is a new camera. how can i blog without a camera? i ask you! literally impossible! ok maybe not but i was trying to get some sympathy for dropping off the blogging bandwagon for the past month. on to sympathy for awful camera syndrome. our old olympus 350c (or whatever it is) is as old as megs and has worked just great for us but isaac dropped it a few months ago (after being reminded and reminded that cameras are expensive and only mom and dad can use it--you see how far that went) and now all pictures are blurry around the edges (i'm sure this hasn't gone unnoticed!) so if santa is out there checking blogs...DON"T FORGET ME THIS YEAR! the whole past two months of our lives have gone undocumented for the lack of photo ability (well, and a little, i mean little, laziness on my account)some things you've missed:
megan has been singing in the local children's choir for the past few months and at the begining of december they had their christmas concert at temple square. matt's parents along with mine plus aunts, uncles and cousins came out to wish her well and see her first big performance. unfortunately, there was no taping during the performance so we couldn't get her on film and of course, chalk another one up to the camera crisis, all of our stills are blurry. nonetheless, it was so fun to see her don her choir robes and sing her guts out for a real audience. we asked isaac if he was going to join her choir next year and, without hesitation, rapidly shook his head and looked at us like we were going to cut off his right arm. ok. message recieved. you won't hear about isaac's choir debut
but you will hear about the school christmas play a few weeks ago. we thought we left colorado behind us--but this play was something you'd see in a boulder school with al gore as the visiting santa. "santa's going green" was the title and each grade sung a song about enery conservation or recycling or how santa is now using fossil fuel to power his sleigh. quite a different twist on christmas plays of old. not one traditional chirstmas song. i'm not talking bring in the christmas spirit with "away in a manger" or "oh come all ye faithful". but a good rousing "jolly old st. nicholas" or "i want a hippopotamus for christmas" were noticeably absent. what's up with that?in salt lake? bah! just wait until i join the school/community council.
mallory had her little preschool program last week too and loved performing like her older siblings. fortunately her class let christmas ring with "rudolf" and "jingle bells" and other christmasy tunes and poems. she really has grown up a ton and kindergarten can't come fast enough--for both of us;)
other fun events--seeing the lights at temple square, isaac starting his first season of basketball, megan singing the star spangled banner at a "feeder team for the jazz" (i can't remember their name) game, sledding with the whole neighborhood this weekend, sunday advent celebrations, gearing up for dad's b-day, pretzel dipping with dana, trying to figure out christmas lights on a new house, and getting 12 days of christmased by one of our neighbors.
here's hoping unblurry pictures will be gracing our blog soon!
scoring her last goal of the season. she had been held scoreless this game and with one minute left, tapped this one past the goalie to put the score at 2-1. 
i'll let you just imagine her excitement.
the pumpkin getting, above, and the pumpkin carving, below.
The beauty of moving to a new city is you can get away with the same halloween costumes from last year and no one is the wiser. this year, both mal and isaac were gems and allowed their mother to take a creative break this season by going with their "old trusties" from last year. Cheer bear for mal and isaac as a skeleton. megan was harder to convince and in the end, was "cindy lou who", easily made from a DI dress and stuff around the house. eli took the cake, though, as our resident chicken. he was destined to be last year's frog until aunt dana offered up the chicken for him to borrow. am i ever glad as he was so funny, wadling around. 
we camped in the san rafael swell next to this prime climbing wall...
we got filthy dirty but loved every minute. this could easily become an early fall tradition.
