The View from the Backseat

I didn't know Katelee had somehow found my camera and was taking pictures of our drive to the grocery store. It is interesting to remember what the view from the backseat looks like.

And a picture of my favorite view from the front seat.

I'm a Mormon.

Something pretty cool is happening around here. The church has decided to invest in a multimedia advertising campaign in the Denver area. This isn't a new thing. The church has apparently tried similar strategies in other areas and had good results, and now it's our turn.

This means "I'm a Mormon" billboards. "I'm a Mormon" commercials that will air regularly for the next 6 months. And a huge push for help from the members of the church to talk to our friends and neighbors. Every member of our stake (I think ages 14 and older) are asked and expected to create a profile on mormon.org. They even took church time to show us all how. (Not that it's hard to do - it's extremely easy.) I did mine, and it is now up and running! It was really quick to create this profile, and any adult member of the church can make one. I recommend doing it. You never know if there is someone in the world who just might relate to you and be touched by your story.

Click here to see "I'm a Mormon" profiles. If you want, you can click here to read mine. And click here to create your own profile!

Fuzzy Bear

Katelee's kindergarten class has a cute assignment where the students take turns bringing home Fuzzy the Bear. They get to do things with the bear throughout the weekend, and then they are asked to write a journal entry in Fuzzy's book of what they did with Fuzzy and include pictures. Also, they get to tell the class about it when the bring Fuzzy back on Monday.

The teacher drew names out of a hat to decide who got to take Fuzzy home first, and Katelee was it! (I was very glad for this, because honestly I think bringing home a stuffed animal that has been who-knows-where is extremely disgusting. I know, I'm a germ-phobe! But I was told that Fuzzy had a good bath over the summer and I felt relief that Fuzzy got to come to our home first. Otherwise, he might have been getting a mid-year bath at our house, too.)

Here is the photo collage that Katelee pasted into the journal.
And here is the journal entry she wrote. I think her handwriting is so precious at this stage of life!!



DeAR KiNdies,

I took Fuzzy To THe libRARY, the STORe, A RestAuRANt, ANd To eAt ice cReAm.

LOVE,

Katelee

Les Miserables

Yesterday, one of my dreams came true!

Since I first learned the story of Les Miserables about 15 years ago, it has been one of my life-long dreams to see the musical live. I own the London Cast "In Concert" VHS, which I used to watch all the time until I no longer owned a working VCR. :) I've read the book twice. I can sing every word with the CD's. I truly believe this is one of the most true pieces of fiction ever written.

So, when we heard Les Mis was coming to town, Gerald was quick to buy tickets. (Tons of good husband points for that one!)

The performance was wonderful. The man who played Valjean was fantastic. I cried my way through pretty much the whole thing. It was everything I had expected it to be. A perfect date!

Gerald and I both really love going to the theater. It can be expensive, but we've resolved to do it more often, as it's something we both truly enjoy doing. Guess what's playing on my next birthday?? Wicked. We can't wait!

NEW FAMILY PICTURES!

We took new family pics so we could update our out-of-date pictures on our adoption blog.

We think the pictures turned out really fun! What do you think?

We have to choose just ONE for our main page/letter for our online adoption profile. If you had to choose only one, which would you choose??
OPINIONS, PLEASE! :)A few pictures of just the two of us.Gerald was having WAY too much fun. :)My girl - isn't she beautiful?

Leave a comment and let us know what picture(s) you like best!

How We Spent Our Labor Day Weekend

Taking family pictures - I'll post more of these today!!Camping in the mountains.

We enjoyed looking at a night sky full of bright stars, singing around the campfire, cooking good food, hiking, playing cards, and just being together out in nature.
We also had some friendly deer come near to say hello.

Attending the Hot Air Balloon Festival in Colorado Springs, CO

Which may truly be one of the coolest things we've done in a long time.

This was Katelee's favorite balloon.

It was early, but it was worth it. Absolutely beautiful.

Crazy Hair Day

I've got lots of fun photos to share of our Labor Day Weekend, but as always, I'm playing catch-up. So first, let's go back to last Friday, which happened to be Crazy Hair Day at school for Katelee & Kassandra. (Have I mentioned that Kassandra is coming here before school for an hour or two each morning? It's WONDERFUL. It means no TV and happy time around here. We really love that girl!)

With all my interest with hair, lately, I was determined to do something really awesome for crazy hair day! We looked at pictures and planned, and these are the hairstyles we came up with.

KATELEE


KASSANDRA

They really looked awesome!

As I walked them into the school, I could tell they felt like superstars! Everyone commented on their hair, and the other kids were so cute and enthusiastic in their comments! The huge smiles on their faces made it all worth while. Oh, happy days.