January 2007Eliza has continued her NancyDrewFest into the New Year. Not only did she keep whipping through the books (at least a dozen so far), but also began to put clues together in her four computer games. She got very excited when she made a breakthrough and pretty frustrated when she hit a dead end (until discovering hint sites on the web). Sometimes the whole household gets interested and gathers around the computer screen to offer hints of their own. We went to "Great to Be Eight" night with Abby and the twenty other kids in the ward who are turning eight this year. Dad finished reading Detectives in Togas to the kids, who enjoyed it very much. After one chapter, Abby asked, "Why does he always end it so you want to keep reading?" Sam and Dad had a fun time bowling at Josh’s birthday party, and no one dropped a heavy ball on his little feet. Eliza and Abby went with Mom and Dad to see Oklahoma! at BYU. We had a good time–everyone stayed awake. To cap off the month we celebrated Grace’s first birthday. We couldn’t quite get her to say her name or "one" in honor of the event, but she would kind of wave her hand around when we asked how old she was. She didn’t put her cake on her head, but a lot of it wound up all over her one-year-old face.
February 2007
Almost everyone started out sick this month, and Abby tested the upper limits of our new forehead thermometer (107 once, though we were probably still trying to figure out how to use it right). The illness probably restrained our Valentine-pocket stuffing some, but we still had fun. Sarah turned six and had a "Queen of Hearts" party with her friends during which they played all kinds of queenly games and ate strawberry cake. On her actual birthday the family took her to Mimi’s Café (the bathrooms were the biggest hit for some reason). Eliza was especially happy because she got shrimp, though she also found out that when you order shrimp you get, well, shrimpy amounts. After we stopped at Toy-R-Us to watch Sarah’s eyes get wide when we picked up her new bike. Only when we got home did we realize it was bigger than Abby’s. Mom and Dad got to meet Emry at AF Hospital before she had to spend a few days at Primary Childrens. We're glad she is doing well at home now (parents may be another story). "Slamwich" and "K-9 Capers" were big card games this month. Sam 
entered the "skeleton, robot, and hunchback" phase in his art career.
Almost everyone started out sick this month, and Abby tested the upper limits of our new forehead thermometer (107 once, though we were probably still trying to figure out how to use it right). The illness probably restrained our Valentine-pocket stuffing some, but we still had fun. Sarah turned six and had a "Queen of Hearts" party with her friends during which they played all kinds of queenly games and ate strawberry cake. On her actual birthday the family took her to Mimi’s Café (the bathrooms were the biggest hit for some reason). Eliza was especially happy because she got shrimp, though she also found out that when you order shrimp you get, well, shrimpy amounts. After we stopped at Toy-R-Us to watch Sarah’s eyes get wide when we picked up her new bike. Only when we got home did we realize it was bigger than Abby’s. Mom and Dad got to meet Emry at AF Hospital before she had to spend a few days at Primary Childrens. We're glad she is doing well at home now (parents may be another story). "Slamwich" and "K-9 Capers" were big card games this month. Sam 
entered the "skeleton, robot, and hunchback" phase in his art career.
