Year in Pictures

'Tis the Season

December is always a busy month.  Not wanting to add anything else into the mix, I made a conscious decision to postpone blogging about all of our holiday activities until after the big day.  Now that Christmas is over, I thought I would chronicle some of the fun stuff we did this month.  The kids didn’t really wear the same shirts all month long, but it sure looks like it judging from these pictures.

Gingerbread Trains:

I found some quality gingerbread trains on clearance last year.  I figured it wouldn’t matter if they were nasty and stale by the time we made them, since the kids don’t eat them anyway.  It was a fun change from our regular gingerbread houses.  Each of the kids had their own bag of frosting.  Between what she piled up on the top of the train and what she sucked out directly from the tip, Abby used up every bit of the frosting in her bag.  She perfected her technique so she was all ready to make her preschool gingerbread house a week later.

Choir Concerts

The kids did a Christmas concert at the high school with the elementary school choir.  They had good practice for the big nighttime performance by doing a couple of assemblies at the school earlier in the week.  The school assemblies became a little more memorable for Emily when the kid standing behind her threw up in the middle of the first assembly.  She had to call me to bring her new clothes.  They took the picture of the choir for the yearbook while she was in the office calling me.  She was a little disappointed about that, but I convinced her it will be a funny memory whenever she looks at her yearbook and remembers why she isn’t in the picture.

Ward Breakfast

Nate and the kids were part of the entertainment for our ward Christmas breakfast this year.  They sang “When Joseph Went to Bethlehem.”  I hadn’t taken a camera with me to record them while they were singing, but I had them jump up on the stage for a photo after the breakfast was over and then made them do private concert when we got home.  During the real thing you could pretty much only hear Nate and Elise (probably just because she was closest to the microphone).  The kids (especially Abby) were lots more bold when they were singing in our family room.

Cookie Day

Nate’s parents invited the kids over for a cookie day.  They had a good time decorating Christmas cookies and talking with Grandpa and Grandma.  They each came home with their own plate of (thickly frosted/over-decorated) cookies.

Christmas Banner

Nate brought home a big roll of leftover map paper from work.  The kids set to work making a giant Christmas banner.  It kept them busy for hours and they worked together so well (hardly ever happens).  They were all very proud of their creation.

Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree

The kids choreographed an awesome little dance number to Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree.  They were hoping to perform during our family party, but they forgot about it after everyone was here.  Luckily we have a video so we can always remember it.

Family Party

We had all of my family here the Sunday before Christmas for a party.  I was silly and worried that we wouldn’t have enough food.  Really, we didn’t have enough counter space to put all the food.  Everything was so yummy.  I think I gained eight pounds in three hours.  We skipped the nativity program this year and instead each family shared a Christmas story.  It was nice.  We continued the tradition of giving each of the kids a little gift.  They got a book and a candy-filled candy cane from Holly, gloves from Lesle, a five dollar bill from Jody, and I made them each a floppy fleece hat.  I had to change up the pattern a bit when I realized that fleece only stretches in one direction (who knew?), but they turned out pretty cute.  Sarah was happy to model for me so I could get a picture.  I’m bugged that I didn’t think to take a group photo while everyone was here.  Next time.

Star Wars Advent Calendar

We splurged and got this fun calendar to add into our nightly countdown-to-Christmas routine.  The kids took turns picking a book, choosing a Christmas song, putting an ornament on our little tree, or building the mini Lego kit.  The Legos were definitely the favorite thing.  They all looked forward to the night when it was their turn.

Class Parties

I only helped with one class party this year.  I got to make 12 gingerbread houses for Elise’s class and then go and help the kids decorate them.  There were a couple of extras, so Abby got to do one too.  They both had lots of fun, but they were not impressed with the crappy, store-bought frosting.  They were expecting it to work like our quality, homemade, royal icing that sets up fast and holds like glue.  The store-bought stuff just didn’t measure up.

I took a quick picture of Elise by the Star Student bulletin board while I was there.  Once a month, one student is chosen from each grade for a little spotlight.  Elise was very excited about being chosen for December.

Abby had her preschool party the same day.  I didn’t go, but luckily my friend took some pictures of Abby visiting with Santa.  She came home so excited that Santa had come to preschool and thrilled with her Ballgown Surprise Cinderella doll that she got from her friend Scott in the gift exchange.  She didn’t mind one little bit that Scott’s mom ignored the $3 limit.  :)

 Christmas Village

We decided to brave the cold weather and take the kids to Christmas Village.  After making a quick trip around the park to see all of the displays, we headed over to the amphitheater to watch Nate’s brother’s singing group perform.  It was a fun (but freezing!) family night.

Christmas Eve

2011 = odd year = Grandma Reatha comes for Christmas.  The kids get so excited when it is our turn for Grandma to come.  We started the fun on Christmas Eve by watching the messages that Santa sent each of the kids from Portable North Pole.  Abby was easily the most impressed.  She was wide-eyed and grinning the whole time.  Then the kids opened their new pajamas and we had our traditional movie marathon with lots of yummy treats.  I had a minor meltdown when I washed the quilts I had made for the girls and learned firsthand that it is a really bad idea to not pre-shrink the fabric before spending hours making three cute new bedspreads.  I tried to get over it, but it put a bit of damper on my Christmas Eve spirits.

Christmas

Christmas was on a Sunday this year.  As much as I love the idea of going to church on Christmas day, it complicates things a bit.  We were debating opening presents before going to church at 9am or waiting until after.  We ended up doing half and half.  We got off to a shaky start with Elise being a bit of a Dudley Dursley with her stocking (“that’s it?”) and Abby being a bad gift receiver with the extra gift that Emily had bought for her at her class’s Market Day (leaving Emily in tears).  It wasn’t a great way to start the day, but after a friendly reminder about being grateful everything was much smoother.

