Who would win?

 In a fight between...

Batman

 Superman

and Rainbow Bright :)

Its a tricky one, they all look pretty tough.

But let's back up.  Jade got sick over night and woke up on her birthday feeling pretty miserable. She had a temp of 103 that evening.  Its a small miracle that I got her to pose "happily" with her Jade pancakes.  Which she did eventually eat...all but the A.  

 This is the face that we got later through all the gift opening. 

Luckily she woke up much chipper-er...more chipper?...the next morning (She is now absolutely enjoying each and everyone of her gifts. Thanks grandparents) 

We were able to visit our family in Idaho Falls for their annual Chili cookoff/trunk-or-treat.  Today we convinced Jade that a really fun game would be to dump her candy out, organize it into piles according to candy-type (wait, that doesn't sound like me...), and then decide which candy would be good for mom and dad to eat.  Thank you Jade.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN everyone!

Me, circa 1988, when people actually knew who Rainbow Bright was.  Thanks mom for making a costume that can stand the test of time. 

Happy Birthday[s] !

Happy birthday to my two favorite little girls!  My niece Rachel turns ONE today, and Jade turns FOUR tomorrow.  Wow.  I love you both :)

3 day old Jade

1

2

3

[almost] 4

+ some video extras

Little Musicians

Say cheese

Family home evening...or something

Ready for bed

Ranger Pride/Family Pride

I had a lot of school spirit in high school, can you tell?  My 10 year reunion is tomorrow and I'm a little bummed I can't shell out the $750 for a plane ticket to go alone.  Even more bummed I can't shell out an extra thousand or two to take my whole family and show everyone how lucky I am.  I guess its not that big of a deal really.  I'm a little sad, but most of the people who mean the most to me are right here with me.  More or less for free :)

Look at these cuties! And yes, poor Everest had a big crash a few days ago.

Jade and I have been keeping really busy with her "Busy book", which is just a lifesaver as far as thinking of things to do ALL day every day without putting her in front of the TV.  Here are some of her creations (with very little help from me).

Jade and Morgan.  She is 5 days older than Jade and lives "next door".

She named the bear "seddy bear". I don't know where she gets her names.

Gold treasure (popcorn balls) for our treasure hunt around the house

 I have the absolute best husband in the world.  Not only did he dye my hair for me (since committing to take Dave Ramsey's money makeover challenge I guess I can't pay $80 for "professional" color anymore), but he did a really good job of it!

He's an artist, what do you expect

See why I'm sad that my class can't meet these wonderful people? I guess if I complete the things on my "makeover" list (pay off debt, including mortgage, save $20 K for emergencies, invest in an IRA, and start a college fund for my kids) then I can start saving for my 20 year reunion.  That's not so hard. My kids will be a lot more fun then anyway...

Temples and testimony

I missed both Saturday sessions of General Conference this month so today I found time to go back and start listening from the beginning (don't ask me how).  While listening to President Monson's "opening remarks" (which happened halfway through the first session if you didn't know) I was struck by the fact that 4 of the cities in Central America that I visited on my dance tour in 2004 now have temples in them.  When I was there, all of Central America only had 2.  I went back and read the mission statement of the BYU-Idaho Contemporary Dance company, which says that we agree to "stand as witness of God at all times, and in all things, and in all places" (Mosiah 18:9 in the Book of Mormon) and by so doing we will become missionaries for the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Lately I've been feeling that I'm using a lot of time trying to continue dancing that could be better spent doing something else.  But today I'm feeling very proud and grateful to have been given a talent that I feel could have had a huge impact in bringing others to the knowledge of the gospel.  Afterall, there are now temples in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala; Tegucigalpa, Honduras; San Salvador, El Salvador; and Panama City, Panama; all places that I visited hoping to share my testimony of the savior through my talents and example. The Lord no doubt knew that the people in those nations needed to be prepared for the building of new temples, and hopefully I was an instrument in those preparations.

East Coast tour 2005.  I have a pretty special bond with ALL of these girls.  Forever.

Twins

Me

Anybody else think they're just as much my twin as each others?

9 months and moving

 What we finally get to enjoy...
-They are both crawling now, although Everest knows he's faster at the army crawl so thats what he does.
-Everest is a climber.  Already. Favorite places to climb (of course): into the plants and onto the [very hard] mantle.
-They both stand themselves up on things.
-Calder is very sensitive, he cries more easily when we leave a room or say "no"
-They both have huge appetites.  They will eat ANYthing that I feed them.
-They sleep all night, and have been for months now.  They are usually in bed by 7 and up at 6:30 on the dot.
-Usually Everest is the one getting into trouble while Calder watches and tries to decide if he can, or should, do it too. But I catch him before he gets to try. 
-They laugh at each other for no reason.

Calder eyes

A soft place to stand

Mmmmm dirt

And we can't leave out the snow day we had on Friday

 

My crawlers

First Haircuts

Yes-another one

Sometimes these random videos just brighten my day so even though it has nothing to do with me I'm sharing it in hopes that it will brighten someone else's as well. This is priceless. It belongs in a movie. And as special as my own proposal will always be to me (love you Aaron) I wouldn't have complained if this was how he did it. Watch it big because its much better when you can see whats going on with the girl in the little box.