Funny Brig Tidbit

Angela related this story to me about she and Brig while they were home alone the other day. Brig was walking around and all of a sudden he tooted loudly. He paused, and then said, "Daaaddy!"

Morgan and I are reading Charlie and the Chocolate Factory together and we love doing it. Micah and I are also reading the last Harry Potter book when we can get to it with her busy schedule. Kennan's reading Because of Winn Dixie by herself or with either parent. Angela's really enjoying her book We Be Dragons, and I just finished a good novel by Vince Flynn called Consent to Kill.

couple of kid things

Brig has been cracking us up lately with things he says, or tries to say. He calls Micah "Mahmike", but then I guess that's pretty good compared to "Dah" for the other two girls and "Dih" for himself. He got a basketball stand for Christmas, and he spends the majority of his time either walking around with arms full of balls from the overflowing ball basket in our front room, or shooting hoops (he calls it "shoot hoop"...loosely interpreted). He's so cute when he's a little tired or mellow, he'll say "ah yuv you", carefully pronouncing each word. Although he wasn't cute last night when he didn't sleep well and made sure we were awake with him.

Last Saturday Micah had an audition for the Peninsula Youth Theater's production of Peter Pan. It's a very popular community theater, and we are happy to support her in this. None of us had any idea of what to expect when she auditioned because there are so many kids who try out, and many of them are very talented. She sang "Castle in a Cloud" from Les Miserables (not my personal favorite, but she does it well) and she rehearsed her lines from when she was Violet in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. She was pleased to find out that she got callbacks for both singing and acting, although not for dancing (we thought). The callbacks are this week, and we got a phone call Monday evening asking where Micah was because she missed her dance callback - Angela and Micah were shocked because it hadn't been written on the paper - so it turns out she got a callback in that too. Anyway, she's busy with the callbacks last night and tonight, and they just happen to coincide with dress rehearsals for her school play that starts tomorrow and runs through the weekend. All this acting and singing...wow.

Other highlight pictures

High School Musical's East High School

I think that's Gabriella, Sharpay, and some other HS Musical girl character

We went a little crazy with the EHS pictures

Dancing right outside the cafeteria where the actors danced

Provo house in progress

Provo house, corner view

Spencer and Brigham hanging out

Visit to Temple Square

Visit to Conference Center

Snow pictures

Skiing at Sundance

In the lodge at Soldier Hollow

4 degree weather does this to a kid

All-day skiing followed by outdoor tubing ... Morgan asleep with goggles on

Micah posing between sledding runs

Kennan

Morgan

That's a pretty good snow angel

Those aren't pink snow pants on Brig, it's just a reflection...

Christmas pictures

Christmas Eve at the Richards

Christmas morning anticipation with cousins

The girls displaying part of their presents - Wicked tickets

The girl LeBras cousins at Grandma's house

All the LeBras cousins on Christmas day

How do we top 2007??? Well, we'll try...

As you can tell from previous posts, I am a big fan of making lists of stuff. Here's my list of great things that happened in 2007 (you may recognize many of these items from our Christmas card. If you didn't get your card yet, it's, uh, in the mail...):

John’s job change to Google

Disneyland trip with cousins and grandparents

Brig walking, running, jumping

Girls’ trip to American Girl Doll store

Brig turning 1

Micah (10) starting 5^th grade

Kennan (7) starting 2^nd grade

Morgan (5) starting kindergarten

School plays (scarecrow, mad hatter)

John soccer coach of Kennan’s team

Great friends, as usual

Angela’s running and bootcamps

Summer trip to Philadelphia without the kids

John’s bishopric calling

Angela’s Young Women activities

Morgan having time as big sister with Brig

Micah’s week long school field trip

John’s 8^th St. George marathon

5 trips to Utah

BYU beating Utah…again

Brig being completely obsessed with balls, especially footballs

Skiing with the kids

Healthy and safe family

We'll let you know how 2008 shakes out. We already know we'll have another round of birthdays, another play or two or three per kid, a move to a bigger and nicer home, a few more trips to Utah, a couple of other fun vacations, and who knows what else.

