Twins Birthday

It was a special day for the twins. Their birthday was long time ago but we still love them. They are both cute and and adorable. Both different colored of hair and maybe a I'm guessing different personalities and love the attention. Kate loves her mom and dad the most and Ben loves everybody. Now they are a year old!
We love you both! Keep becoming cute.

Skiing

The day that we went skiing was so much fun. The kids went skiing, and we had a blast. We went up to the canyons were the best snow is on earth.(We don't know if that is true or not)? But anyways we had a few falls and ski's popped off but we still had fun. The place was crouded Noah and Luke had the same color of jackets on and it was a little hard to tell where they could be. That was our day at the Canyons.

Beauty and the Beast

Ali surprised Sophie in cafeteria!

Soph and her lampshades!

Sophie, giddy after performance Saturday night.
We love you Soph! Great job!

Vote Obama!

It's just likely that Ali, Sophie, and me (Madi) just love Barak Obama! Unfortantly  the mother and the father of the house and the rest of the family is voting for Mitt Romney. But Romney suspended his self out of the race and how the strength and powerness between Obama and Cliton. 

Unfortantly the rest of the family is I guess liking Obama? So Vote Obama. "We can change"

the real American Idol

We've been planning this night for the last couple of days: scales, lyrics, pitches. Well, tonight was the night: our first annual American Idol (home style) night. Cal was the new Simon Cowell, Doll was the Yo-Dawg Randy, and Sophie was none other than the babe, Paula Abdul. But where's the Ryan Seacrest: the soul of the show? No worries, Ali covered that with the yarn ball as his microphone.

The front room was the stage, the broom was the microphone, and Luke was the DJ iPod man. We had a little bit of AC/DC from Chetty, Louis from Dad, Stevie Wonder from Doll, and then some duets. It was absolutely hysterical with Dad as the evil Simon, Mom doin' the impersonations of Randy, and little miss Sophie singing HSM2 (and very good at that, by the way). But don't forget Luke who busted out the moves and words from the 80s, plus Cha-Cha's special guest appearance --- we were very honored, indeed.

It was an absolute memory, and now a must-have Close/Hansen tradition. Enjoy the videos!

a catalog of trees

Every year the fam finds our tree at the lot on 7th and 27th. There weren't peanuts this year, but trees, yes. We walked up and down the rows of trees, and up and down again, but since we like skinny trees, we're pretty fast. Within fifteen minutes we had her picked. Behold. And now she stands in our bay window ready to be lit and decorated.

There's just something about having a live tree in the home. It smells like Christmas, and I love knowing that we hand- picked it. Honestly, if I could bottle Christmas, I would bottle that smell of our front room at Christmas. I love that we have always have a skinny tree. Every year. The ornaments each have their own place, the lights are ten times round round the tree, and it just fits our personalities. They will always remind me of Home.

Christmas is so much more than the actual day of Christmas --- it's the entire season. It's the decorating, it's the music, it's the caroling, it's the ice skating, it's the making of ginger bread houses, and it's giving. I love December, and it's already the second.

Happy December.

splash!

We walked up the stairs toward the bleachers at Steiner's indoor pool and through the door, and suddenly the echo of voices and water splashes bouncing off the tile walls surrounded us. The bleachers were full of cheering parents and fellow students, so Mom and I made our way to the side, looking for Kathy who was also there supporting Madi. Once found, we all cheered together as East High-ers swam their fastest.

Suddenly, though, Madi was next to us. She hadn't swam yet, but was up next. She wanted to say hi to us, though, and make sure we knew which lane we knew she'd be swimming: lane four.

Within minutes, Madi was standing on the jump off, goggles poised, eyes set for the end of the lane. The gun sounded, and splash! Madi was in. Swimming is so beautiful. There just is this fluid grace about putting one arm in front of another. We cheered and cheered, and after her 50 free- style, Madi came in third, 36 seconds.

Who could get up in front of so many in a swimsuit, swim under a clock, and against four schools? Not many. But Madi has always been fearless. Mom was saying on the way home how she was the child who could get a refill of ketchup at a restaurant without hesitation. She was the child who did the Clayton play without hesitation. The rest of the Close kids have been pretty shy, so swim team is huge. Wahoo, Madi!