First Pics in California!

My super yummy hunk of Man-Candy! ;) Morgan, the Rip-Sticker, Darling Avery, Model Madison, and Sweet Savannah!

Danny got me a camera for my birthday, so I thought I would try it out! It's a really nice one and I love taking good, clear pictures. I'm really excited about it! The kids were outside yesterday enjoying some of this warm weather that was a long time coming...uh, sorry to Mom and Dad and everyone else still in Utah. We've been getting rain, but by the time it gets to Utah, it's snow. Anywho, we were glad for the sun, so we went outside to enjoy it. And I got to snap a few pictures of pure joy as we basked in the warmth!! ;)

Morgostian's 11th Birthday!!!

What a great kid! Who wouldn't want to celebrate the birthday of such an awesome young man! Morgan keeps everyone laughing and happy! Whether it's doing a magic trick or telling a story or making sound effects for his latest drawing, Morgan does it with a lot of flair and a smile on his face! We love having him as a part of our family! Happy Birthday, Buddy!!

WE HAVE MOVED!!

So... here I am sitting at my computer wishing that I had more time to feel like I can sit down and blog to my hearts content. And today, my wish came true! Yay! Just wanted to update on a few things that have happened since the last time I updated. I'm a little behind again, but this time it was not my fault! ;) Our move to California was crazy, but it was made worse by the plain and simple fact that the internet company we had planned on working with turned out to not be so good. It took about 2 weeks to work out the mess. Anywho, we're all good now.

Morgan received his Arrow of Light award right before we left...way to go, buddy!

Maddie did a fabulous job in "Beauty and the Beast". For those who didn't get to see it, I'm so sorry. You missed an awesome production!!

We've had friends parties and family gatherings. A few tears shed...okay a lot of tears were shed. What do you expect??? I've never even lived outside of Utah County! So of course I was very sad to be driving away from everything that was familiar to me...not to mention my family and friends. But we are here for a reason, I can feel it in my bones! And so far, California has been very nice. We have met some wonderful people who I feel will become very good friends, the kids are doing well in school and have made some new friends already and the sun has finally decided to come out. There are a few down-sides, like all of the kids dealing with a lot more bad language from their peers and disrespect towards the teachers. Also Maddie was asked by a lazy boy if he could cheat off of her paper. She said "No, that's cheating" and his clever response was, "It is?" And just yesterday she was asked by a boy if he could take her out...to which she replied after a stunned silence... "I don't date!" ;) I love my kids! They are proving themselves stalwart in their faith and I am so very proud of them.

So life is good! Hope everyone is doing well! We love you all!!!

Big Hugs from all of us to all of YOU!!

Playing Catch up...Again!

Why is it so hard for me to keep up with this blog? I LOVE doing it! So why is it so hard? I guess it's because I know that when I sit down to start blogging, I'm going to be in front of this computer for a long while. I love bragging about my family and telling about our adventures in life, so it sometimes takes me a while. It's the same with facebook. I don't get on very often because I get sucked in to every one's news and before I know it 2 hours have flown by! Oh well. I try and that's what counts...right?! ;) Anywho, a bit of an update on the various happenings in our little corner of the world...

Danny continues to sing and perform and melt hearts everywhere with his milk-chocolaty voice. He is getting ready to record his second solo album! It is going to be more religious based songs. I'm not sure of the release date, but we will let everyone know when it happens. He is also headed to Kansas to record more songs for After Daybreak (the trio) and another music video. They plan to do 7 songs and a video in 3 days...we'll see! ;) He loves his day job and works hard to bring home the bacon. In fact, because of the day job we will be moving to California within the month...probably. We have found renters for our home here in Lehi, we just need to find a house in Cali. We want a slightly bigger home so that if family or friends want to come and visit, they can. (hint, hint)

Maddie is enjoying 7th grade. She works so hard and is a 4.0 student. Yup, her first two report cards have been nothing but A's!! I'm so proud of her! The closest I came to 4.0 was 3.9 because Mr. Ingersol gave me an A-. Oh well. I'm glad that she is having success in school and hope that her transition from Lehi to somewhere in Northern California will be a smooth one. Maddie loves going to Young Women's and works hard on personal progress. She is also learning how to cook and makes a pretty mean batch of sugar cookies!! And we can't wait to see her interpretation of a Napkin in her school's upcoming production of "Beauty and the Beast". We love having her babysit for us, not just because it's nice not having to call and find a babysitter...she just does an awesome job taking care of her brother and sisters. Although she will be sad to leave friends and family in Utah, she is excited for the change that California will bring. Which is a great relief to me!

Morgan stays super busy entertaining his friends and just being plain cool!! He is such an awesome kid and is so much fun to be around. He begged us to sign him up for Spring soccer, but since we will be in California, we'll have to find him a team down there. He is also getting really good at telling a fun story. He loves to read (which makes his teacher happy) and I think that it inspires his imagination, because just yesterday he sat down and wrote out a comic strip. And what he comes up with is hilarious! Morgan takes good care of his sisters, but is also a world-class tease! I wonder where he gets it from??? "Stop it!! MORGAN!" is a very familiar phrase at our house! Aaaah, good times!

Avery was doing gymnastics up until a month ago when she asked if she could be done for a while. She is so talented and really was pushing herself to do her best, but the coaches at the gym were draining. They had a really hard time remembering that these are just kids, not college age gymnasts. They want to learn, but to also have fun while they are learning. That wasn't happening and Avery lost her desire to keep going. She still stretches and works on her tumbling so that when we get to California she will be able to pick up where she left off. Hopefully. But for now, she is getting a much needed break! I hope she keeps up with it though, because she is perfect for gymnastics. She is having fun in school and is an excellent student. Her teacher told me that she is going to be really sad to see Avery leave....

