ELI SUPERSTAR!

4th Grade is all about Idaho History here in Idaho. They finish off the year with a great Lewis and Clark musical production. Here is a picture of Eli in his starring role as Charbonneau...the clumsy French furtrader and husband of Sacajawea. He did a fantastic job with funny French accent and all!

BRACES!

Just had to post a picture of Alex's braces for history's sake. She got them on last fall and we didn't get a good picture then...so here goes! Her teeth look straight to me already, just another year to go. I think they must just leave them on so long so they can keep on billing you...what do you think??

Rock Climbing!

Isaiah was quite the little Climber at a rock climbing class at our local YMCA. They have an amazing teacher who unfortunately broke her toe right when the class began, but then stayed and taught the class anyway. After learning all about belaying, carabiners, and cool rockclimbing terms like "dump me" which means to let someone down, they were ready to go. Isaiah showed almost no fear until one little boy exclaimed "Look how high he is!" and then you can see the look on Isaiah's face in the last pic. He'd had enough of this!! Hopefully he'll be up for it again as the Y is just a short walk from our house!

CREATIVE THINKING

Just had to share this typical moment from my day!

Those of you with toddlers and TV's are probably aware of the comeback of our favorite friend Curious George. Isaiah-age 4 loves the PBS series. The other day they aired a Curious George show called "Spider Monkey" where George tries to make a web that he can sit in to catch food. Well, as you can see...Isaiah really liked it. Today while I was in the shower, Isaiah came running up to me to tell me about the spider downstairs. After I dried off, I ran downstairs to find this little creation:

He had found some of my emobroidery thread and made a web and a spider.."Just like George" he said. The spider is eating an airplane at the moment. I had to laugh until I saw the silvery pieces of blond hair that surrounded the web. It seems that Isaiah had to cut the string to make the web, and he also thought he would try cutting his hair. Fortunately he is sporting the surfer boy longish hair now, so you can't really tell.

BOWLING!!

FUN AT THE BOWLING ALLEY! ISAIAH HAD A BLAST, AND MONA AND OUR NEIGHBOR WERE AMAZING HELPERS. RAMONA WAS SAD THAT SHE WAS TOO OLD TO USE THE BUMPERS BUT SHE DID PRETTY WELL ANYWAY!

ISAIAH TURNS 4!

Happy Birthday Isaiah! Our big 4 year old boy!! He had a monster truck birthday party with a lot of little boys and a couple girls (felt like there were about 100 kids there)! We can't believe he is 4 already, seems like he was just born yesterday! We don't know what we would do without him!! We love you big guy!

It's Christmas Time Again!!

Riding the ferry - Seattle, Washington , Thanksgiving day

I can't believe it is Christmas again!! We hope the end of 2007 finds all of our friends and family happy and healthy!! We have had an eventful and fun year. Can't wait for 2008 with elections, lots of snow for skiing, summer olympics, and some fun travel plans!! Hopefully we'll get to stop by and visit with all of our friends. For any of you travelling through Boise, we have a great guestroom waiting for you...just give us at least an hours notice!! Here is to a great New Year and a Merry Christmas to all!

For anyone so inclined to continue reading, here is a quick update on our family:

Isaiah - age 3

Isaiah is all boy....trucks, trains, planes, motorcycles....we are thinking he may have a career in the area of transportation. He started preschool this year and loves every minute of every day. A classic example of his personality is when one day we decided to ride our bikes to preschool which is about half a block and 3 or 4 minutes away. It took us almost 30 minutes because we had to first stop and investigate the ice which he saw on a car window, then we had to stop because he found a birds nest on the ground, then we had to admire the dragonfly lawn ornaments of our neighbor, then there was a tow truck and he was beside himself it was so exciting. His enthusiasm, personality, and curiosity are contagious and he has many, many friends (including some imaginary). We are so thankful he is part of our family.

Eli - age 9

Eli is a fun kid to have around. He loves reading, wrestling, playing foursquare at school, video games, and hanging out with friends. He is in the fourth grade and is having a good year at school. He is excited to ski this winter and he adopted a pet Anole (small green lizard) from his classroom which he named Xeno. Eli is a great guy to have around the house. He keeps us all getting along and always has a good joke to tell.

Ramona - age 11

Ramona started middle school this year. It has been quite the challenge because she isn't a morning person, but she is managing better than we anticipated. She likes art and plays the flute and she recently starred as "Super Locker Girl" in her class video...we always knew she was a drama queen. She is taking dance 3 days a week this year and most of the time she really enjoys it. She is a natural with kids, and we couldn't half as much done without her around to help us with Isaiah. Eleven is an interesting age, but Ramona is handling it with style!!

Alex -age 13

Alex finally passed mom up in height and shoe size this year. She also got braces which look pretty good on her. She switched from saxophone to Oboe and seems a natural at it. She really enjoys playing the piano, reading, reading, and reading, dance, and drama. (did I mention reading?) She played the lead in her class musical version of Taming of the Shrew and did a fabulous job. We are having fun with a teenager in the house!! (we can say that because she has only been a teenager for one month!)

Jon- Full time at Hewlett Packard, full time dad, part time basketball player

Brooke - Full time mom, part time advocate, trying to be a part time runner!

Send us an e-mail, mail a letter, or give us a call!! WE love to hear from all our friends!

Happy Holidays!

Summer at last!

Isaiah and cousin Eleanor hanging out!

Boating with Uncle Brad and auntie Kate

Fort Rock Park - Sunriver Oregon

Summer at last.

We were so excited for summer to come and it seems like it flew by in such a hurry. Summer found us busier than ever. In June and July the girls were on swimteam and both did very well. Mona was amazing at breaststroke, and Alex was unstoppable with her backstroke. We took a couple quick trips to Utah, spent a day at Lagoon and a few nights in Park City. In July is when the real adventures began. We had Jon's parents 50th wedding anniversary celebration and reunion in Utah which was so much fun. Right after that, Brooke and Alex headed up to Bulltrout lake for a week at our church's girls camp. (Alex went for the first time, and Brooke was the lifeguard/leader). Ramona, Eli, and Isaiah took off for Seattle while we were gone. Working on little sleep after a week camping, we joined the rest of our family (met Jon at the airport just off a business trip) and headed up to Semiahmoo resort in Northern Washington just on the border of Canada. We had the honor of standing in the wedding party for Brooke's little sister Heidi as she got married. It was a beautiful wedding and a really nice vacation.

Semiahmoo, Washington

Directly after the wedding, Jon left to Memphis for business and the rest of the family (along with Brooke's sister Kate's family) extended our vacation at Sunriver resort in Oregon. Jon joined us after hopping all over the US for work and we finally had a few days to do nothing but swim, golf, and hang out!! It was a lot of fun, but we were really happy to be home after all those adventures.

Some milestones for the summer were reading Harry Potter # 7 FINALLY!!! Isaiah learned to ride a bike. Eli got pretty good at roller blades. We painted our house - yeah!!...no more pink. Brooke did the Rexberg triathlon with friends. Most of all, we had fun with lots of friends and family!! We are now rested and ready to head into fall!!

Eleanor and Isaiah at sunriver

WINTER/SPRING HAPPENINGS 2007

Ramona and her Seattle Cousins Eleanor and Olive

Alex and Olive

Isaiah and best bud Sam braving the cold to play outside!

Well...I thought I might be a good blogger and post lots of everyday happenings. I have since discovered, that keeping up a blog requires logging in, thinking of witty things to say, posting pictures, (and therefore, taking pictures), and last but not least, remembering to do it! Since, as a family of 6 plus dog, we are short on time, I am going to give you the list version of all our latest doings:

• work




• gymnastics




• piano




• dance




• preschool




• church




• Isaiah's 3rd birthday




• tubing at Bogus




• skiing - Isaiah and Eli loved this for the first time




• more skiing




• quick visit to Seattle




• Volunteering at school




• more of the first six items listed




• National History Day Competition - Go Alex!




• Selling Girl Scout cookies




• Speed jumproping competition - Go Mona!




• Jon takes a quick trip to Moab to mountain bike




• Easter




• Race to Robie Creek 13.2 miles and straight up a mountain - We did it!




• still more of the first six items listed




• Baseball




• Softball

• track




• band concerts




• dance recitals




• piano recitals




• clogging recital




• Eli turns 9




• School is out!!

Isaiah learn to ride his bike!!

That takes us into June! I am sure that there were many fun things that happened in these first 6 months of the year, but just getting through each day was enough for us. Some of the most memorable moments were Isaiah zooming down the hill at neckbreaking speed on skis for the first time, Ramona striking out 3 in a row in softball, Eli's perfect piano recital with a perfect bow, Alex the 200 meter hurdle queen, and finsihing Robie Creek (don't ask us our times....we did it)!

We are looking forward to a nice relaxing summer...OOps!! just checked our calendar and apparently, no relaxing, but lots of summer!!

Grandpa Wayne

I wanted to remember my grandfather who passed away this past December. He was such an amazing man and I am so glad for his part in raising and helping create what I think is a pretty amazing family. I am also so grateful for the many memories. I will always remember fishing on the lake, 4th of July, the river, his singing, and his always loving and always accepting personality. My kids mentioned memories of poker chips, sourdough waffles, e-mails, Eli getting his harmonica, and his red Christmas vest!!

We miss him, but we want him to know how much we love him!!

We Wish You a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

We thought we would save paper this year and post our Christmas letter online! Or, maybe we are just cheap (you can choose whichever one you wish)! We will try and keep this short and sweet and fill you in on some of the highlights of our year! This has been the year of travel for our family. Shanghai, Paris, New York, Florida, Seattle, Utah, Oregon, SunValley.... We had the opportunity to take several trips, some individually, some together, some for work, and some for fun! All in all we had a lot of fun wherever we went, but we definitely all came to the realization that we really do love our home and love being all together in one place!!

ISAIAH SLADE - AGE 2

Isaiah continues to be the joy of our world. He is growing and changing so much each day. We love his two-year-old interpretation of life around him. He is our Curious George and is fascinated by all the things he sees, hears, or can possibly imagine. Transportation is his current passion...trains, planes, cars, trucks...anything with wheels. He got to take a once in a lifetime trip to Seattle to ride Thomas the Train with his grandparents in July and we still hear about it almost daily. We wish he could stay this age forever...well...maybe without the diapers, or the tantrums.






ELIAS MARK - AGE 8

Eli is such a fun kid to have around. This was a big year for him. He took his very first solo plane ride to Seattle where he met his grandparents and then headed off to New York. He had an absolute blast, saw a broadway show every night and took in all the sights from the Statue of Liberty to the Natural History Museum. He also had a big day in July when he got baptized, and he loved having lots of family here to celebrate that day with him. He is loving his third grade class where he is one of the top readers. He is very interested in animals and weather. He likes riding his bike... "scouts is okay"... piano he says he doesn't much enjoy, but playing with friends, computer games, pokemon, and fun with his family top his "favorites" list. We think he might have a future on Jeopardy because he is always spouting off interesting, but little known facts.





RAMONA KATE– AGE 10

Ramona has had a stellar year. She flew with mom, her aunt, and grandparents, to Paris, France to visit her great-aunt and uncle. She had quite the whirlwind trip seeing most every interesting site and soaking up the French atmosphere. She says she wants to be a designer of some sort, "or a movie star", so Paris was just the city for her. She also flew to Seattle solo for the first time to help take care of her newest cousin. Ramona took a brave step and transferred to a magnet art school for fifth grade. She gets to take the flute, and study Spanish as well as Art, and they even learned Karate in PE. She is really enjoying the alternative teaching style at this school and is top of her class in everything!!

ALEXANDRIA EVE – AGE 12

Alex is our first middle schooler. Although mom and dad were quite nervous for her to take this big step, Alex has loved every minute of it. She has amazing teachers and is managing to get fantastic grades, even as one of the only sixth graders in her Algebra class. She continues to love music and dance. She is taking several dance classes as well as saxophone and piano. WE love the fact that her piano playing is now quite beautiful to listen to and fills our home with music. She also lived –it-up during her trip to Paris and brought back some stylish outfits to wear! She was the youngest participant in our church's "pioneer trek" and spent 5 days pushing a handcart in pioneer clothing. Wow!! Alex’s act of bravery for 2006 was getting her ears pierced! She is a HUGE help around the house and we couldn’t get much done without her! If mom or papa isn’t around Alex is the one Isaiah wants for comfort!

OKAY.... WE KNOW YOU DON'T NEED TO SEE PICTURES OF JON AND I

so we will skip the glamour shots and give you a quick snapshot of the year.

Last December just before Christmas, Jon and I made our first cross-country road trip. Unfortunately we had to make it in about 3 days, but we still had fun. Jon bought a Jetta TDI on ebay and we flew to Florida (minus the kids) and drove the car home to beautiful Boise, Idaho. Jon continues working at HP, playing basketball, and spending time with the family. He took a trip to Shanghai in February for work and spent another 2 weeks adjusting to the time change. China was "fine", but he loved coming home. He also trained for the Seattle to Portland bike ride and was able to complete it in one day. The funnest part of the ride for him was being with his brothers. I (Brooke) had my share of adventures from the trip to Paris, going on the Pioneer Trek reenactment with the church youth, to taking 15 girlscouts to Lagoon (in Utah). I had the small discomfort of wearing a walking cast for two months after suffering a stress fracture running. After 6 months of rest and rehab, I think I am finally ready to train again...anyone up for Robie Creek - the toughest half marathon in the west?

All in all, we feel like 2006 raced by us in a whirlwind. We know we will look back on all of our adventures and love every minute of them, but we are really looking forward to making 2007 a bit more relaxing and home-based. Is that possible with 4 kids? We want all of our family and friends to know how blessed we feel to be surrounded by such incredible people. Our lives are richer for knowing you! Wishing you joy and peace this holiday season!

Love from Jon, Brooke, Alex, Mona, Eli, and Isaiah