Talents

I don't usually post anything extra on my blog. And, I know I don't post consistently enough to have a bunch of followers but this post is for me. So, here goes.

This is a video clip of Kseniya Simonova, the winner of "Ukraine's Got Talent". And, here's what it taught me.

1. Use the talents that you have and increase them. This is not the type of talent that I would expect to see on this kind of a show but I didn't want to blink for fear of missing something. She has a great talent and even though it's unconventional she has made the most of it. So, even if my talents aren't showy or exciting, I can work on them and be the best I can at them.

2. I'm grateful that I haven't been deeply affected by war in my life. Some of the pictures were a little confusing to me and yet people in the audience were crying. I know very few details of the war (like 1 in 4 Ukrainians dying in the Great Patriotic War) and I'm grateful for that. I hope that my loved ones can continue to be safe but I am grateful to those that have paid the price for my freedom. And, even though I know it's not going to happen, I wish that peace could prevail around the world.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=518XP8prwZo

Holidays

My New Year's Resolution is to take more and better pictures. So, I need to start by taking my camera places. I didn't have my camera in St. George where we celebrated Jonah's birthday. I don't have any pictures of Christmas, eeek! My kids are going to be very deprived of embarassing and cute pictures.

Today was Morgan's 1st birthday. She had a great day. She loved the presents once they were open and she loved eating the cake. Unfortunately, she is only allowed to play with some of her toys because her sister thinks they belong to her. Someone told me she would get better at 2 1/2 and she certainly has not. But, it's unbelievable that Morgan's already one. This year went really fast. She's doing great. She loves kids, babies and smiling.

We had people over on New Year's Eve and so now after two days of partying, I'm exhausted. It's only 8:12 and I'm ready for bed. Todd's busy painting so I don't think I can go to bed when I have him so busy.

Luke's Birthday

Luke turns 7 today. He is so excited for his birthday party at Uncle Tim's. We don't know exactly why but he insisted it needed to be over there. Poor Uncle Tim has to clean his house and mine gets to be messy.

Luke loves to draw, play with action figures and play in water. He is still very shy but he is so much fun to be around that he has a lot of friends. He's in the 1st grade and loves his class. He's very nervous about changing schools. But, I think he'll do great once we get there.

October

Finally, here is Halloween. Halloween was low-key for us. We love Halloween but most of us had the flu that week. We went trick-or-treating and trunk-or treating but that was enough for us. Everyone was exhausted by the time we were done.

Jonah was Captain Rex from Star Wars:Clone Wars, Luke was Optimus Prime, Kira was a leopard and Morgan was a ladybug. Kira insisted on having Morgan in her picture but Morgan wanted to leave then.

The week after Halloween we sold our house and bought another one in West Jordan. We are moving in 2 weeks. So, November has been a crazy month! Here's a picture of our new house.

And, finally, here's our little Morgan (10 1/2 months now) that used to love playing in her exersaucer but now climbs out of it. She follows her sister and they are quite the tornado. We're in so much trouble. The picture wouldn't upload. Look on facebook.

Parks & Fun

Jensen came to play for 10 days. He is younger than Kira but most of the time they get along really well. We played and played and played. We hit a couple of parks for them to get wet and I had to show this video of Kira dancing. I am singing Mama Mia so I apologize for the shaking at the first and I'm glad there's no sound. Mama Mia is her favorite show. Allie & Reed took a lot more pictures than I did so maybe I'll post some fun ones later.

1st Week of School

Jonah is in 3rd grade and can't stop talking about his teacher, Ms. Grubb. Luke is in 1st grade and won't say anything about his teacher, Ms. Taylor. That is their personalities. They've been in school 3 weeks and we miss them during the day.

Having fun with girls

The boys have gone to school for two days and I haven't taken a first day picture yet. I always forget my camera (bad mom).

I took the girls to Thanksgiving Point today. Kira had such a great day! She danced and fed the animals. The pony ride line was very long but she made it and was very happy to ride on a little pony. She got mad every time I tried to help her. I forgot snacks (once again, bad mother) and so she was hungry, too. Morgan sat in her carseat most of the day but on the pony ride, I was holding her, trying to help Kira and get pictures.

FYI: Thanksgiving Point has $2 Tuesdays in August and it is very crowded. It was fun but I don't think it's worth the lines in Farm Country to save only $1.50/each. Kids three and under are free (so I only saved $1.50). I think the dinosaur museum was even more crowded.