Dancing Queen!

Courtney had her dance
recital today. She was so
cute and very graceful!
Here are some photos and
short videos of 2 of the 3 dances.

Jazz Outfit:












Ballet Outfit:












Tap Outfit:













Video Segments:

Sledding !!!

The 3rd snow storm of the winter (already) occurred today and offered the perfect opportunity to end the Christmas school break at the park sledding.

Here are some pictures:
(Click on them to enlarge)

Snow Photos

On New Year's Eve Day we had another snow storm that only dumped an inch or two, but it was so pretty I couldn't resist taking my daughters out into the backyard for a fun photo shoot.
Here they are...

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year!!!

Here we are New Year's Day and I'm finally blogging again! Now that no one is checking out the site there might not be any reason to blog, but I'm going to try better this year.

Last night we had friends from the church over and their kids. It was a wild and crazy night (21 kids and 12 adults) but we all made it to midnight and had a fun time together! Here's the video proof...

And here are a few pict's as well...

TEA PARTY !!!

Happy Tax Day !?!?!?

What a memorable tax day. Today I spent much of the day on the Boston Common, just below the steps of the old State House. It was here that an anti-tax rally occured.

Here's why I went: I find myself not defining my views anymore as Democrat or Republican, but as a capitalist...one who believes in a free -market society based on capitalism. Although it's a long story and many may be prone to say that capitalism is what got us into this mess, I can clearly and firmly rebuff those notions. I believe that it is/was an unethical/illegal congress, current and past presidents and CEO's that have sold out our country and caused a monumental collapse in our monetary system.

To now put our trust in these people, and to have them spend trillions and trillions (12 times over) of our dollars to "fix" a spending problem is crazy. The solution is to create jobs through lower taxes, make politicians, CEO's and other accountable - even to the point of business failure or especially getting voted out of office.

So, I went to Boston to try and send a message that it is time for Change. It's time to stop destroying our monetary system by spending money we don't have.

Emily and my sister joined me for the outing. We heard some good speeches that addressed both the national and state issues that we are currently facing. Emily was so excited to go she wanted her own sign:

Best sign of the day: "Stop spending my future"

Worst sign of the day: "I can stimulate myself" - I stayed far away from him!!!

April 15th

This is a very memorable day for my parents and all us children. It is the anniversary of when they were sealed together in the Washington, DC temple of our church. (Unlike most marriage ceremonys that only last "until death do you part", this ceremony binds husbands and wives for "time and all eternity").Sarah-ann & Buddy with granddaughter "Lexi"

I was almost 4 years old at the time and it was such a memorable ceremony that I still remember it today. In fact, it is probably the earliest memory that I have. It's always nice to have an eternal perspective on life to get you through the difficult moments!

Happy Easter !!!

Happy Easter...

This is such a great time of year, the thawing of the earth, the flowers starting to bloom, birds chirping and people happy to finally be able to go outside again.

Fitting that we should celebrate the resurrection of our Savior. Perhaps unfortunate that once again, another religious holiday gets blurred by the commercialism of it all, but you have to admit that the chocoloate helps to sweeten the holiday (yes, pun intended).

After a busy morning of finding Easter Eggs, eating breakfast and coloring eggs (yes, it was that kind of week where once again our plans keep getting pushed back). After a nice church service we were able to enjoy another holiday close to family. Aunt Sarah and Uncle Mike even made the trip up from New York!

In closing, let me leave you with an excellent video from an apostle of our church and his thoughts on Easter...

Conference Sunday

Don't you just love General Conference Sundays??? (for those who don't know, this is a semi-annual conference of my church where the prophet, apostles and other leaders speak).

This year I didn't get to relax and listen to conference. One of the owners didn't work the full weekend which left me to come in on Sunday to a job that no longer pays all the bills (how's my attitude???).


So I'm driving to our new Plymouth, MA community (over an hour a way) and while I'm singing a church song - no kidding, get pulled over by the police!!!

It seems that somehow my car registration expired in January (I could have sworn I renewed it online!). He then tells me, as he gives me a $100 ticket, how he's doing me a favor by not towing my car!!!!!!!


I guess God does have a sense a humor - he's killing mine! Can't wait to listen to all the talks.

Courtney's Bike Ride

It finally has turned warm, sort of, here in New England. We're still dropping to below freezing temperatures at night, but the days are warming up. Last Saturday Courtney popped her bike tire, which was the perfect opportunity to take off the training wheels.

Here she is on day 1 of learning to ride a bike without training wheels...

Harrison Dances

With the two girls in dance and a recital just around the corner, Harrison offers some interesting new moves with just as interesting titles.

Northeast pounded by snow

"Northeast pounded by snowy late-winter storm"

We have just finished shoveling another "Nor'easter" here in Mass. This storm dumped about a foot of snow for us and has given the kids another snow day. It took me about 1.5 hours to get things cleared - thanks Jane and Emily for your help!

After a slow drive into work (arrived at 10am) I pulled up my window shade to see the following picture. Now, perhaps it's my recent day dreaming at work, but here's the ice images that I saw....


OK, so if you can't make out what it is I saw - stretch your imagination and you'll see some ducks, birds and penguins. Here's another one without the flash.

Sorry, that's what you get when I don't get the day off for a snow day!

Conservative Radio Tour

Gary seems to be multitasking at work which has caused him to pick up the phone from time to time and call a host. This time, it was Bill O'Reilly. So far he has not attempted to call Mr. Limbaugh. Jane retains the only Denning call into Rush, which happened in our Florida days.

Here's Gary's call...with a slip into his re-emerging accent:



disclaimer: Gary wrote this in 3rd person - not sure why!

Courtney Part II

So here's the picture of Courtney's front teeth post losing her first tooth...
Kind of funny how the other front tooth just fell over crooked. Click on the photo to enlarge it - sorry for the dirty face!

And here is what she looks like now...YES - just 2 days later she lost her 2nd tooth. It's started her singing a certain song about my 2 front teeth; that I'm trying to get out of my head!

Courtney loses a tooth!!!

Courtney loses her tooth and gets a visit from the Tooth Fairy !!!

The rest of the story is that almost as soon as she lost her tooth it slipped out of her hands and is now hiding somewhere in our home. This made it necessary for a handwritten Courtney note to the tooth fairy.

To her glee and dismay, the tooth fairy did visit - depositing "only" 4 quarters for this precious first tooth from our 6 year old!

Click the photo to see an enlarged view.

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year to all! It's hard to believe that we've started a new year already. I sure am hoping for a lot of change this year...please some dollar bills too!

I have not solidified my New Year's Resolutions yet - perhaps because of how few I actually accomplished last year.

So it seems the best thing to do is to reflect on this first post of the year. There is nothing better than to reflect on the great Christmas with family again this year - this time a little bigger with the addition of Matthew, Jen and their 3 cute girls. It was fun for the cousins to play together.





Letters to Santa





Traditional Reading of "Twas the Night Before Christmas" & Luke 2:

Snowicide!!!!!

While the children were all nestled all snug in their beds a snowman decapitator lurked around our snowmans' head. As we awoke early this morning and sprang from our bed, what to our wondering eyes should appear but a horrific scene like this...

So, to the Scrooge who took our snowman's head, hat, and other plastic accessories
WARNING: