Whistling

While Grandma Parkinson was visiting, Emily taught herself to whistle. She does it all the time now, except when I get out the camera. This is the best recording I've been able to get. Keep in mind--she is only 10 months old!!

Halloween 2010

I love this picture because it captured how hard Melissa worked. She was so determined to get her pumpkin every bit as clean as her dad's. Sara is just singing while she colors.

The finished product.
The costumes were interesting this year. Ashley was originally not going to dress up, because I have an age limit on my kids begging for candy, but due to a church activity she was helping with, she was asked to dress up. So Sara was no longer the Britney of the Chipettes.

She was to be a monkey, and a very cute one at that.

Emily got to be the traditional baby Minnie Mouse. I love recycled costumes.

Sara's Fourth Birthday!

Sara turned four just before Halloween and had a very fun birthday. She still tells me every day what she wants for her birthday, so I guess I should start making a list for next year. Maybe it's a good thing Christmas is close! She did get some fun stuff, though.

Play-doh. Still a favorite of hers.

The very important pillow pet that she has been begging for since the commercials first started. She sings the pillow pet song all day.

Here's my new four year-old with her Winnie the Pooh cake. I ran out of red food coloring, so his shirt is a very pale pink. Sara loved it.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhh

I was upstairs when I heard a lot of noise from my children downstairs. This is what I found them doing. They have had so much fun with their Grandma!!

NYC Part 1

Jason and I took advantage of his mom being in town to take a trip alone to NYC. We got fantastic deal on a hotel room on Times Square and just walked everywhere. Here's Jason at Rockefeller Center.

Next to Rockefller Center was the Lego store. Talk about some fun toys! I want the Harry Potter set. This dragon wound it's way all around the store and is entirely made of Legos. So is the city under it.

This was the view from our hotel room. Yes, that is indeed the Empire State Building. Not too shabby.

We woke up early to get to the early session at the Manhattan Temple, so this picture was taken in the dark of the early morning. It's the best I could do. The inside of the temple was so beautiful! So much attention to detail.

The M&M store. Those are all M&M's, and that's only about half of what they have displayed. Yummy.

NYC Part 2

The highlight of our NYC trip was Wicked. On Friday night, we went to the Gershwin Theater box office early to put our names in the ticket lottery. They chose 13 names out of roughly 200 who entered, and those lucky 13 got two front-row tickets to the show for only $26 each. We did not have our names drawn on Friday night, but Saturday, with the odds still very much against us, I had my name drawn! We were sitting right in front of the orchestra pit. What a great show!!!

I had to see the Empire State building and think in my mind "I was looking up. It was the nearest thing to heaven. You were there."

Our last adventure was to go to Central Park West. Sadly, the face of the Natural History museum is being redone, so it's all covered with a sheet printed with what the museum looks like. The rest of the building was very impressive. Too bad I didn't take a picture.

Central Park.

Book of Mormon Reading Challenge

The Book of Mormon Reading Challenge, sponsored by Deseret Book, happened this past summer and I am just now getting around to blogging about it! All three of these girls met the challenge to read the Book of Mormon 15 minutes a day for 60 days. It was a lot of work, but they each earned a $10 gift certificate for Deseret Book and have purchased a really fun looking game with their money. Ashley actually ended up finishing the Book of Mormon for the first time while doing this challenge. I'm so proud of my girls and this great accomplishment! I hope we can do it again next summer.