the zoo

Saturday it warmed up to a hot 40 degrees so the kids and I went off to the zoo. Although it was cold we so enjoyed being outside in the fresh air. I think we have all been cooped up a bit too much the last few months.

When looking through the lens to take this picture I realized just how much my little guy misses the water. He sat in front of the penguins for a good 15 minutes humming to himself (he tends to hum to himself when he is really happy or playing).

We really enjoyed the new shark encounter. They had this huge tube one can walk through and there are sharks swimming all around. Very cool. Here Anne is trying to feed our snack to one of the sharks.

the germ

Andrew is learning about the body in school. He is loving it. The other day he got to make his own germ. Above is Andrew's "throw-up" germ. Do you think it really looks something like this?

stupify!

I don't really remember which spell was being cast on me but there were spells flying. Don't you just love the intense look in his eyes?

ballet

Did I mention that we have a ballerina in the house? Oops. I haven't until the other day had any pictures of Anne's ballet because her teacher is a bit strict about cameras in the classroom. I know, I know still rules. We finally made the time for a few pictures before class today.

Anne has always been such a gifted dancer. Everyone has always told me that she has such great rhythm so it was natural for her to want to take dance lessons. She is loving it. She has ballet, tap, and folk dance. I am thinking she loves them all but especially loves the tap - I think it is because the shoes. What kid wouldn't love to do something so loud?

how long will it last?

We hit Costco yesturday and we hit it hard. The plan was to boost our food storage. Boost it we did. We bought items that we eat all the time so we can just rotate food through so nothing goes bad. We still need to get over to the Family Cannery in Cleavland to get the much needed canned turkey, yummy hot chocolate and potato pearls (you know the potato pearls right Sara?). The question now is how long it will take me to get this all up to the 3rd floor. I told Zac I would do it...good exercise and all. Is there anything you all do to keep your food storage updated?

Utah

This last week Zac's Grandpa Turner passed away. He will be greatly missed. So we all flew to Utah last minute to be there for the funeral. Lucky for us we got to see some of our Burton family while there. We dropped by Dan and Britt's house on the way from the airport and lucky us Sierra was down from BYU Idaho and David took a moment from non-stop dating to come and see us. Our only regret was that we could only spend a few hour with them. The kids loved meeting their first "girl" cousin Abby. They both enjoyed making her laugh. We were right...she is even cuter in person.

Our cute Abby...don't you just want to kiss those cheeks?

Family Home Evening

We had a wonderful Family Home Evening (a night set aside each week to teach a church lesson to our kids) last night. We read the story of Nephi getting the tools ready to build the boat then the kids got to draw a picture of it on our white board. Of course this was their favorite part.

Of course what would a Family Home Evening be without the treat. These Surprise Cookies were especially yummy and hit the spot.

wizard's chess

These days it is Harry Potter this and Harry Potter that. We are currently listening to Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone as we drive from here to there. It is also Andrew's movie of choice. Whenever he watches Harry Potter he uses his light saber as a broom and a pen for a wand. He even puts on his bath rob so he can have a cape like Harry. The other day I caught him wearing my glasses...he said he had to have them. Of course I told him he had to take them off so that they didn't hurt his eyes. Now every day he asks me for his own glasses. He so cracks me up. Today at breakfast Andrew announced that today he wanted to play Wizard's Chest (Anne and Andrew call is Chest instead of chess). So after school today he thoroughly whipped me at Wizard's Chest...he knocked each of my players clean off the board. Gotta love his way of playing.

art at it's best

Anne is always drawing pictures for all of us. This latest one is my most favorite.

snow....at last

Did I forget to mention that we finally have snow here in Pittsburgh? This last week the kids finally got their wish and there was enough snow to play in. I don't get it. I freeze when I walk from the garage to the house. The kids would stay outside for hours if I didn't make them come inside. They love it! I love it too, just from inside looking out. Like I mentioned before the weather since it snowed has been freezing. When I say freezing I mean freezing. Yesterday it was 5 degrees. Today when I sat down to the computer it said 1 degree! Can you imagine that cold. I can.

Andrew making his first ever snow angel. No really...his first.

Look, I am Santa Clause!