Cooper Dancing

We have a lot of videos of Cooper dancing, singing, or talking while Talmage is playing his violin.  I can't post most of them though because the files are too big.  Here is one that's small enough, though it is not the best.  All the talking/singing sounds are coming from Cooper.  He is a very fun bird and Talmage loves him.  He makes practicing the violin more enjoyable though less productive.

Raking Leaves

We had a small amount of time to play as a family one Saturday and this is what Anya chose to do.  She was so happy to have the whole family out creating a huge pile for her to jump in.
Aaron was in charge of picture taking and putting the leaves in the yard waste bin at the end.  Anya got us all started and was willing to use the worst rake to keep everyone happy, Talmage did just enough raking to qualify for a few jumps but for the most part he doesn't think yard work is his thing, and I got to use the best rake and move lots of leaves.

 This is how Anya thinks we should dress to do yard work.

I made that skirt for her birthday and she wears it every weekend.

 

Talmage loves posing for pictures.

 

 And this is proof that I do exist.  Usually I'm the one behind the camera so we don't have many pictures of me.  And that's ok.

Halloween Costumes and a Poem

Talmage is a hobbit. Frodo to be precise.  He wanted to go bare foot and have hairy feet but I told him he had to wear shoes to go trick or treating.  He thought I was being a mean mom.  I did make this costume and let him borrow a gold chain to put his ring on.  So I'm not that mean.  He also had a thick wooden walking stick.

 

The weather was so warm today.  Nearly 70 degrees out.  It was a perfectly comfortable evening to go knock doors and beg for candy.

Anya wanted to be a witch.  She wears these pink striped tights to school as often as she can.  This was a trow together costume, but she was pleased with it.

 I just happened to have this pink feathery thing in my craft room so we put it on the hat-- Anya can never have enough pink.

She looked too cute to be a witch so we put eye liner on her lips and a big black mascara mole on her cheek.  It didn't really make her look less cute.  I guess she's doomed to be cute. 

She even tried to make a scary face.

The following is a poem that Talmage wrote in class today.

Happy, happy all day long
After candy is our song
Let us go down the big slide, oh no now its time to hide
Lollipops chocolates let us cheer,
Oh man, he's a gigantic ear
Wow a monster passing by
Eek, I think I'm going to fry
Even bed time's passing by
Noon is gone and so am I

Green Canyon

We finally went hiking up Green Canyon.  Like it's name implies it is a lovely green place.  I would say that it is green all year round, but it gets awfully white in the winter.  These pictures were taken in August in a drought year.  Not bad.  Now that fall is here we need to head up there again and try to catch some fall colors.  I love the Fall!

Talmage would like everyone to know that Anya is standing up hill from him, and she is NOT taller than him.

Spring Recital

 In May, Talmage had his spring violin recital.  He was more nervous than usual because his teacher assigned him a hard song that really stretched his abilities.  He hadn't perfected it to his liking-- but he had it memorized and did his best.  I could tell he wasn't ready to perform when he decided to wear his suit instead of his tux.  His tux his his "show off suit" and he wasn't feeling like he could show of this night.  In all honesty he was one of the best performers of the night.   He got flustered introducing himself and made a few mistakes but pulled himself together after each one.  It was a great learning experience for him in many ways.  Talmage was so happy to have gotten through the recital and have this song behind him (I was too).  In the background you can hear the little girl behind us humming along. 

Here's the link

http://youtu.be/km2msUXUFPw

Mustache

Anya got this awesome mustache at the dentist.  Way cooler than the toys I remember getting.  She loves it and can't wait to go back to the dentist for another one.

Blue and Gold

At the Blue and Gold banquet last month, Talmage received his Wolf badge.  Aaron is all dressed up because he is our new Cub Master.  I am the Primary counselor over Cub Scouts.  So our family is learning to be "scouty".

