2010 Year in Review

I know I'm going to love these posts one day . . .

January 2010

Parker was the man on his basketball team, The Hawks.

Audrey got fourth place in the Spelling Bee.

We finished up our trip to Utah, where we met Toni, snowboarded, and played excessive amounts of Beatles' Rock Band.

February

It snowed like crazy here in Keller, and we had so much fun playing in it!

Parker started piano lessons, which he hopes will lead to guitar lessons.

We had a visit from Mabel's Flat Stanley, and from Daddy Jeff and Gail. They were looking to buy a house in our area.

March

Our weird neighbors were caught doing strange things in our front yard.

We went to the Great Wolf Lodge.

Parker lost his first front tooth.

Audrey read for 18 hours in two weeks, enough to get first place in her class' reading Iditarod.

We got hibachi for Audrey's ninth birthday.

Audrey went to art camp, and Parker went to tennis camp.

Our custom bookshelves were completed, which meant we could finish decorating the living room.

We went to the BYU vs. TCU basketball games, where the blue fans totally outnumbered the purple ones.

April

We inaugurated our pool.

Audrey rode horses weekly.

We had an egg hunt.

Parker lost his other front tooth!

Audrey got new glasses.

Neal planted a garden.

We went to watch a Beatles cover band here in Westlake.

We went to some Rangers games, one with my mom and dad.

We went to the park a lot.

Parker chose to sit at the sushi bar with Pa for his birthday dinner.

We visited Sugar Land, our old home, saw friends and used hot tub jets to inflate swim shirts.

May

Parker and Audrey did very well in their piano recital.

We picked berries with the neighbors.

Audrey had her art in a show, and Parker finished up his season on the Yankees.

Miles had his last day of Museum School.

Trooper entered our lives.

We played a lot of baseball outside, and went to another Rangers game.

Baby Elliot was born!

June

I went to Arizona to see Stephanie and her family, and to hold little teeny Elliot!

Grammy and Grampy came to visit on the train!

Neal got a Big Green Egg.

Audrey read a lot.

Neal cut his hand with the hedge trimmer. That was not a good day.

School ended.

July

We spent a week in Nebraska with Neal's family.

I was called as Primary President.

My dad had a layover in Dallas, so we went to lunch.

Cousins from Canyon came to visit, and we had fun with the Dallas cousins, too!

We took walks in the evenings and ate a lot of snow cones.

August

The kids and I went to Utah.

And then we went to Florida.

Miles had his fourth birthday, even though he felt really lousy.

The trees were trimmed, what a pain!

Baby Henry and Baby David were born.

Trooper ran away. And then we found him.

The kids went back to school, Miles had his first day of preschool.

September

Audrey's favorite movie came out.

Audrey and I went to a party in Dallas.

We played with Caroline in Weatherford.

The Primary Program.

Parker joined the Mets.

My mom and dad came to visit.

October

Neal and Parker went to a playoff game.

I started going to the cardiologist.

My mom and dad came through on their way to Brazil.

We went to the BYU football game with Daddy Jeff and Gail.

We alphabetized baseball cards and celebrated Halloween.

November

We got a tortoise.

Parker's season with the Mets ended.

We went to Arizona for Thanksgiving. It took a long time to get there, but we had so much fun!

December

We got our first flocked tree.

The kids had their Christmas piano recital.

We played outside and made s'mores in the fireplace.

Enjoyed one crazy warm day at the zoo.

We celebrated Christmas with some Horns.

Bring on 2011!

Other years in review:

2009

2008

2007

here is all of 2006, I didn't do a recap that year.

Holiday at Our House

Charlotte and her family came to spend their last night in Texas at our house. Jeff and Jackson came for dinner, and Caroline joined in the sleepover fun. We played games.

The girls had girl time.

It was a full house for one night, but we loved it!

Favorite Gifts, 2010

 Harry Potter glasses and wand.

 The year-long adoption of an Ethiopian Wolf Pack.

Cliff Lee autographed baseball!

Christmas Events

The kids performed the Nativity at Daddy Jeff's house. They did a great job!

Charlotte, Gail and I did lots of cooking!

The kids did a lot of consuming. (Sometimes my low-light photos look so terrible [and I don't know how to fix them] so I just make them black & white.)

Thanks to Jeff for the photos!

fun at the museum

We went with Charlotte, Tyler and their kids to the Fort Worth Museum on Thursday. We had so much fun, the museum is full of creative opportunities!

Savannah and Miles hung out together the whole time. Here they are creating their own circuit board.

Now I know what to get Parker for his birthday!

Audrey made this beautiful snowflake out of nothing more than copy paper! She is planning a tutorial for her blog.

Merry Merry

Much love to all of our friends, family, and readers, too! I hope that you can find some time this week to focus on and be grateful for the everlasting peace that Jesus Christ can bring to your life. He loves us and is part of Heavenly Father's plan for all of us to be happy forever. I love this time of year when we think about Jesus as a child, His incredible earthly parents, and the stillness and beauty of that night so long ago when He came to the earth.

Merry Christmas from Neal, Leslie, Audrey, Parker & Miles!

today . . .

It was 84 degrees here today, we went to the zoo!

S'mores at home

We made s'mores in the fireplace last night.

Excuse the messy kitchen!

Grateful Sunday

This Sunday, I'm grateful for lots of things, but mostly for my little family. We have fun.

