Proud Parents

Our ward's Primary Program was today and Miriam wrote her own talk (meaning everything she said were her own ideas) and memorized it. She was much cuter saying this into a microphone to an audience, but you'll have to settle for the after-party encore. Another lady in our ward was taking pictures on her cell phone during the program, so maybe we'll try that next year.

Faith in her Father

A girl jumping to her dad is not an unusual site, but it's incredible to realize how much trust children will put in their parents.

Tricky Miriam

Alvin's brother, Uncle Ammon, came to visit for a few days. He spent some quality bonding time with Miriam, teaching her a card trick to wow her parents. Her mom was bright enough to figure out the magician's secret, but she successfully stumped her Dad!

The cutest part is that Miriam doesn't fully understand how the trick worked, and really thinks that she has magical powers. She has decided to be a magician for Halloween!

Admission is free. Enjoy the show! (please ignore the grumpy Henry background noise)

Medieval Maryland

On Saturday we attended the Maryland Renaissance Festival with Grandma and Grandpa Van Orden. It was our first time attending this event and fun was had by all! This is an annual event held every weekend of September and October. Start planning your vacation to come join us next year!

The videos below show
1) our renaissance man (and woman) being knighted
2) Miriam dancing something akin to Riverdance and Henry doing his typical "elbows out & foot stompin" moves.

Introducing...Miriam the Magician!

This girl has got tricks up her sleeve (or maybe I should say, down her shirt). If you want the full effect of this magic trick, you need to close your eyes when prompted. If you want to know the magician's secret and get a good laugh, keep your eyes open!

A Lesson in Counting Cards

Miriam has become an UNO junkie, which will come as a surprise to no one that knows her father. Despite it's many virtues, UNO has never had much appeal for spectators until Henry started playing. Sorry the video's not all that great, but it's the audio that's important. Even then, it's a bit repetitive. It makes his parents laugh, though, because it's soo Henry.

If you made it to the last "ONE", then you can imagine how enthusiastically Henry says 'AMEN' to every prayer. We're still deciding how to video tape that.

Announcements, Announcements, Announcements!

After reading that title, you should be singing a boys'/girls' camp song. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, don't worry, you didn't miss much.

Anyway, on Sunday we sent Miriam on a scavenger hunt around the house where she gathered word strips that would tell her a surprise. After she had all the words, we helped her read the sentence.




For almost a year, Miriam has been repeatedly asking when we will have another baby in our family. Since she has no concept of time or how these things actually work, I finally told her we wouldn't have a baby until Henry was 3 (July 2010). This answer seemed to pacify her somewhat and she didn't ask quite as often. We were excited to finally be able to share the good news with her, and it's an added bonus that the baby will be here when Henry is still 2! The due date is Feb 17, 2010.