A Trip to Egypt

My parents really spoiled our family for Christmas this year. Seriously I felt like I was 7 years old too! One of our gifts was to take a day trip down to Denver to the Denver Art Museum with Maja and Faja. A King Tut Exhibit from Egypt came to like two places in the U.S. It went to New York and Denver!!! Kaylie studied Ancient Egypt during fall semester and I wanted to go so bad. I was so surprised when I opened tickets for our family!

Kaylie was complimented about how mature she was in observing each item and listening to the hand held audio tour. The adults would help her get a good spot to view the items. The women all gave the compliments to my mom because I of course look way too young to be her mother. ;)

They had a cute children's area where they can dress up. Sooo cute!

My little anubis! He just thought it was a dog =)

Mrs. Tut

Little Tut Jr.

Bird just chilled with the gators and trees.

Silly Daddy!

We had such an amazing time! Thanks so much Mom & Dad!

Christmas Morning 2010

The picture at the top of the stairs!

You'd think they were excited or something!

The beloved dog pillow pet made its way to James on Santa's sleigh.

Three lucky kids enjoying their spoils of Christmas.

p.s. Mommy & Daddy... err I mean the kids...

well the family also got a wii from Maja and Faja!!!

There is no picture but lets just say there was screaming involved!

Christmas Eve

We have been developing some great family traditions at Christmas

as our family continues to grow.

Kaylie had her heart set on doing a live nativity...

I don't know where that kid comes from... =)

Kaylie was Mary. Lydia was a sheep. Logan was a Shepherd.

James was Joseph but chose to stay off stage.

Sadly we didn't take enough pictures.... like of the awesome wisemen.

Ryan, Michael, and Cameron.

Lizzy was the Angel of the Lord.

After all the stockings were hung by the chimney with care.

St. nicholas came!

The Riedman tree 2010 was well stocked with goodies as well!

Christmas Activities

Another visit or two to This is the Place. It was hard knowing this would be our last Christmas in Salt Lake. No matter where Ryan matches we would be gone for at least one year before returning to Utah.

Lydia was so funny. Every time we came Lydia absolutely loved sitting in Father Christmas' lap.

Looks like they all made it on to the nice list. They must have slipped the old guy a bribe.

With it being our last Christmas in Salt Lake for a bit

we decided to take a carriage ride around temple square.

Uncle Cramen and Auntie Hilla came too!

Gingerbread Festival!

Kaylie chose to participate in the gingerbread party for school. She and James did a great job decorating the house that Mommy put together for them.

TA DA!

Tonsils out for James

James had his tonsils and adnoids out. He also had both ear drums repaired. The left ear receiving a skin graft and the right received a paper patch. Everything went very well with surgery, and he recovered like a champ. The staff at primary children's was amazing. The kid thought he was a little prince! I am so glad we got it taken care of now!

Our Cousins Came to Visit!

Skidmore's came home for Thanksgiving! We were so happy to see them. We took them on another trip to Heritage park, because Candle Light Christmas has become a must in our Christmas time festivities.

First stop, Father Christmas!

The babies got banned to the stroller while the rest of us did the Virginia Reel!

Cousins are the funnest, aren't they?

Waiting for the production of the Little Angel puppet show.

Pajamas and one last photo op. We hated to say goodbye.

Little Cambria was still in the hospital so she missed out in group shot.

Field Trip to the Zoo!

Doing school at home this year has been quite the adventure. It is a lot of work but it really has been great. At the end of our animals unit we had to take a trip to the zoo! (wouldn't you?)

Lydia loved the animals. She watched and watched and watched!

Our little animals at the playground!

The Minson animals joined us too!

We got a little educational activity in as well!

College Game Day #2

Our last game day in 2004, when our family looked like this...

Game Day 2010 We grew by two.

We are mean parents!

We got the kids up at some obscene hour...

obviously way before the sun was up.

This is Halloween!

We did a family theme this year with Peter Pan!

The costumes were just too cute to pass up

and we had perfect Peter, Tink, and Wendy.

Luckily we have a good sport of dad

who was willing to dawn a hook and some ruffles!

Mommy was Tiger Lily.... cause that's all that was left

if I didn't want to be Mr. Smee.

They were so stinkin' cute. The Pan and the Tink costume were Disney,

but Aunt Melanie made the Wendy costume.... Kaylie is soo spoiled.

Soccer!

James did soccer this fall for the first time.

It was so much fun for the whole family to watch him play!

I was excited when he got #11.

Uncle Cramen wore eleven back in his soccer days.

Seriously love it. So stinkin' cute. Can't wait till spring soccer!

James' Kangaroo Zoo Party

We partied in the Bugbox room! I think he was thrilled!

They did the slides....

The mazes...

A little bit of heaven with Shellie cake!

James is into knights right now so she made a shield with a "J" on it.

I know she thinks I talk it up too much... but I don't it is seriously heaven to me.

Yeah that's a classic James' face... it can mean:

What the heck? You're weird? or any number of things.

He received wonderful gifts from his friends who attended

the greatest of which was coming and making his day magical!

Thank you!

A knight costume from his sisters

A Leapster from mom and dad

He is also sporting some of his shorts from Oma.

Ironman magnet guy

A light saber from Maja and Faja

Spider mobile from Grandma Jo and Pappy

Another highlight was using some birthday money to pick something out at the toy store.

Any guesses.... another Ironman figure.

Aren't those smiles just pure joy!

Thank you to all who love our little boy and made his 4th birthday wonderful.

A Party for Baby Bird

My parents brought Hillary out for college a few weeks ago and we opted to have Lydia's Birthday party then. Bummer for her though, because she had a fever of 102 the whole weekend. She looks thrilled doesn't she?

Still trying to figure out what the big deal is?

I think she enjoyed the cake and was beginning to be amused by the idea of us taking her picture every two minutes.

Toys!

Oma's package!

Oh Birdie you are so cute!

Taking a break wearing her new shoes from Auntie Janelle!

A smile... only Daddy could get a smile out of our little sicky.

Loved her ball popper toy from Mommy and Daddy

What's a birthday without a party?!