Christian is a pretty cool kid. I'm supposed to think so since I'm his mom, right? But he keeps surprising me with the little things he says or does, and he keeps a smile on my face - most of the time, anyway.
Over the last month, he did 3 things in particular that I thought were pretty cool:
* He competed in his school's Storytelling Festival and took 2nd place in his grade. He participated in the Festival last year, which made sense considering how he loves to weave a good tale (not unlike his dad) but I was also a little surprised that he chose to do it. How many other boys choose to give up their recess to go practice storytelling? But I was blown away last year and this year as I watched him up on stage, theatrically telling scary stories. He even wrote his own story this year, without any help from us at all. He wouldn't even practice telling his story to Mike or me because he wanted us to be totally surprised. And we definitely were, pleasantly so. He did a great job.
* Christian's class put on two class plays for their parents. The kids apparently directed themselves, did the costuming and props themselves and carried out the whole production themselves. The day before the play was to be performed, his teacher sent an e-mail to the parents letting us know the place and time .... and that was the
first I had ever heard about it. When I asked Christian about the play, he said, "Oh yeah, we're doing 'Where The Wild Things Are' and I'm Max." Hello? And he didn't mention it to his parents? Sure enough, Mike and I were totally surprised watching him be the lead in the play, recite all of his lines perfectly and play a great Max.
* A few weeks ago, Christian arrived at the start of Primary and realized he was supposed to give a 3 minute talk. He had forgotten about it and I had never even known about it. When he admitted to his teacher that he had forgotten, she said, "Well, why don't you just give your testimony then?" He said, "No, that's o.k. I'll give a talk." And then proceeded to stand up and give a 3 minute impromptu talk. His teacher told me that she wouldn't have known that he hadn't totally prepared one if Christian hadn't told her. He opened his talk with a story, tied it into a gospel teaching and finished with his testimony. And again, Christian never mentioned anything to us about it until over a week later.
I guess the theme here is that Christian is an independent, competent young man. I'd like to think that he needs his parents to show him the way but he keeps proving that he's doing just fine on his own. I'm excited to see what he does next that surprises us ... hopefully pleasantly so. :}
She adjusted to a pampered lifestyle a little too easily.
Ali and the other girls were introduced to the city's more colorful side.
Elle was surprisingly patient during the hour that it took to have her hair done. The girl said that she did ask a couple of times, "Are you done yet?!?"
Winner for cutest up-do.
Beautiful girlies! 
(My extended family will seriously disagree, but there you go.)
This is when my mom graduated from nursing school. I am sporting the lovely glasses, in case you couldn't tell. I was 9 years old, which makes Quinn 13, Erin 11 and Kelly 7.
And here we are welcoming Quinn home from his mission. Not much emotion on any of our faces, huh? :)
I know I sound like an old lady when I say this but time seriously flies! Was that last picture really 20 years ago? Have I really had 4 kids since then?
Seriously Grant, you look like a rockstar with those shades!
Julia experienced the leg cramp that comes with playing the Rock Band drums.
The little girlies spent the entire night in the toy room. At least, we thought they had until we discovered Haley's candy stash had been raided...
That is a look of sheer bliss on Quinn's face -- a daddy's heaven.
I had always wanted one as a kid. The commercials seemed so cool -- you could make tiny little cakes and cookies in your very own oven! 
Sometimes Paigie has little tantrums over seemingly minor things. This particular tantrum was because she didn't want to wear that t-shirt over the top of her cute tracksuit (we were going to walk in a 5k and had to wear the shirt).
Over the past couple of weeks, Paige has "run away" twice because of 2 random, minor things. By "run away," I mean that she puts on her coat in a huff, announces "Fine! I'm running away then!" and heads outside. She stands on the sidewalk for a minute and then walks very slowly down a few houses. Eventually, she'll turn back around and slowly make her way back home. Good stuff.
