Kayley's Pledge

Kayley really wanted me to put on a video of her doing the Pledge of Allegiance. She was very proud that she learned it all.

First Haircut!

So Jacob was starting to look like something out of the sixties with his hair in his eyes and over his ears. Tammy and I decided he needed a cut. I volunteered!
We had to wait till he was asleep so he wouldn't be wiggling around with sharp scissors by his eyes! It went as well as could be expected for a sleeping baby who kept moving and a daddy-barber who doesn't exactly have formal training in cosmetology (although I did have several surgery rotations...not sure it's the same thing)!

Here are the before and afters

(banana-man=before, pajama-man=after):

Crazy Dancing Girls!

Everyone knows how our girls LOVE to dance. Here are 2 videos that they insisted we take. Although it is done to the same song, as you will see, these are 2 girls that have a lot of similaries but definitely have their very own style!

Kayley's:

Moriah's:

By the way, Moriah tried to make Jacob dance to the same song. I don't think he was quite prepared for their level of moves! Maybe next time.

Valentines Day

We had a fabulous Valentines Day!
The girls signed lots of valentines this year. It was Kayley's first year writing her own name, I think after doing all the cards for her many cousins she needed a break before finishing her cards for her pre-school class. Kayley came home from school with a giant heart that held all the valentines she had got at school. Moriah got to decorate a mail box at home (to bring to school on Valentines Day). We found this foam mailbox and she had fun decorating it with lots of cute foam stickers (horses, was her theme). Kayley, Jacob and I went to Moriah's school for the Valentines Day party. When we got home the kids had fun going thought their Valentines and ate way too much candy!

Curious George...I mean Jake

Here is Curious Jake.

Now that he is so mobile he gets into EVERYTHING!

He loves to crawl into tight spaces...

Search through ANYTHING he can find...

And of course, see if he can find something to

EAT!!

I guess we are back to baby-proofing the house.

At least we had a few years off!

Growing Fast

In just a few weeks Jake learned all these new things!

How to clap:

How to headbutt:

How to pull himself to a stand:

And how to drive a truck:

Next: He's off to find a job!

Avalanche Training

Last week we had our Avalanche/Winter Rescue Training. We do it yearly and it is loads of fun. We hike into an area near Sundance, look at all the avalanche damage, talk about winter saftey and rescue techniques. Then we have a "volunteer" victim and we rescue him, splint his injuries, craft a rescue sled out of whatever is available and then pack him all the way back to the cars.

This year, due to all the recent snow and such, our director checked out the area that morning, left at 11am and met us all back in Provo. We left about 1:30 and right at the Sundance turn-off there were a bunch of police and a big sign saying, AVALANCHE: No Stopping! Had we gotten their earlier, we probably would have been stuck on the other side of that sign!

We turned around and went to a back up spot (Bridleveil Falls). The police saw us all putting on our snowshoes and told us they were closing the entire canyon due several avalanches and danger of more.

We finally went to a small canyon (Rock Canyon) right in Provo for our training. The opening line of the lecture... "Well, I think we all can see why Avalanche Training is important!"

-Mark

We Finally Did It!

So yesterday Tammy and I finally put ALL the christmas stuff away!
Most of it was at least put into boxes for the last few weeks but
the Christmas tree still decorated our living room until late last night.
I think flipping the calendar to FEBRUARY was my main motivation!
Now we just have to vacuum up all the pine-needles!