleigh. Marilyn, who's always thinking of her grandchildren, bought a membership, so all of the grandchildren were free! We went to the musuem twice while we were there.

Sorry, Mirm, I had to include this one, it's so cute!

Even Grandpa got in on the action!

Nathan really enjoyed riding his Dad's Vespa! He was always asking if anyone wanted to go on a ride with him. Andy was a frequent rider.

CHRISTMAS EVE - Marilyn had borrowed some costumes from a friend so that we could perform the Nativity story right. We had a lot of fun with it.
A humble shepard.

Mary quite contrary.

Michael couldn't decide what he wanted to be, here he is a donkey.

Wise man Jack

Angels we have heard on high! Katie loved holding the star!

Andy as a lamb.

My sweet lil' lambie!

Another Wise Guy!

The Stockings were hung by the chimney with care...

Candy - caning the tree.

Christmas morning much have been full of action because I have only this picture of Nathan and the following one of Haley! Oh well. It was a great morning!

Auntie Mimi story time! The kids all gathered together and Miriam read a great story. The kids looked forward to story time every night. Sometimes it was Miriam and sometimes it was Grandma.

A favorite family tradition - Grandma's sugar cookies with frosting and sprinkles!

Grandma Story time, always a favorite with the kids!

On New Year's Eve, Mom and Dad made reservations for all of the adults to go out to dinner at The Cheesecake Factory! It is quickly becoming one of our favorite places to eat! We all enjoy being able to have an uninterrupted conversations with our siblings! It was a lot of fun, thanks Mom and Dad!