December Birthdays

Both Katelyn and Lauren have birthdays in December. Katelyn's is the 5th and Lauren's is the 11th. Thank goodness Lauren was a little over due or we could have had two birthdays on the same day because Lauren was due on Katelyn's birthday. It makes December a busy month at our house, but we love it.

Katelyn turned 10 this year. She was excited to be in double digits and because she could get her ears pierced. She didn't get a "friend" party this year, but the night before her birthday I took her and a friend to a stage production of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and we went out for ice cream afterward (even though it was freezing outside). Her birthday fell on a Saturday this year which she considered a bonus because then she didn't have to wait until Todd got home from work to open her presents and she didn't have to go to school on her birthday. We were all very proud that she didn't pass out when she got her ears pierced.

Lauren turned 6 this year. It is hard to believe she is 6 already. Wasn't she just born yesterday? Anyway, she is a big kindergartener now and loves every minute that she gets to spend at school. She got to have "friend" party this year and invited a few friends from church and from school. Recently, she fell in love with the Fancy Nancy book series so we had a Fancy Nancy Tea Party. We made fancy purses with jewels, sequins and ribbons. We had a Fancy Nancy pinata and played Fancy Nancy bingo. The little girls loved using my fancy dishes for their cake and ice cream. It was a very "fancy" party in case you couldn't tell. After her friends had gone home she gave me a big hug and told me it was the best birthday party EVER!

Halloween 2009 (continued)

As soon as the Halloween Superstore next to Target opened Dustin started trying to pick what he wanted to be for Halloween. He went from Cowboy to superhero and ended up as a skeleton. Don't ask me how we got to that point, but he wanted to be something SCARY. After wearing hand me down costumes for her whole life Katelyn finally got to pick her own costume. She has wanted to be a hippie for as long as I can remember and this year she got her wish. Lauren was supposed to be a Go-G0 Dancer, but she refused to wear the Go-Go boots. Oh well. We didn't get any pictures of Whitney because she spent Halloween at a friends house, but she was a Hobo.

Halloween 2009

We made our traditional trip to the pumpkin patch yesterday. It was a beautiful day, which have been hard to come by lately. In fact earlier in the week we had a couple of inches of snow and Dustin made his first snowman.

Dustin picked a pumpkin right away and spent the rest of the time fascinated by the dirt! Katelyn fell in love "at first sight" with her pumpkin which of course weighed more than Dustin. Lauren finally picked her pumpkin after picking and discarding about 30 pumpkins. Whitney wanted to see if the electrical fence surrounding the patch was turned on so she touched it. Yes, it was turned on! She said it shocked her, but thank goodness it didn't cause her to go into cardiac arrest. So then all the other kids, including Todd had to touch it too. Monkey see, monkey do.

First Days of School

Well, Whitney and Katelyn had their first day of school on Tuesday. I was soooo nervous for Whitney to go to Middle School. I've been having nightmares about forgetting my locker combination and where my classes are. She was pretty nervous too. She didn't even want to eat breakfast. After the first day though, she was fine. No big deal. I wasn't quite as nervous for Katelyn. She even has the same teacher as last year. Mrs. Hankins moved up to 4th grade and a lot of the kids from her 3rd grade class stayed with her.

Almost more traumatic than Middle School was Kindergarten. Lauren's first day was today. She has been so excited. She walked 10 feet ahead of me to the bus stop, she got on the bus and was so busy talking to her friend that she almost forgot to wave at me. She didn't even want me to meet her at the school to make sure she made it to her locker and class okay (the other girls wanted me to). I was a little teary on the way home from the bus stop.

Dustin started his first day of potty training boot camp today and has done great so far. It helped not having his sisters to distract him all day. KNOCK ON WOOD! Hopefully he can keep it up. His preschool starts on the 29th so he has to have it down by then. What will I do with all of them gone? Granted Dustin will only be gone for a couple of hours twice a week, but still I can't remember when I had no kids at home even for a short period. I've included a picture of one of Dustin's finest moments courtesy of Grandpa Nelson.

Summer Family Update

So this month I thought we could do a general family update of everyone and our recent adventures this summer.


