It's a Birthday Party!

 Eight happy little girls = a great birthday party!!

dancing & playing

decorating gingerbread cookies

enjoying their cookies

the birthday girl

trying on her new headband & necklace

make a wish

Happy Birthday Princess!!

Happy Birthday!

The Princess is 4!!!

Sneak Peek

Here's a sneak peek at the little party favors for Sara's upcoming birthday party.  So easy and cheap!!  It just takes a little patience.  However, I'm not sure I'll be making 9 tutus in less than a week EVER again.  Although, the hair clips were pretty fun.  I might try those again!

Gingerbread Houses

Every year we have a hard time saying farewell to our gingerbread houses.  This year the houses made it until mid-February before they were tossed.  We are already looking forward to making more houses in December!

Jared ate most of the candy off his house long ago

Daniel house is full of interesting  little details

I think Sara ate more candy than she used to decorate her house.  But she sure had fun with the process!

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's Valentine's Day!!!

Crepes for dinner = Extreme Yumminess

Friday Night Pizza Night

We're getting ready for Valentine's Day!!

Dance Class

 Sara just loves her dance class!

Love, love, love that smile!!

Pinewood Derby

The church building may have had no water or heat but the

Pinewood Derby was a hit!!

Daniel with his 'futurist' pinewood derby car

Daniel telling us all about his car as Bro. Bell looks on.

Daniel working on his car.  (picture  Jan 29, 2011)

In fact, most of the families in our area didn't have heat and few didn't have water.  Don't you just love it when a huge freeze hits a desert town?   Talk about a great opportunity to test our emergency reserves.  

School Project

Sara was so excited to show off her preschool project.

Frozen paper, sugar, and paint

More than friends, they are family!

 We have the absolute BEST home teacher ever!!!  The kiddos love it when Bro. Simon comes to visit.  As a family, we could not be more grateful for Phil and Loretta.  They are so dear to our family in so many ways.

Many years ago, Bryan when served as a counselor in the bishopric and I was serving in the Relief Society Presidency.  We both needed to attend an early Sunday morning meeting before church.   It was a challenging time.  But it was Phil and Loretta that came to our rescue and would faithfully come to our home to help the boys get ready and drive them to church.  There is no way Bryan and I could have served in our callings without the love and support of Phil and Loretta.

They are more than friends, they are family.  I don't have the words to express the great gratitude that I feel in my heart for them.  I'm so grateful they are a part of our lives.

The Big Freeze

The big freeze we had this season really hit our lemon tree hard.  It's not looking too good.  Bryan and Sara are checking out the fruit to see if we could salvage any of it.  So sad.  How we love our little lemon tree!

The dancing princess

Sara started her first session of dance.  

She loves it!!!

Sara with Mrs. Julie of Ballet Belles

Sara the ballet belle

New scarfs

Thanks Lydia & Lulu for the wonderfully warm new scarfs!!

Wanna Twist?

Nothing brings a family closer together than a good 'ol fashion game of 

TWISTER!

Family Scripture Study?

Sometimes this is what family scripture study looks like at the Kemp home. Children faking that they are asleep.  Silly kiddos!

January's Family Reading Party

Family Reading Parties are the BEST!!!

I can't think of a better way to start off the new year!

Just another night at the Kemp's

I thought y'all might enjoy a good laugh and so I share tonight's adventure...

Okay, so we put up the Christmas tree on Friday.  Life was good. 

Today we realized the tree had a significant lean.  Odd but nothing to be concerned about right? 

The boys and Bryan were trying to arrange the train tracks under the tree when we heard a crack and our slightly leaning tree started to keel over.  Yikes!

Yes, the tree stand of our artificial tree broke.  So, what is an engineer & his boys to do?  DUCT TAPE to the rescue!!!  Bryan and Daniel duct taped the tree stand together and to the tree.  Thanks to a little scrap of wood and a serious amount of duct tape our tree no longer leans.   Hooray!!

I sincerely hope it will last until the end of the season when the trees go on clearance because I'm too cheap to buy a new one!!

Quote of the day:
"The only way to get through life is to laugh your way through it. You either have to laugh or cry. I prefer to laugh. Crying gives me a headache." ~Marjorie Pay Hinckley

School Fundraiser

Papa John's School Night

When the teachers do the delivering!

Mrs. DeBono, Daniel, Mrs. Miller

Daniel was thrilled to have his 5th grade teacher 

deliver to our home. 

First Day of Preschool

Sara ready for Preschool Fun! with Miss Malia

Star Student of the Week

2010 Spudman

Melissa, Jon, Bryan
Kemp siblings

Swimming

Daniel & Jared with Marcus Titus

The boys had the opportunity to attend a swimming stroke technique clinic with Marcus Titus.  Wow!!  What a great experience.  Daniel & Jared had a great time!!

Marcus is currently ranked the #1 100 meter breast stroker.  

Look for him in London at the 2012 Olympics. 

First Day of School

Daniel & Jared ready for a new school year!

Jared the2nd grader

Daniel the 5th grader

Chocolate Milk

Sara loves chocolate milk and the other day she kept asking me to make her some chocolate milk. Because I was in the middle of something I asked her to give me a minute. Well, my minute must have been too long because she took matters into her own hands and made her own version of chocolate milk. Can you guess what she used for the chocolate? Could that be black pepper?

Saguaro National Park

A while back Bryan bought a park pass to Saguaro National Park. Sara and I have really enjoyed using it! On our most recent visit, Sara and I saw a rattlesnake crossing the road and a gila monster making a mad dash across the trail. So cool!

Sara taking a little rest.
Of course, she asked for her picture to be taken!

Because of all the rain, the desert is in full bloom. Isn't it pretty?

the princess wanted yet another picture before we climbed back in the car

Lava Lamps

Daniel read about how to make lava lamps on the Family Fun website. It looked pretty easy so we decided to give it a try. It made for a pretty fun afternoon.

lamp #1

this one was Daniel's favorite, go here for instructions

lamp #2 this one was Jared's favorite, instructions found here

brothers and budding scientists

Sunday Sillies

Sometimes our Sunday afternoons can get a little silly

our handsome Jared, wearing dad's shoes

Faithful Home Teacher

We are grateful for a diligent home teacher,
especially one that our children adore!

Phil Simon with Jared, Daniel, & Sara

Fred

Daniel, Jared, Sara & Fred

Coloring Easter Eggs

The kids had a lot of fun decorating their eggs.