Sadie's first haircut
CB#: 4802270902

Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star

A fun day of hiking the heiroglyph trail in Gold Canyon...

When we got off the trail and back to the parking lot, we found this...

There were literally like 50 cars in the parking lot, and they picked an old minivan? Glass was everywhere and my purse was gone. We called the police and when he got there to take the report, he had my purse. Whoever took it got out my wallet and threw the purse out the car window. I am so grateful for that because Sibley's wallet and my glasses were in the purse. Sibley's wallet had $10 in it too. I guess they were only interested in credit cards. The deputy was so nice. He even put gloves on and tried to get as much glass out of the car as he could. When he left, we went straight to the bank to let them know our debit card was stolen. By the time we got there, they had already used it at a grocery store in Apache Junction.

Happy Anniversary, Bryant!

I knew you'd be great, but you turned out even better than I expected!

Dear Sadie,

You have done some cute things lately that I don't want to forget:

You love to get into Skyler's mascara.

You "help" me with the laundry now. You actually like to pick up articles of clothing and tell me who they belong to.

Every Sunday, your daddy gets up early, gets ready, and puts on his suit and tie for his church meetings. Yesterday morning he did this, and you looked at him in his suit and tie and said "church class." Only, you pronounce it "church crass."

When you drink all your apple juice or eat all the food on your plate, you ask for "mores." You'll say "mores juice" or "mores" whatever it is your having.

You now ask what I'm doing sometimes. You'll be sitting on the sofa watching a cartoon and I'll be working in the kitchen and you'll stand up, turn around, peek at me over the couch and ask, "Doing Mama?". Then I'll tell you what I'm doing and you're usually satisfied with my answer. It's nice to be able to have conversations with you now.

You also ask "Where's Dub-dub?" or Ky, or Mama, or Daddy, or whoever you are looking for.

Sadie's Rendition of Snowman

Christmas 2011

One word sums up our Christmas vacation...SICK! We were all sick with one thing after another. [We were also very homesick for Alabama. We missed grandparents, cousins, and aunts and uncles. We felt very lucky, though, to have
Grandma Slade come over and eat Christmas dinner with us. And we had fun skyping with the Josh Slade family.] I think now that it's the second week of January we've almost conquered the sicknesses. Even though we were all sick, it was still Christmas, so it was still wonderful. We try to have a Christ-centered Christmas Eve every year. And this year, on Christmas Day, I cooked. I made turkey and dressing and all the fixins. Here are just a few pictures we snapped.

(Sadie got a play kitchen and loves it. Sibley has been asking for a Nintendo DS for years. Target was having a good sale, so we took advantage of it. She literally shook with excitement all morning long. Skyler got a Kindle. First we got the Kindle Touch, and it was crappy, so we switched it for the Kindle Fire and we love it. Unfortunately, it has a texting app, so we never see her anymore because she is always upstairs texting her friends. I'm glad that I'll be able to get in touch with her now, though, when she's away from home.)

New Year's Eve Luau

Our hometeacher invited us to a Luau for New Year's Eve. He is Samoan and used to dance at the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii. We jumped at the chance. The food was great, the entertainment was great, and we even learned about Polynesian cultures. If any of y'all are looking to throw a luau, let me know and I can get you in touch with someone.

This first picture is my favorite because Sadie is staring at Brother Filimaua's belly. She LOVES to slap bellies. I bet she was thinking about how bad she wanted to slap his belly.

I have to say that my favorite style of Polynesian dance is the Tahitian's. It is so fast and I like their straw belts.

Bryant went up on stage and learned some Maori dancing moves. Sadie was scared of the Maori men. I told her she should be because they were saying, in Maori, that they wanted to eat us and turn us into poop.

I also loved the coconut demonstration. I was amazed at how fast Brother Filimaua could get it open and at how much milk he got out of it. Then he even used the coconut husk as kindling when he started a fire with two sticks.