Whitney is of course 12 now and went to Girl's camp this summer. Our stake decided to rough it a bit by tent camping (with indoor showers and toilets) and they had a great time. Whitney was put with all the other first year girls and had a lot of fun meeting new people her age. Here favorite parts were a skit where she was Milly Mays (sister to Billy Mays), doing tie dye shirts and making/eating hobo dinners. She is also now in to texting and facebooking so feel free to drop her a line.







Katelyn is loving drawing and doing crafts this summer. This summer some of her masterpieces included a poster of a deer she made for Faith in God requirments, a volcano made of tin foil and a paper cup, and making gak-think slime. She even went to art camp this summer stretched her own canvas to create a painting!



Lauren has decided that she likes jump off the boat. Seems like everytime that we stop the boat there are serveral requests to jump in the water. Lauren was a little scared at first but quickly decided that it could be very fun. Last Thursday when we went out she even asked for the ski rope and swam all the way to the end of the rope. Then asked me to start to boat and drag her around the lake with just her life jacket on--I abliged and her and Whitney had a great time! This was the girl that informed me at the beginning of the summer that she was not going to go on the tubes until she was 8 years old.






Dustin is still refusing to go on the potty. We have tried star wars guys, and candy and every thing else you can think of. We have even tried guilt, by saying "your sisters go on the potty" you can't go to preschool if your not potty trained. So Kelly decided to wait till the girls are at school. Well cross your fingers that we can get him potty trained!

Kelly has taken to running recently. Over the last five years plus she and a good friend have been speed walking several times a week. I asked her about running a 5k race with me and before I knew it she told me that she had run a 5k and I think a 10k just to see what she could do. She was quoted (or liberally quoted) as say "I don't need no stinkin' race to run a 5k. I can run it on my own and I don't have to overpay for a t-shirt that I will never wear." Turns out I'm not that practical so I'm still looking to overpay for a t-shirt that proves I actually got off my duff.

Todd (me) has been busy attending every youth camp available including LDS Encampment, Youth Palmyra trip and even Girls Camp. I also recently went on my annual golf trip and managed to play 90 holes of golf in two days. Yea, it is a bit crazy and obsessive but that is what the guys golf trip is all about. We even tried some "Happy Gilmore" drives on the 90th hole and it turns out that I hit two great drives with that shot and beat the 6+ previous drives I tried with the more conventional swing.

Hope you are having a great summer. We have one more month and are looking foward to more great adventures.

Palmyra

The youth in our ward recently took a trip to visit the church history sites in upstate New York and Kirtland, Ohio. Since Todd is the YM President, I got to tag along as a chaperone. Also, as hard as it may be to believe Whitney is 12 now so she got to go too. It was a great trip. We left Thursday, July 9th in the afternoon and got back around 10:30 p.m. on Tuesday, July 14th. That may not seem like a long time, but we saw a lot of things. The first day we visited Niagara Falls in the morning and then attended the Hill Cumorah Pageant in the evening. On Saturday, we were able to go to the Palmyra temple. An interesting thing about the Palmyra temple is that it is the only temple with a clear window. The window looks out over the Sacred Grove. The view was impressive. After we went to the temple we visited the Smith Farm. On Sunday we had the privilege of having Sacrament Meeting in the Sacred Grove. That was the highlight of the trip for me. We also visited the Grandin Building, where the first copies of the Book of Mormon were published, and the Whitmer Farm. The next day we drove to Kirtland, Ohio and visited the sites there which included the Kirtland Temple, Whitney Store, Isaac Morley Farm and the John Johnson Farm. I've been to quite a few church history sites. I've been to Nauvoo, Salt Lake City, Martin's Cove, Winter Quarters and more, but none of them made as deep an impression on me as the sites we visited on this trip.

We also had an opportunity to visit with my sister Cecily and her family who came from New York City to see us (and the pageant too). My little nephews made me miss Dustin who was at home with Grandma and Papa. By the way, my parents were awesome for coming out to Minnesota to watch the younger kids while we were gone. As Lauren likes to say, "You Rock!!"

Emily Johnson, Emily Chandler, Whitney and Ashley Hatcher on the top of the Hill Cumorah.

Whitney, Emily C., Emily J. and Cara Reiffer at Niagara Falls. Don't you love the fashionable ponchos. They kept everyone so dry. NOT!

Todd, Kelly, Tyler, Cecily, Scott and Ben at the Smith Farm.

Whitney and her friends in the Sacred Grove.

Todd and Kelly at the Palmyra Temple.