The Book of Mormon Celebración Exhibit

On Saturday our family went down to Temple Square to see the new "A Book of Mormon Celebración for Children" exhibit in the Church History Museum.  We took some pictures and a lovely sideways video (sorry) of the kids learning to do a Mexican dance.  This exhibit focuses on Latin American saints and their stories of faith and service.  There was also a replica of the Gold Plates, an area with wooden dolls to act out scripture stories, large soft building blocks for building a tower or a city wall, and a large boat to let the kids pretend they were with Nephi sailing to the promise land.

 Here the kids learned about a man who transported church members and investigators to church in the back of his fathers dump truck.  Some days he had to make 3 full trips to get everyone who wanted to go to church to the building.

This was Anya's favorite-- CHICKENS!  Here they learned about children who gave their best chicken to a family in need because we should give our best when we serve.

 Pretending to sail to the promise land.

 Preparing a "missionary meal.  In this picture you can see my new haircut.

As we were leaving the museum someone was looking for somebody who could speak Japanese.  Aaron thought he could be of assistance.  Little did he know they needed someone to translate for a museum tour!  He did his best and I quickly snapped this picture.  He has since had time to look up some words he didn't know before in Japanese-- like oxen and covered wagon.

Honors Recital

Last week Talmage played at the ASTA solo festival and was asked to play in the Honors Recital.  He played Lightly Row-- a super easy piece for him.  We just attended the recital tonight and he was the first to play.  I think they did it by level.  He is level 1 violin.  After him was the cutest little cello player.  By the end of the recital we heard some amazing advanced violinists and we also got to enjoy listening to some great cellos and a massive bass.

 Here is Talmage outside the Dansante before the recital.

It was a cool venue for him to be able to play at.

 

Here is Talmage's performance.  Unfortunately he was a bit flat on several notes and so listening to this makes my ears cringe.  I'll have to post some of what he is currently working on soon.

Eating My Compost

This dear was caught in the act!  I've taken to yelling out the backdoor, "Hey! Get out of my compost!"  That usually gets them ambling off our property.  The kids have been  trying to come up with ways to protect our garden this spring/summer. They want to plant a pumpkin patch in one part and have plans for me to plant lots of delicious vegetables in the rest.   Fences are out because these guys can really jump.  Talmage wants to scare them away with something but doesn't know what.  I think we need some kind of deer repellent--any ideas?

Little Snow Machines

I went to a meeting and left the kids and Aaron at home to get some chores done.  When I got home this is what I found.  They had done their work and then joined the neighbors in playing in the snow.  Our neighbors have these cute little snow machines (that's what they call them in Idaho) but they may be called snow mobiles here.  Anyway, the kids loved them.  I was surprised that they had Anya driving it with two younger boys on a sled behind it.  They obviously didn't know that she turns into Cruella deville when she drives.  In the end everyone survived and had a great time.  Talmage enjoyed doing his own thing and figuring out how it all worked.  The little boys didn't want to drive and they loved the ride Anya gave them.  It was a perfect match all around.

Halloween 2011

I realized that I never posted Halloween pictures.  I guess blogging hasn't been a priority lately.  Well here they are-- it's nice to remember life before the winter, not that I'm complaining about winter, but I like the green grass and flowers . . .

Anya in her Laura Ingalls costume and Talmage as Mario. 

 This is the the front of our house.  You'd think that someone as creeped out by spiders as Aaron is wouldn't make a giant spider web on the front porch.

 Here are our pumpkins all lit up.

 

We took this picture of a deer eating a bush in our backyard.  That's when the deer were a novelty.  Now they are so common place that we don't run for the camera when we see them.  I actually want to chase them out of the yard when I see them.  They come munch bushes outside the window and keep scarfing on my compost.  One morning the kids were freaked out by what they thought was a porcupine in the backyard that turned out to be the top of a pineapple one of the deer stole from the compost and than realized he didn't want it.  One good thing about these deer is they seem to look both ways before crossing the road.  I had a stand off with one on the road one morning.  I thought I'd wait for it to cross and it just kept standing on the side of the road looking at me.  I finally gave in and drove on.  After I passed I watched it in my rear view mirror check both ways and than cross.