Welcome to our friends!

This blog has always been a great way to communicate with family near and far. We've also been thinking lately that it would be fun to share it with friends across the country so they too can know what's going on in our lives.

So we want to welcome all of our friends who we now have invited to participate in our blog. All three of you are welcome to comment freely on any of the posts, and as we've done all along, you're encouraged to request content or specific updates you want to hear about. The most common request is for more photos, and I'm a little bit lazy at getting the new ones up all the time. I'll work on that.

Here's a fresh summary of our lives and about our blog for you new participants. The title, j.a.m.k.m.b. includes the first letter of all our family names (probably didn't need to tell you that, but you never know).

Brig is still content to crawl/scoot, or walk around the room using the walls, furniture, people's pants, or Micah on all fours as his hand support. He's a chicken because he could walk right now if he wanted to. He loves his Daddy (almost too much sometimes, like when he won't go down for naps because Dad's not home to do it) and this makes me very happy. He's my little buddy. He turned 1 on April 6th.

Morgan just turned 5 this month and is really looking forward to kindergarten next year. She wanted to ask the principal of the school if she could go to morning AND afternoon kindergarten instead of just 1/2 day. She loves to perform in homemade plays and concerts, and is already a really good reader thanks to Angela's reading lessons. She is sort of Mommy's little buddy, and they have a great relationship. She is also our constant source of funny sayings, as you'll see if you look back at some of the previous posts.

Kennan turned 7 in February. She's looking forward to soccer this summer, which will be her 2nd year, and I think she'll do awesome. Even better, it's looking like I'll be able to be her coach, with one of our friends in the ward as my assistant. Should be lots of fun for all. I'm going to have those kids running gassers and doing burpees before you know it! And they'll be the best slide-tacklers in the league. Kennan was a crow and a poppy in the school Wizard of Oz play, and she was by far the best crow or poppy out there ;-). She loves performing as well, and is our songbird at home. The girls just got a new bunkbed from Grandpa Richards (homemade) and once I put a few finishing touches on it, they can't wait to sleep in it.

Micah will be 10 going on 15 in July. I know this is going to amaze you, but she continues to be very responsible and mature. We have started leaving her with the other kids at very select, limited times and it's been nice to have a teeny tiny bit of freedom due to that. She was the Scarecrow in the play and performed beautifully as usual.

Angela has been running a lot and also participating in a twice-weekly boot camp that has her feeling pretty ragged once she's done. She and her friends are running St. George this year, so they've got a long summer of training ahead of them. She probably spends 40-50% of her time in the car each day shuttling kids between preschool, school, play practice, piano, swim team, tennis, field trips, and friends' houses. She currently enjoys going with a bunch of girl friends to watch the Bachelor on TV ... quality entertainment? Hmm. You won't be surprised to hear that some of the ladies laugh at her for her shocked expressions at some of the more "inappropriate" moments. She is currently serving as 1st counselor in the Young Womens presidency.

I have been working at Google now for three months and have enjoyed the work and people tremendously. I have also felt it necessary on certain days to provide commentary as to what I eat for lunch, breakfast, or dinner at the legendary, free, gourmet Google cafes. My exercise consists of running, tennis, basketball, and biking the few short miles to work - gotta keep the "Google 15" off. I was just set apart yesterday as the 2nd counselor in our ward bishopric, which replaces my calling as EQ president I'd had for nearly three years. Should be interesting...

So that's us in a very summarized nutshell. I know this is a long post, but we love to share ourselves with you. Enjoy!