I'm also grateful that the entire Primary Presidency is in own for the entire holiday break. This makes life so much more bearable! We can split the work, work together, and get it done. I am grateful for excellent partners.

I'm grateful for awesome friends, and that someone (Chris) is brave enough to host a Christmas party year after year so the rest of us don't have to. Thanks, Chris and Andy for a great night!

As sad as I am that we aren't traveling this Christmas, I'm also really grateful that we aren't traveling this Christmas. It's so relaxing to know that we don't have to pack any suitcases or fight any crowds or get any viruses (our perpetual holiday lot). Just a nice, quiet Christmas at home. I hope yours is lovely, too. Merry Christmas!

4:44 pm

I really can't think of a single interesting thing to blog about, so I'm doing one of those "capture the moment" posts. This is what everyone was doing at 4:44 today.

Today was the last day of school (for most of you, too, probably), and we are pretty relaxed. Our shopping and wrapping is done, Primary is coming along nicely, and I have just finished addressing the last of our Christmas cards. I had run out of envelopes and finally got more today. So out go the last four cards. I'm thinking about either making pancakes for dinner or ordering pizza.

It's only 49 degrees outside, but no one seems to mind.

Parker and his friend, William, are playing catch. 

Neal is mowing the lawn for the last time before winter. 

 Miles is running bases in his own little baseball game. The fence corner is third base.

Trooper and Audrey, bonding on the trampoline.

Piano Video

Piano Recital 12/10

Grateful Sunday

Today was the kids' piano recital. Audrey was asked only a few weeks ago to play the "pre-music," which meant she had to perfect 11 songs to play in addition to her memorized recital piece and our duet. She played for about 25 minutes while people were arriving and taking their seats, then was the first performer once the recital began. She is amazing, and truly loves to play the piano. First thing she did when we got home? Sit down to play O, Holy Night, which she taught herself yesterday. Parker did a great job, too. How do my kids have nerves of steel? I'm a mess anytime someone listens to me do anything! I'll post some video for you die-hard family members tomorrow.

Today, I'm grateful for:

• a faithful, conscientious husband. I'm grateful that he fulfills his church calling, even when he's hungry, tired, has a flat tire (today), and would generally love a day off. But I know that we are all blessed because he is a super devoted ward clerk. Even during tithing settlement.
• Neal's dad and Gail, who came up for the recital and some warm soup this evening. Gail even brought me a birthday cake.
• a great babysitter. My kids beg us to let her stay the night and they never want her to leave. She is so nice and calls my kids her "gingers." The best 16-year-old I know. Thanks, Jordan!
• our heater. It's cold today and is supposed to get down to 23 tonight! After going 15 hours overnight without heat (or electricity) last winter, we are always grateful when things are working properly.
• only 4.5 more days of school! We are all ready for a break!
• a successful party for our little friend, Eli, last Monday. He just finished 3.5 years of chemo, and though he's only 6, he is one of the bravest souls we know. It's a pleasure to be with his family, and we felt so honored to be part of his special evening. He took his last chemo pill in front of a nationwide audience, hooray!
• great friends and family, who treated me so well during my birthday this week. I have all sorts of pretty new things, and my local friends surprised me at book club with a generous gift. A couple of days later, they took me to lunch, and in general, just gave me lots of hugs and love. It was beautiful.
• Primary at Christmastime. I could listen to and watch little kids sing Christmas songs all day. It brings such a beautiful spirit to my life.

Never tell me you're bored.

Because I have a list of jobs for you to do! I put Parker to work today, adding the stamps to the second batch of Christmas cards I had finished addressing. On to batch number three!

Grateful Sunday

I took some pictures for a friend down by this pretty barn this afternoon, so I had her snap one of us when we were finished. And freezing!

Today, I'm grateful for:

• dedicated teachers/coaches that influence my children. Audrey was able to spend all of Saturday with her DI team, and not only had a great time, but got a good report from her coaches. I'm glad they are willing to give up their time to help my daughter develop!
• pretty music and a beautiful spirit at our Stake Nativity celebration this weekend. I'm thankful for the people who were inspired to put it all together and pull it off so effortlessly.
• soup. I think we've had soup for the past four dinners. Yum.
• little babies next door. My neighbor recently had twin boys and it's quite a treat for me to be able to "help" her by holding one or the other or bringing over dinner and taking a peek at them. They're beautiful! I hope she doesn't mind me showing up often!

We went for it.

I've wanted a flocked tree for years now, and tonight, we finally got one! It looks so pretty all lit up. Unfortunately, Neal and I suspect we may be allergic to it. We've had sniffles, sneezes and watery eyes since we started decorating. I guess time will tell.

tough guy

Miles fell down while we were in Arizona, and his arms were stuck behind his back, so he caught the fall with his nose. Poor guy, he's had to endure about 10 people a day asking what happened to his nose!

More from Arizona

Some more photos from our trip to Mesa. I miss it already!

Steph and Mike's yard backs up to a park, which is quite handy when there are ten kids in one house. Here the girls are heading home.

Once Jack and Max arrived, the baseball games were in full force. We used the backyard for home run derbies and the nearby school yard for more serious training.

Spectators.

Elliot loved to fuzz Uncle Matthew's beard. It was so cute.

Everybody went crazy for baby David. And how could you not? He is the sweetest little guy.

Lots of children to feed.

They had so much fun together.

And dinner was delightful.
(thanks for the last two photos, Steph!)

Many thanks to Stephanie and Mike for hosting all of us. It was such a wonderful week!