The Arntsens

Halloween Highlights

2009-11-13T05:59:00.000-08:00

Before brushing...

After...beautiful smiles!!

Ready to knock on doors...

Nerdy, scary, and pretty...we've got it all.

Birthday party masterpiece, they decorated their own cupcakes.

October Update

2009-10-30T12:03:00.001-07:00

Avery turned 13 this month! She's thrilled to enter the official teen years.

Pumpkin carving fun. We left them on the step the night we carved them and Avery's pumpkin got stolen by some animal who took it away as a meal, we guess.

Jer and I went to the U2 360 Tour this month. We felt young again (and deaf, after the concert). It was really great to see them and be on the floor, really close to all of the action. We survived standing for 4 hours.

Wrapping It Up

2009-05-25T14:44:00.000-07:00

Avery's end of the year piano recital.

Kindergartners losing teeth right and left!

End of soccer season for Nina and Dad (coach).

Anna Lisa's performance finally! Carmina Burana - a great success...
so worth all of the trouble to get to sing this.

Avery and Nina came to see the performance.

After Avery's recital, we spotted this amazing
deer-shaped spot on the parking lot pavement.

Waiting for Avery's turn to play in recital.

Dad's amazing gift for turning 40 - 40 snacks/treats!
Happy Fortieth to Jeremy, not looking a day over 29,
of course!

Taylor Swift in Concert

2009-04-23T12:55:00.000-07:00

This says "Taylor Swift" in fire language!!

It's all about getting the concert t-shirt...

She's got great hair to go along with the great voice.

Before the concert, tickets in hand - we're ready to go!

Can you tell we're in Texas??

Girls pose in front of the Reliant Stadium. They're thinking,"What a great mom we have to take us to this amazing concert."

Bluebell and Bluebonnets

2009-03-18T17:54:00.000-07:00

It's Spring Break! We were able to take a day trip to Brenham, TX with the Pratt cousins and Chelsea to visit the Bluebell Creamery, home of the best ice cream on earth. We went on a tour to see how they make it and then we each got to choose and eat a sweet, cold scoop. Here are photos on the grounds after our tour.

The Texas state flower, the Bluebonnet, is out in full bloom along the highways, so we stopped - as is the custom, to get some family photos among the flowers. They are such a beautiful color!! Our little trip really got us in the mood for springtime..

Bragging Rights

2009-03-02T08:21:00.000-08:00

I rarely have rights to brag. In the past, I've had 4 opportunities to do so when I gave birth to our 4 daughters. But now I have something that's right up there with those achievements, so I'm going to briefly brag. I ran a marathon! The Cowtown Marathon in Fort Worth, TX to be exact. Our time was 4:32, which I was happy with, for my first marathon. It was an unforgettable experience, as everyone told me who'd run a marathon said it would be. I'm so glad I did it and enjoyed every minute of it (even the tortuous miles 20-25). Thanks to Clista Graff - we trained and ran together. I couldn't have done it without her. She's a tough gal, running through intense knee pain to reach her goal. Thanks to Jeremy and the girls for helping me believe I could do this, for putting up with me being gone a lot to run, and for cheering me on during the race. So for those who asked to see photos, here they are! As you can see from the photos, the wind was pretty intense that day, which made running quite a struggle at some points, especially when heading up one of the many hills along the route that we had been warned about. My plan is to look for some 1/2 marathons to run - first one in November: The San Antonio 1/2 marathon. The training won't be so time consuming, but will still give me that motivation to run and enjoy the same thrill.

Our Picasso

2009-02-11T20:20:00.000-08:00

Bryn's artwork was the only one selected from the kindergartners at our school for her grade level for the Rodeo Art competition. We are very proud of her! We'll have to post some of her other creations, she produces several per day. Jeremy makes me save all of them. I really do love children's artwork, it is so fresh and full of life! Grandma Carlie has done a really cool project in the past with Avery and Nina with their artwork where she takes their drawing and creates a colorful stitch art project using fabric. They turned out so cute. She framed them and we have them hanging in the girls' bedrooms. She's going to do one of Bryn's drawings next...thanks, Carlie!

