That's Not Flying...That's Falling With Style!

Becca got a digital camera from Grandpa Anderson a while back and she likes to take creative pictures with it. This morning before school she set up a photo session with Nicky to see if she could capture him flying. Below are the results:

Pretty amazing shots for an 8-year old with a little cheap digital camera. She figured out when to press the button to allow for the delay in the shutter.

(I'm happy to report that no kids were injured in the making of this blog post)

After the photo session, she decided she wanted to see what she looks like with her eyes rolled to the back of her head. Mirrors are useless in this situation, so she had Nicky take the above picture. Good to see some 3rd grade activities never change.

Daredevil Daughters

Last night we were picking up Matt from football practice at South Jordan Park and they were having something called the "National Night Out" there. They had a helicopter and police dog demonstrations, and well, some snakes and spiders were there for some reason, too.

Becca held a Burmese Python

Taylor held a Tarantula spider.

Pretty brave girls!! I didn't have my camera with me (which is fairly unusual), so I snapped these with my cell phone camera. Not too bad for a little cell phone...

Becca's Day

Yesterday Becca was baptized and confirmed a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It was a very nice day. She was the only one in our ward with an eighth birthday last month, so we got the whole program to ourselves.

Posing with mom right before she was baptized. The water was a little cold!!
With dad in all dressed in white ready to go.

Most of us got to participate in the program. Taylor played the piano, Matt said a prayer, Jen gave a talk, and Nicky watched from the front row. Thanks to Grandma Anderson for giving a talk, Grammy Zander for saying a prayer, and Aunt Kath for leading the music.

This is today right before we left for church. She got to go up on the stand with the Bishop during sacrament meeting and be introduced as the "newest member of the ward."

Congratulations, Rebecca, we are proud of you.

8 is GREAT!

Happy Birthday, Becca!! This is a milestone day - 8 years old. Becca is a very sweet girl. She is like a second mother to Nicky and always has a great attitude and a smile on her face. Here are some pictures just from the last year: (And click here for last year's blog entry with older pictures)

With her cousin, Olivia on Halloween. Dorothy and the Princess
Under the mistletoe with Nicky - woo hoo!

Glamour shot on the basketball court. Jr. Jazz never looked so cute.

Two beautiful sisters with their hats Grandma made

With mom on a trip to Bear Lake

Card game with Kinlee and Grandma & Grandpa

Christmas morning with Matt and the Cat

She seems pretty upset that she got plastered with silly string

With Grandma Davis at Christmas

Dipping her feet in Bear Lake

Shoveling in style

Ready to ride the Rocket with Dad

Happy Birthday, Becca. We love you!!

A Frickin' Okapi

For a couple of months, Becca has been working on her big "Africa Report" for 2nd grade. She chose to report on a very unique animal that dwells in Africa - an Okapi (pronounced "oh-copy")

Today they had all the parents come and see the projects. She drew a picture of an Okapi all by herself and wrote the report all on her own as well. She also made an Okapi's tongue (12 inches long) out of modeling clay. The Okapi cleans it's eyes and ears out with it's long tongue.

Here is a close-up of her drawing. She found a tutorial video on the internet that helped her draw this animal step-by step. Good job Becca!

Toothy Times

It has been obvious for quite a while that Matt would need a bit of orthodontic work done. Well, that time has finally arrived. A couple months ago the orthodontist put a "spreader" in the roof of his mouth which we had to crank one notch every night. This spread out his top teeth so that they would have some room to work with. About three weeks ago he was done with the cranking and the braces went on the top teeth last week:


As for Becca, her teeth have some challenges as well. She is going to do a "phase 1" and also had to have the spreader put in her mouth to create room. We have been cranking it every night for the last few weeks and Monday when she went to in for a check, the orthodontist said, "Uh, yeah, we're done." She now has a gap between her front teeth that David Letterman, Michael Strahan, and Spongebob would be proud of:

Her braces will go on in a couple of weeks. She will wear them for a while and get them off until she is older when they will go back on again (I guess that will be "phase 2"). All this is supposed to correct her underbite (and make her teeth straight and pretty, of course).

Jingle Bell ROCK

Becca had her Christmas tumbling program yesterday. Her group did their routine to the song "Jingle Bell Rock". It was a great performance. Becca had her moves very polished - any time we heard the song she would break into her routine. I understand the people waiting in the waiting room at the dentist's office got a little preview earlier this week.

Here are a couple of video clips. Thanks to my wing man, Matt, for running the video camera for me (I'm too much into the still camera these days). Nice shooting, Mattman.

Is It Halloween Tommorrow??

That is the question we keep hearing from Nicholas. He has no concept of "in three weeks". If it's in the future it must be tomorrow. We bought him his Batman costume about a week ago and he is constantly putting it on and taking it back off ('cause it gets hot). It's gonna be worn out by Halloween - it's already made a trip to Grandma's house for repair work.



Becca is going to be a Princess. She's pretty excited, but she is able to refrain from putting her costume on all the time.

Bend it like BECCA

Becca is our little gymnast. She was in dance for a year and really liked it, but two years ago we switched her to tumbling because it was taught a lot closer to our home and it was a great move -she really loves it.
Last night she was in a program with the "mini team" she is on. They did a routine to the song "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves (a song that was popular when I was in high school). It was really a cute routine and they all performed their moves well.


After one year on the mini team, Becca just found out last night that she is being promoted to the "Junior Team" next year. Way to go Becks!!!

Can't Believe She's Seven

Happy Birthday Becca!!! Hard to believe it's been seven years since she was born. She got a new bike and some new shoes, shorts and a shirt. I can't wait to see her ride that bike. Too bad it is rainy and cold today - just yesterday she was out running through the sprinklers in 90 degree weather. Here is Becca on her new bike, plus some bonus shots of her over the years.

Mix of Pix

I have been experimenting with my new camera and having fun making banners for the top of this page by cropping some of the photos from our files. It is interesting what you can come up with by taking just a strip (about 750 x 150 pixels) of a photo. I will put some new ones up there periodically. If I have ever taken a picture of you, don't be surprised if your face appears up there. I have been taking a photography class so hopefully the quality (both technical and artistic) will improve over time. Here are a few recent pics of the kids: