The first batch of Christmas cards went out yesterday (others are still in production so may be shamefully late). Anyway, for those of you visiting this site for the first time, this is a place where I can post tons of pictures of my children, exciting events in our lives, and whatever I want, and you can choose to read as much or as little of it as you want! I am still waiting to get back pictures from Kira's dance recital and Thanksgiving, so there will be some out-of-order posts in the next while. Our Christmas present to each other is supposed to be a nice digital camera (if it comes on time!) so the frequency of posts may increase as I have more and more cute pictures to share. Check back often if you want to keep up on what's going on..or if not, maybe next Christmas. :-) If you want to keep in touch with us through email (we are usually more successful that way) our email is bnkhalterman@cox.net.

As for this picture, Santa came to our ward party Saturday morning! You may not be able to tell from this picture, but both of my children were pretty taken with him. Trenton was a little shy at first. But not Kira! She introduced Santa to Trenton and then to some of her friends. They were both pretty excited about the candy canes that they got afterward!

No picture for this one, but we just recieved word that Barry passed his GIT test in October and is now officially a "Geologist in Training"! Whew!

Kira completed a session of preschool through the City of Tempe Fine Arts Program. On her last day they had a gallery display of all of their projects from the class. This one was my favorite. Her favorite was a mask she made and painted with rainbow colors.

Shamefully, I was out of film (and we don't have a digital camera, yet.) So I was at the mercy of my friends for some Halloween pictures. Kira looked quite the part as Cinderella in the dress that Lita made her, but was so busy having a good time at the ward party, that it was hard to get any pictures of her. If you can't tell, I am supposed to be the fairy godmother. I told everyone, that I was really just an accessory for Kira. Barry was supposed to be the Duke, but had to work out of town (surprise, surprise!) So he was off the hook. All in all, the kids and I went to three Halloween parties, went trick-or-treating, and came back and handed out candy. I think Kira liked handing out the treats as much as getting them. If there was ever a lull in trick-or-treaters, she would demand that more come.

Trenton got the hang of "trick-or-treating" at our ward party. After he filled his little sack he went and found Bro. Cluff. Brother Cluff is a man in our ward that is wheelchair bound. Trenton is fascinated by the wheels, so they have become good friends. He was standing by Bro. Cluff when he took out a bag of candy and set it on the ground beside him. I picked it up and put it back in the bag as he was walking away. Trenton stopped, took out a bag of candy, walked over to Bro. Cluff and set it on his lap and walked away.

There is an incredible amount of baby boys in our ward. One of my friends decided that we should just have one big birthday party (in October) in honor of them all, rather than worry about inviting friends to dozens of birthday parties. We invited all boys with birthdays from September to December to come. I think we had eight attend but could have had about double that if everyone eligible had attended. Trenton is the oldest and biggest of the group. Just wait for nursery in a few months!

"What are you crying about?" Trenton thinks as he looks at his friend. We stripped down the boys and let them attack the cake. Trenton was not the big bully everyone thought he would be (he's a good 4 inches taller than any of his friends) but enjoyed eating cake--especially the pieces that had dropped in the grass for some extra fiber!

We tried to get pictures of each boy and the whole group, but as you can see, Trenton was much more interested in getting up and going!

We are really lucky that we have a new friend in the ward who is a professional photographer. She consented to spare me the trip to the mall to pay too much for portraits and came to our house one day to photograph the kids (early October). You'd never know it, but Trenton was tired and cranky and Kira was quite contrary, insisting that since these pictures were for her scrapbook, they should be what she wanted. When Jodee left I was thinking we would be lucky to get one or two good shots of each. Luckily that is not the case! The trouble is eliminating shots, and there are still more to come that I haven't seen yet (Jodee's work got interrupted by bed rest), so look back in a month or so for more pictures that make my children look more angelic than they really are.

These are some of our favorite shots of Kira from our photo session.

The many faces of Kira!

This was my favorite of the ones she took in her Cinderella dress.

Life isn't all about the little ones. Mom and Dad stay pretty busy, too. Here are a few of the things that I have been working on. In the top picture The Arizona Mormon Choir participates in the presentation of "Joseph Smith, the Prophet" at ASU's Gammage Auditorium. (I am the tallest soprano in the back row next to the basses).

I still occasionally do wedding flowers. This was one of Amber's friends who was married in September.

Trenton turned 1 on sept. 5, 2005. We had a duckie themed birthday complete with two cakes--one for cute, and one for Trenton to destroy. He did so, but much more carefully than we would have expected.

Trenton can't always decide if he loves his big sister, or he'd just rather she leave him alone.

These were taken the night we discovered that Trenton knows how to get himself into the bathtub. It happened so fast. I heard a big splash and bonk, but no crying. He immediately went to the faucet and started playing the running water--his favorite thing! I had to take a picture before taking his clothes and soaking diaper off. His sister loves to play with him in the bathtub. We just have to keep reminding him to sit down and have taken the handle off of the faucet so he can't keep turning it on.

These were taken at Kira's birthday party back in April. She (and every other 4-year-old girl I've met) cannot get enough of PRINCESSES!