Braggin' on Daniel

I haven't blogged for awhile, and I thought I should update since the kids have had so much going on in their lives! Daniel has just completed a six week basketball program through the local high school. He is a great player and loved learning more. Here are some great shots of him.

Daniel is also progressing in Cub Scouts. He is doing great! Here are some pictures of some of his scouting activities.

Here is the first time he did the flag ceremony. He carried the flag in for the pack meeting and posted it.

This is just a cute picture of my very handsome cub scout! :)

Here is another pack meeting where the boys were each given their indian name. Daniel's name is "Bright Arrow."

Here are the cubs sitting around the "fire" listening to Cub Master Moon. The Moon's do such a great job!!!

Bright Arrow!

OK....here is our first Pinewood Derby!!! January 30, 2010. This was very exciting! Daniel and Brian worked real hard on his car and he was very proud of it!

His car was #21 and was decorated with snakes and lightnening bolts.

Here is his first race. Daniel's car is on the right side of this picture. Cub Master Moon was the official race starter.

This picture is kind of blurry, but see the car on the right in the lead?..... That is Daniel's car!!!! He won every race in the Wolf Den except one! He had a great car that was very fast!

Here he is after all the races....very proud!

This is his certificate for participating in the Pinewood Derby. This was a great event and fun for all who were there!

Daniel got the Math Facts mastery award at the last awards ceremony at school. This is given to students in third grade who got 100% on a three minute timed test with 100 times tables problems. Great job!!!

Here is Daniel with his Principal's Honor Roll Award!!!!! He got a 4.0 this quarter!!! Congratulations Daniel!!! We are so proud of you!

Christmas Wrap-up!

We had a wonderful Christmas season with our family. It was just us here since all our extended family are in Utah. Christmas Eve was spent together having homemade waffles and wassil, reading the Christmas story in Luke 2, and Christmas PJ's!
Daniel sporting his polar bear pj's...so cozy and warm!

Rachel modeling Mickey Mouse pj's...looking stylish and comfy.

I love pictures of my children together!

Isn't this a great picture?!!! Racing around the corner to see what Santa brought! You can really see the excitement in their faces. It was magical and exciting!

Rachel with her ICarley calendar.

Daniel with his Laser guided remote control car.

Another remote control car from Uncle Ken and Aunt Cheri.

Rachel got a beautiful butterfly earring holder from Uncle Ken and Aunt Cheri, along with a whole bunch of earrings! She was soooo excited!

This was Daniel's face with everything he unwrapped!

Rachel got her camera that she has been wanting! She is quite the good photographer!

Peace! What a good message for Christmas and for the New year! We feel very blessed as a family, and love celebrating Christmas and remembering our Savior.

Christmas programs at school

This last week was the school Christmas performances. It was a busy week for us! Rachel is involved in orchestra and choir. She plays the violin.

Here she is playing one of her songs.

This is a great picture! What a beautiful violinist! She played so beautifully, and she also had a solo....the only one of the night! It was perfect!

Here she is with the choir getting ready to sing. The choir did a great job singing the holiday songs!

The next night was Daniel's turn. He sang a bunch of songs with the entire third grade.

Looking good Daniel!

We are very proud of both Rachel and Daniel! It is fun to see their musical abilities improve and develop!

Beautiful Lights at Temple Square

You can't visit Salt Lake City during the holidays without visiting Temple Square. It is the most beautiful place! So many lights and decorations...it takes your breath away!

Doesn't the temple look spectacular? (I'm quite proud that I actually took this picture!)

The reflecting pool

We love the lights on Temple Square! What a great way to start the holiday season!

Music and the Spoken Word

We have always wanted to go to a live showing of the Mormon Tabernacle's Music and the Spoken Word, and what better time to do that than at Christmas! Temple Square is so beautiful this time of year!
Here is the choir after performing. It was so beautiful!

Lloyd Newell, the spokesman for the choir talking to us.

Here is the whole choir afterwards.

Here we are in the tabernacle. This was a great experience for all of us.

After the choir performance, we went over to the Visitor's Center to visit the beautiful Christus. What a perfect start to our Sunday!

Rachel's Pierced Ears!

Rachel has wanted to get her ears pierced for awhile now, but was quite scared of the initial jolt. This held her back. But here we were, on vacation, in Utah, WITH AUNT MARILYN......she had to do it! The conditions were perfect! She knew that if she was with her mom and her crazy aunt, she could face anything!
Here she is, at Claire's before it all went down. She is looking quite confident.

It's getting closer....they are actually marking her ears. She is getting a bit more nervous.

Don't you love that face? She is quite nervous, but determined. Both ears were pierced at the same time.

Look at THAT face!!! I DID IT!!! What cute ears! She handled it like a pro! (Too bad mom almost fainted!) She loves her pierced ears and we were all proud of her for facing her fears! Good job Rachel! :)

More Utah Fun!

So here are some fun snow pictures from our recent trip to Utah. The day after we got there, it snowed! Rachel and Daniel were sooooo determined to build a snowman. Well, if you've ever experienced Utah snow, it's more like powder!

Here we are trying to get some snowballs started. We were pretty persistent...

Look at him! He's coming together!

The nose....a carrot of course!

SUCCESS!!! Doesn't he look great! The kids affectionately named him Rudy!

Here is Rudy in all his glory! I think he is pretty cute! We had such a great time in the snow! This was Rachel and Daniel's first snowman! They loved it!