Halloween Highlights

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.