Another Successful Trip to End '07 and Start '08

We had an awesome holiday vacation with family, friends, and food. All the hectic planning and preparation of moving our family and Christmas plans to another state for a couple weeks was worth it in the end. Here's a summary:

I should have known it was going to be a good trip when we set a new travel time record of 11 hours flat on the way to Utah. All of the following were things we enjoyed (in rough chronological order):

• --the extended Richards family Christmas party and catching up with aunts, uncles, and cousins
• --two games of basketball with brothers & friends (sorry again about the bloody nose, Todd)
• --going to the cabin w/ Dad and Dan to turn heat on for our planned Christmas Eve trip - the deep snow, sunshine (although very cold), and mountains were absolutely stunning
• --BYU winning the Las Vegas Bowl on a miracle (fluke?) blocked field goal with no time remaining
• --Dan & Hailey's baby blessing of Preston, and the food at the Leishman's
• --birthday dinner at the LeBras and seeing that side of the family for the first time
  
• --Alvin & the Chipmunks movie with the kids and some cousins
• --wrapping a billion Christmas gifts
• --a great Christmas Eve at the Richards with everyone there except Dave & Meredith (in the hospital delivering baby) and Nate & Jenny - great food!
  
• --helping Santa get ready for Christmas morning
• --Christmas morning at the Whatcotts where everyone seemed to get the perfect gifts with no sadness or jealousy or spoiling
• --traditional Christmas dinner at the LeBras
• --Guitar Hero III for most of Christmas day
  
• --lunch at the BYU Creamery and buying the last five bags of the best licorice bites known to man (Switzers)
• --going on a movie date w/ Angela (tried to see I Am Legend but thanks to all the good shows being sold out we were stuck with P.S. I Love You...just kidding Ang, I really wanted to see that one...)
• --skiing at Sundance two days in a row - kids ski school on Thursday allowed Ang and I to adult ski with Cameron - great!!!
• --tubing at Soldier Hollow w/ Spencer & Molly and the Masons - fun but freaking cold! (car thermometer said 4 degrees when we left at 6pm)
• --the kids having their individual time with Anne and Nathalie
• --visiting Dave and Meredith and their new baby Beatrice, aka "Baby Bea"
  
• --The Waterhorse movie with Grandpa and Grandma and cousins
• --church at the "Apostle" ward on Sunday
• --visiting Temple Square and taking a tour of the Conference Center
• --visiting East High School, my former stomping grounds and site of High School Musical (may have been the highlight of the trip for our very excited girls)
• --visiting houses where I grew up to show the kids
• --Hires with G&G, Matt & Rebecca, Todd & Rosie
• --New Year's Eve extravaganza at the Whatcotts - serious food, Guitar Hero to the death, and lots of friends and family
• --Cheesecake Factory lunch with the LeBras before riding (driving) off into the sunset
  
• --setting yet another new landspeed driving time record with a stunning time of 10 hours and 45 minutes door to door
• --coming home to a warm house and milk in the fridge thanks to Uncle Dan, who's visiting us for a few days and his flight beat our drive.
• --AND ABOVE ALL, THE TIME WE SPENT WITH COUSINS, AUNTS & UNCLES, AND GRANDPARENTS
  

And the things we didn't enjoy:

• --Brigham throwing up more than 10 times on Christmas Eve and sporadically thereafter for the next week
• --changing the sheets roughly 6 times because of throw up and other unhappy bodily fluids from our little guy
• --missing the cabin trip due to Brig's sickness and the two feet of snow falling in the mountains on Christmas Eve
• --leaving

So there you have it. We're happy to be home, but already missing our families. The thing is though, this really is home to us - we felt it as we drew closer, and as we walked through the door to our little place - this is where we belong ... for now.