Ashlyn's Minuet Breakfast

Today Ashlyn went out to breakfast with her wonderful piano teacher. A while back, Mrs. Houser told Ashlyn that when she could play (didn't have to be perfected and polished) the 3 Minuets in a row in her Suzuki book, that she would take her out to breakfast. She calls it the Minuet Breakfast. I felt bad that she had to drive so far to come get Ash, but she insisted. They went to Denny's and Ashlyn got chocolate chip pancakes. They had a great time.

I tried to record Ash playing her 3 Minuets (so Grandma could hear), but had lots of interruptions. It wasn't quite like a recital atmosphere as Nate was running all around, and Sadie was on my lap reading to me (while I was recording). I also cut out several of the repeats to make the pieces a bit shorter.

Oh, and Nate is the opening start on the video. He wanted to be recorded, too. Turn your volume down for his performance. :)

A "Nate Fix"

This post is for a friend who said she needed a "Nate fix" on my blog...so this is for you, friend. This picture gives me a Nate fix...and I needed one too, after I was at a party tonight and held a one week old baby...and cried the whole way home. I love little babies. I hurried home to see my big baby.

And by the way...if anyone has noticed that I don't get around to blogging very often, it's because we started taking foster care classes. Those take a lot of time, but the paperwork and "to do" list to get certified is LONG and takes up a lot of time on top of our normal life stuff we have to do. We're also getting signed up with LDS Family Services to adopt. So, if you know a baby that needs a home...send them our way. :)

My friend found these three desks at a garage sale and snagged them for me. The kids LOVE them. Nate loves his desk. He mostly stands on it and jumps off. He gets some pretty good air. He doesn't just jump to go down, he jumps higher than the desk to get some more air.

Grandma Shelly brought a fun pumpkin cookie recipe to make spider web cookies. The girls love doing this kind of thing with Grandma.

"Oh Rollo, where are you?"

Just a little peek

I saw this cute scene and had to grab the camera.

Nate tries so hard to keep his eyes closed...even during the really long prayers.

He could tell Mom was closeby...with a camera.

Trying so hard not to peek.

But it's so tempting.

Just one little peek.

Someone, please help me!

Here's how our family game night ended up. I guess Dave thought ALL family members were invited. I'm surprised our chickens weren't running around playing with us, too. The toad you might notice, is named "Fruvin". Nate gave the name. We have toads in our front yard all the time. It's easy to find them. Nate calls the big ones "Big one. Fruvin" and the small ones "Small one. Fruvin".

Just like his dad...obsessed with animals of any kind. He is so gentle with them, and can catch and spot them so well. I will be warning his wife of this hobby.

Dave was worried that our whole neighborhood would hear our activities while catching Fruvin, then Fruvin jumping out of our hands, then catching again, jumping, etc. Who doesn't scream when a toad flies out of your hands (yes, I held that thing, too)?

To add to this mess I'm in (with reptiles)...Dave (just now) was about to feed the snake. He has begged me for a while now to try and feed her. NO way would that happen. Well, tonight he said if I did it, he would never beg me again. FINE. So I did it. I didn't like it one bit. I didn't get that rush that Dave was sure I would get. The snake was so hungry, it was climbing in the air to get me (or maybe the mouse I was holding). Very scary. I had to remind Dave AGAIN, that I really don't like snakes.

We just set up Nate's "big boy bed" as he calls it. He loves that thing. Loves going to bed in it, taking naps in it, and playing in it. He even gets excited to take naps because it means getting to sleep in his bed!

Tour of Missouri came to little 'ol Rolla!

Happy Birthday Dave! Don't mind the Christmas wrapping paper.

Sadie wanted to get Dave some "guys" so he could play "guys" with Nate. So that's what she did. Here they are playing "guys" together.

Tour of Missouri came right through Rolla, and even better...right past our street. The girls are standing right where you turn right to go onto our street. It was a quick show as the 115 professional cyclists rode by on their 109 mile ride through the state of Missouri.

This was the only picture we got from our camping trip. Nate loved this little door of the tent to climb in and out of.

Lots of screams came from this crew on the 4-wheeler (mostly from Dave) as we drove around visiting all of the cows.

The cows look a lot bigger when you're standing a few feet away from them.

Nate has recently entered the stage of LOVING books. He can't get enough!

The kids watching Rollo eat a mouse.

Ash got to feed the mouse to Rollo. Dave really wants me to give it a try. He thinks I'll love it. Sorry, no interest in holding something that a snake will want to pounce in the blink of an eye.

Today while leaving the piano teacher's house, Ashlyn spotted a recently shedded snake skin. They were all so fascinated, had to run back in to show it to the teacher. Ash carefully put it in a bag to bring to show her class today.

My good buddy and I on his birthday. My heart has been aching watching this littly guy grow up lately. Notice the Christmas paper again? In my defense, a HUGE roll of Christmas paper is tonz cheaper than the skimpy roll of birthday wrapping paper.

This one is for you, Sage!

Dear Sage,

Your mom told me that you check my blog every day to see if I have any new pictures for you to look at. I'm sorry that I haven't been blogging very much lately. School started, and that means that I spend a lot of my time playing in our classroom with Ashlyn, Sadie and Nate. That doesn't leave much time left in the day to clean and cook for my family. Oh, and then there's something called primary. You know about it, and your mom surely knows about it. Some days, that takes a lot of time, too. Well, enough of my excuses. I'm just telling you why I don't have much time to blog. But today, I wanted to blog so you could have something new to look at! This is all for you, Sage! I hope you like Nate's song. Love, Aunt Melissa
p.s. oops...the beginning of the video is from an old video.

California

We had lots of fun on our trip to CA. More than a few highlights...

Sadie's beaded necklace she wore on the long plane ride so G and G would know how to spot her.

Lots of cousin fun. They had a fun tea party in the backyard.

Ashlyn and Lindsay playing their Suzuki pieces together. They sounded awesome together! I think they were both a little tickled with how fun it was that they knew the same pieces and could sound really good together!

A day at Lake Tahoe. Nate and Grandpa John had so much fun together.

Enjoying the scenery.

Sadie is the first to get all messy.

The girl cousins happy to be together.

Nate and Cora were best buddies.

Mary and I were best buddies. I love that little angel baby. I couldn't get enough of her.

Nate loved Mary a lot, too. He always wanted to kiss her and check on her.

A train ride at Vasona park with G and G. Nate loved it. Trains are his favorite thing right now.

The Walton cousins watching the boys do some RC car racing.

Feeding the ducks at the Palace of Fine Arts. I didn't bring my camera to Baker Beach, but Emily did and I can't wait for pictures. That was one of my favorite days ever...my old beach, a great friend, perfect weather, gorgeous scenery, and kids having fun.

Sitting on the big chair with Gibson and Beck at the Exploratorium.

Story time with Grandma Walton.

An evening campout with more stories from Grandma Walton. Grandma read stories til everyone was asleep!

Walton cousins after a fun treasure hunt where they discovered gold coins!

Cute kiddos giving flowers and kisses to their little sis.

We had such a fun day with Karla. She had a birthday party for Nate and everyone had so much fun. Thank you Karla for a wonderful visit!

I don't have a picture of this, but another highlight was getting to meet our newest nephew...Sean Walton. Another angel from above.