Christmas Class Parties

Here are some pictures from the kids' school holiday parties.

In Katelynn's class they wrapped presents & made cards for their parents and decorated gingerbread houses.

In Michael's class they played Bingo and made a little craft.

In Emma's class they also played games & made a little craft.

The kids had a good time, even though I felt a little bit like a chicken with my head cut off. Run over to this class! Get a picture of kid doing activity! Smile! Run to another class! Say hi to a parent or two! More pictures! Run to another class! Wash, rinse and repeat. Phew! 

Top Seven in 2011

So, I'm a little behind the times in posting this, but better late than never, right?!

GOALS FOR 2011

1) Sorry, not ready to disclose this one to the masses. (How's that for a disappointing start?) You'll just have to wait and see, 'cause if I accomplish it, I will definitely let you know.

2) Grow closer to the Lord through daily prayer, scripture study and reading/listening to uplifting things.

3) Be more loving to my husband and children. 

4) Lose XX pounds (or at least xx by the end of the year) by exercising regularly and watching what I eat...and not just watching the junk go into my mouth! ;) (Thought I was gonna give you a number there, huh? Too bad! Ha ha ha!)

5) Remove the CHAOS from my home and make it more beautiful (in the words of Emma).

6) Nurture the relationships with my family and friends. (Connect with people more often, be more aware of others, etc.)

7) Invite a friend to a church activity who does not currently attend my church.

And, a few smaller goals, just for fun:

Decorate an 'awesome' cake

Run another race

Finish the kids' quilts & sew the girls a skirt

Keep my blog updated and get it printed

Read the Hunger Games series, as well as a few of the 'classics'

We'll see how it goes. Looking forward to making much progress this year! What are YOUR goals for 2011?

Spag, Snow & Lights

Every year at Christmastime we go to the Old Spaghetti Factory. The kids were pretty good!

After dinner we drove over to a mall where they were having 'snow' fall every night, because Katelynn had been praying for snow for at least a week or so. We felt bad for the kid, knowing that it doesn't snow here in Arizona. (We were proven wrong about a week later. See this post.) So, we took the kids to see the 'snow' fall. They enjoyed it...until Katelynn bent down to inspect the snow and said, "Hey! This isn't snow! These are bubbles! Are you kidding me?!"

Next we went to see the lights at the temple. It was very pretty, as always.

This is the kids' favorite way to get around the temple grounds. They received a lot of comments about it!

Dad's Biography

As I was going through some stuff, I came across the biography my Mom wrote down to give to the family friend, Steve Botschon, who did my Dad's eulogy at his funeral. I thought it would be a good idea to have it written down in more than one place. Here it goes.

* Born in Shreveport, Louisiana September 23rd, 1952.
* His Dad was in the Air Force, so he lived in various stateside places, including Wichita Falls and California.
* Graduated from North Burlington High School in New Jersey in 1970.
* He excelled in tack in high school, and was captain in his senior year.
* After working in the Jersey area at various jobs, including a parts factory, he felt he needed a change and decided to join the Air Force in 1977.
* He was trained as a Radio Communications Analysis Technician- Communication or Systems Analyst for short. This put him in the Electronic Security Command of the Air Force. There are only a few stateside bases, so his first duty assignment was Iraklion AZ, Crete, Greece.
* While there, he met his wife Anita, who was also in the Air Force stationed there as a Morse Systems Operator.
* After a brief engagement, they were married in the base chapel and took a short hop to Athens, Greece for their honeymoon!
* He found the LDS church in Crete by unconventional means. Learning all they could and studying it out, he and Anita were baptized about 3 weeks later at sunset in the Mediterranean Sea there on the island of Crete.
* Trent stayed in the Air Force for 9 years and 3 months before becoming dissatisfied with the promotion system, and decided to finish up his enlistment and go to school.
* While in the military he received quite a few awards, including the Meritorious Service Medal, Air Force Commendation Medal, Air Force Outstanding Unit with 2 oak leaf clusters, Air Force Good Conduct Medal with 2 oak leaf clusters.
* Trent returned to Mississippi where his Dad retired to go to the University of Mississippi. Having family there, he was always an Ole Miss fan.
* He was planning on going to school to become a high school History/Current Events teacher, but the Spirit guided him to go to Pharmacy school.
* He started pharmacy school as a father of 2 children, and bu the time he graduated in 1991 he had 3 more.
* So, promising Anita that they would live close to her family once out of school, they packed up the five kids and moved to New Mexico, where her Dad retired and one of her sisters lived.
* Coming from a military family, Trent always had "itchy feet", so needless to say, they didn't stay in New Mexico too long.
* After a couple of years or so, and another baby, they moved to Utah.
* They stayed in Utah for about 4 years and 2 more babies, but Trent always wanted to live in the Midwest because of the fond memories he had of visiting his grandparents in Illinois.
* While in Wisconsin Trent participated in the Civil Air Patrol wand was able to fly a Cessna for about 10 minutes. He loved being involved with the boys and girls looking at the military as a career.
* Even though he enjoyed living in Wisconsin, he agreed to move back to Utah because Anita wanted to be close to her oldest daughter, who was getting married and planned on living in Utah.
* So, back to Utah they went, settling in Orem, while Trent's job was in Sandy at a long term care home as Director of Pharmacy.
* Trent decided to move south after a bad winter in Utah. He interviewed with various hospitals and visited some otehr locations, but Athens won his heart. Bob Gutches(?) and his wife were so welcoming that after the visit, Trent hoped he would be offered the job. (He was.)
* Trent always felt at home here in Athens. This is where he planned to retire...

