News!

Maybe my next post I'll update with Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Don't hate me, remember I'm the one who sends her Christmas cards in February!

In the meantime, we'd like to pass on our fun family news. We will be getting a new addition to the Earl family in April! A baby boy, in fact. I hope he likes dolls.

Introducing...

Buttons! The newest member of the Earl family.

Flushing Toilets and Field Trips

I am the only one that feels like all they do is go around the house and flush toilets and change the toilet paper roll?! I'm going crazy! It's kept me so busy I haven't been able to write a new post for ages! (That's my story and I'm sticking to it.)

Olivia went on a field trip last week to a pumpkin farm. The kids got to walk out in the field and look at all the pumpkins on the vines, they rode a train, picked a pumpkin to take home, and most importantly Olivia used a port-a-potty for the first time. I tried to convince her to wait until we got home, but she insisted she couldn't wait. This was the GROSSEST port-a-potty I have seen in quite I while. I wiped off the seat (gagging the whole time), she did her business and proclaimed "THAT WAS AWESOME!!". And I'm sure that will be the most exciting thing she remembers about the pumpkin patch.

First Day of School, Part II

Olivia finally had her first day of preschool this past week. She's had her outfit picked out for about two weeks now and finally got to put it on!




Her class also had their first field trip on Friday to a farm to pick apples. She's not much of an apple picker (she's fake picking apples in the pictures), but she loved the dirt on the ground!

First Day of School

Natalie is a big 3rd grader. Looking pretty stylish with the pink vest with jeweled buttons. Yes, a double strand of pearls was the look for the first day of school. Sydney amazed us all with her lack of layers (she's been known to wear 4 shirts at a time). She looked great for her first day of middle school.

John Mellencamp

Steve took us to see John Mellencamp at the Greek Theater in Berkeley for my birthday. We had great seats that Steve got off of Craig's list. The guy who sold them to us is a huge fan so he set us up with the play list and a CD so we would be ready to rock! It was a great concert!

July

I love having an 11-year-old. Now that she had her own camera she's become our official family photographer. The downside...I don't know how to download the pictures from her camera to my photofiles. She takes about 100 pictures to my 10, so going through all of the pictures is a bit daunting. My goal is to get that figured out in the next week or so. Until then no pictures for the month of July.
We took the kids to Park City, UT for a few days before our M.J. Family Reunion. The kids had a blast riding the Alpine Slide & Coaster, & the zip line. We spent the entire day doing that with a short swim break. Steve and my dad rode the Bobsled at the Olympic Park. Steve has been dying to do this for quite some time and it will be quite some time before he does it again. I guess it was pretty intense.
We had our family party up at the Ranch. We joined in the Mink Creek Ward 4th of July celebration. Lots of yummy BBQ's and dutch oven cooking (Jared has mastered the art). Joe provided us with our own personal firework extravaganza. And Jonny served as official family photographer. The kids also got to go tubing for the first time. Olivia & JJ stuck to the raft with Grandpa and the rest of us fit our large sized bottoms in some small sized tubes. It was a bit precarious, but we managed to float down the river 3 times.
Towards the end of July our niece Chelsea came to visit. I would say that was definitely one of our summer highlights. I flew back to SLC with her and then headed off to my 20 yr high school reunion. Definitely NOT a highlight of the summer.

June

Olivia had her first recital. She just started gymnastics and is loving it. I was a little worried about her because they have to wait in another room until their portion of the show starts. She can have a little anxiety when she's away from her mom. But, no problems she did great and can't wait to do it again! Lucky for us we got to stay for the whole 3 1/2 hour show (in and old gym at San Jose State with NO air conditioning!) Olivia was one of the first performances, then Natalie went on about half way throught the program, and the Syd was last.

Sydney had her honor roll presentation just before elementary school graduation. I had to talk her into wearing a nice dress and dress shoes. (She had to wear tights since her legs were so banged up from soccer and gymnastics). She received a trophy for being on honor roll for 4th and 5th grades and a medal for maintaining a 4.0 for 4th and 5th grades (at our school only the 4th & 5th graders recieve letter grades). Then...two students from the graduating class are chosen to recieve an award for outstanding leadership and academic achievement...congratulations Syd. We love our little overachiever!




Natalie was lovely as usual in her spring dance recital this year. She is a very graceful ballerina and it is so fun to watch her tap. "Shuffle to Buffalo" is her favorite move!

