Heat Wave

This posting is dedicated to those of you who reside in locations on the far east and far west side of the country! We just wanted to let you know that we are having a heat wave...today it was around forty degrees. I was afraid that I might have to break out the bikini; however, before you become alarmed, or sick, I left it in the drawer. That being said, I will give you a little update on life. Lately, Mike and I have been working and the kids have been busy with school. In our free minutes, we are hiding in the house in our three layers of clothing. The other night when Mike and I went to bed we checked the temperature and it was a balmy three degrees outside. (I know that you are all jealous and would love to come and visit for a week or two) Now, I do like the winter and having the occasional snow storm (or every other day like it was in December) is fun; that being said, when it is too cold to snow, or leave the house, or get out of bed, I long for the warm weather. As you will notice, all of the background music has been changed in honor of the occasion. I can't complain too loudly because we have not had the inversion out here like they have in downtown and so we do get to see the sun. I also have been dying to take up skiing again and it looks like we will take some lessons with the kids in February.
Nothing much is new here. Mike is working on several projects for his Lieutenant. She keeps him busy, which keeps him out of trouble. (ha ha) He is also looking forward to/ dreading the Lieutenant's test that is in the spring. He is excited to take it, but no one is exactly sure what the format will be; so it is hard to study for it. He is, of course, worried about how he will do on the test. (We all know that he will do awesome on the test!) I am busy with work and trying to decide exactly where I would like to apply for nursing school and finishing up my last prerequisite class. (Nope, one college degree is not enough for me; I must have variety...or is it insanity?!) The kids are both doing the Destination Imagination competition. This is a world wide competition that trys to get kids to work together, be creative and think outside of the box. There are set challenges that the kids have to pick from , and then the team must figure out how to complete the challenge which includes building things, presenting things, and solving problems. No adult intervention is allowed so we can watch but cannot give suggestions or help the kids with building anything. Damon's group has decided that they are going to build a very light weight structure that must hold a significant amount of weight. His challenge also must include two artforms that have been merged to form another art form. There are four boys on his team. The team has come up with their art forms that they are combining and are currently working on the design of their structure. The next step in this process will be actually creating the structure and testing it. Madison's age group does not actually compete but they work on their own challenges and solve problems together. When the older kids go to competition, the younger kids can still go and perform in the challenges but they are not graded at that age. Utah does not have many teams so we go straight to state competition. From there the next step would be the national competition.
Damon has started the Knights of Freedom group. This group is based on the childhood of famous Americans books. The boys have books that they need to read and then meet twice a month to discuss the books and have activities. The boys are very much a part of planning and conducting the activities. This is great because it gets him out of the house, he gets to read some really cool books, and it gives him a variety of responsibilities that he must carry out. He had his first meeting the other day and seems very excited about it. He gets to read Benjamin Franklin first. He is currently in "his off season" for sports. He decided not to play basketball this year and instead is hoping to play lacrosse early this spring. (Hmm, another sport that involves hitting people and there is less padding. I'm not sure what I think about this. )
Madison is her usual, social, self. She is currently in hula, dance, and liberty girls. The liberty girls is like the knights of freedom. Liberty girls is based on the American Girl books and the girls have books that they read and then activities that go along with the book. Her group is just finishing up the Kirsten books and will be starting another series at the beginning of March. The girls have decorated cookies, painted trunks, sewn little quilts, and decorated sun hats as some of their activities. Each of her activities have involved a book discussion and then activities that have something to do with the book itself. She loves it and she loves the group of twelve crazy, giggling girls.
Okay, I am finally done. We just want to tell everyone "Hi" and let them know that we are still alive even if we don't get to talk to everyone all of the time.

Love ya,
Michelle

Surviving the Holidays

Well, we made it through the holidays. We had a wonderful Christmas and the kids had LOTS of presents under the tree. Some of their favorite gifts under the tree were:

Madison- A Barbie house that is taller than she is, Raggedy Ann dolls, Littlest Pet Shop Vip, jewelry, and polly pockets, a gift card, and a book about Mango the green cat.

Damon- A long board, An MP3 player, A short wave radio, some reading books, and some drawing books.

However, their favorite gift by far was the Wii that Grammy and Grandpa gave us. It has even given the kids incentive to keep the basement clean! We spent the day with my parents and went to see my Grandma and my Aunt's family. We had a great day even with all of the snow that we had.

We rang in the new year with a pizza party with the Thuesons. We even made it to midnight, of course, we left at 12:15 am. What can we say...we are real party animals! The kids are back into school and madi is in dance and hula. Damon is taking a break and is looking forward to lacrosse this spring.

Well, hope that this finds you all well. Love ya!!