Bubbles

HAPPY NEW YEAR BABY! (this is what happens when your little boy dumps out all the baby soap and then you fill up the tub with water and put your baby girl in.)
Happy New Year 2008 to everyone!
Last night we had a fun party with family eating great food, playing fun games, and watching the ball drop & fireworks at midnight. (Bruce and Kate fell asleep at 8:00, but Jane stayed up until 10:30- we had a pre-party with noise makers and poppers for them a little before Bruce went to bed.)
Bruce is particularly excited that it is January because it will soon be his birthday.

Jane

WE LOVE VACATION!
(You can stay in your PJ's all day and make silly faces:)

This is a "very great" picture of our sweet Jane

We made it to Grandma and Grandpa Miller's yesterday and had "2nd Christmas." It was really wonderful to stop along the way and visit Grandma and Grandpa Great too~ thanks for the ornaments and shells.
Thank you to mom and dad for all of the great books and presents. Brad also gave me some new pottery bowls that are so beautiful! http://www.whitestonepottery.com
Today was a fun day at the BYU animal museum followed by a trip to Jamba Juice for Bruce (ohh it was so good.) I got the cutest picture and will put it on the blog later. Tonight we plan on eating more great Mexican food (we have to stock up because we haven't found a good place in NY yet.) Baby Lilly's blessing is tomorrow, and next week Jane and cousin Josh get to go to the Thanksgiving Point Dinosaur museum.
We're still having so much fun fun fun!

B's great gifts!

Twas' the month before Christmas and B was busy in his workshop.

He MADE a croquet set for his brother Ben & family and made a beautiful box of Cherry wood for my brother Stuart and his family.

He is so talented!

(I think it's now safe to post these pictures since the gifts have been opened.)

Box with 2 drawers and lid
Close up of dove tails and "stitches"
It's so much more beautiful in real life
croquet set & box
One of the mallet heads

Pixie Presents

We had such a wonderful Christmas!

The kids were so excited, we were with Grandma and Grandpa, and the weather was beautiful. We started (not to early) and opened presents, ate great food all day, went sledding, and sang Happy Birthday to Grandpa and Uncle Pete.
(More PICTURES of today's festivities will come)
In our family there are 8 kids so each year we "pick pixie names" and buy a present for that person/family. My brother Derik and Kim, Elise, and Elizabeth had us. The kids got great sticker books & toys, Brad got awesome ornaments, and I got a very nice gift card. Thanks- we love it! Thank you also to Uncle Pete for the "cool" ice cream maker!

Merry Christmas 2007!

For everyone whose address we didn't have, here is our Christmas letter:

(Enough pictures are posted on the blog already- pick a favorite!)

Seasons Greetings 2007

M- many events have occurred this year including…

E- eventful birth of baby Kate, July 2nd (6 lbs, 12 oz)

R- receiving a PhD from BYU in April (Brad graduated with his

PhD in Chemical Engineering)

R- relocating from Provo to New York in May

Y- yoga and pilates (Eliza’s new favorite “alone” time)

C- crazy times that come naturally with our 3 cute kids

H- haircuts, Jane gives them to herself, Brad & Bruce don’t

like them at all (Kate’s hair continues to grow)

R- relatives and friends who have come to visit and make us

so happy (fun times and Buffalo wings promised to all who come)

I- incredible holidays, fun parties, Easter egg hunts at

grandmas & dressing up for Halloween all month long

S- school, Jane started her preschool in September

T- Thanksgiving dinner with our Minnesota Millers - Thanks!

M- many trips to Niagara Falls & many more to come

A- Amherst ward, it’s so great to live so close to where the

church was restored (Bruce loves his nursery too)

S- sending this Christmas card to special people like you!

Our family has been so blessed and we are especially grateful for the Savior at this time of year. We wish you warm holidays and all the best with your new year!

Call Mr. Plow

Bruce got a new snow shovel to help his dad clear the snow. He does such a great job!

We got at least a foot of snow here, B and Bruce shoveled 3 times in one day!

This is what our street looks like

(Sorry you can't see his face, he was to busy to turn around.)
Here's one of our "cheesy boy" and his cute Christmas -not so smiley- sisters!

Snowflake Bentley

Yesterday we went to the science museum to see an exhibit on "Snowflake Bentley."

http://snowflakebentley.com/

It was really great. There were lots of fun snow things to do and they had lots of pictures of snowflakes.

(Yes, Jane does love this dress and wears it all the time, but she does wear other things too, you just can't tell this month.)
Here's some of the highlights:

Snowshoeing with wooden snowshoes
Speed-skating
Snowball catapult
Kate and some snowflake pictures
(Lissa- you can kind of see how long my hair is)
Ice fishing

*FYI- Today it snowed (lightly) all day. They didn't cancel church, but we got at least a foot. Brad is in Heaven with all the shoveling he's been able to do (Bruce helps too.) It's supposed to keep snowing until tomorrow morning, some schools have planned on closing, our 2 Christmas parties tomorrow have been canceled, so we may just have to play all day here in our snow- hooray!

Bonus: Here's a great video of Jane in the Kids Exploration room. They had a table with lots of "plastic poop" so you could match the poop to the animal who makes it. Pretty gross, but fun!