Birthday Boy Ben 2-22-2013

Ben loves to bowl... so what a perfect way for him to spend the afternoon with his friends!!

We ordered a bunch of pizzas and had a party with Ben's friends in his after school 

program called "SEED".  

                      Ben and Mariah...she used to call Ben every day until her mom made her stop.
                                           She is so sweet and is such a good friend to Ben!!

The three amigos!!

Ben, Hunter and Chris were all in the same infant development program 21 years ago.  

Ben calls Chris his "brother".

Ben and Brittany....she and Ben have a great time together.  I can always count on Brittany to help "watch out" for Ben and make sure he is where he needs to be. 

ZAZZOO

This post is all about our cat Zazzoo.  We got him on August 18, 2005.  He was a six month old kitten at the time.  We rescued him from a shelter.  He was in a room with about ten other cats and when we walked into the room he came up to us and was so friendly.  We knew right away that he was the cat for our family.  We took him straight to the vet on our way home so he could be checked out and receive his shots.  He has been a good cat. He is pretty patient and laid back.  The girls used to put him in their baby stroller and push it all over the house.  He has let them carry him in blankets and treat him like a doll.  He loves to be anywhere in the house where people are.  He lays by the girls all day in their beds if they are sick.  He loves to play with toys, and will fetch things when he is in the mood.  He knows how to open the doors with latch type handles.  He has his own room upstairs where he sleeps.  We have to lock him in there at night so he won't wake everyone up in the middle of the night.  He actually come to find us, mostly Russ, at about 7:30pm and meows for us to put him to bed.  It's crazy, but true.  The only downside to this cat is that he sneezes....A LOT!!! Mom always says she wants to get rid of him, but deep down she really likes him and is glad that he is part of our family!

Happy Birthday Hannah 2-14-2013

My sweet Valentine Baby!!!

Hannah was sporting a cute new outfit at school!!

 Hannah had a really fun party with friends from school, church, and dance. She had a big scavenger hunt at Target. The girls were put on two teams and given a list of things to find in the store.  They had to take pictures of each item on their list and then report back to Russ and I at a specified time.  Afterwards we went to Yogurtland for a treat.

Hannah chose BJ's for her family dinner spot, with a delicious pazooki for dessert!

 The girls from church kidnapped Hannah the following Wed. night for her first mutual activity.  I think being old enough for the Young Women's program at church is what Hannah was most looking forward to about turning 12!!!

Who's a brace face now???

Dr. Tadej gets another Judd mouth to fix! This time it's Miss Hannah.  She had an expander put in a few months ago and now it is time to put on some braces.

BEFORE

AFTER

Just a typical afternoon......

Here we are driving home from dance.  We like to turn up the radio and sing along.  I wanted to have a picture to remember all the days we spent together driving.  Two days a week I pick Haley up from school.  Hannah is already home and in the car with me. I have plates of dinner ready for the girls to eat.  The girls dance from 4:00 - 9:00pm  on those two days.  The other days they dance just two hours.  That is a total of 14 hours of dancing a week.  Whew!!  And they LOVE it!! That does not even count the few extra saturday rehearsals they may get called in for.  This year the girls were invited to join Tribute Dance Company.  It is the competitive group at their dance studio.  This is why they are required to take so many dance classes per week.    

Hannah just found out that she was chosen to be Jiminy Cricket in the ballet recital rendition of Pinocchio.  She is over the moon excited!!!!!

winter garden

I had to document this gorgeous broccoli that came out of our garden.  We had about five meals worth before it was gone, and boy did we enjoy it.  Nothing like eating things when they are freshly picked!!

Book of Mormon read-a-thon

Haley joined some of the girls from church for a two day Book of Mormon read-a thon.  They all brought their pillows and blankets, and some snacks and set forth to read the whole book.  Russ and I were invited to be guest readers, so we joined the girls and each read a chapter to them and then discussed it a little bit.  What a great spirit that we felt!