Catch Up!!

Finally you will now know what we have been doing since July! We've been busy with school- Gauge is a first grader, Anastasha's in sixth, and Victoria is in seventh grade. Two middle schoolers! Ahhh!!Here's a few Halloween pictures- Biebs and his Belieber.Gauge with some of his school friends at Halloween.Victoria turned 13 in December- we can hardly believe we have a teenager. She's doing well in school, sings with "Young Voices of Colorado," and is always practicing piano and guitar.Christmas morning- do you think Gauge is excited?Anastasha is holding Laura's new baby, Brady. We met him over Christmas and he is so beautiful! Anastasha plays the trumpet this year, and is doing well in school. She has a lot of good friends she does things with.
Gauge being himself at the Melville Christmas morning. He even wore this moustache and a curly wig to "Crazy Hair Day" at school! He is playing baseball this summer, which he loves. He is also the highest reader in his class!Everyone was there at Christmas!Gauge turned 8 in February, and was baptized. Mom and Popcan came out for it, and it was a pretty special weekend!

Scott has been busy in the Bishopric and at work. I have been busy with school, my choir, and I also presented this January at the Colorado Music Educators Association conference.

I'll try to be better about posting!

Summer Time!

Here's some of what we've been up to this summer!

We had a big hailstorm- golf ball sized. It went on for about 30 minutes and we had a lot of damage to lawn furniture, roof, screens, trampoline. We were luckier than our neighbors who had cars totaled and windows broken! We got a boat- Scott traded a motorcycle for it. It needed some work, so Scott put in new carpet and seats, fixed the engine, and we've had a really fun time!

Our boat can pull a tube and we also have a kneeboard. The kids have loved it.

I don't know what's up with this sideways one.

Swimming in Jackson Lake.

It's been fun and bonding for our family. We've even caught some fish- Gauge caught a 13" lake trout and Tori a 18" walleye.

South Dakota & Fourth of July

What a fun Fourth of July. We went to the Authier farm in South Dakota, and all of the Authier siblings were there except for Shelli. There are now 7 Authier grandkids. This is Alison, Christa and Grant's new baby. She was the center of attention!

The kids got to ride in the parade behind Grandpa's tractor. I think this is the 23rd coat of paint on this parade car.

Scott was in a shotput throwing contest and won 2nd place!

He won this clever shirt, but luckily he only did the shotput kind of hurling.

The weather was very hot and humid that day, fortunately we are smiling in this picture.On the fourth we went to a rodeo, and there were fireworks afterward. Pierre is right on the Missouri River, and apparently any sort of fireworks are legal there! People there shoot off big fireworks into the air for hours, it's really cool!Gauge loved the rodeo, that he was bound and determined to rope one of Grandpa's bulls, so he practiced a lot. He didn't quite get one. There was a lot to keep a kid busy on the farm. There was a plethora of kittens to play with, Gauge caught about 20 frogs and a salamander, the dogs were always ready to play, and the uncles were always ready to play baseball and basketball.

It's always fun in South Dakota!

Catch Up!

I haven't blogged in forever! I'm going to do a quick catchup here, and then maybe I'll be back on track!
Family
Scott traded his motorcycle with a friend for his boat. We can't wait to try it out! We'll be able to fish and waterski. We've enjoyed our dog, Sadie (being wild in the tube with the kids). She's such a good dog!

We went to South Dakota for Easter and had a great time- remember Charlie?

Scott

Scott loves to ski, and took the kids skiing a few times this winter. Last year as foster kids, Gauge and Anastasha weren't allowed to ski. They picked it up really fast this year (they were better than me on their second try, which isn't that big of a compliment).

Scott got a new motorcycle to replace the one he traded. Don't worry, his stipulation is that he always has to wear a helmet!
Jenny

I had my best concert yet! I had Jena Dickey (of Young Voices of Colorado) guest conduct my choir. She's amazing!

I had a "Bring your Parent to Music Day" for kindergarten. We had a great turnout, and the parents sat with us and did all of our songs, dances, and games!

This is my Strasburg Singers choir. I had almost 40 this year, and they were amazing! They sang in 2 and 3 parts! We went on several field trips- on one we rehearsed with Jena, then we sang at St. John's Cathedral. Amazing experience for me and them!

Gauge

Gauge is playing T-ball this summer. It's so cute, all the kids who throw the bat, run the wrong way, hit the tee. He's pretty good and hits it past second base a lot.

He also did wrestling in the spring, and I HATED the matches! You wait for two hours to see him wrestle for 3 minutes. If he wins, you wait another hour to wrestle again. At one tournament, we had waited for two hours for our second match. He asked "if I win, then what?" You stay and wrestle again. "If I lose, then what?" We go home. He said "I think I want to lose this one!"

Anastasha

Anastasha did he big 5th grade biography project on Princess Anastasia Romanov. She really got into it and spent hours researching and putting it together. She even did an extra power point presentation. She got a perfect score!

This is her best friend, Tycie. She's also a teachers daughter. They are BFFL's (best friends for life).
Victoria

Now that Tori's 12, she's in Young Women's. She loves it! Here's her and some of the girls at a Girl's Camp fundraiser yard sale at our house. There were lots of large granny clothes that were fun to dress up in!

Here's Tori's best friend Ellie. They are in choir together.

We just found out that Victoria made it into Concert choir next year, the top choir! They get to go to England and Wales on tour in Summer 2010.

That's a little bit of what we've been up to! Sorry it's been so long!

Christmas

This was our first Christmas as a new family- it was pretty exciting for all of us. Gauge especially was excited about Santa, he even "saw Rudoph" flying in the sky! We had a busy December with my school concert, Victoria's choir concert, we made lots of Christmas treats for friends and neighbors, and did lots of shopping.
When Christmas morning finally came, it was our first relaxing day in weeks! We stayed in Colorado for Christmas morning.

Ready to open Santa's presents.
What priceless look! Gauge got a Nintendo DS.
Anastasha got a hamster cage.
Both girls got Ipod nanos. Thank you, Santa, wherever you are!

What a great Christmas for our new family!

Happy Birthday Tori & New Puppy

Victoria celebrated her 12th birthday right before Christmas! Can you believe we have a 12 year-old that's now a Beehive? For her birthday, we took her and a friend to Macaroni Grill and New Moon. Victoria is turning into quite a talented young lady. She sings in a really good childen's choir in Denver, and she plays piano and guitar. Here's Tori with her birthday presents.

Meet Sadie, the newest addition to our family. She is about a year old, and she is half golden retriever and half black lab. She's a nice, well-behaved, calm dog. She got a Beatles name (Sexy Sadie) like our cat Lucy (in the Sky with Diamonds). We all love her.

Thanksgiving & Baptism

We were lucky for Thanksgiving this year- Popcan and Momcan, Dave and Laura (and future baby Cates), and Emily and Alejandro came out to Colorado!

We had a yummy Thanksgiving dinner- mom brought out homemade pies. Scott made a great turkey. The boys got to play Football that morning, and we went to a movie that night.

Anastasha got baptized- we had 50 of our friends and family there. It was really special!

We were sad to see everyone go. Thanks for coming, everyone!