Fish Tale

FOr several weeks now Miranda has been making comments about wanting a dog or a cat. So a month ago when we were in Wal-mart and she mentioned pets, we went to look at the fish. Here is Lilly our families newest member. Hopefully this fish will make it so I don't have to explain why we can't have a dog or a cat for a little while.

Deja zoo!

We went to the vu with cousins (again), but a different cousin this time.

Did you know that elephants share? They do. One elephant takes a few bites then backs away from the food.

Then the other elephant steps up and eats a few bites. Then he backs away and the other elephant. . .(you get the idea). I was really impressed with how well they shared without even fighting.

We tried to imitate teh elephants, but don't let our sweet fascade fool you. There was a lot more grabbing and taking at our table than there every was for the elephants.

Below: Our best animal impressions:

Sameul and James as an elephant.

Mirands & James and Samuel & Grandpa as giraffes.

More Giraffes.

Please cast your vote for who had the best animal impression.

Zoo fun

On the train Miranda was very excited to sit in a seat with Savannah and no grown-ups.

We had never stopped at the park before, but we sure liked it this time.

"Wow! Look at those monkeys."

Everyone loved the merry-go-round.

"Josh, you're out of your tree." "It wasn't my tree."

We had a lot of fun together at the Zoo.

Yippee!!!!!!!

Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Yipee!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

YEAH

So we had some exciting news recently. A couple weeks ago Nick got a letter from Claremont saying that he was accepted into the PhD in religion program with an emphasis in Mormon Studies. Very Exciting. Then last week he got an email saying they were awarding him a 1/2 tuition fellowship. VERY exciting. Then last night he got a call from Dr. Bushman (the chair) who talked to him about the program and what Nick wanted to study, then he told Nick that they were upgrading his fellowship to full tuition VERY EXCITING !!!!!!!!!

So we are very excited.

Making Valentines

We had a lot of fun this year making Valentines. Unfortunately, not very many people got them because we were better at decorating than delivering. So, if you didn't get one, sorry. You were supposed to, but alas. . .

Mirand and Samuel both worked very hard on coloring and glueing cnady on their Valentines.

Miranda in particular worked very hard and was very proud of her finished product.

I have to admit that knowing the origins of Valentine's day makes me cringe a bit. I don't want my children to not enjoy the fun of holidays, but then again I have a hard time with some traditional things about holidays that I don't particularly want to support. So my compromise with Valentine's day is that we can do Valentine's things, but I will avoid as much as possible certain symbols of the day such as the heart pierced with an arrow. I won't explain why this and other things about Valentine's offend me; I don't want to ruin it for anyone else without their permission.

Updates with pictures!!!

Erin's blog informed me that it has been 2 months since my last post. I decided that was kind of pathetic so here are a few pictures from the last two months.


Here we are at Jared's house with its 6 foot snowbanks.

Samuel loved the Zoo. The Lion was very gracious to yawn big for us which Samuel found very exciting.

The cousins loved playing together. Especially when they could talk a grandparent into playing with them.

We had our traditional Christmas nativity where Miranda was excited to play Mary for the first time and Samuel played a perfect angel.