I'M GOING TO MIAMI

I worked basketball before we headed out of town Saturday night. One of the referee's was quick to point out, "You know you are going to a foreign country. Not the Bahamas, Miami . . . that's a foreign country." Sunday morning we began our flights to Miami and arrived around 5:00 pm on Sunday. He was right, it was foreign, though we didn't venture anywhere besides the airport, hotel, and the port. It was hard to understand the locals, though I thought the part of Miami that we were at was very beautiful. Here are a few pictures as we were floating away.

Here is the view from our hotel room. This gives you an idea of how hard the wind was blowing. It was really pretty constant.
Part of the skyline.
Other side of the skyline.
The mansions with their own personal yachts. Brandon was really drooling by this point.
One more beautiful picture. I know, right now you are jealous. It was beautiful!
This is the cruise ship that was next to us following our every move. LOL!
That was the first day. It was really rough, and I thought that I was going to loose it at one point, but we made it through.

PICS OF KIDS

Here are a few pictures of the children that were taken a week later. Hope that you enjoy!
P.S. This week, I will working on updating my blog a bunch, so check back for new stuff!

FAMILY PICTURES

Here is a preview of Christmas card pictures: We are SO excited to have new pictures of our family!!! Hope that you enjoy!

GENEROUS THOUGHT

I have really enjoyed conference weekend. It is sometimes challenging to really listen when kids are fighting, laughing, touching each other, etc. This year, I also had a difficult time staying awake. We are blessed to be able to receive the Ensign and read and re-read so many great and inspiring talks.

I have to admit that I enjoyed the Relief Society general meeting the most (probably because the lack of children.) Sister Beck talked about changing the name of enrichment and visiting teaching; Sister Allred talked about missionary work; Sister Thompson talked about guarding the gaps in our lives; and finally, President Eyring talked about the legacy of Relief Society being in charity. His talk was my favorite. He quoted Sister Camilla Kimball (President Kimball's wife) when she said, "Never suppress a generous thought." My goal for the next 6 months is to do just that. If no one suppressed a generous thought, I think that the poor would be clothed, the hungry would be fed, and the lonely would have visitors.

I always enjoy hearing what your favorite talk was during conference. If you have a favorite, be sure to post a comment!

LET THE PROJECTS BEGIN!

3rd grade is a whole new challenge. You learn multiplication facts and cursive. And it must be the grade when your child starts doing projects!

Faith does two book reports each month, along with reading for a minimum of 20-30 minutes a day. She has really enjoyed her reading this month. Among the many, she has read:

Nancy Drew and the Sleepover Sleuths
Pippi Longstocking
The Best Christmas Pageant Ever
Several Geronimo Stilton books
Karen's Newspaper (Little Babysitter Club)
The Secret Garden
The Rainbow Fairy books

Her first project, she created a dust jacket for one of the Rainbow Fairies books.

This is her second project for The Secret Garden.



She went to Grandma Cindy's and to Grandma Zoey's house to take beautiful pictures of their flower gardens and then arrange them as a collage. She did all of these beautiful pictures (she took 88 photos and only about 5 were blurry). Then she arranged them by herself. I even made her type in the words and push print on the printer! She is going to tell her peers that if she had a secret garden, these are some of the things that she would want there!

Way to go Faith!

FUN PIC & STORY

I happen to just love taking sleeping pictures. Here is Kate sleeping.


And here is how I get her to take a nap each day.

Mom: "It's time to take a nap!"
Kate: "In Mommy's bed!"

She really does just start a show and then fall asleep. As long as she doesn't sleep there at night, I think I'm okay with it.

Also, yesterday we had a fun conversation.

Mom: "Who is this?" (pointing to Kate)
Kate: "Tate! (she says her /c/ with a /t/)
Mom: "Who is pretty?" (pointing to Kate)
Kate: "Mommy!" (playing with Mommy's hair)
Mom: "Who smells pretty?" (me smelling Kate 'cause she just got lotion)
Kate: "Mommy!"

I love her so much and am so glad that she is in our lives!

MISS KATE'S PROGRESS

Many of you have asked me about Kate and how she is doing, so I thought that I would post another update.


Her last surgery was in May. That was pretty traumatic for Mom and Dad, but she did beautifully after a quick infection. We had a re-check in June and everything looked great.

She has a runny nose occasionally, but never pulls on her ears. We have used the humidifier quite a bit and plan on continuing that throughout the winter. If you remember before, the longest she went was 6 weeks without an infection or being on antibiotics. I am happy to report that it has been over 3 months since she has had an infection.

(playing peek-a-boo with the camera)

Yesterday, she was feeling a little under the weather. We are just hoping that it is allergies and not anything more! Even if it is an infection starting, we are blessed to have her off of antibiotics so long. She is really talking now. She actually is growing and developing too! Wonderful news!

She has had a hard adjustment with the kids going off to school. She told us yesterday: "I want to ride the bus!" Hopefully she can enjoy her childhood now! School will be just moments away.