Lindsey's 10th Birthday

Lindsey got Just Dance 3 for the Wii, her ears pierced and lots of earrings



Birthday cheesecake



Lindsey's Birthday "Cupcake Wars" Birthday party

Cupcake pinata

Party games

Another crazy party game



The beautiful, creative cupcakes all of the girls made



Birthdays

From November 17th to December 29th each year we have tons to celebrate. We start with Tim's Birthday, then Taylor's four days later, and Lindsey's five days after that, with Thanksgiving thrown in there somewhere. Then of course we enjoy Christmas, with Breanna's Birthday and our wedding anniversary on December 29th. After New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, we take a giant breath and perhaps enjoy the break until Ashlee's Birthday May 8th and and mine on May 31st. (I especially enjoy a break from the Birthdays when everyone turns an even number, because that means it's Birthday party year!) Here are some highlights from our November and December Birthday festivities.

Happy Birthday, Tim!



A bit excited @ the choc pb cake



Taylor's Lego Star Wars Party, with cake, pinata, and "yoda soda"



Taylor and his Star Wars Lego cake







Pin the lightsaber on lego Luke





Go padawon Kyrie! Destroy the Death Star!



The third annual cousins "Birthday Band"



Taylor playing in the "Birthday Band"

I'm going to post this, then add pictures from Lindsey and Breanna's Birthdays.



Breanna's Baptism

Breanna was baptized last Saturday, January 7th. She had been so very excited for this day to come! She looked beautiful in her white dress that we borrowed from her cousin, Shaelynn, and her beautiful hair was done by Aunt Tami.

We got to spend a wonderful week with Grandma and Grandpa Roberts who came all the way from Nebraska for her special day. Grandma Langford came from Texas, too! Aunt Tami, Uncle Darren, Uncle Ken, and cousins Kaylie and Emma came from Lehi and Orem. Uncle Brad's other niece was baptized the same day, so he was up north for Cambry's baptism, but Aunt Kristine and the Anderson cousins were all at Breanna's baptism, too. (Except for the two who are serving missions, of course!) It was a wonderful program with Grandpa Roberts and Grandma Langford giving talks.  There was also a musical number by Ashlee, Lindsey, and myself, with Aunt Kristine playing the piano and Shaelynn playing the flute.

We are very proud of Breanna for making this important decision to be baptized. She has followed the example of Jesus Christ and has made covenants to follow Him. Congratulations, Breanna! We love you!









2011 in Review

Instead of typing up and sending out a Christmas letter this year, I've decided to kill two birds with one stone and do it on my blog instead. That way I could save ink and paper, and more importantly update my poor, neglected blog. (I didn't think it had been THAT long since I'd posted, then I got on here and saw that it was fall. Fall of 2010. Yikes.) So here goes. I'm going to shake up the Christmas letter norm and go from youngest to oldest this time.

Breanna is 7. She is in second grade, and she loves that her teacher challenges the class and that they are learning some Spanish. She says she wants to be a teacher some day, and her dolls and stuffed animals can attest to the fact that she will be a great one! She loves to laugh, and she is very creative. She's an amazing author, and has written and illustrated tons of paper-and-staple "children's books". She has three countdowns going on right now- days until Christmas, days until her Birthday next week, and days until her baptism on January 7th.

Lindsey  is 10. She is in fourth grade, and she is a very good student. She is extremely creative and loves to make things like purses out of duct tape and flowers out of fabric scraps. She's our entrepreneur, and we think someday she'll own her own business and we'll be coming to her for loans. She has money she's saved from her very successful lemonade and cookie sales this summer, as well as what she's earned by selling her beautiful flower hair clips. She loves to play soccer, sing, and play the piano. She got her ears pierced for her 10th Birthday last month, so along with her countdown for Christmas is one for the next few weeks when she can finally take the studs out and wear her cute new earrings.

Ashlee   is 13. She is in the eighth grade and is loving middle school. She's doing well in her honors classes and is on the student council. She continues to share her amazing musical talents by singing in church and in the school talent show, playing 1st chair clarinet in the school band, and playing the piano. She's also written several of her own songs, and would like to pursue a career in music or acting some day. She plays basketball on a Jr. Jazz team. She likes to totally freak us out by counting down the few years until she'll be old enough to drive. (I think she's also secretly counting down until school starts again after Christmas break, though, 'cause she misses her friends.)

Taylor is 16. He's a sophomore and loves to be a Cedar High Redman. He enjoys school and his friends there. He loves participating in the Special Olympics and has a display of his medals hanging in his room. He also loves listening to music and has perfected "Dynamite" on the Just Dance 3 Wii game. He has informed us that when he is tall he will become a teacher, and has begun wearing his shirts tucked in with a belt like his dad does to prove it. We think that when it comes to happiness, forgiveness, and Christlike love, Taylor is already the best teacher we know.  He thoroughly enjoys getting presents, and has been writing lists of what he wants for Christmas. He posts these lists on the fridge, and gave one to Santa at our Ward Christmas party. The kid is covering all of his bases. So, as you imagine, he is absolutely counting down the days until Christmas, after which I'm sure the countdown until his Birthday next November will begin.