Santa brought the Taylor Swift Band Hero bundle for the kids.  That provided much of the day’s entertainment.  The girls loved their new bedspreads and pillows and acted like I was a crazy woman when I showed them how they were a little wonky from shrinking.  They couldn’t have cared less.  Thanks heavens they didn’t inherit my OCD.  We gave each of the kids a new bean bag, the older three each got a cool Lego set, Abby got the ultimate Disney Princess doll collection, Ben got the 5^th grade ski pass, and they all got some new clothes and various other toys and games.  As usual, their gifts to each other were a big hit.  Ben gave Abby they ladybug pillow pet that she had been begging for for months; Abby gave Ben a new Nerf gun; Emily got a Bop-It (on an incredible deal) for Elise; and Elise gave Emily a Build-a Bear kit and a paint by number.  Nate and I didn’t really exchange gifts.  He gave me a scotch tape dispenser and I gave him a sharpener for his ax.  Our real presents were new barstools for the kitchen and a new TV for our bedroom, but we had already been using them both for a month before Christmas.

Ben and Santa

We had planned on telling Ben the whole truth about Santa last year, but he was such a big believer that we just couldn’t bring ourselves to do it.  When this year rolled around, he believed just as much as ever.  Ironically, the girls have all expressed some doubts, but not Ben.  Of all of the kids, he was most sure that Santa was real (even though he already knew about both the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy).  I was torn between breaking his heart and having him be the only college freshman that still believes in St. Nick.  Finally I decided that if he brought it up, I would tell him.  If not, I would just wait another year (or three).  Luckily, out of the blue one day, he asked the big question.  I did my standard “What do you think?” reply and he said, “Just tell me.”  So, I did.  He took the initial news really well, but every little detail threw him for a loop.  “What about the stockings?  You and Dad do the stockings too?!?!”  The best part was, “You eat the cookies?!?!?”  That was almost too much for him to handle.  It was so sweet to watch his innocent little mind put two and two together for every piece of our carefully constructed Santa ruse.  It was hard for him to wrap his brain around the idea that all of it was just a show.  I gave him a big hug and made him promise not to tell his sisters.  That little promise seemed to make everything better.  He was pretty excited about knowing something that they didn’t and he did an awesome job of not blowing the secret.  He did give me and Nate lots of funny little grins and winks whenever the subject came up, but he was never so obvious that he blew our cover.  I sure love that boy!

Preschool Fieldtrips

Abby has had three fieldtrips in the last couple of months. First was a little trip to our local grocery store. The store manager was amazing with the kids and kept them well entertained while he showed them around. He had all kinds of interesting facts to share. My favorite part was seeing the chainmail glove that the meat department guys wear so they don’t cut themselves. Who knew?



Next on the schedule was a trip to the fire station. Abby was totally engrossed with everything that the firemen taught her and was excited to tell me all about it again on the way home. She even gave a fire safety lesson the next time she was in charge of Family Home Evening. Her favorite part of the trip was that she got to keep the cool plastic firefighter hat they gave her.


The last fieldtrip of the year was to go to Kangaroo Zoo, a new bounce house place in town. Our other kids had won free passes for participating in Reflections, so we took the whole family a couple of weeks earlier. I tried to persuade Abby that since she had already gone with her brother and sisters that she didn’t really need to go with her preschool class. She wasn’t convinced. I wasn’t as enthusiastic about a second trip, so I opted to stay home and sent Abby with a friend. She had a fabulous time playing with her preschool buddies for a couple of hours. Since I wasn’t there I didn’t get any pictures, but here is one that we took a couple of weeks before. (Claudy, Korbin, and Maddie joined us when we took the kids making it loads more fun for everyone.)

A Very Blustery Day

At the beginning of the school year the PTA sent home a note saying that we were supposed to send an emergency kit to the school for each of our kids. There was a whole list of items . . . bottled water, a flashlight, hand warmers, a mylar blanket, canned food, etc. Nate and I complied, but we mocked the idea a bit. We live two minutes away from the school (15 minutes if we walk). We thought it was lame to put together kits that our kids would never need to use. If there was ever an emergency, we could be to the school to pick them up before they really needed to bust into a survival kit. It turns out that they might not have been completely useless after all. We had a crazy windy day on Thursday (gusts of 100 mph) and the power was out at school for about 4 hours. Since Emily’s classroom doesn’t have any windows, her teacher had the kids get the flashlights out of their emergency kits so they could keep working. Emily was glad she had one (even though the batteries died after a couple of hours). I thought about going and picking the kids up early, but I figured it would be a fun memory for them to be at school during a blackout. I’m glad I followed my instincts. When I picked them up after school, they couldn’t stop talking about how much fun they had. Most kids left early, so they got down to 6-10 kids in each of their classes. Emily said that she just kept thinking “Please don’t come and get us Mom. This is too much fun.” Holly pointed out later that their teachers were thinking, “Moms, come and get your kids! This is not so much fun.” :)

We looked at a bunch of photos on KSL.com that night of all the damage throughout the state. There were some crazy pictures. We were glad that the worst thing that happened at our house was the Christmas tree on our front porch blew over and we lost one of the branches. After seeing how bad some people got hit, I felt very blessed (and glad that we had taken apart our trampoline the week before; it wouldn’t have fared so well).

Future Party Planner

You can always tell when Elise sets the table at our house because there are place cards (even though we sit in the same seats at every meal) and the napkins are wrapped around the silverware and decorated with stickers for whatever holiday is next on the calendar. This week she went the extra mile and wrote each of us a personalized message inside our little name tags. I sure love that girl!