It has been snowing almost weekly this winter. That is a lot more often that usual for us. Most of them have been less than an inch but some have been a couple inches. Several of them have been the really wet snow that is good for snowman building. We have played a lot in the snow but winter is always a time to get creative about what to do indoors.
Allison has her braces on and gets to go to the dentist a lot these days to have them checked. She found a fun toy in the treasure box after her last visit.
Allison also tried her hand out at the school National Geographic Geography Bee this year. She was the representative for her class. I was proud of her for trying it. The questions were pretty hard.
Merry Christmas!! December is here. I knew that with Thanksgiving being late Christmas would sneak up pretty quick this year and it has. SO BUSY! I have made a point the last few years to make an effort to not over pack the activities and that has been the plan this year. There just is a bunch of stuff going on this time of year between, regular schedules, end of year stuff, plus holidays. So it has still been busy but I am enjoying it. I have cut out a lot of family activities. We still do stuff together but I have just done the things that the kids have brought up and wanted to do. So some of our favorite activities this December have been wearing our PJ’s grabbing some hot chocolate and driving around looking at Christmas lights, watching a Christmas movie together (Elf and the Santa Claus movies 1-3 with Tim Allen are our favorites) We read my awesome Christmas book collection together a lot too. We decorated a ginger bread house too.
I have not done our White Elephant Christmas party that we did for years last year or this year. It is was fun to do but I am enjoying not doing it more. Ha! We simplified our treats for neighbors and friends this year too. Instead of making chocolate pretzels and other treats we put a note on a bottle of sparkling cider that said “Pop! Pop! Fizz! Fizz! Oh what a good neighbor you is!”
Some of the other fun things we have done is the girl scout holiday party. I am still a troop leader for Emilee’s troop so I was with them, but Allison was there too.
Our Elf Bubbit came. The girls always want him to come the day after Thanksgiving but Bubbit is one of Santa’s special elf helpers so he has to stay and help Santa until at least the 10th. Since we will be out of town this week Bubbit was able to come a few days before that. Emilee is our elf spotter. She can find him faster than anyone. She likes to leave him notes too.
The girls and I went on a neighborhood hay ride too. Allison wanted to have a seat at the front of the wagon with her friends but Emilee and I decided to sit at the back which worked out great because the second set of horses liked to be right behind the first so we could basically touch them. The girls sat on Santa’s lap afterwards too.
I sang with a group in the Relief Society Christmas activity. It has been a long time since I sang. It was a little stressful getting parts worked out. We originally started with 10 singers and ended up with only 5. We sounded good and it was fun though.
Ryan and I were put on the Ward Christmas Party planning group. We were in charge of Santa and his room and then activities to entertain the kids. The whole party went really well. Santa came with a Mrs Claus that was grumpy and I honestly would have liked to cut her out of all the pictures but it all worked out. The kids loved all the crafts, dinner was yummy, decorations were awesome. The person in charge of the program had a lot of primary kids play the piano, the ukulele, or viola, or sing a song. It was really fun.
Emilee and I went to one of the Highschool choir concerts. They sang a lot of fun songs. A lot of the songs they sang were ones I sang when I was in choir TWENTY years ago. Uuuuummmm, I just realized when I typed that my 20 year high school reunion is this summer! Wow that is crazy. Anyway, I digress. We all went to Leah’s choir concert as well. She is in a choir called Allegro. It was very nice. There is several different choirs and they all sang some very good Christmas songs together.
We had our first snow day for school this month. They cancelled church because we had a big snow storm and then school on Monday was canceled too. The cousins got to sled together for a few hours and we ended up with about 5 inches of snow. It was a fun winter treat before we head to Florida for Christmas.
Allison had a couple rough days, this is the first smile I got out of her after trying for a very very long time. I love her cute smile.
Last year four families from our baseball family got together for a Friendsgiving. We did it again this year. It is a fun time. The kids like it because there is a group of them to play and all of them have at least one buddy. We are all very different families but we get along really well and enjoy each others company. Everyone brings a few appetizers and we visit and hang out for a few hours then eat a dinner together. Then play games and visit some more.
This year there was minute to win it games that we all did. We divided into five teams and each team rotated between five games. There was potato rolling, apple stacking noodle fishing, cotton ball flipping and cookie eating contests. The winner of each team wrote their name down on a paper. After all the teams finished we went to each game and the five winners from each team played the game. Those people earned a laminated turkey medal. Then the winner of each of those games played against each other in a final championship game. The final championship game ended up being Cam, Matthew, Jake, Allison, and Frank (his mom actually one but requested a proxy for the championship game). They each had a paper plate with 10 candy corns on it that were covered in whip cream so you couldn’t see them. Whoever found all ten and put them on a napkin next to their plate-without using your hands of course- was the winner. The kids loved it. Jake was the winner and he got another laminated turkey medal for his efforts.
It was a nice relaxing enjoyable evening. The friends that have done it every year are moving to Poland this summer for a couple years. One of the rest of us will have to try and live up to the Friendsgiving tradition while they are gone.
I have been waiting to post this post to add some fun pictures to it…long story short-they aren’t coming. So take my word for it, we had a fun time and looked ridiculous doing it.
After counting down almost daily for the last 6 months Emilee’s birthday final came! She was so excited. She has been asking for some lego dragons fora long time. I was able to find some on ebay since they were not sold anymore and she got her little family of lego dragons for her birthday.
To celebrate she wanted to have a few friends over for an all day play date. She spent the night at Jovee’s on Friday and then I picked her up and Jovee, Reese, Cambrie and the rest of our family went to a movie together. It was cheesy, bad acting, and pretty ridiculous and they loved it. They giggled and laughed through the whole movie. After the movie we went home and had pizza and rootbeer, opened presents and then blew out candles and ate cake. The weather was great so Emilee picked a park and we went and played for a few hours. After her friends went home we met Jovee’s family at Sake Lounge and had Emilee’s favorite food- a Shaggy Dog. It is a sushi roll.
I think she had a fun birthday. She said she feels a little bigger but not much. We have lego dragons all around our house.
The past few weeks have been pretty busy but really good weeks.
Our primary at church had their annual primary program. It was really good. It is one of my favorite Sundays of the year. This year Emilee helped me invite our new neighbors to come and they did. It was a really cool experience for them I think. Their son Jack even stayed the rest of church with Matthew. That same week they called a new primary presidency and I am the new president. Figuring everything out and getting organized has kept me busy for the last few weeks. I am enjoying it and excited. I enjoy being in primary. Kids can be little stinkers but they also have sweet pure hearts and I love hearing the way they see the gospel and apply it in their lives.
Emilee was the P.E. Student of the Month for her class. I couldn’t make it because I was at work but Dad made it and got a picture of her getting her award.
Emilee is P.E. Student of the Month
Allison became a turtle activist. Basically that means she made lots of posters and shames any of us that use a straw.
We have had some great Fall weather this month, despite it snowing the day before Halloween. The last few weekends have been gorgeous and we have tried to go to the park when we can.
Emilee decided to measure herself doing different things on her mirror. It made me smile when she showed me. There are fewer and fewer moments like this in our house now that everyone is getting older. It is kind of hard to see but she marked a spot for standing on her tippy toes, standing regular, kneeling up, kneeling down, criss cross apple sauce leaning up, and last but not least criss cross apple sauce flat on her bum.
Allison made a tube for something at school and found a funny way to take pictures with it too.
Allison had her last game for cheer this season for the football teams. They have their final cheer and dance competition coming up later this week. It has been mixed reviews on whether she liked it or not this year. I asked her if she wanted to do it again and she is currently undecided. She is looking forward to the competition and will do a great job and have fun. I am sure that will help her decide.
Emilee had a field trip to the the Pumpkin Patch. There are few less perfect field trips for 1st graders in the Fall. We got lost in a corn maze, played in the corn box, climbed in the hay, and rolled down the lawn in huge irrigation pipes. There are some sweet kids in her grade. Emilee and I had fun sitting in the very back seat of the bus together too.
Usually by Halloween day arrives I am more than happy to be done with it. The kids dress up and it is fun but you can only go to so many parties that the purpose is to get candy before it gets old. The girls school had a trunk or treat, our church had a trunk or treat, there was class parties, we were invited by some friends to go to a community party, our neighbors have a party (its for adults but still Halloween themed). It is all very fun and the kids love it but my small introvert social bucket is over flowing by the time Halloween comes.
We did our usual Halloween tradition with the McDonalds. There whole family came over to have pizza and witch’s brew (home made root beer) for dinner then we go trick or treating together afterwards. Allison invited her friend Hailey and her family to come with us too. Matthew went on his own with his friends. Allison was a little put out thinking she would have to wait for the slow people in our group to go trick or treating and not get as much candy as she wanted. Her costume was a giant rooster that made it a little tricky to get around in so she actually ended up being the slowest person. The amount of candy did not seem to be affected though. She ‘won’ her own prize for the most candy collected when her bag weighed in at 14 pounds. Matthew had a mere 9 pounds and was totally embarrassed he was beaten by his sister. Emilee didn’t weigh hers but I’m sure she had a few pounds as well. I felt like I was going to get diabetes just sitting in the room with all of it. Of course there was a giant trading of candy session when we all got back to get rid of the candy they didn’t like. I think they all thought Halloween was a big success. Ryan has been taking several large handfuls to work since Halloween to help protect our children’s pancreas’. It was a fun night.
In Emilee’s class they received a ‘Pet Report’ assignment. Don’t tell Allison but we borrowed Peanut for a picture and Emilee claimed him as her pet for her report. She wrote a great paragraph about how cute and cuddly and soft he is.
**Update. Emilee’s teacher hung their pet reports up in the hall for everyone to see and Allison saw Emilee’s. She was really sweet and said it was fine that Emilee used Peanut for her pet…”as long as she knows who REAL pet he is.”😊
Emilee is not going to be in this stage much longer and I will miss it when she doesn’t do things like this anymore. The stage of wearing some costume around the house and turning her surroundings into whatever her imagination comes up with. She was watching the Chiefs game with Ryan while wearing her wizard cape and using a chop stick to cast her spells. It made me smile and I had to take a picture to remember it.
The next picture is also just another cute moment of the girls heading off to school. Emilee was excited she was supposed to bring a pumpkin so they could cut it open and count the seeds.
I was the Mystery Reader for Emilee’s class this last week. She was thrilled. I will miss it when she doesn’t jump for joy when she sees me someday. She came up and sat by me while I read “If You Give A Pig A Pancake” and six different Little Critter Books. Emilee new where every single mouse, grasshopper, and spider where hidden on each page. I stayed and had lunch with her afterwards. She ate her lunch from home and stole my cookie I got when I went through the lunch line.
Emilee is liking 1st grade a lot so far. She tells me it is way shorter than school was last year. She does really well getting on the bus and going to school without stressing as much as she did last year too. She is starting to go to gymnastics again, she is in the same class as her friend Laney. She still loves playing with her stuffed animals, legos, and drawing and coloring. She is still really tall and fast. She gets a little sad that none of her friends live really close to our house but we try and have play dates for them to come over. She hates waking up in the morning but is getting better at it. She is the pickiest eater I know. What she does and doesn’t like to eat changes daily, there is no way to keep track of it. Watermelon and strawberries are her least favorite and she takes it as a personal attack if they are even in the same room as her. She is still a sweat heart and loves animals. She is always willing to help Allison with Peanut. She can clean her room and do a lot of things on her own but she is a master at getting someone else to ‘help her’ so she doesn’t have to do it all. She loves riding her scooter or bike outside. She is still a huge momma’s girl but her soft spot for dad has grown a lot the past year.
Allison is doing her best to enjoy cheerleading with only one good arm. She is very frustrated that she still has to wear her brace but loves wearing her cheerleading outfit enough to stick with it. Games have started now too which she has fun at too. She is missing gymnastics a lot too but she is cleared to go back on November 25th so she is already counting down the days. She often recruits a friend or two to go ask people to walk their dogs to earn a little extra money. She also makes and sells slime on a regular basis. She is always looking for a way to earn a dollar. She spends a lot of time taking care of Peanut and does a great job. He loves to snuggle with her and ‘pops’ when he sees her because he is excited. She is still witty and sharp as a tack. She likes to know what is going on with everyone and everything. She has been showing her peacemaker/caring side more lately. If someone is upset she tries to think of ways to help cheer them up. She enjoys being older but will never be old enough. Her and her dad went to a fishing daddy/daughter activity. She is very competitive but also kind. She decided to do Girl Scouts again this year. She is always very fashion aware and is relieved that it is time to get a new vest for Girl Scouts so she doesn’t have to wear ‘the hideous sash’ instead. She loves that she is old enough to go to a friends or walk around the neighborhood a little on her own. She is fun to talk to and always has an interesting perspective on things. She is a very good cook as well. She is liking school but doesn’t like to admit it.
Matthew is getting busier and busier. He decided to play football in addition to baseball again this year. He has a two hour practice Monday through Friday or a game for football. He still tries to squeeze in as much time at NBA to practice his hitting and fielding when he can. He also decided to do a nine week basketball camp to help him get better at basketball. He is often found sleeping on the couch at 8:30 at night with ice packs laying on various parts of his body. He is a social boy and likes to try new things. He has a little bit of a teenager attitude starting but is still a sweet kid. When he isn’t playing or practicing a sport he loves to play with the kids on the street. A new boy named Jack moved in a few weeks ago to join the possy. They often get a game of wiffle ball, football, tag, or basketball going after school. I tell him he has an old soul, which I love. He thinks and ponders about things and likes to think through the process of how something will work. He is a gifted boy with an infectious smile when he wants to use it.
On the way TO pracitce
Matthew, Jack and Finn heading to school.
Ryan and I decided that we were going to do another game of Jeopardy with the kids to help them remember some basic, not hard, general and sometimes very specific rules to being a successful happy person now and in the future. They were all excited to play but at some point throughout the game they lost their temper, pronounced something completely unfair, or the game was wrong and stupid. They missed the point that it is supposed to be fun and better than having a lecture for an hour.
Allison is mad she had to split the first/second place pot with Matthew because they tied. Right after this picture Emilee got upset when she realized the dollar was her prize instead of a donut. Matthew made sure to remind everyone that he won this time, to re-fresh Allison’s wound if she forgot.