Early Christmas

2008-12-18T12:58:00.000-08:00

It actually snowed here last week on December 10th. Christmas time is officially here! Snow is a RARE occurrence in these parts, so the whole neighborhood was out playing in it.

The next morning there was still snow on the rooftops.

We preserved some of the precious snow into a giant snowball and it sits in a bowl in our freezer. We've never seen the kids this excited, it was better than Christmas morning!

We surprised the girls with an early Christmas present a week ago. A 9 week-old kitten! It's been a rough start with a sick kitten and Annise showing allergy symptoms the first few days, but they're both doing better. She is the most playful, cuddly kitten we've had. She jumps up to sit in our laps every chance she can get and romps around the house. We are in love! No consensus on a name yet.

Annise and kitten cuddle up...

Photo Shoot

2008-11-29T15:54:00.000-08:00

We got family pictures taken last week and our friend, Kari got some great close-ups of each of the girls too. Thank goodness for pictures so we can remember how they looked when they were little.

Been Busy

2008-11-29T15:32:00.000-08:00

A special visit from Great Grandma Sherlia from Idaho for Thanksgiving. What an amazing lady! We had a fun day together eating, playing games and hearing her testimony.

Jeremy coached Nina's soccer team, the Blue Jays, this season. Great daddy-daughter time and he's committed to coaching another season. Nina and her cousin, Malery have had fun playing on the same team for a few seasons. They are both awesome players! Soccer is in their blood...

Amazing talent show performance by Bryn and Nina and friends. Dancing and singing to
"Party" by Demi Lovato. These are brave gals to get up in front of a huge crowd and perform.

Suprise! Avery's room got decorated by the Young Women's Presidency for her birthday. So cool - she's already had three paid babysitting jobs during her first month of being 12.

Halloween X Four

2008-11-29T14:57:00.000-08:00

Pumpkin carving for FHE...the girls gave their ideas and Jer and I carved accordingly.

Bryn got to dress up as a storybook character for school on Halloween. We came up with Miss Viola Swamp at the last minute, but she also looks a little bit like Wednesday Addams. She's the first daughter who's let us dress her up in a "scary" costume. What a great sport...she really got into it!

I guess the reason Bryn was okay with the scary day costume was because she got to be a garden fairy that night. They each knew exactly what they wanted to be. Let me tell you, it was quite a feat getting four girls into costume, hair and makeup. But, of course, worth it!
We had a really fun time trick-or-treating this year.

Babies

2008-10-24T20:11:00.000-07:00

I was looking at my sister-in-law, Megan's new post of her baby Peter and thought he was so beautiful. These are baby photos of Annise (first) and Bryn (second). (Nina and Avery were born in pre-digital camera days) Of course I think they are so beautiful ~ I just miss that soft baby skin, baby scent and baby cuddle. I guess knowing we're done adds to the longing for those baby moments...

Last Year's Halloween

2008-10-16T16:25:00.000-07:00

Halloween is so much fun! Here's a photo of the girls last year. Their plans for this year so far are: Annise - ballerina, Bryn - garden fairy, Nina - devil, Avery- Hermione. The youth are putting on the Halloween party this year for the primary kids so Avery gets to help that night. It's on her birthday and will be her first youth activity she gets to attend as an official "Young Woman."

Whirlwind of a Month

2008-09-27T11:21:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Ike strikes! View of our front yard from inside our house. We lost power for 11 days. We never thought we'd live to see the day that would actually occur here (Jeremy lived here during Hurricane Alicia in 1983 and they did lose power for 10 days, but we thought that was so long ago; surely the city was more prepared and ready now) ...anyway we survived with the help of a pricey generator purchase and amazingly cool weather the week following the storm so we didn't sweat to death. We only lost one side of our backyard fence and had lots of large downed branches, leaves and pine cones in our yard. We were very lucky. Many people had trees down on their homes and cars. It was all pretty exciting and we will have quite a few lasting memories from September of 2008.

