"Couple names"

On my blog I recently had a poll to help decide what mine and Dave's couple name should be. Like Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie have been dubbed 'Brangelina'. Votes favored 'Ravid' for us. I had fun coming up with couple name possibilities for all of my married siblings. Here's what I've got:

Raylie or Julaymond

Angelarrin or Darrangela

Nathamy or Amathan

Sarim or Timrah

Aprichael or Michapril

How about some for Mom and Dad . . . Rayresa, Teray, Teresay, Raysa - man this is fun! Ha! Have you got other ideas? Pick your favorites!

For Charity in particular

Had to get a pic of the bum ruffle. :-)

Our snowy Sunday

Dietrich had so much fun - he played in it for three hours. And over an hour the next day! We had over 1 1/2 feet of snow. Branches broke all over Billings and the power was out more than once. But it was beautiful.

I forgot to mention in the last post that Dietrich calls Kate "cake." Isn't that a hoot?

Some random things . . .

Just wanted to share some fun things that have happened recently:

• Dietrich said the first full sentence that I remember hearing him say yesterday. I went to a baby shower and as I was buckling him in he said, "Where are we going?" He does speak English!
  
• Kate has slept the night through, not once, but twice during the past week! Isn't she amazing?
• I don't know how much she weighs, but Kate fits more comfortably in Stage 2 diapers and many of her 3-6 months clothes. She's growing so fast!
• We're halfway through this semester! It's horrendous - Dave is never home and when he is he needs to be working on something for school. I really haven't liked this semester so far.
• I discovered that Kate shares her birth date with Davy Crockett! Isn't that funny?
  

I'll have/make the time/patience to post some pictures soon. It just takes so long with dial-up. But we have some fun pictures of Dietrich playing in the snow after we got a foot and a half of it last weekend. He loved it!

Our Blog is updated... click here

Hola Everyone!
We have recently updated the old blog -- with new pics of our new place and some of our travels. Just click on the title above and it will lead you there...

Isn't she precious?

Thanks April for the cute outfit! Cute huh. Let me know if you'd like a hard copy - I'd be happy to print it off and send it to you.

September morn

Hello all! We are back home and settling into those lovely September
rhythms. I love this beautiful time of year. It is a time of
revisiting familiar routines, while setting new goals for the coming
school year.

After Nauvoo we enjoyed a quick trip out to Utah. And it was quick,
too quick. But I realize the children don't necessarily need a lot of
time--any time is good time for them. They have been recounting their
adventures ever since (remember when we went swimming at Gwamma's? I
like swimming...remember when Uncle Tim let me drive the
boat?...remember when we were laughing with Andrew under the
tree?...) It's amazing what even a few days will do for them to help
them remember who their relatives really are.

It's been nice to come back home too. It's been a couple weeks of
unpacking, cleaning off cobwebs, paying bills, planning the year's
schedule of kids' activities, getting back into jobs and callings,
etc. After almost three years in the Young Women, I was released and
called as the Single Adult Supervisor. I get to try and keep track of
the singles in our ward and help them feel a place in our ward and
church. I'm excited about the calling.

Despite the time it takes to get settled, we've enjoyed having a
couple weeks left of summer. Besides remembering what it's like to
have daily summer chores and piano practicing :), we've been having
fun too--playing out in our beautiful backyard, feeding apples to the
horses, swimming, berry picking, and visiting Greenfield Village (my
kids rode the carousel a total of 8 times--that's over 1.5 hours!).
This past weekend we had a family camp-out in our backyard, giving our
old tent and new camp stove a whirl. Our friends, the Jonutzes,
joined us, and we had fun roasting s'mores and telling ghost stories.
We finally gave Ray his birthday present--a volleyball set-up--and we
found our backyard to be a great place for it!

But summer is officially over now. Tia and Susan's first week of
school, and they were both so excited! They have good teachers and
classmates, and I'm glad they love school like they do. I've had fun
already homeschooling my boys with stories and songs and activities.
It should be a fun year.

Enjoy your September and know that we love you and miss you all!
Love, Julie and co.

Here's some pics since we got home. I unfortunately didn't bring my
camera to Idaho, so here's some pictures of time since...