I heart Jon Schmidt!

So those of you that know me very well, know I LoVe Jon Schmidt! He is a local pianist here in Utah and is amazing. Dan and I have been listening to his music and buying his cd's for over 10 years and we have been to several of his concerts. He's so entertaining, he even plays the piano while laying upside down! If you haven't seen him perform I totally recommend it. Or at least but some of his cd's. Recently he wrote a song called "Love Story Meets Viva La Vida" (Love Story by Taylor Swift and Viva La Vida by Coldplay). I immediately fell in love with it and so did Dan and our kids. Lindsay played it about 10 times a day the first couple weeks after we downloaded it from Jon's website. Well, then Jon ran into some legal issues with the song so they pulled it from his website. But I think he's getting it worked out so he can put it onto a cd and make sheet music, etc.... Luckily we had already purchase it and downloaded it before he took it off. Well, when I heard he was performing at the Thanksgiving Point Waterfall Amphitheater I bought tickets for me, Dan and Laurel and Sam. So we got to sit out on the grass and listen to Jon perform with the Waterfalls behind him! It was amazing and the night was gorgeous! Here's a little but of footage and pictures from that night. P.S. The cellist is Steven Sharp Nelson and he's awesome! My favorite part of the song is when he starts playing Via La Vida about half way through the song ~ it gives me chills! Here's the link on Youtube to hear the whole Love Story meets Viva La Vida song (I would LOVE to choreograph a dance to this song someday!).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfH2BY5pdLw

Brooklyn 3 months

These pictures of Brooklyn are so darn sweet, I can hardly stand it! She turned 3 months old on September 5th. She is giggling a lot now and smiles tons! She often does this HUGE smile, like she's trying to get a laugh out, but doesn't. We call it her silent giggle. She discovered her hands and they are almost always in her little mouth now. She still doesn't like being on her belly. She is still not growing as fast as our other kids even though her cheeks don't look that way. She's still wearing some of her 0-3 month clothes and she is still in size 1 diapers (our 3 other kids were all in size 2 by now and 3-6 month clothes). The kids still adore her and the second they hear her cry, they run to make sure she's ok. I have to tell them that it's ok for babies to cry sometimes. She's been sleeping 10 hours for a couple of weeks now but I'm still struggling with putting her in the crib in Gavin's room. I just love having her close by me in her bassinette. It's so fun to see her little personality coming out! (I'm having a hard time picking which picture to make an 8x10 for my wall......which one should I pick?????)

Love her dimples!

I love how she's playing with her little hands in this one!

Gavin's 3 year pictures

The Saturday we decided to take these pictures was perfect because it was overcast and a little rainy. Thanks to Pa's camera and Picasa, we were able to take these and Brooklyn's pictures without spending an arm and a leg!!! I think they turned out rather good for amatures!

I love this kid's eyebrows. He got mine! He's lucky because it's ok for boys to have crazy unibrows. I, on the other hand have to wax, tweeze and shape mine!

Hahaha! This one makes me laugh! This was Dan's idea....."Gavin scream like the Dinosaur is trying to bite your head off!"

This fits Gavin perfectly....rarely sitting still!

Doney Family Pictures

First Day of School

Lindsay started 1st grade on August 20th. It's been an adjustment going all day long but she loves her teacher and loves eating lunch with one of her best friends, Lydia. They aren't in the same class, so they get to "chat" and eat at lunch. The first day of school they were chatting for so long they completely missed recess!

Mrs. Richins



Granny Annie took Zane out to breakfast and to choose a new outfit for the first day of school. Then she made the German traditional Tuta filled with school supplies and treats. He loved it!

Zane started school on August 27th. He LOVES it and never complains (that is, until he starts getting homework in October).

Zane was so excited to get Miss Gurney as his teacher, who was Lindsay's teacher last year.

Gavin started Preschool on September 8th. He was so excited but a little shy when we got there. He knows Miss Nicole very well. Gavin has liked to pretend he's been in school since last spring (I think he was feeling left out). He would say things like"today at school, we sang Jingle Bells and played my Fish game." Then I asked him who his teacher was and he'd say "Chad". Then one day we were driving through the neighborhood and he saw some boy walking down the street and Gavin said "see that boy? He's in my class. His name is Jonas." Funny thing was that the kid was like 10, we didn't know who he was and we don't even know anyone named Jonas! I'm glad he'll have REAL school stories to tell now.

Miss Nicole

Zane's Birthday

Zane is 5 years old!! He is getting taller and smarter! He will get to start learning to read in the next month and we're excited for that. He's writing his name and ABC's very well. He still loves to do magic tricks (as you can see by his Magician costume and wand) and is excellent at Wii and computer games (just like his dad). Some of the things Zane is doing lately:

He's been telling little stories that are completely made up. We're still not sure if this is a good thing or not. I have to ask him a lot if he's saying the truth or making stuff up. Then he'll say "actually, I was just tricking."

Also, when he gets in trouble (which isn't very often) he ALWAYS says, "I just forgot I wasn't supposed to do that."

He still loves to watch movies and lately we've noticed he memorizes the lines to movies after hearing it just once. He'll even memorize lines from previews of movies on tv.

Zane's gifts

Zane had an Indiana Jones party. The boys got their own Indy hats and whips, then went on an adventure in the backyard. It was total chaos but they had fun!

Zane's friends and cousins



His most favorite present was the Lego Star Wars Wii game!