Spirit of Christmas

During the first week of December, Sara participated in the Spirit of Christmas show at ALA. The show was fabulous! All the fine arts programs in the school took part in the show. It was amazing how it all ran so smooth.

This is Sara before the show started.
Sara getting ready to go on stage.
Sara singing Frosty the Snowman. The elementary choir had 2 costume changes during the night. They were busy back stage getting ready for their other 3 numbers.
At the end of the show everyone came out on stage to sing and dance the final number. It was done so well, especially considering all the many children involved- third through 12th grade.

Religious Knot

On December 3rd Tyler earned his Religious Knot for Scouts, along with other pins and belt loops. I am so proud of him and his hard work. He is so lucky to have great leaders! Way to go Ty!

Playing Kitchen

My sweet little Ben loves to play kitchen. He is so good at getting you what you want to eat, even when you change your mind time and time again. What a cutie! I love playing with him.

Decorating the Tree

On November 30th, we decorated our tree after church. Ben was so cute, because all week he kept asking when we were going to do it. Finally the day came. He was thrilled.
That night we went to my parents house, for dinner, and then we all helped decorate the tree. The music was blasting and everyone was having a great time.
Sara enjoyed the icicle ornaments, or should I say the snotcicles. She is trying to be like her Uncle Ryan.
Ben was so proud to be up on the ladder and didn't get down until it was all decorated.
This is Nicole's favorite ornament. A musical snow globe.
Sara was in charge of the high areas on the tree. . .
While Craig and Tyler got the ornaments ready to put on the tree. What team work. Once the tree was complete, it was time for Grandpa to give the kids a special ornament that symbolizes their year.
Ben got a Mickey Mouse ornament because he is obsessed with Mickey. If there is something in a store with Mickey on it, he will find it.
Grandpa gave Nicole the Three Musketeer Barbie ornament, because she loves all the barbie movies.
Ty received a baseball pitching ornament because he played on the Cougars/True Players teams this year and pitched.
Sara got a Hannah Montana ornament, because she sings so well, and has been performing a lot. She also loves the Hannah Montana movie.

Thanks Grandpa and Grandma for the ornaments. They are all wonderful.

Thanksgiving Eve

Since all of our in laws are here, and it is hard picking who to spend the holidays with, my mom has decided that it is best for to have her Thanksgiving the day before Thanksgiving. It works out great! So Wed. before Thanksgiving, we all went to her house along with my dad's brother and his family, for our Thanksgiving Feast. We are lucky she does this, because Thanksgiving isn't Thanksgiving without mom's turkey. After eating, we played Bingo and other games. It was a fun night!



The night ended with mom heading off to work (a graveyard), and Craig deciding it was time to sing Karoke. It was so fun watching everyone. (And of course I forgot to take pics) Way to go! The men were especially impressive.

The next day we went to Craig's brothers house for our Turkey lunch. Then Heidi and I went off shopping to Shop Ko, Kmart, and Walmart. Our annual shopping spree. While we were shopping my brother called and invited Ty and I to go to the Jazz game. The seats were on row 20 in the lower bowl. Craig was actually invited first, but since he had to work early on Black Friday I went in his place. It was a great day, and the Jazz even won!

70's Show

Sara performed on Nov. 11-14th at ALA the 70's Show. It was so amazing! She is so fun to watch, and has so much energy. She is normally so reserved, but when she gets on a stage, something in her comes out. Good job Sara!
Sara before the show!

It was such a Great Night! Craig was so impressed, especially since it brought back so many memories for him of the 70', with the Brady Bunch and the Love Boat, not to mention all of the music. I am to young to remember all that he did, but it still was great!

Garage Problems

This afternoon, I had to pick up Sara from ALA at 4 p.m. so at 3:45 I opened the garage to a get in the van to drive through the blizzard to get her. But plans changed when the garage door would only go up a fourth of the way. Crap! What am I going to do??? So I closed the garage and tried opening it again, nothings. So I tried lifting the garage door, but I forgot to turn into She Ra before trying and failed miserably. So now what??? Then all of a sudden the door fell. Well I guess I am stuck.