Graduation

We had a couple of graduations this year. Lauren graduated from preschool (so thrilling) and Whitney graduated from elementary school. Our school district is transitioning to Middle Schools next year so Whitney's class was the last class of 6th graders at her elementary school. It was actually kind of neat. She loved her teacher and had a really good year this year. Mrs. Lehman, her teacher, will actually be teaching 4th grade next year so Katelyn might have her at least for their class switches. Katelyn's teacher is going to teach 4th grade next year too so they are putting most of the same kids in her class again. I guess the consistency is supposed to be good for learning. It all makes me feel kind of old. I can't believe I have a 7th grader and my baby girl is going to Kindergarten. Next year it will just be me and Dustin. How lonely for us.

Piano Recital

Last Friday, among all the many other end of school activities, Whitney and Katelyn had a piano recital. Luckily their teacher only has about 10 students so it didn't take too long. Katelyn's song was quite a difficult song for her, but I think she did pretty well. It was 3 long pages to memorize. Whitney's was difficult, but only one page so she had to play it twice.

Dustin Turns 3!!

Dustin celebrated his 3rd birthday on Saturday. He was so excited! He was very specific about the things he wanted. He said he needed a grass trimmer. He already has a lawn mower and he follows Todd around the yard when he is mowing. I guess it only makes sense that he would need a trimmer to help out with that too. The other "need" was a motorcycle that makes sounds and lights up. He was thrilled to get both as well as other fun gifts. This year he chose to have a pirate cake, but only after we talked him out of a racetrack cake. He wanted the same cake he had last year and it took a while to talk him into trying something new. Then to top it all off we got to take the boat out for the first time this year. It was a great day!

Washington D.C.

Todd and I were able to spend a few days away in Washington D.C. this month. We could have spent even longer if we had more time. There is so much to do and see there that we were amazed. We were also amazed at how much we were able to see without our kids. We visited a few of the Smithsonian Museums (Natural History, American History, National Archives and Air and Space). We toured the Capitol. We saw the Lincoln Memorial, Jefferson Memorial, Washington Monument and the various war memorials. We didn't get to tour the White House, but we took a picture and went to the visitors center. On Sunday, we spent most of the day at the United States Holocaust Memorial. It was all incredibly interesting, but definitely not a place to take small kids. We would to take our family back when they are a little older.

We forgot to take the camera so all of the pictures were taken with Todd's phone. Sorry, they aren't the best. The picture of Todd blowing a bubble with the Easter Island statue was especially for Lauren. If any of you have seen the Night at the Museum movies you may understand. In the first movie the Easter Island statue says, "Dum, dum give me gum, gum." Lauren thinks that is hilarious, thus the bubble blowing with the statue. Also, it was neat to see the second Night at the Museum movie after having just been to the Smithsonian.

Not only did we have fun, but I think that we both gained a new appreciation for our founding fathers and all those who have sacrificed to make our country what it is today.

Cinco de Mayo

We had a fun weekend at the Cinco de Mayo celebration last Saturday. They say that St. Paul has one of the biggest celebrations in the country with roughly 100,000 people visiting the street area where they have the feastival. Our favorite part is the parade and the Salsa Contest. Here is what the kids thought of the Festival (sorry I didn't bring the camera so I used a picture from the website).

Whitney's favorite part was the parade and the jalapeno eating contest (more on that later). There was a lot of cool stuff like Aztec dancers that had cool shells (aka nuts) on their legs that made noise as they danced.

Katelyn's favorite part was the trampoline-bungy jump ride. She was harnessed into the bungy so once she got the hang of it she was doing front and back flips. She also won a Twin's bobble-head at the Twins booth.

Lauren's favorite part was when they were throwing candy as part of the parade. And boy do they give out plenty of candy. She also went on a trampoline/bungy jump ride that she really liked.

Dustin liked the big fire trucks in the parade. He also like the fact that his sisters gathered candy and shared it with him while he sat in the stroller. Dustin won tickets to a twins game for he and his dad!!!

