Amanda's music!

Amanda was asked by the music coordinator of our Ward (who is also Amanda's piano teacher) to play either a flute solo or a piano/flute duet with me in church. She chose to do a duet (misery loves company, I suppose) and we started looking for a song to play. I have the greatest music book with all kinds of solo's, duets, 3 and 4 musical instruments, etc. When I saw this book, I had to have it. Our absolute favorite church song is "Come Thou Fount" and that song just so happens to be in the book.....it's even written to be played as a piano/flute duet. At first Amanda wasn't real thrilled about playing in Sacrament Meeting, but after we found the song, she got excited about it. The song is so beautiful, especially when it's played on the flute. I had to concentrate really hard when I was playing my part, or I would have started to cry. After we finished our song, as we were walking back to our seats, I saw several people wiping their eyes. Amanda has gotten really good at playing the flute and I was VERY proud of her. She did an amazing job!
I tried to download the music for everyone to listen to it, but I'm having dificulties. (Matti, if you have any tips as to how I can do it, please let me know. :) )

We have snow......FINALLY!!!!

We FINALLY have snow! The news has been predicting snow for a couple of months now, and they finally got it right. The girls got out the sleds and went sledding down our driveway for awhile, played in the backyard on the trampoline and then we went to our friends house (the Hoover's) for a few hours. They have a huge pasture behind their house and six 4-wheelers, which are a total blast! Hannah taught Sam how to do "donuts" in the snow and how to go really fast up a little hill and do an "air-jump". (Thanks Hannah!) Amanda already has the air-jumps down, but she's more reserved than Sam - so I don't mind. Sam, on the other hand, isn't afraid of anything.... Anyway, here are a few pictures of our fun day. Oh - and just so you know....Amanda has a pink and blue coat on, Sam has a light blue coat on and Hannah is wearing the black snow-suit. (It's kind of hard to tell who is who with a helmet on.)

Father and Daughter time...

A couple weekends ago, we had a jeeping day all planned out for our family. Unfortunately, Amanda and I both came down sick that weekend. I told Andy there was no reason him and Sam shouldn't still go and have fun - so off they headed. They met up with some other people and had a great time! Andy taught Sam how to "air-down the tires" and he even took a picture of it for me! (I was so proud of him.) He's getting really good at taking pictures when I'm not around to do it. (Something he used to NEVER do!)

High school fun....

Her bowling ball and shoes are pink - of course!

Amanda has been enjoying her first year in high school this year. Being in the band means she played in all the football games and now they're playing in the basketball games. (The football team went to the quarter finals in Spokane, Wa and they went over on the bus. She had a total blast!) Now she's learning to play the alto saxaphone and she's trying out for the jazz band on the piano. She LOVES her music! Also this year, she decided to try something new and joined the bowling team at school. She wasn't very good at first, but she's gotten really good over the past couple of months. All her practices and games are at 3:15 and I can't get there by then to take pictures, so we went bowling the other night so that I could take pictures of her bowling and with her bowling ball and shoes. (She'd probably be mortified if I showed up at practice and took pictures of her, anyway - but when has that ever stopped me before???) Anyway, here are some pictures of Amanda's fun times this year.

Play it again Sam.....

As most of you know, Samantha LOVES playing sports. She tried out for 7th Grade Basketball at her school and made the team. She may be short, but she's full of energy and goes all out to get the ball. She's great at getting the ground balls. She rolls over the top of the ball (like a turtle) so that nobody else can get it from her. (It's really quite funny to watch!) Anyway, here are some pictures from her last few games.