LeAnn is not feeling the need to tell you her age, though perhaps she should while she can still say she's in her 30's for the next six months. She is also not going to continue to refer to herself in third person, 'cause it's just weird. I'm currently a literacy aide at South Elementary where Lindsey and Breanna go to school. I work with Kindergartners, and teach Kindergarten and fourth-grade reading groups. This is my second year in this position and I love it. I've deciding it's time to begin teaching full-time, however, so I'm hoping to get a teaching position with the district next school year. I should be getting my renewed Utah teaching license in the mail any day now. I've also been taking ESL (teaching English as a Second Language) classes through the district, and have 3 more classes to go in order to get my ESL endorsement. I'm not counting down until anything. The kids are growing up and time is going by way, way too fast as it is.

Tim is in his 20's at heart. Or at least you'd think so the way he runs marathons every year and half marathons at least twice a year. He's been training hard and is hoping to beat his personal best time in a half marathon in St. George next month. Though I have a very hard time believing it, he insists this torture is actually fun. He's beginning to convince me, however, by running dressed as Barney Rubble in a Halloween Half Marathon last October, and by eating the required twinkie at each aide station in the Hostess Half Marathon a few weeks ago. (Runners are slightly crazy, but really fun people!) Tim continues to teach fourth grade at Iron Springs Elementary. This is his 15th year teaching. He also continues to write when he's not teaching or running. I'm not exactly sure what he's counting down for, but suspect it's his next race (or summer vacation).   

Our family feels very blessed to have amazing friends, neighbors, and family. We are grateful for the gospel, and especially grateful for our Savior and Redeemer, Jesus Christ. We wish all of you and your families a wonderful, happy Christmas Season and a joyous New Year!

Fall Pictures

My little man is all ready for High School!

Gotta love the bus coming to the front door...

7th grade, here she comes!

Ready for third grade



All ready to be a big first-grader




Lindsey- Jr. Cheer



Just ran 26.2 miles and still smilin'!

Tim and kids at the marathon

UDSF Buddy Walk

Picking pumpkins

at the pumpkin patch

in Paragonah



Say....Pumpkins!



Hay ride action shot

The hay ride was a blast, even though it actually involved no hay. Less itchy that way.

Fall 2010

I figured if I called this "Fall", I could get caught up, especially with the first day of school pictures from two months ago! This year Taylor started High School and is a Freshman at Cedar High. He seems to love it and has transitioned really well. Ashlee is in 7th grade and continues to do great. She has a 4.0 so far this year. Lindsey is in 4th grade, loves her teacher, Mr. Shirley, and is also doing really well. Breanna is in 1st grade and has adjusted well to going to school all day. She loves her teacher, Mrs. Robb, and continues to do well also. Tim is still teaching 4th grade at Iron Springs, and he is having a good year. He is really enjoying his class this year. I had the opportunity to move from Fiddlers to South Elementary, where Breanna and Lindsey go to school. It's a long story of how it worked out, and the Lord's hand was definitely in it. I LOVE, LOVE being at the girls' school, being close to home, and the people I work with. I get to be in charge of 17 Kindergartners for an hour everyday, and it's honestly my favorite part of the new job. I also teach reading groups to 4th and 5th graders, and I'm starting to enjoy that more as I learn the program that we use better.

In September we attended a football game at Cedar High where Lindsey got to cheer for the first quarter. She had practiced all week with the High School cheerleaders and about 50 other girls as part of the Jr. Cheer program. She did great and had a lot of fun. It was a really exciting game to attend as well, since it went into double overtime! Unfortunately, we lost by a field goal.

At the beginning of October we enjoyed General Conference, and watched Tim finish yet another St. George marathon. There was record heat this year, so it was really tough for all of the runners. He is amazing!  Last weekend we also enjoyed the Utah Down Syndrome Foundation's Buddy Walk. We went to the park where they had a big blow-up slide and bounce houses, games, face painting, and lunch, plus, of course, the "Buddy Walk" around the park. It was all free and lots of fun. Our neighbors, the Stuckis, came as well. We appreciate their love and support!

This past weekend has been Harvest Holiday. We were all out of school Thursday and Friday, and will also be off tomorrow (Monday). We've had fun relaxing and getting some stuff done around the house. On Friday we went to St. George and saw "Nanny McPhee Returns" at the dollar theater. Yesterday we had a great time at the pumpkin patch in Paragonah, picking out pumpkins and taking a hay ride.

Fishing

The week before school started and again last weekend we went fishing. Both times all 3 girls caught a fish each! Taylor didn't want anything to do with it the first time (he preferred throwing rocks in the water down the shore...), but this past weekend he discovered the joy of casting and reeling it in as fast as he could so that he could cast again.

Navajo Lake

The Kids' Fishing Pond up Cedar Canyon