May

Sydney finished up her show "The Frog Prince" this month. She's participated in the community theater for the past three years. This will probably be her last year. It's a huge commitment of time and now that she's becoming a teenager she wants to have more time to spend with friends. This was definitely our favorite show we've seen.

Natalie was baptised on the 3rd of May. She has such a sweet spirit. She had a hard time holding back the tears all day. Grandma & Grandpa Earl came from Washington and Grandma & Grandpa Jepsen came from Idaho. We also had a great suprise when Aunt Andra asked if she could come too! We've been begging her to come visit for awhile. She brought JJ (who is now Olivia's "new best friend") and baby Michael who was only a month old.

Olivia had her preschool graduation at the end of the month and she did a great job singing and accepting her diploma.

TURN UP THE VOLUME!!!

Bon Jovi ROCKS!

Did I ever mention that Steve had long permed hair when we met?
We had great seats at the concert on the floor towards the front. When the concert first started I kept looking around to see who was kicking my chair, then I realized it was just the bass beating throught the floor! Awesome! We, of course, wore earplugs for most of the concert. The last time we didn't wear earplugs -Def Lepard '92- our ears were ringing for several days..we had to sleep with the radio on at night to cover up the ringing.

p.s.

Bon Jovi Wednesday!!

Is anybody home?

Wow! Is it April already?!? We are busy at the Earl house. Busy having fun that is! The last several weeks have been busy with play tryouts, followed by costume sewing, the Father/Daughter dance, and our Disney trip we've been trying to take since last year. This year Easter was on Sydney's birthday. We had a surprise sleepover party for Syd. None of the girls spilled the beans (of course none of the mom's told their daughters until the day of)! I can't believe my baby is 11 years old!
Natalie finally learned to ride a bike this last month. She's a little timid about things, but once she gets up her courage there is no stopping her. She lost her two top front teeth and looks adorable. She turns 8 next week and is glad that Easter is not on her birthday this year.
Olivia started preschool at the beginning of March. Click here to see a picture on Lori's blog (I am so bad with the taking pictures thing). She is loving it! Especially since all her neighbors and friends from church are all at the same preschool. She is starting gymnastics and loves her gymnastics uniform. She is always stopping in the middle of whatever she's doing to touch her uniform and make sure everyone else thinks it cool too.


Daddy-Daughter Dance


Everyone's (but Mom) favorite


Disneyland '08

80's Rock!

As if I didn't already know I'm a total 80's girl!! I even got Bon Jovi tickets for Christmas!

You Belong in 1985

Wild, over the top, and just a little bit cheesy. You're colorful at night - and successful during the day.

What Year Do You Belong In?

I'm back!?!

Well, I've been taking a break from all of the extra stuff, including the computer, while I get my life and kitchen back in order! Boy, I didn't realize how stressed I was until our kitchen was finished. It was like the clouds parted and I finally saw the light and I didn't even know I was in the dark!!! I wanted to wait until I have pictures to post, but I didn't want to take pictures until the kitchen was clean and organized. You know how this story ends....I still can't find any of my sauce pans and I need to have the glass put in some of my cupboard doors....but I vow to post pictures as soon as I get the glass in, next week hopefully if this yucky weather lets up.

We had a great Christmas with mom, dad, Joe and Kate. They asked what they could bring to help out and I just told them to bring some Christmas spirit, which they did!! Steve actually just finished putting our house back in order (excluding any dishes or food in the cupboards) as I picked up my mom and dad from the airport. It felt so good to walk in the house with my mom and dad and have a clean living room and no shelves of food in the dining room. Sydney had found and set out our Christmas Tree skirt and arranged the presents. She is so sweet. Once everyone arrived it felt great to just relax and get into the holiday spirit!

Now, 6 weeks later we're finally settling into the kitchen and I'm starting to put things where I want them. (just as a side note, we did have to take everything back out after the holidays so they could sand and put the final coat on our floors, so we have only really been back in since the 14th - i'm not as slow as it seems!)

In other news, I was just released as Primary President in our ward. I will really miss being in primary. We have such great kids in our ward. I have learned and been inspired so much by them. Now it is someone else's turn to have that opportunity. My new calling is teaching gospel doctrine to the adults. I am very nervous about that. I have taught adults before as a teacher doing inservices in my school district, but not at church where so many know more than I do!! I'm also excited, because I really think I need this kick in the pants to personally learn more about the gospel.

Hopefully, I can post some pictures next time, but don't hold me to it!! Remember, I'm the one who celebrated getting her Christmas cards out before Valentine's Day!