Kids Say The Darndest Things

Julia: "Dad, I love being your girl."

Jonathan: "Should I wear short-sleeved pants or long-sleeved pants?"

Family Photos

My parents had the same photographer that took our family pictures over to their house while Michelle was in town for Christmas.  The photographer is actually the wife of a coworker of mine.  She did a great job on our family pictures as well as the extended Sudduth clan pictures below.  

The first row and the bottom row contain my personal favorites. All of them are pretty good though. Julia looks so grown up in some of the shots.  We have a pretty good looking group.  Also, we didn't plan the colors with this in mind, but I think subconsciously we ended up with colors awfully close to orange and blue.

Fun Kid Pics and Video

Here are some recent fun pictures and videos of the kids.  We, along with Michelle, were cracking up at Jonathan at gymnastics the other day.  Before going to the aquarium in Denver, Julia and I stopped by the REI flagship store and had some fun.  The video shows a few highlights of the one on one time I spent with the kids: Jonathan taking it to the bouncy house and Julia showing her excitement about picking up lunch.

Christmas Morning

We Wish You A Merry Christmas

Pre-K Christmas Concert

Following in his sisters footsteps, Jonathan performed his first Christmas concert at the same school and on the same stage that Julia had performed on a few years ago.  In the same way, he was visibly nervous and didn't sing or motion much.  The boy next to him didn't have any problem though...

First Grade Chirstmas Concert

Here's some footage from Julia's Christmas concert.  She was a wise-cracking elf dressed in green.  She delivered her line right on cue, in front of the entire audience:

"Retired?  Reindeer don't have tires, they have hooves!"

Julia's Birthday Video

Julia's 7th Birthday

Julia celebrated her golden 7th birthday in perfect ice skating style.  We had gone ice skating at the Air Force Academy as a family a few weeks prior to her birthday and had observed other people having birthday parties at the ice rink.  We looked into it, and apparently, anyone can have a party there as long as it's on certain dates.

Julia invited a couple of friends from the neighborhood, a couple from school, and a couple other family members and adults tagged along. I was able to skate with the kids while Stacey made sure the details of cake and presents were taken care of.  Although the party was simple...just ice skating, cake and ice cream, and presents...several parents loved the idea and were going to look into doing the same thing for their upcoming parties.

The kids really had a good time.  Due to the timing of the party, we had the entire rink to ourselves.  It was as if we had rented the rink and had a private party for Julia.

College Planning

Flashback to the other night...

Stacey was putting Julia to bed, and while they were talking about various things Julia stopped and asked a very important question: 

Julia: Will I ever not live with you guys?

Stacey: You might not live with us anymore when you're older...like when you grow up and go to college.

Julia: Does that mean Buddy will be here by himself and get to stay longer than me?

Stacey: Yes.

Julia: (gets all teary-eyed) I don't ever want to leave - I love it here!  Can I go to college and still live here?

Stacey: Sure, you could definitely do that.

Julia: That's what I want to do.  I want to live here with you and Dad and Buddy when I'm in college!

(I wanted to make sure I put this in writing, as it may prove to be very useful in 10 years)