Payton's Pupit Shwo

Payton spent a good portion of one afternoon preparing a puppet show for us. She was very thorough and included signs, a stage, seats, and even an audience. It was a lovely show, even if it did go on for about 15 minutes. :)

The Signs...there were several more around the house with arrows leading us in the right direction.

The audience!
Enjoy (a small snippit of) the show!

Fun With Brad & Jayne (& The Rest Of The Family Too!)

Brad and Jayne flew in from California this past weekend for a late Christmas celebration. We have not seen them since Cancun last June, so we were very excited to have them come! The weekend was an absolute blur, but it was SO good to see them and spend time all together with our family. Here are a few highlights...

Saturday night the "kids" went out to dinner at Hacienda. If you want to know what you look like when the photographer says "Say Hacienda!", please see my face. And thanks, Mom & Dad and Jess for babysitting all of the kids!
Sunday after church we had a Schemper/Jansen baby shower for Jayne and their baby. We had fun spoiling Jayne, tasting baby food, and pinning the pacifier on the baby...
Sunday afternoon until early Monday morning was our late Christmas celebration. Between presents, a steak dinner, Rock Band, and a few drinks and games, we all had a TON of fun and were very tired (delerious?) by the end of the night!
See what I mean?

Monday (MLK Day) we all headed up to the cabin for a day of relaxation. Oh, and dressing up.
We had an awesome time and we are so blessed!

Stock Show: Twenty-Ten

Last Friday we took our annual trip to the National Western Stock Show. Without fail, the weather is always freezing when we go. So, this year, an awesome 50 degrees allowed us to roam around coat free. A good thing, as the goats in the petting zoo ate pretty much anything they could! (See the video clips to come...) We had a great time and are so glad that this has become one of our favorite family traditions.

100 Days

Payton celebrated her 100th day of Kindergarten this week. As part of the special day, Payton's homework was to make a collection of 100 items. I remember doing this same project in elementary school as well. After talking with Auntie Abby and hearing stories about how kids tell her their moms do ALL of the project themselves, Payton and I sat down Monday night and hot-glued ONE HUNDRED pom-poms on to posterboard so that Payton could create a VERY long caterpillar. She did 99% of the work (hot glue guns aren't so great for 5 years olds) and practiced her counting a lot. I think it turned out great!