View of our backyard fence that blew down during the wrath of the storm.

Other things happened this month too. The girls started school. What a glorious day! Avery started middle school this year (6th grade). Very big deal!! Nina's in 4th and Bryn started kindergarten. Annise enjoys being alone with mom, but does miss her sisters during the day.

Bryn and Annise got a new bunkbed. Only the highest quality for our daughters, 2 of the supporting slats underneath the top bunk mattress have split already and Jeremy's had to repair them so the girl on top doesn't crash thru to the bottom bunk. Oh well, it LOOKS cute!

Bryn finally celebrated her 6th birthday! The waiting has been torture (on the entire family...). It was so fun to see her so happy. She has the best smile and it is a real treat when she breaks into a great big one to show her pleasure.

Goodbye to Summer

2008-08-14T11:04:00.000-07:00

Farewell to Kari and Spencer's Family ~ they moved to Utah last week. Why does our family keep moving away?? We are sooo sad!
But excited for the adventures they'll have with Spencer going back to school. We're looking forward to going to visit them, and all the rest of our family there.

Bryn, Wes, Spence and Zoe gettin' a little crazy!
Baby Adeline is a beauty...
Girls' Summer Book Club ~ the girls read "Island of the Blue Dolphins" and had their cousins and friend come chat about it and share yummy treats. What a fun learning experience...good prep to be ready for school to start next week.
End of Summer Tea Party ~ planned and executed by Bryn. What a mess to clean up, but they had a delightful time eating off plastic and munching on graham crackers.

Proud To Be An American

2008-07-14T11:29:00.000-07:00

Attending the 4th of July Parade, Bryn with friend

Jer "caught" a flyball at the Astros game we went to, no glove!

Hanging with the team during the game...

Annise rests after getting her tonsils and adenoids out, poor baby! (Mom looks tired too.)

AL turns "351!" oh that's "35 plus 1" according to the kids...

Nielson Family Moments

2008-06-27T07:34:00.000-07:00

Here are some more photos of family from our recent trip to Vegas and San Diego, it was sooo great to see everybody, sorry we didn't get any photos of Kyle and Lindz but they looked great in person...

Our Summer Vacation

2008-06-25T20:43:00.000-07:00

	Waiting at the airport to head to Las Vegas...
	Hiking in Red Rock Canyon (we lost about 1/4 pound of skin)
	We also visited Paris (on the Vegas strip)...
	On Sunday, we visited the San Diego Temple grounds...
	We spent a day on Oceanside Beach with our dear friends, Jason and Kara McDonald. We first visited this beach 17 years ago, before all these little people came along.

Placerville (1971-1972)

2007-12-02T16:37:00.000-08:00

Recently I visited the old neighborhoods of my youth while on a business trip to the Bay area. I had been wanting to do this for years and am so glad I finally did it. I'v always viewed my pre-Texas life as magical and happy and innocent, so it was an emotional couple of days as I saw my old houses, streets, schools, churches, and even neighbors.

Turning left onto Ridge Court where our Placerville home is (sorry for the poor quality--old camera)...

This was the house where I lived when I was about 3 years old...

The current owners invited me in to see the place (they had driven up as I was getting out of my car). When I saw these stairs and fireplace, I got a little choked up. It's weird to see something you haven't seen in 35 years, especially when that last time was as a young kid. I went upstairs and saw the place in my bedroom where I accidentally burned my back on the space heater.

They've made extensive renovations and additions---my parents would be amazed to see it now. The kitchen is in a different spot, there's a huge balcony, the basement is completely finished with extra rooms added on. The home is probably worth a million bucks. The hallway toilet is the same one we had when we lived there (we think). Inside the tank it says "1965" or something close to that.

Looking up the street to the Pringles' old house...

Looking back down the street...

Heading back down Ridge Court to Washington Street...

Looking down Washington Street...

The church parking lot...

A video clip of the church...