The Wheels on the Bus get stuck, stuck, stuck . . .

This has been a crazy week for riding the bus. Our girls had a sub for a couple of days. The first day they got home over a half hour late. Well, the next day it was past one hour late. We were pretty frustrated. Then we got a call from our neighbor asking if the bus was up in front of our house. I looked out the window and what did I see, the big yellow bus stuck in the snow. As many of you know, our house is the end of the line, the road stops there. Nobody plows past our driveway and there is not any room to turn a bus around in. So for a bus to be up our road is bad news for the bus driver.
AJ enjoyed the excitement immensely. I went out and helped a little, but I am basically the only man in Newton without a tractor sitting in my yard. However, our neighbor just happens to have a big tractor.
He basically saved the day. We got the bus out and thankfully got our regular bus driver back too!
See what you are missing dad! You thought driving a mail jeep in the snow was bad . . .

PS - Bailee and Brinkley both say HI!

Adam pays a visit to Washington DC

I got to visit Washington DC to attend the National Title I Conference. Our school, Lewiston Elementary, was named a national distinguished title I school. There are two schools from every state that are selected each year as national distinguished schools. Lewiston won because of its high performance on year end tests. I traveled with three teachers from my school and two of our district office staff. We had a great time visiting the sites and attending the conference.

This is our hotel/conference center, The Gaylord National. It was a nice place.

Here is our crew from Lewiston Elementary.
Here I am visiting with Pres. Obama's cardboard cutout, he is a good listener. It is about as close as I could get to the President.

Brigham Young's statue in the Capitol building. We took tours of the Capitol and White house. I was really impressed by the Capitol building.
We took an evening tour of Monuments and memorials. Here I am at the Lincoln Memorial. It was my favorite!
Here I am with Thomas Jefferson.
Here I am in front of the White House.
This is on the steps of the Capitol Building looking down the Washington DC Mall.
Looking rather dorky/touristy at the Capitol.
My biggest highlight of the trip, Ida and John came to see me at our hotel. It was so fun to visit with them!
John and I enjoying a reflective moment on the Potomac River.
I found a Peeps & Co. Store. I was hoping for the Lincoln Peep or the Capitol Peep, but was disappointed to find that they were not available. So I did not purchase any peeps at the inflated official Peeps stores prices. I'll just pick me up some of the same thing at Wal-mart for half the price.

Happy Birthday Addi!!!!!! (9 Years Old)

Happy Birthday Addi! We love you!
9 Candles - it only took one try to blow them all out!Buttered nose, the tradition continues.
Addi and AJ trying to pop their balloons.
AJ was really good at making them pop, he liked to plop on the floor after too!Martha the beautiful!

ADDI at 9 years of age:
Favorite:
Color - Yellow
Food - Mashed Potato Soup
Subject - Math
Book - The Doll People
Hobby - Writing
Game - Bohnanza
Thing to do - Webkinz
TV Show - Cyberchase
Movie - Princess and the Frog
Restaurant - Big J's
Scripture story - Jesus Christ appearing to the Nephites, blessing the children
Primary Song - The Family is of God
Goal(s)
- Play the Piano better
- Keep writing stories, make them longer
- Basketball, baseball, soccer, keep getting better so I can beat the boys!
- Read the Book of Mormon this year by myself

Winter Wonderland!

Here is a shot of our house from our new favorite snow sledding hill.

This is a picture of the tree by our back porch. For the past few weeks all of the trees have been covered with frost, it is really pretty.
Here is AJ recovering from a wipe out at the bottom of the hill.
Misha and Eliza enjoying the snow and sun!
Joe and Adri taking off on a sledding run.
Here is Alli flying down the hill.
Adam and AJ crusing!
Addi pulling Adri up the hill.
Alli ready to zoom down the hill!
Addi and Alli cruising down the hill!
Here we are at the top.
Anna flying down the hill!
Addi, Alli, and Adam ice skating at the Newton Town Ice Rink.
Alli has her own figure skates.
This is how Addi looked most of the night.
Here are Alli and Addi enjoying a sisterly moment.Addi was the fastest, but she also had the coolest wrecks/biffs.

Finally . . . Christmas Fun! (2009)

Adri made an amazing Angel of the Lord!

Addi and Andi - Mary and the babe.Alli made a great shephard, watching our little black sheep.

The manger scene, just about perfect!The three wise individuals, bearing great gifts - jam, thin mints and fruit cake.AJ as Joseph. He performed admirably.Here we all are on Christmas eve in our spiffy new PJs.

Christmas morning, AJ was in heaven playing with his new Cars cars.

The parade of Webkinz, a huge hit!

Adri finally got her own princess plate!

New markers!

Anna and Annie (her webkinz wolf)

Martha was enormously thrilled with her new running shoes, it is her year to run!

Caroline got to spend Christmas with us, it was a blast!

AJ still in his PJs playing with his new tractor.

Anna enjoying her velvet art!

Anna enjoying the online aspect of her webkinz.

Our tree even survived the madness! This is it in all of its splendor after the presents were all opened!

School Pictures!

One great thing about having Adam as the principal is we get free school pictures for the family. Hope you enjoy these cute photos!

Fun at Grandma and Grandpa Baker's House

We stayed at Grandma and Grandpa Baker's over our Thanksgiving holiday break. They are so much fun and our kids just love spending time with them. We have so much fun, that I usually forget to get the camera out. So here are the few shots I got...

Helping hang up Christmas lights is a hit!
Alli and Addi showing the new stable from Ben and Jill to go with the manger scene.

A.J. and Adri LOVED going on the bus with Grandpa when he needed to back up or park the bus!

We had a great time playing with most of our cousins! Grandma and Grandpa sure spoiled us and we can't wait until we can come visit again!