Having a wonderful time in Hilton Head, SC this week! Going to the beach (and pool) every day, and seeing some great stuff. Be sure to notice the momma alligator that lives in the pond behind our resort! She likes to swim up and watch us on our back deck...

Kimberlie goes to the Temple

We took Kimberlie for her first visit to the St. Louis Temple on Saturday. It was a very special experience for all of us!

Sorry, no snazzy pictures in this post, but plenty worthwhile in my opinion. I've just been searching about on the web for info on the new family search site and found a bunch! Our temple district is apparently going to be pilot testing the new system; and it looks way cool!

A few links for you to explore:
http://familysearchlabs.blogspot.com/
http://labs.familysearch.org/
http://planet.kzion.com/?author=122
http://www.surnames.com/new_familysearch.htm
http://rzamor1.livejournal.com/50295.html
http://www.familysearchindexing.org/en/index.jsp
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FamilySearch

Lots of enthusiasm for getting family history high-tech!

Tonight was the last symphony concert of the season, and what a treat! A whole night of John Williams movie music - even better, the whole second half was all Star Wars. The local fan club dressed up and provided some of the entertainment (read here 'sideshow') that was the biggest hit with the kids. The pictures should be self explanatory.

April, Right?

Saturday, April 14th - Snow for 2 hours in the morning. Weird, but fun for the kids. In the 60's the next day, but who can resist a snowball fight in Spring?

Ben made this snowman head. He was so proud that he even named it (before smashing it into the front door).

4th Grade Trip to the Capitol

Nathan and James went to Jefferson City with his class this week. We got to see some amazing things! We even had a chance to climb to the top of the capitol dome, tour the governor's mansion and office, sit on the House floor, and use the state seal!

Federal Disaster Area

What a month this has been! We had one of the worst ice storms of the last century! Lots of damage and destruction - tens of thousands without power for many days (some still out now).
We were without power for only a part of the first day - one of the blessings of underground utilities - and ended up housing several others for a time. The last two just moved back home today, in fact.

More Ice Storm Pictures

More ice storm pictures. I don't know what the official total was, but our branches had at least an extra 3/4 inch all the way around. The grass would shatter when you walked through the clumps; not from cold, but from the added weight of the ice itself. When the tree limbs were falling (most of two nights!) you would hear a loud pop, then a shattering noise of the ice breaking off the limbs when it all hit the ground. The weirdest part was that the roads never accumulated the ice - just everything else. No school for the whole week, panic buying all over the city, generators going like hotcakes (some people made big bucks there), and transformers popping like fireworks. Some of our kids watching one night actually thought there were fireworks going off.

Girls' Winter Concerts

Here are the two budding musicians at their 6th and 7th grade concerts at Carver Middle School. They are really getting to be quite good!

Hannah is 4!

We had a fun time with our little 'dancing princess' this Saturday as she turned four. As you can tell she is all about the pink dress-up princess look.

Snow Day! Time for Some Sledding!

Ice and snow aplenty for all...

Hooray for Snow!

What a way to bring in December - a couple of inches of ice with several more inches of powder on top of it all. School out early on Thursday, no school on Friday. What a great month!

Grandons' Christmas Lists

Hannah

12 dancing princesses carriage & figures (or anything)
pink dress dancing Barbie
dress up clothes (especially pink princess type)
12 princesses movie
books
kitty bookmark
pink puppy
notepad(s)

Benjamin

Millenium Falcon transformers
Star Wars figures
spy gear
mp3 player
gameboy micro
anything on Nathan's list

Nathan

Millenium Falcon transformers
Star Wars figures
automatic lightsaber
spy gear
mp3 player
gameboy micro
Star Wars chess
rc motorcycle
fuzzy poster

Kimberlie

knitting needles (sizes 8, 10,12) & yarn
paint by number posters
pj bottoms
mp3 player
word games/puzzle books
book gift card
girl tech password journal
touch gameboy

Amber

Levin Thumps, book 2
Artemis Fowl, book 5
stained glass coloring book
book gift cards
craft things
mp3 player
magnetix

Tiffanie

kitchen under counter cd player
celestial couple game

James

ties
book gift card
pj bottoms
emergency preparedness things

Smell that cinnamon yum!

Talk about a HUGE discovery! This link is exactly what everyone needs during the holidays!
http://www.gordonfamily.com/Recipes/cinnabon.htm
We tried these this weekend and, believe me, they are spectacular. Well worth the work!

Too Pooped to Pant

This picture, taken this evening, pretty much sums up our feelings after this busy weekend. We were just sitting in our room and talking - must not have been all that entertaining!

Thanksgiving Weekend Trip!

Went to St. Louis with the Kenning family this weekend. Had loads of fun running about and visiting the Science Center, Cahokia Indian Mounds, and Zoo.

Meet Hercules

After a traumatic second round of trying to get our 2 golden retrievers back we opted to adopt a new puppy this week. Tiffanie surprised the kids by having the puppy (a black lab) come along on the 'pickup at school' trip. Benjamin promptly announced that his name would be Hercules. I'm pretty sure he won't fit in that basket for long.

More Summer Pics

Had more pics to share, but didn't like the layout of the text on the prior posting, so I'm trying another layout to see what happens.

Summer Catchup

Thought I would try out the picture posting feature with some of our summer pictures from July 2006. A bit dated, but fun nonetheless.