Clown Day at Preschool!

It's not that you can't get high schoolers to do silly things, but there's no way they look this cute.

The Well-Needed Getaway

The last month of school is fraught with need for vacation! We spent a quick weekend in St. Louis enjoying the temple and the zoo. The kids always enjoy interacting with the animals, some even caught some frogs (but it may have gone a bit too far in Amber's case). We're not interested in meeting any 'princes' just now.

Happy Easter!

The annual festivities were a big hit (how can you go wrong with loads of candy?). The egg hunt proved very entertaining, at least until they started flying inside the house. Its all fun and games until someone starts throwing eggs...

Croquet Anyone?

Spring break brought some nice weather and a chance to break out the ever-popular croquet set. The kids enjoyed some recreation, as might be evident. Nathan claims he won the first round. Benjamin had cookies.

Yes, Again.

Third major ice storm in the last 13 months. We've been out of school for 2 days, 5,000 homes or so have been out of power. We've had several large limbs crash down out of our trees, thank goodness for underground utilities! The good news is that we aren't getting another wave every day this time, and it is supposed to warm up tomorrow. All the boys want to do is go sledding. Check out the picture with Ben in front of our tree - there's actually a bird that flew into the tree just as we came outside. The animals are trying to get shelter from this mess just as much as we are.

The sunset is one Kimberlie took a couple of days ago. She wanted to have it posted so we can remember something good about this winter spell.

Oh, No! Not Again!

This is the scene outside this morning. Ice and more ice. They're predicting another inch of ice this afternoon in another wave. Yikes!

Let it Snow!

As usual our weathermen have predicted 7-10" and we got closer to 1-2" of snow. Darn Ozark plateau! They called off school 2 hours early in anticipation of a big snow hit, talked about no school on Friday, and we got home to a mere dusting - I wouldn't want to be the weatherman right now. 24,000 school kids praying for you to go bald or something can't be great for you. We had some good snow fights anyways.

Cousin Sleepover Night!

We had promised that we would have a special sleepover for the cousins, and it turned out great. Big movies, lots of pizza, and repeated bouts of dress-up and dance made for a fun time for all. I think all the kids (and parents) slept well the next day!

St Louis Art Museum

We decided it was time to go back to the art museum on this trip. We found some really great stuff that we hadn't seen before. Man, your feet get tired after traipsing all over this place! The fountains actually had frozen water around them.

Temple Trip Weekend

We decided to spoil the kids a bit and arrive early for the youth temple trip this weekend. Priceline: $37 - That's a hard vacation to beat! Hannah is especially proud of her newfound swimming prowess.

We may get some weird weather in this state, but the winter sunsets can be very nice.
This has become one of the kids favorite pasttimes - watching for a nice sunset, then running for the camera.

Merry Christmas!

The best part has to be the giant hug piles of thanks each time!