One thing Steve said that always sticks out in my mind from the eulogy is when he talked about the first time he met my Dad. He had talked to him on the phone, so he knew a tiny bit about him. He knew he had come to Athens to take a pharmacy position at the hospital and was staying in an apartment with his son, while the rest of his family was in Utah preparing for the move. Knowing he was a pharmacist, and seeing my Dad's BMW parked outside, he wasn't sure if they would hit if off or not. But, when my Dad opened the door wearing sweatpants, an Ole Miss T-shirt and a big smile on his face, Steve knew they would be good friends!

If you remember anything else that was said, or have any other memories you would like to add, please leave it in the comments. Thank you!

Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we went over to my Uncle Jack & Aunt Cecilia’s house for dinner, gift exchanging and  having a good time.  Everyone loved to see the kids and commented on how much they’ve grown over the last year, and what beautiful, well-behaved children they are. Mommies always like to hear that!

Michael with with Reggie, my cousins Frank & Julie’s dog.

Max, Scott, Aunt Barb, Julie & Laurie

Helen & Katelynn

Michael & Emma coloring with their Christmas presents from Aunt Cecilia.

Jillian & Aunt Cecilia

Julie, Jillian, Aunt Cecilia & Aunt Barb

Flash Mob

On December 22nd, 2010 I took the kids to participate in a flash mob singing of Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus. It was awesome! The mall was packed! I heard about it from my Aunt Cecilia, because my cousin, Helen, is in Phoenix Girls’ Chorus and they were told about it. It was held at Scottsdale Fashion Place Mall. It was supposed to start at noon, but there were so many people there (the info had been leaked during the morning news on Fox, plus several choirs were told to come) that the mall security make them start 10 or 15 minutes early! So, all the people who were still on their way to the Food Court to make it there by noon missed it. We were in the ‘missed it’ group. But, everyone was just standing around, disappointed that they’d missed it and were waiting around to see what was going to happen next. Then, I think a guy stood up and just started conducting and everyone joined in and sung it a cappella. It was pretty neat. I’m glad I dragged the kids to the mall for it. It was funny, though…all during the song Michael kept saying, “Why is everybody singing?” Ha ha ha! I just said, “Because it’s awesome. Shhh!” After the second singing of the Hallelujah Chorus everyone cleared out like the security officers wanted.

Here is a picture I took of the kids right after the song was over. It is a good representation of the kids’ feelings at the time, I believe.  ;) Emma cheesing for the camera, Michael being silly, and Katelynn saying, “Mom, why are you taking my picture? Can’t we just get out of here?”

Here is a link to an article about it and a recording of the mob. I recorded a video, too, but mine isn’t very good.

Cookie Party

I really wanted to have a fun little cookie decorating party for the kids and their friends, but I kept putting it off because we were busy/I knew people were going out of town/I wanted it to be perfect/insert other lame excuse here. After reading this post by my friend Laura over at Housewife on Fire I decided to JUST DO IT! So what if everything wasn’t perfect and everyone couldn’t make it. The kids will have a good time, and that’s what is important, right?!

Well, the kids *did* have a good time. Granted, half the party involved running around the house and screaming like banshees rather than decorating cookies. But, it was fun. I’m happy that a few friends could make it. Hopefully we will have a better turn-out next year!

Tangled

During the Christmas break we went as a family to see “Tangled” in 3D. The kids loved it. I could hear Katelynn giggling through the whole movie.

And, aren’t kids in 3D glasses so dang cute?!

Ward Christmas Party

This year’s ward Christmas party was a lot of fun. As part of the program they had the Primary do the Nativity. It was hilarious! All the kids were just in these piecemealed costumes. Then, you have all the confusion of the kids not knowing where to go, etc. It was funny, because our Bishop was the narrator and there were times he would say, “And all the angels LEFT” or “and then the shepherds WENT HOME” Lol!

Emma was an angel. I thought the gold garland halos were genius. Props to whoever came up with that. Oh, and now whenever we talk about or sing about angels, Emma exclaims, “Like me! I’m an angel!”

Katelynn was a wise’man’. She always talks about how she was the only girl wiseman with all the boys. I told you she was boy crazy!

Michael was a sheep. Like his ‘wooly coat’?! Why, yes…that *is* quilt batting wrapped around his body. I tried to make it look more realistic, but Michael was concerned about arm movement.    

During the program my friend, Risa, and I sang a neat song called, “Starbright”. She played the guitar and we both sang. Then, after the program was over the kids got to meet Santa. But, being the bad parents we are, we missed their visit with Santa because Santa was in the Primary room with the kids, and we were still in the cultural hall chatting and eating dessert! Oh, well.  They told us all about it and showed us their candy canes.

Putting up the tree

We usually put up our tree the first Sunday or Monday night of December. Every year we listen to Christmas music while we put up the Christmas tree. I love the old stuff like Bing Crosby. It just feels more like Christmas that way for some reason.  Another part of our tradition is eating Almond Roca & drinking hot chocolate. 

Usually we place the angel on top of the tree at very end, and sing “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” or “Angels We Have Heard on High”, but we didn’t this year because I couldn’t find our angel! We have a box of Christmas stuff missing, and our angel and Mickey cookies & milk set are both in the box that has mysteriously disappeared.

Family Pictures 2010

Back in November we had our family pictures taken by a good friend of mine, Ashley. They turned out so great, and we had a good time, too. If you need some great pics taken, you should call my bud Ashley.