So I called my brother to pick up Sara. Called my dad to see if he could help. He came over and lifted the garage door so I pull the van out, and told me the main spring snapped. Great!!! So I called Craig at work to tell him the problem.

While all this was happening, my siblings were all going on dates, which means I have 10 kids in my house right now. Sara had another program so I had to call my trusty neighbor/babysitter to come and sit with all the rug rats so I could take and pick up Sara.

How grateful I am for friends and family. You just can't do it alone.!!!

No clean bowls

This morning, Tyler came up to me with big crocodile tears, "Mom, I did the dishes two days ago, and put all the cereal bowls away, and I didn't even get to use one. They are now all dirty." He was shocked and upset, since there were no clean bowls. I felt bad, because I understand how he feels. Sometimes things happen in life and it isn't fair. And yet I had to snicker, because now he knows how I feel on many days, cleaning and then coming home to a messy house. Life is tough sometimes, but it is great at the time.

Halloween

This year for Halloween we wanted to dress up with a family theme of the 50's. The girls in poodle skirts, and the boys as greasers. But as you can see, I didn't win. Tyler wanted to be a NERD. And I must say, he played the part well.
Nicole in her poodle skirt.
Ben ended up this morning deciding he wanted to be Spiderman like his cousins. So we called the neighbors and borrowed the costume. He was so excited.
Sara dressed in her poodle skirt, showing attitude.
Craig had to work until 7 p.m. so he this is his costume at work. We never got a picture of him and I together in our 50's clothes.
This is my dad! Every year my parents go all out for Halloween. They were both dressed as hippies, and I must say they looked great!!
We spent the day at ALA, for their Halloween Carnival. Sara, Tyler, and Nicole all won gold fish, pop, and had a blast playing all the games. Then at 5 p.m. we went trick or treating. Last we ended up at my parents home to eat dinner, and play games. This is the kids playing BINGO.

It was such a fun day! Full of lots of fun activities, but we are all exhausted! It is a good thing we got an extra hour of sleep thanks to the time change.

Red Ribbon Week

For Red Ribbon Week, the kids had to dress up saying that they would be Drug Free. One day they had to dress up like the 80's. Tyler found bright green clothes, while Nicole did the big hair, like the 80's. It is crazy to think that they are dressing up like the 80's and not an earlier decade. Man we are getting old.

Clash Day! We were shocked Tyler actually dressed up and let me do something silly with his hair. Way to go Ty!
Nicole all ready for crazy hair/clash day. I couldn't be wild enough for her. She just kept wanting to keep adding more.

Gardne Village

Saturday, October 17th we went with the Ortiz Family to Gardner Village to see The Witches. The place was crowded because it was womens weekend. There were many women dressed up, but we didn't go to see them. We went to see the fake ones. They are so cute! We got to go on a scavenger hunt looking for the many witches. The first one we spotted was the one hula hooping.

The kids were nervous to get by this witch. My dad for years has dressed up and sat on the porch to scare kids on Halloween. Nicole was leery standing next to this witch, and I am sure the reason was because of Grandpa.
This was everyones favorite witch. Cute Witchy Poo!!!
This witch would do anything for chocolate. This is a witch after my own heart.
After we were finished with the scavenger hunt, we turned in the sheet to the bakery for a chocolate chip cookie. It was a fun day at Gardner Village.

Goblin Valley

For Fall Break we went to Goblin Valley for the day. We had a blast hiking, well everyone did except Ben. He was fine if he was climbing up rocks, but if he had to walk he just cried.
Tyler climbed up to this cool cliff.

Sara seeing what she could find high up the mountain.
Smile!
There were a lot of narrow spots on the hike. It was beautiful seeing the many different formations and the slots. Some areas, you could barely get your body through.
Ben was happy straddling the rocks.

Goblin Valley: What a beautiful site

Narrow slots.
Nicole climbing on the goblins.
Thanks Mom and Dad for suggesting that we go. It was a fun day with everyone. And the best part it was Craig's day off, so the whole family was there. Yahoo!