GO COUGARS!

Congrats to BYU for knocking off Oklahoma last Saturday night. What an amazing game! They are now ranked #9 in the country. Hopefully they can keep rolling.

So it begins...

Izzy came home from her first day of school and said she sits next to a boy named Nicholas. She cam home from school yesterday and said that at recess she was holding hands with Nicholas. One of her friends from our ward saw them and asked if they are in love. Izzy and Nicholas were embarassed so they ran and hid and held hands.

What the freak!! She's in Kindergarten people! K-I-N-D-E-R-G-A-R-T-E-N! When she told Mollee the story Izzy didnt want her to tell me. I guess she knows already what dad thinks of his only daughter holding hands at recess. We had a little talk about it at dinner las night. Needless to say, if this continues the next step will be to visit with Nicholas ... in the dark ...with no one around ...

Its been a while since we blogged. We need to get back into it. Weve had a good summer and are settling into Fall. Izzy started Kindergarten this week.

Night at the Museum

We went to the Natural History Museum at the U of U last Monday night for FHE. Here are some pictures. Unfortunately, nothing came alive like in the movie. It was still pretty fun.

Izzy graduates from pre-school

Izzy graduated from pre-school on Wednesday. There was a fun little ceremony where the kids got to sing some songs and Izzy was awarded the "Friendship Award" because "she was always friendly, quick to share and take turns, and very patient with others. " Izzy was very excited about the whole thing. When asked about her favorite part of the graduation, she said "the candy." She is very excited to start Kindergarten this Fall at the school across the street from our house. Although, she wishes she could take a bus to school.

Here are a few pictures from Graduation:

Chubby bubby

JJ loves his own chubby belly!

Noah-isms

We recently created a couple of "grow boxes" for our backyard garden. We told Izzy and Noah that one of the little boxes was for them and that they could plant whatever they wanted and that they would be responsible for it. I asked Noah what he wanted to plant and he said "chickens!" I explained that it needed to be a vegetable and that we planted seeds. I asked again what he wanted to plant and he said "brownies!"

Lately Noah has been saying "Welcome to Ida sodo." We had no idea what he was talking about. It was driving us crazy. After a few weeks of this we finally realized he was saying a line from his Thomas the Train shows, "Welcome to the Island of Sodor."

No PDAs for Noah

Apparently, Noah is against public displays of affection (PDAs). Mollee and I were hugging yesterday when we got home from church and Noah didn't like it. He yelled at me saying "Youre not having a kiss with mommy!" Just to provoke him further, I said "Yes, I am," and gave Mollee a kiss. Pretty funny.

Rough week

This was a rough week for Jeff. On Monday his dermatologist decided to freeze two pre-cancerous spots off his face, without explaining it would leave huge ugly scabs. Then he went to the dentist on Thursday to get a bone graft in preparation for a tooth implant. Not fun. To complete the trifecta, he's had a lingering cold all week.

JJ Turns One

JJ turned one year old last week. We gave him a few presents - he liked the toothbrush and the boxes his presents came in the best. Then we gave him his first cupcake. He tore it to shreds and seemed to like the taste pretty well. Here are some pictures.

Facebook

I just started doing the Facebook thing. I'm still a newbie, but already it makes me wonder if I will continue blogging. It seems like Facebook is kind of taking over the whole blog thing. It may be too much work to do both. What do you think? Are you on facebook? Do you also blog? Do you plan to continue with both? Why or why not?

Prayer update

Just as an update to the last blog entry. Noah has done a 180 degree turn. Now he absolutely has to say every prayer. And if someone else says the prayer on the food or the family prayer, he has to say his own prayer for us immediately afterwards. He usually looks around the room and says "bless mom ..." while pointing to Mollee, "bless Izzy..." while pointing to Izzy, etc. Pretty cute.

The Choo-choo Prayer

Noah has a hard time with prayers. He doesn't even like to fold his arms, let alone say the prayer. So we were surprised last night after our family prayer when Noah said he wanted to try it. Normally, when we help him say the prayer we supply the first part and let him fill in the blanks. For example, Mollee will say "Help us ..." and Noah will say "... choose the right."

Noah must have had an agenda last night, however, because the prayer went something like this:
"We're thankful for ..." "... choo-choos."
"Please bless ..." "... choo-choos."
"Help us ..." "... choo-choos."
"In the name of ..." "...choo-choos, amen."

At least he's trying.

Traditional Gingerbread House

Here are some pictures of the yearly gingerberad house we did last night. Actually, Mollee and the kids did it. I didn't participate because I wrenched my back shoveling snow. Ok, that was only part of the reason. T he other part is that whenever I do the gingerbread house it falls apart and everyone yells at me. Who needs that at Christmas?

2008 Beecher Christmas Party

We had the Beecher Christmas party last Saturday at Nan and Pop's. We ate dinner, played the chimes to Christmas carols, sang songs and, of course, had the kids reenact the Nativity. Everyone had a great time. Here are some pictures.

Izzy's dance recital

Izzy had a dance recital last weekend. It was adorable. She did one ballet routine and one tap routine. We may be biased, but we thought she was the star of the show! It was probably her last one for a while as she has decided she is tired of dance and needs a break. Izzyhas really developed over the last year or so that she has been in dance. We've seen her improve to the point where she actually knows which moves come next and can do most of them, rather than simply mimicking the teacher. Pretty cute.

Here is a picture of Izzy back-stage before her ballet routine.

Yes Steele kids, there is a Santa Claus

We recently had the opportunity to visit with Santa. Surprisingly, all three kids were happy to sit on his lap. We expected one of the boys to cry, but they didn't. Maybe they won't get coal for Christmas after all.

Mom's Chemotherapy

My mom recently started chemotherapy. Although her doctors believe that they already got all of the cancer with her recent surgeries, they decided to put her through 6 treatments of chemotherapy. She had her first infusion at the beginning of this month and we are all extremely proud of how well she is handling it. Her positive attitude and peaceful acceptance are an inspiration to all of us. We will continue to keep her in our thoughts and prayers and support her in every way possible, and ask that you do the same.

We love you mom/Grandma Steele!

Izzy turns 5

It was Izzy's birthday on December 6th. She turned 5. We can't believe she is so big! It seems like only yesterday Mollee and I were still in law school and Izzy was a newborn - small enough to fit inside a Christmas stocking (we have the pictures to prove it).

We gave Izzy the choice of either having a birthday party with her friends or going to Build-A-Bear. She chose Build-A-Bear. So the morning of her birthday we made a nice breakfast and opened some presents, then went down to the Gateway to go to Build-A-Bear. She chose to build a soft, fluffy bunny. We let her choose a few outfits for her bunny, which she later decided to name "Fuzzy." Izzy bought her bunny a "Hello Kitty" outfit. When we got home Izzy dressed the bunny in the Hello Kitty outfit and then put on her own Hello Kitty pajamas so they could match. It has been difficult to get Izzy out of her Hello Kitty pajamas ever since, even though they are not well suited for winter.

That night was the annual Beecher trip to Temple Square to see the Christmas lights. The boys weren't feeling well so I stayed home with them while Mollee took Izzy with the Beechers out to dinner for Chinese at Joy Luck and then down to temple square. Izzy loved it. It was a great way to end her birthday.

Anniversary

Mollee and I recently celebrated our 10 year anniversary. Its crazy to think we have been married that long. But when we look back at how our lives have changed over that time, and at our three kids, 10 years seems about right.

To celebrate we left the kids with Tom and Monica and went and spent the night at Anniversary Inn in downtown Salt Lake. We went to dinner at Ruths Chris and had one of the best (and most expensive) meals of our lives - steak fillets and crab-stuffed lobster. The next day we did some Christmas shopping at the Gateway. It was a great little weekend.

We could say something cheesy here about how much Mollee and I still love each other, yadda yadda, yadda - but we wont subject you to that. We'll keep the gushy sentimental stuff in-house.