December

 

Here are a few picture from December this year.  It seemed to go by really fast!  We didn't get a tree right away because we were just so busy!  Here is Emma with Scott and I at Home Depot (she's Cindy Lou Who from The Grinch).  We found a nice tree there and got it home.  But we still weren't able to decorate for a few days 'cause we've been so busy.

A few weeks ago Scott and I spoke in church.  I'm glad its over now.  After speaking I got to see Anna as Mary in a little primary program.  I was relieved from being done with speaking and happy to see the primary program.

Anna was cute.

Anna's school class put on the play A Christmas Carol.  It was very cute - they sang the songs from A Muppet Christmas Carol.  Anna was on stage crew.  They built and moved/managed the scenery and props.  Anna also got to step into a few roles including Mrs. Fezziwig and one of the Cratchit children (seen in this picture).  Her class did a great job and the show as very cute.

John got to be star of the week in his kindergarten class a couple weeks ago.  One day Emma and I got to go visit his class, read one of John's favorite stories to the class and help him tell about himself with a poster we made earlier in the year.  He was very excited and is really enjoying kindergarten.

Grant has been working on a monster story.  He drew this picture of his monster and has been working on writing a story about it.  He had a 8th grade buddy who made a sculpture of his monster based on his picture.

This is the sculpture made from his picture.  It looks terrific and JUST LIKE his drawing.  Amazing!

The boys have all been in an Aikido and took their yellow belt test a couple weeks ago.  Here they are just before class.  Emma wanted to get in on the punching too.

Here is John just after passing his yellow belt test.  Way to go John!!

Here is Matthew getting his yellow belt

And Grant and Matthew after passing their yellow belt tests

I've been running around trying to get Christmas things together.  

Here I am heading to the post office with some massive boxes.

My sister, Ruth, came to visit us with her new cute baby (and also Dana who we love to see as well).  The kids were sad that her other kids couldn't come but were very excited to meet baby Axel!

Here's Matthew looking handsome - he had his priesthood interview today!  

He'll be turning 12 this next year.

John being silly at the store.  The grinch heads were so funny.

Here is John with his Christmas gift for his teacher.  He was excited for Christmas break!

We finally got around to decorating our tree.

Anna got to put the star on this year (last year it was Matthew - next year Grant).

I like our tree

Still working out our lights situation here but everything looks nice now.

Ready for Christmas!!

Gingerbread Houses

I finally got our gingerbread houses made a couple weeks ago.  Making the houses is a fun tradition we do but it is a lot of work.  It takes me a few days.  This year I was able to make the dough and roll it out and bake it all in one day.  Then on the weekend I made the royal icing and we started to assemble it.  Anna really wanted to help me make the royal icing this year, including separating the eggs.  We only had problems with one egg so she did a good job.  And the icing turned out nice.  Here are the kids starting to add candies to their houses.  I put the structural icing on then wait a few minutes for it to set.  Then I go around and start adding more icing so they can put candies on.  They have a lot of fun decorating.

John had a green starlight mint roof.  I like their design ideas that they come up with.

Matthew went all out on this colorful tile roof.  He's been nibbling a few of his roof tiles every day.  It looks pretty!

Here's John's other side.  I think John stayed and worked on his the longest this year.

Emma working on her house

Grant's friend came over to play as we were finishing up.  Grant's showing him his house.

Another successful gingerbread year.  Hooray!

Our Kindergarten Boy

John has been having a great time in kindergarten this year.  His kindergarten teacher is so fun - I just love her.  And so does John.  He is learning so much.  Here he is before school started.  Ready for kindergarten.

Here is John working on his homework.  He is very motivated to work on his homework every day.  His handwriting has really improved since school has started.

I'm so proud of him for working hard.

John comes home many days singing cute little songs he has learned in kindergarten.  Here are some of the songs he has learned.  These may be things that only a mom would think are cute.  You've been warned.  :)

Write your name on your paper, write your name

Winter, spring, summer, fall

10 - 20 - 30...

Leaves are falling...

He's supposed to be singing, "Days of the Week" but it goes pretty fast in the song and he sort of rolls all the words together with very few consonants in there when he sings this song.  He really can pronounce those words when he's not singing them fast.

