Gymnastics

Since I posted about Kenzie's dance class I decided I'd post some pictures of Ainsley in her pre-team gymnastics class. She's the youngest and smallest in the group but she works hard and loves it. Her favorite thing to do is bars.

EVEN shorter!

I had to do it gradually but I went even shorter this time. My lovely camera assistant Ainsley took some shots of me this morning before church.

I like it, I've been wanting to go super short for a while and I finally felt brave enough to do it.

Stone

I quickly snapped this shot this evening. They just finished putting up the stone that the pillars will sit on. You can't see it in this picture but there is also stone on either side of the garage door.

Dance class

Today was Kenzie's last day of dance class so they had a little recital for the parents. Here are a few pictures of my cutie from tonight.

Porch

They are mostly doing work on the inside now but the other day they added on the porch floor.

Now, that's a FAT snowman!

We found this big fella on the way to Cathy's house (it's right near Becky's house too.) We've driven by a couple of time just to get a good laugh.

Baby, it's cooold out there!

Yesterday:
The mercury was at 18 degrees below zero in Minneapolis, with a wind chill of minus 32.


Today:
-8°
Clear Windchill -26

Tomorrow:
Sunny. Highs around 5 below. West winds 5 to 15 mph. Lowest wind chill readings 33 below to 43 below zero in the morning.

No sign of 0 degrees until Friday!

Should I be worried?

The other day I was getting Summer out of the van to run a quick errand and she said to me, "I want to walk in the street and be DAGEROUS!"

And when ever she wants to cut something she asks for a sharp knife.

Bird sitting again

I'd like to introduce you all to Petrie.

We are bird sitting again for a few days and Petrie is a fun bird to watch. We let him out of his cage today and the girls just squeal with delight to see Petrie fly around the house (much to Petrie's dismay I'm sure.) The kids freak him out a little bit with their loud shrieks of joy and they are constantly in his face. He likes me though. He sings for me, kisses me and laughs at me. This evening when I sat down to read the scriptures he landed right on me. I laughed--he copied my laugh--I laughed again---Petrie laughed--the kids were all laughing--Bart was laughing--grandpa was laughing that the bird was copying my laugh--needless to say, it took us a while to get back into reverent mode for scripture reading.

Summer, Petrie and Grandpa

Our house is looking like a house

We got to walk around the house today during the daytime since the workers had the day off. The windows just got installed which makes it much warmer in there. We took the whole family and the girls got to walk around their new room. We're going to have all the girls in the bonus room over the garage. There is space for 3 beds and we put in 3 closets. There's even room for plenty of toys in there--Summer lit up when I said that. While the girls are young I think they'll have fun being in a room together.
Above is the girls room/bonus room over the garage.

The picture below I took standing in the family room looking toward the front of the house into the front living/dining room. We don't have a dining room table so for now that front room will be a more formal living room or as one of my friends calls it "the visiting teaching room".

It's a little dark but above is a picture of our sunroom/eating area. It's just off of the kitchen and the family room. And below is a picture of the family room that I took standing in the kitchen. You can see where the fireplace is going to be in the middle then we'll have built-ins on either side of the fireplace.

We've already met each neighbor on either side of us and they both seem very friendly and nice. We're going to miss so many things about our old house and neighborhood but we are also all very excited for our new house and new neighborhood.

My new toy...

I got a new camera for Christmas this year.

I thought that by getting a brand new expensive camera then all my pictures would suddenly look professional. Unfortunately, that's not the case. I still don't quite get ISO's and why half my pictures are "noisy". I'm slowly learning things by trial and error (lots of error.) There are some really cool features on my new camera like color accent. It takes the picture in black and white with one color showing. I've been having fun playing with that feature. Here are a couple pictures I took from swimming at grandpa's today. Some of the pictures are with the color accent.

Fancy Schmancy

My mother-in-law always buys the girls gorgeous dresses every year for Christmas. They wore them to church today and they couldn't have looked prettier. I quickly took some pictures before we ran out the door. Summer was in some kind of mood (as usual) so please ignore her lip she's about to trip over and just look at her adorable dress.

Some Christmas Photos

The kids are pulling me away from the computer to play our new Disney Scene It game so I won't say much. Just that we had a really nice Christmas morning with just our family and Grandpa. In the evening we had a fabulous time spent with really great friends who are all near and dear to my heart. What a perfect way to spend a perfect Holiday. Here are a few pictures of the kids from Christmas morning.

That's Mackenzie behind her new camera from Santa.

Dayton's

Yes, I know it's not Dayton's anymore, but anyone that has grown up here in MN still calls it Dayton's. Am I right? I'm right. And anyone that has grown up here in MN has been going to the 8th floor auditorium of Dayton's every year around Christmas time since they were born . Am I right? I'm right.

Here are a couple pictures of this years "A Day in the Life of an Elf."

Roof

I know these house updates might be boring to some. But some of you are interested and I like documenting the progress, so here goes another one. I can't believe how fast they are working and how much they get done each day.

Second Floor

That man is shoveling snow out our bedroom window.

P.S. it was about -6 degrees outside this morning when I took this picture.

Pictures!

My good friend Amy S. just came over to take our picture for our Christmas card. Once that was done the girls posed for their own little photo session. Here are a few of my favorites.

Hannah Montana got fat!

The other day Hannah Montana's head fell off. I tried to put it back on but I couldn't because the little rotating part on top of the neck broke off and was rattling around in her head. So Bart tried and he shoved her head on. We all started laughing so hard. Take a look at Hannah Montana now. It's hilarious. I wish I had a before shot but I don't so in case you are not Barbie-wise next to Hannah Montana is another Barbie doll with a normal neck.

Framing

We have walls now.