My favorite part was the Salsa Contest and the Jalapeno Contest. For the salsa contest you get to rate several local business' salsa according to the hotest, the smoothest and the most unique. My favorite are the hotest but this years standout was a cherry salsa that I voted for the most unique. I also entered the Jalepano Eating Contest this year. There were 10 contestants in the contest and you had to eat 1 jalapeno and wait 1 minute and then eat the remaining 9 as fast as you can. These were the big 4+ inch jalapenos right off the vine and they were smoking. Once the contest got started I cruised into the lead by downing the jalapenos as fast as I could chew them. Believe it or not they didn't seem that hot to me. I soon realized that the contest was between me and another gringo standing next to me. Everyone else didn't really get past 2-4 jalapenos. It was fun having my cheering section in the crowd with the kids and some friends from church.

As it got down to the last few peppers the hardest part wasn't the heat but the fact that my jaw was tired from trying to quickly chew so many jalapenos. The contest came down to the last pepper and it was a photo finish -- unfortunately the judges decided that I came in second by a millisecond. So I just missed taking home the shiny flaming trophy but I did get to have a flaming experience later in the day... It's nothing I didn't already experience on my mission...

Dustin's Handiwork!

On Saturday as Kelly was getting ready to go run some errands with Dustin she had to go back into the house to get one more thing and left Dustin, Lauren and Katelyn in the car. Shortly after getting in the house Katelyn came running in the house yelling "Mom, mom! Come see what Dustin did!"

A bit alarmed that Dustin might have hurt himself Kelly ran out in the garage to determine the cause of the commotion. She found that Dustin had been playing in the passengers front seat and hit his head on the front window creating a nice big star of cracks in the windshield (see the picture to the right). Poor Dustin was so worried that he was in trouble he keep saying "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, ..." while Kelly was trying to figure out if he was okay. She checked him a couple of times and didn't find any big bumps on his head or dilated pupils. Here is Dustin's explanation below.

Whitney summed it up very well in the end when she said "I always knew that kid had a hard head."

Easter Festivities

We had a great Easter!! It started on Saturday morning when the easter bunny made an early visit to our house to hide the easter candy and baskets for us. That inventive little easter bunny had set out a yarn trail for each of the kids that they had to follow around the house, weaving through the bannister, out in the garage, behind couches in order to find their easter baskets. We had each of the kids go one by one and they had great time following the easter bunny trail. We took a video of each of them but they are kind of long so we'll have to see if they make it to the blog.

We also had a great morning of coloring easter eggs! I included a picture of Dustin holding our football easter egg. He thought that was pretty cool and I was afraid that at any moment he was going to throw a long bomb!

On Sunday the kids got dressed in their easter clothes and we took this great picture just before we left to got to stake conference. They created a new stake in the Twin Cities and as part of the shifts and moves we will be moving from the Oakdale Stake to the St. Paul Stake.

In the afternoon we got together with some friends and had a great Easter dinner and easter egg hunt in the backyard. Here are a few more photos of our hunt.
I think I had the most fun after we were able to come home and relax as a family. The kids had been wanting to play baseball all weekend so we took a little time to play a family game of baseball which was a lot of fun. We even has some neighbors join in.

Hope your easter was a great time to reflect on the life and sacrifice of our Savior as well as spend time with family and loved ones.

Dustin's Hopes and Dreams

In the car yesterday Dustin was telling me all about what he wants to be when he grows up. I'll let him tell you about it.

Skiing and Funny Faces

Whitney has picked up skiing this month. As part of a class field trip Whitney's class went to to a local ski hill, Afton Alps, and went skiing for the day. Turns out that Whitney really enjoyed it so her and Dad went skiing again last Saturday and had a blast! Sorry no pictures of the skiing - here is one of us sledding the back yard.

Believe it or not this is the first time that I have ever skied in Minnesota--it was such a shock to go from skiing in Utah to the small hills in Minnesota that I could bring myself to go skiing here until almost 12 year later (lost time). Whitney did a great job going down easy and medium slopes while I got to go down some black diamonds and prove that I still have it! We had a great time and Kelly and I have already discussed getting the other kids out skiing sometime. Maybe some day we'll have a tradition like the Andersons of skiing all day Christmas day.

We do have two snowboards that the kids will use in the backyard on our sledding hill. Katelyn is getting pretty good at it so we'll see where that takes us.

On the lighter side we took this funny video of Dustin and Lauren making funny faces after seeing Madagascar 2 the other day. These two are quite the pair with all the things they dream up. Rare is that day that I don't come home to a new fort begin built some where in the house with any material they can find. Sofa cushions seem to be their favorite materials right now.