Dance Recital

A couple of weeks ago,  Abbi participated in her last dance recital with Gabrielle's.  This little girl LOVES to dance and had been looking forward to this recital for months.  It was so fun to watch her perform, she absolutely loved every minute of it. The theme for the recital this year was "Wild About Dance."  Abbi performed routines as a bunny rabbit and a butterfly.

First position.

These three boys came to the recital to cheer for their sister.  They were (surprisingly) good sports and very well behaved.

Abbi with her dance teachers,  Miss Brittany and Miss Janene.

When the recital was over, she stayed in her costume all day and danced around the house.

We love those big blue eyes and long lashes!

All ready to tap dance.

The dance studio has a rule that you can't take pictures or videos during the recital.  I was able to video tape the dress rehearsal of Abbi's tap routine.  Here's a little peek at the dress rehearsal (where Abbi mostly watches her friend Reagan!)

Carter's Baptism

On March 30,  Carter was baptised a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  We were so proud of Carter for his decision to be baptized.  We held the baptism here in Temple and felt very fortunate to have Grandma and Grandpa Frost and Grandma Stewart come to Texas for the baptism.  We had a great program and lots of friends come support Carter.

I love this picture of my boys.  They look so grown up!

Grandma Frost with Abbi, Owie and Carter

Carter testing the font water to see if it's cold.

Patiently waiting for his baptism to start.

My sweet family.

I had to take about 50 pictures of these kids to get this one semi-decent one.  My kids do NOT like to be photographed, but they sure are cute.

Me and Colby with Carter on his special day.

Father and Son.

We were so happy to have Grandparents come be with Carter on his special day.

Following the baptism, we had a lunch at the park and an Easter egg hunt.  We were so grateful to all our friends who came to support Carter.

The "big boy" table.

The sweet Ogden family.  Our neighbors, friends, and Carter's primary teacher.

Abbi, Brynlee and their lunch of cheese puffs and brownies.

More friends.

Janene, Colby, Grandma and Grandpa at the food table.

Elizabeth and Owen.

Getting ready for the Easter egg hunt.

On your mark, Get set, Go!!

Grandma Frost and Owen.

The Fluhman's watching the Easter egg hunt.

Leaving Texas

I have not been very good about keeping up on my blog lately.  The last couple of months have been very busy preparing for the major life changes that are coming our way.  I wanted to take a moment tonight and record how I am feeling.  Colby is away applying for hospital privleges and insurance provider numbers, the kids are in bed and the house is quiet.  Our computer is on a card table because we recently sold our desk in preparation for the move.  I am surrounded by boxes, and piles of odds and ends that have yet to make it into boxes. Today in church I was released from my calling in Relief Society that I have served in for over two years,  a calling that I absolutely loved.  All visible signs point to us being ready to move. But I'm not quite ready.  The past three years I have grown to love Texas.  I love the culture, the people, our ward, our house, our neighbors, the kid's school and the friends that we have made here. I get emotional just thinking about leaving this place. As much as my mind doesn't think I'm ready to leave,  I know in my heart that it's time.  We feel very good about the changes that are coming for our family.  We have been so blessed over the past three years,  I know that our Heavenly Father has been mindful of us. I am so grateful to Colby for his hard work and dedication to his education.  He is one of the hardest workers I know.  I'm pretty sure when we moved to Iowa seven years ago,  he had no idea what he was getting himself into!  I will always look back on the time we spent here in Texas with fond memories.

Colby and Ammon with our moving truck before leaving Iowa.

Our Texas house.

Date night out with friends.

Our kids have such great friends here.  What a good group of kids.

Fondue night with friends.

Abbi with her good friend Brynlee.

We spent so many hot Summer days at the pool with friends.

March in Texas

We had an eventful spring, filled with fun milestones.  

Owen

First, our baby turned 8 months old.  He is still as pleasant as can be,  with a lot of chubby rolls and 6 little teeth. He is content to just sit and play with toys, and is not real interested in moving much. 

Owen also wants to eat/chew on everything in sight.  His favorite things to chew on are his books.

Ammon

We now have a TEN year old in the family.  We celebrated Ammon entering "double digits" in style. Ammon wanted to have a smaller birthday party with a few close friends.   He picked out these monster cupcakes (that looked way better in my cookbook!), wanted pizza for dinner, and a trip to Zoomerang with his friends (a bounce house). It was possible the easiest birthday party I have ever thrown.

This is the best group of kids!  Ammon and his friends are always very willing to include Carter and Abbi in what they are doing.

The party guests.  We are really going to miss these guys when we move.  It has been so fun to watch them grow and change over the last couple of years.... I get teared up even thinking about it.

Carter

Carter also celebrated a major birthday, turning 8 years old!  We had a Harry Potter party, complete with Harry Potter food, potion making, movie watching and a sampling of Bertie Botts every flavor beans (I ate a rotten egg flavor one that made me want to puke). 

Carter also has some great friends here in Texas, and it was fun to have them over for the evening.

Our "potion" ingredients.

Bottoms up!

The most dangerous jelly beans on the planet... some of them are delicious and some of them are nasty, you never know what you're going to get.  Some of the flavors we tried were;  baby wipes, canned dog food, pencil shavings, rotten egg, vomit, and toothpaste. It was a dangerous game :)

Butter Beer in Coca-Cola cups. (Now this stuff was delicious)

We also had to have chocolate cupcakes.  Carter LOVES chocolate!

March also included Carter's baptism and Easter,  which each deserve their own post.

Christmas Catch up

So, it's the middle of February and I haven't posted anything about Christmas yet.  Let's just say we've had a busy couple of months.  The problem with waiting six weeks to post is now I don't remember a lot of the fun details about the holidays. But we did have fun and I do want to document it.  Here is a bare bones summary of our Christmas 2012,  don't expect any clever captions or literary genius.

This year (or I guess technically last year) we celebrated Christmas at home in Texas.  It was our first Christmas as a family of six, and although we missed our families, we had plenty of our own little people around to keep us entertained. 

Waiting to open our traditional Christmas Eve gifts...

New PJ's!!  

Our Christmas tree and presents waiting to be opened on Christmas morning.

As usual,  we had a hard time getting the kids to smile or pose for any pictures.

 See What I mean??

 Exhibit B.

 Colby and I wearing the scarves my mom brought us home from Peru.

(I have to add,  don't I have a good looking husband?  I mean seriously, look at this guy!)

It's no wonder we have such cute kids... handsome just like his daddy.

 Baby O slept right through Christmas morning, probably because the big kids tried to start it at 3:30 am. (We immediately sent them back to bed and postponed it until 6).  When he woke up he got lots of attention and lots of help opening his first ever Christmas presents.

 Although he didn't fully understand what was going on,  he loved the sound of the wrapping paper ripping and the lights on his new toy.

 The traditional picture on the stairs.  I feel so blessed to have these four in my life.

I hope y'all had a great Christmas too... and I hope you can remember it better than I remember ours!