Flashback Friday!!

So I really think this is a fun idea, and the past few fridays have come and gone and I've forgotten to post a picture. Here's a couple pictures of my family growing up. One is a basic Olan Mills portrait, and the other one is from a ward Halloween party one year. You can tell that the family portrait was taken back in the 80's (I believe 1986 cuz I was about 8) because of my dad's moustache and the feathered hairdos.

In the halloween one we have Staci (the clown), Chris (the cowboy), Jeff (Charlie Chaplin), Mom (train conductor), Cheri (the witch), Dad (the hillbilly?) and baby Tommy (Casper the Friendly Ghost)

Good times!!

BTW-(The pictures are really small, so if you click on them it will enlarge them for you)

I don't know why the layout ends up like this with the white background when I upload scanned pictures, but oh well, I'm no computer whiz!

Kera puts on a show

Sorry for the lapse in blog posts. I could blame it on the fact that I'm pregnant and therefore have been unable to get on the computer quite so frequently, but really it's because I've been lazy. I decided to get the camera out the other day and do some videos of Kera so everyone can see how this little girl entertains me on a daily basis. She is getting much more outgoing and loves to have the spotlight on her, as long as she's not in front of a big group. I guess I should say she loves to have my attention on her at all times. I can see myself enrolling her in a dance class very soon. Here is a day in the life of Kera Noelle. Reminder: To stop the music that's playing in the background, just scroll down to the music list at the bottom of the blog and click on the stop button.

Flashback Friday
I've seen this done on other people's blog, and thought it would be fun to start doing it as well. Every Friday you post a picture from the past. I thought one of Jacob when he was a baby would be fun because he was so chubby when he was little, and a lot of people didn't get to see him when he was a baby because we lived in Texas. My cousin Emily posted a picture of her youngest boy Jack, on her blog. She titled it "Jack the Tank" and he's a solid little boy right now at almost a year. Here are some shots of Jacob as a baby accentuating his chubbiness.

The layouts on these pictures is all messed up because the pictures are taken before I had a digital camera and I had to scan these into the computer. The one of Jacob in the swing was at Chris and Jen's in Las Vegas and he was 6 months old. The one of him in the crib is when he was only two months old, and the last one of him sitting up he's 7 months old.

Dave and I on our iceskating date
When I was pulling up the classic skating pictures with the kids I realized that I never posted pictures of our double date with our friends Jeremy and Heidi Kjar to the Gallivan Center, an outdoor ice rink in Salt Lake. We went back in December and we had a great time getting out on the ice and skating around. It had been quite awhile since Dave and I had been ice skating together. We went back in Provo when we were first married. Here are some photos from our ice skating adventure.

This is me being a dork and attempting a turn on the ice. There's a cute picture of my friend Heidi and I on her blog, but my battery died and I didn't get a shot on my camera.

Trip to Classic Fun Center

My sister, Cheri,and I made plans to take our kids to Classic Fun Center in Sandy on Monday for the President's Day holiday. She didn't have to work, and both of our husbands did, so we thought it would be fun to get together with the kids and take them to Classic. It was my first time going, and I was impressed with all they had to do for the kids there. They have a big bounce zone area, and there's a new Jungle play area that seemed fun. Jacob and Maya had a good time going through it. Kera probably wouldn't have enjoyed it, and she probably would have tried to get me to go through it with her. Not a good idea for a pregnant woman who still gets a bit queazy to crawl around on my hands and knees and try to squeeze in tight spaces. They also had a laser tag that Zane and Zach had fun with. But the part that Kera enjoyed the most was the skating! It was her first experience with roller skates. She got Barbie rollerskates, which I'm sure made all the difference. They were the Fisher Price kind that slip on over your shoes. So they were really easy to skate around on. She didn't want to take them off! She was such a big girl and wanted to skake all by herself. She wouldn't even let me hold her hand most of the time. Yes, Cheri and I sported some rollerskates, and yes it's been quite awhile for both of us. I have to say I much prefer rollerblades, or even iceskates over those four wheeled ancient skates. I guess I could've rented rollerblades if I really wanted to, I just didn't think it would be that big of a difference. Anyway, the kids all skated and had a great time, except poor Jacob. It was his first experience with rollerskates as well, and we didn't get him the Fisher Price kind, it was the real deal for him. He could not stay up for the life of him, poor kid. It's probably my fault for not exposing him to rollerskates at an earlier age. We've just never bought our kids skates.
Jacob and Kera had a great time playing with their cousins and aunt Cheri. Thanks for the invite Cheri. And thank you also for buying the pizza. I don't think I ever thanked you for that. And I didn't intend on you buying it either, but thanks! Here are some pictures of the day on the rink.

New blog address

So for those of you reading this you successfully logged on to my blog with my new address. Congratulations. I figured that having my last name in the previous address was probably a security risk, so I changed it. There's also another reason for the change....can any of you guess what that might be? That's right, there will no longer be just four of us, it's soon to be five! Yes, I'm pregnant!!! I'm due around September 23rd. So that puts me at around 9 weeks right now. We're all very excited to be having a new addition to our family. Jacob of course would like a little brother, and Kera wants a little sister. One of them will get their wish. We'll find out in a couple months which one it will be. Right now I'm suffering the the first trimester nausea and fatigue. I was lucky enough to have my doctor prescribe a little miracle pill called Zofran, which has helped cut down on the sickness tremendously. Thank goodness for that!

Well, I'm sure that I'm not the only one out there who is expecting. If there's anyone willing to share the news that they're pregnant as well, I'll be anxious to hear about it.

My tribute to President Hinckley

I've been thinking alot about our prophet President Hinckley since his passing, January 27, 2008. President Hinckley was such an amazing and wonderful man. I felt a deep sadness when I learned that he had passed away, because I will truly miss him. I know that he has been longing for his beloved wife Marjorie Pay Hinckley since she passed away four years ago, and I am sure their reunion was such a joy. For family home evening that Monday night, the day after President Hinckley passed away, I decided to do a special lesson about him. I started by reading in the new Joseph Smith manual about Joseph's vision in the Kirtland temple. I know that President Hinckley had such a strong testimony of temples and of temple work. He dedicated several new temples while being the prophet, more than any other latter day prophet. Then I decided to go around to each person and have them tell something special that they remember about President Hinckley. I told about the time I was in college at BYU and I was working at the bookstore. President Hinckley and President Faust came by the bookstore while I was working there one day and I was able to shake both of their hands. I remember feeling such a strong spirit when I shook their hands. I remember President Hinckley's eyes distinctly. They were a piercing blue color, and when I looked at him, I felt he could look straight into my soul. My testimony of him as our prophet was strengthened that day. Then Dave shared his thoughts about President Hinckley. He also remarked about when he was in college at BYU and president Hinckley came into the Marriott Center during the devotionals. He felt such a strong spirit enter the room whenever he entered and the hush fell over the crowd of people. His testimony of President Hinckley as our prophet was also strengthened that day. Then Kera went next, and she started out by saying "when I was in college"...because that's what both Dave and I said first. That made us laugh. She said she loves President Hinckley and that he is a great man. Jacob told us about the first time he saw a picture of President Hinckley, and he looked very kind. He also said that he remembers seeing President Hinckley speak at General Conference, and he felt the spirit. He had a good feeling inside whenever he heard him talk. Our family will miss President Gordon B. Hinckley. What a great example he was to us all. We look forward to having President Monson be our new prophet. He is also a remarkable man.
Here's a video clip that I saw on a friend's blog. I love the quotes in here. It was put together by BYU. Dave and I were very blessed to attend BYU as President Hinckley served as the prophet.