Last Night in Ohio

The kids had a farewell party with their best buddies.
Nothing better than pals, pizza, pop and playtime!

Austin Ahlborn, Emric Nakata and Jordan playing Nintendo.

Cameron Wilson, Xavier and Preston Miller having a Nerf gun war.

Preston Miller, Xavier and Annie Johnson watching a movie.

Zalyi, Brooklyn and Amelie playing with the dolls and dollhouse.

Girlfriends Amelie Nakata, Brooklyn Miller and Zalyi.

Saying Goodbye.

As you can see, we all had a lot of tears. But we will be tied to eachother forever now.
Love does that.

School Time

Jordan with Mrs. Brown

Xavier with Mrs. Radcliffe and Mrs. Long

Zalyi and her friends at River Preschool.

REUNITED!!!!

January 17th, 2009 11:55 AM
Kelly is safely home and reunited with her three precious children
and they with their amazing Mom.
This is a moment long to be remembered.

Happy New Year!!

We had a cookie decorating hour during the night. As you can imagine, there were some really imaginative creations. I'm not sure how much frosting actually made it onto the cookies compared to what went straight into the mouth!

We had a pinata for all of the kids. It was a tough one--everyone had about 4 turns before it finally broke--

About 12:30 AM January 1, 2009. They made it!

Christmastime Is Here

Kelly requested popcorn balls so we made three batches and sent them off to Afghanistan. The kids chose the colors. We made about 75 and Kelly said they didn't last long!

Hunting for the best Christmas Tree. Not quite the same as hiking in the mountains and cutting it down ourselves--but Xavier did stand guard on the one we liked while the rest of us made sure there weren't any better ones!

Zalyi and Xavier with Santa at the Ward Christmas Party. He must be telling some pretty good jokes!

The Sunday before Christmas.

Each year we make about 300 popcorn balls to give our neighbors and friends--along with a few to eat ourselves! And we always take a picture of the kids with the popcorn balls--we have pictures going back to when Nick was two--

Every Christmas Eve morning, we go to the Ronald McDonald House in Cincinnati and serve breakfast to the families that are there. The kids do the taking of orders and serving and they worked really hard. It's a great way to start the day--

Christmas Eve and the Christmas story from Luke. The cast is from left to right:
Tanner as a Shepherd, Dallin as the Angel Gabriel, Dane as the Donkey, Zalyi as Mary,
Jordan as Joseph, and Xavier as the Wise Man. It was a Nativity to remember!

All ready for bed and the longest night of the year!

Halloween Fun into Thanksgiving Gratitude

I can't believe October is gone and Thanksgiving is upon us.  We've had a lot of fun and are truly grateful for the blessings God has given us--that Kelly is well, the kids are good and we have a great family, near and far.  Happy, Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Two handsome boys and one beautiful girl!  This is right before the Primary Children's Program at church.  They all had a short speaking part and did very well--and they sang like angels!  Zalyi's dress has glittery sparkles all over it that we keep finding in the strangest places--Dallin's hair, the cold cereal--

Jordan the Scout receiving his Tenderfoot rank and a couple of merit badges that he earned at the Scout Camp he attended over his birthday.  He was pretty proud--can you tell?  (We were proud of him too!)

The fall colors were so beautiful one day that we tried to get a picture with the kids--but it didn't even come close.  The tree behind them is really a neon red--it almost glows in the dark.

Oh well, the children came out well!

This is Zalyi at her preschool's field trip to "The Great Pumpkin," which is what she called the pumpkin patch.  (She's been watching Charlie Brown).  She's standing next to her best friend, Hayley, and another pal, Andie.  They each got to pick out two pumpkins and Zalyi chose hers with great care.

Xavier attacking his pumpkin.  He found the biggest one he could carry and had to stand on the stool to be able to clean it out!  We always have a jack-o-lantern carving party the Monday before Halloween.  Here are the kids underneath their pumpkins and the scary, finished product.

The Bus Stop Gang Halloween morning.  The kids get to wear their costumes all day.

Here's our three Trick-or-Treater's--a couple of tough football players and a scary cat.  The kids trick-or-treat our neighborhood, which takes about 20 minutes because there are only 20 houses, and then we head off to a friend's house to gather candy there.  George sat on the driveway with our friend Jim and passed out candy and I took the kids around.  Their bags were pretty full in no time.

Grandkids, Birthdays, Teeth . . . and Napoleon Dynamite