Savannah is finally starting to enjoy school...I think. I go to her class on Mondays to help out and be with her, but the rest of the week she is on her own and I think that she is finally adjusting. Just in time for us to move...Yeah (she said sarcastically!) It has been so much fun to see Vannah grow and mature. She is becoming an excellent reader and loves to tell me about her day over a peanut butter and honey sandwich at lunch time. She enjoys playing with her friends and can be quite the little diva!

Although part of me wishes that I could just stop time and keep my kids little forever, another, more mature part of me loves the phase of life that we are in right now and I am looking forward to the phases to come. I have dreams occasionally where I am out shopping for prom dresses with one of my girls....so fun! But, lets just stay in the present!

As for me, I'm excited for California as well. It will be hard to leave all of our family and wonderful friends, but it's not forever and we are only 10 hours away, so it shouldn't be too hard to come back for a visit OR to have all our loved ones come for a visit there! I'm going to try and keep my brain from exploding as we get ready for this move. With four kids in school, a house to clean and pack up, records to transfer, Danny's performances as well as traveling, an arrow of light ceremony.... blah, blah, blah...well, it should make for an interesting February! ;)

Wish us luck!

2010 Raingutter Regatta!!!

Here is Morgan and his award winning boat from the Raingutter Regatta, christened
"The Morganator". He took 4th place out of about 20 boys. It was fun and exciting to watch him and his friends blow their boats on to victory! There were so many creative designs and a lot of vigorous blowing. Anywho, we had a great time and are looking forward to the next racing event!
Pictured is Morgan with his trophy, his boat and his best friends Porter Muir and Ryan Padilla.

After Daybreak, my husband's latest musical venture. They are an amazing group of tenors that sing uplifting, inspirational music. We are so excited to see where this new adventure is going to take us. If anyone is curious, you can buy their new album on November 9th off of amazon.com or itunes.com. They want it to chart and it will help if everyone buys it on the same day. Just wanted to let you all know. Even if I'm the only one that ever see's it!
(sorry for the tiny picture)

Grandma Rasmussen's 82nd Birthday

Happy Birthday Grandma! We love you!

RaNdOm AnD fUn sUmmER pICtURes

GO, BIG PURPLE!!

GO MADSKILZ! Maddie is such an amazing
cheerleader! We have so much fun
watching her dance and cheer...she is a
natural performer and dancer and a blast
to watch! In the second picture is Maddie
with 3 of her best friends, Stephanie, Kaela and Abby. And the last picture is Maddie at Cheer Camp in July. She won the award for FABULOUS FLYER!!

First day of School!!! (Seriously??? What happened to Summer???)

Just some pictures of my darling kids on their first days of school!

Rasmussen Reunion 2010

So this year it was mine and Danny's turn to plan the Rasmussen reunion. We had a great plan to go up and stay at this really cool house in Bear Lake that some friends of ours own. But due to new HOA policies we were no longer able to do that. Unfortunately, we didn't find that out until the last minute. Thankfully, Ryan and Tara were willing to let us come and crash their place for a couple of days. We had a great time playing ultimate frisbee (which I stink at...I can't throw a straight frisbee to save my life), hiking to Inspiration Point in the Teton's (it was very inspirational!), feeding super fat chipmunks that ate right out of our hands and tried to eat out of our backpacks :), riding a ferry, eating tin-foil dinners, taking family pictures, sleeping in tents and then getting rained out of those tents, playing at a splash-park in Rexburg, and riding a carousel (Savannah's favorite!) ...it was fun and memorable and a great last minute substitute!! Thanks Ryan and Tara!

Cool family picture!

So...it's been a while since I've posted anything, but life has kept us busy... really busy! We have gotten our house ready to sell and in between all of the remodeling we have done cheer leading, gymnastics, piano, swim lessons, friends birthday parties, young women's, scouts, activity days, Girl's Camp, squeezed in a date or two....all of that good stuff. I'm not complaining. I love to be busy and I love that my kids are so involved and developing their talents so well. The one pic is of Maddie with some of her best friends at her first Girls Camp. I've also posted some pictures of our "new" house. It has been quite the process, but we are very happy with the results. It has been a wonderful home for us and we hope the next family that buys it will enjoy it as much as we have. I'll get some more pictures posted soon, but I don't have a lot of the pictures that we've taken because our camera decided that it was tired and didn't want to work anymore. Just up and died one day. Aaaah, life! :) But thankfully my parents have been wonderful to take pictures for us...I just need to get those pictures from them, then I will post more! Love you all!

Avery gets baptized!

What a wonderful day! It was perfect!

It's the End of Another School Year!!

The time has flown by! Not only is another school year done, but elementary school is a thing of the past for our oldest, Maddie! I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that she will be starting 7th grade in the fall. Crazy! But what are you goin' to do?! It's going to be a fun, new adventure!! And Savannah is super excited that school is done, because that means she will get to start kindergarten in the fall! I am going to be an empty-nester! What am I going to do with myself all day long...well, half the day at least!!?? (hehe) Anywho, here are some pictures of the kids with their teachers. xoxo (Morgan's teacher is actually that tall...or short. :)

Avery is 8!!

Happy Birthday to Avery! She turned 8 years old on May 25th. It was such a fun day! Especially since Avery finally got the pet bunny she has been begging for! Yeah...for her! Mom and Dad I think have lost their marbles! ;) We love Avery and are so happy that she is a part of our family! It wouldn't be the same without her. So, Happy Birthday to you, sweet girl! We love you so much!!

pictured top-bottom: Angel girl with mom & dad, with her new purple scriptures made by Grandpa Rasmussen, & with her new bunny, Bella.