Hmmm...

...Let me see. I'd love to be able to tell you a great story or two about what we have all been up to these past several weeks. I know you're all thinking to yourselves, please tell us something fascinating, Deb (or, as Vanessa said recently, "Tell me a story that makes me laugh historically."). Perhaps you'll just have to settle for little thoughts sprinkled between pics, like this one:

Here are the kids during a spontaneous photo session by Yours Truly. To see some REAL photography of some REALLY gorgeous kids (yes, I'm bragging...who cares?!) visit this site: www.tiltphotography.com/blog and scroll down to the January 20th entry. My dear friend, Amy The Artiste, took some great images during an impromptu session with some of our fellow, former, fabulous roommates at her new, beautiful studio. It was so much fun.

The photo above was after one of the first snowfalls of the season. Dave and the kids built a snowman in the backyard. Unfortunately, it was cruelly beheaded by the warm sun a couple of days later. Cameron still talks about it.

Have any of you moms out there joined the sacred ranks of Mother of a Wrestler? Sam, as shown above in his cool singlet (Yes, that tight thing that wrestlers wear is called a singlet. Who knew?), had his second season in wrestling and he was awesome. It's traumatic for mothers, though. I honestly don't breathe for the 1 1/2 minutes he's out there on that mat. My favorite moment was when he received an award for being the "Hardest Worker" on his team. What could be better than that?

Vanessa had her Christmas dance production, where she danced a tap performance to "All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth." It brought back lots of memories of my dancing days, and, of course, I got a little emotional watching my sweet girl onstage. She's a good dancer and really puts a lot of expression into her performances. Although getting to wear make-up was oh, so fabulous, Dahling, she was most excited about the bouquet of flowers that her Daddy gave to her that night.

Here is our tough guy, Cameron, sporting a sword (his accessory of choice) and some funky hair. Even though he had R.S.V. and pneumonia earlier this month, he's feeling great now. I'M feeling great after our appointment with the cardiologist this morning, who told us that the E.K.G. and chest x-ray show that, although his valve is leaking and his pulmonary arteries are pretty narrow, nothing has changed since the last appointment. He's tolerating everything really well. Yeah! He's such a fun boy and loves to quote "The Backyardigans." He also tells lies to try to impress Sam and 'Nessa's friends, like the time he told a girl in our carpool, "We watched Ironman and it was scary!" Okay, SO not true. We have never--I double-checked with Dave on this--shown our kids Ironman, and most likely won't until they are 13 or so. Nice try, Cameron!

As for me, I'm practicing my brave face as Dave has begun traveling again for work. The past two, travel-free months were HEAVEN, though. My pregnancy is going well and I'm finally, at 27 weeks, really beginning to feel like the nausea is pretty much gone! However, I do need to face reality and send something of a belated Christmas card out to all of our friends and family. Yes, I'm a slacker. It will have to probably have be a "Happy President's Day" card, or maybe, a "Best Wishes on Purim" card. So what if we're not Jewish?

But, perhaps my favorite moment of these past few weeks since my last post was going to the Draper Temple Open House as a family. It was wondeful to be there, and although the kids had previously been WAY more excited for the bus ride to the temple that getting to go into the temple itself (they carpool to school), they loved it. The spirit was strong and it was a greatly-needed reminder of the sacredness, beauty, and power of the house of the Lord. I, like many, count the day I was sealed to my best friend as the most significant moment of my life; being reminded of that day just makes everything seem a little sweeter.