Thanksgiving Week

I did Thanksgiving week all wrong this year.  I am taking mental notes so I don't make the same mistakes next year.  I planned to have family pictures taken one day, which kind of ruined the day...and made it extra stressful.  Two kids got the flu (which was not my fault but didn't really help make our week better) and Scott and I painted a room which took A LONG TIME!!  Next year I want to do less so I can take it a little easier.  The weekend before Thanksgiving I got all the boys haircuts for our family pics.  They all looked great!!

Grant had a little Thanksgiving program before the break.

They sang songs and recited some lines about Thanksgiving.

Each child had several lines to say on their own.

His class did a great job and it was fun to see him.

This is his pilgrim self portrait

Good job Grant.

 The day before Thanksgiving the kids had no school and Scott had work off so I scheduled family pictures.  While we were trying get ready for pics two kids were on and off throwing up or having diarrhea, the plumber was working on the basement and the countertop guys were scheduled to come in and fix one little mess up with the counters while we were out so everything had to be cleared off in the kitchen.  I felt kind of stressed.  Plus we were getting pictures taken outside and it was cold.  I couldn't cancel the photo session last minute even though we had sick kids so we decided to just do it...and it turned out ok.  Here is one picture.

On Thanksgiving, Scott' sister's family invited us over for dinner.  We had a lot of fun hanging out with them and dinner was delicious!!  The kids love to see their cousins whenever they can.

Boy cousins

Emma and Norah!!

It had been threatening to snow a lot that week but after Thanksgiving, it finally did.  

The kids were so excited for some real snow to play in.  They spent a lot of time coming in and out of the house.  I had to dig up all the old snow gear and then take kid snow gear on and off...on and off as they came in and out.  And make the obligatory hot chocolate...and then clean up all the spilled hot chocolate off the floor.  I'm not trying to complain, but having it snow somehow made it a lot harder for me to get anything done that morning.  :). I don't share the same love of snow that the kids do I guess.

We had a 2nd mini Thanksgiving (another mistake) later in the week.

The kids pretty much eat turkey and rolls and that's it.  Anna and Matthew tried everything on the table this year after I offered them 20 sticks to do so (our current family jobs/behavior currency).

Decorating sugar cookie turkeys

I had a bunch of candy corn I wanted to get rid off

And another project Scott and I did that week that just seemed to take up way too much time.  This is Grant and John's bedroom before we moved in.  After moving in there were white patch spots several places on these painted walls where things had been taken off the wall.  I didn't really want to deal with paint matching the different colors so we decided to paint it beige like the rest of the house.

First I taped everything.  There is no moulding at the top and the ceiling is the same beige color as the rest of the house so that made taping a little easier.  We sanded the walls where the colors meet since there were tape lines that stuck up a little there.  Then we had to do two kill coats (of white Kilz) and let that dry.  Then one thick coat of the final beigey color.

The lighting in these pictures is not good, but the room does look nice.  

Scott and I are proud of the accomplishment.

We will put some pictures up eventually.   Baby steps.

It looks better in person...and with natural light.

Right after Thanksgiving break the kids had their STEM fair projects due 

(STEM = Science Technology Engineering and Math)

Anna did a group project about gum flavoring

Matthew did a project about yeast and leaveners in bread.

It was a bit of a scramble at the end, but I think they feel good about what they did and were glad it was all done.

And I am very excited about this.  We got a treadmill this past week.  Woohooo!!  Our last treadmill broke last fall in California so I switched to running outside with a double jogger stroller.  We had our previous treadmill for 9 years and it got a lot of use.  Scott said we could probably get a new treadmill after we moved.  Well, we had some trouble getting it ordered once we got here to Utah - our first order was canceled after being pending for several weeks but we finally got things squared away and the treadmill has arrived!!  It is huge and heavy and its final destination will be in the basement...which we hope will get done soon.  Scott assembled it with some help from Matthew.  It is pretty cold outside most mornings and I feel bad taking Emma out in the cold and snow.  Plus I once sprained my ankle pretty bad in college running in the snow and had to hobble two miles home then crutch around campus in the snow for several weeks.  Not to mention Scott's very bad leg break and ensuing surgery thanks to some super slippery ice!!  So I'm happy about the treadmill!!  And so is Emma.  Everyday for the past few cold weeks that we went to run outside she told me how much she hated it.  Poor girl!!  

And before we knew it...it was December.  More adventures to come...