Christmas Week #2

So just about every other year (because every year would be crazy) we go see the lights at Temple Square in Salt Lake City. It usually happens when Michelle is here for Christmas because they are crazy enough to want to brave the cold and we think well heck, we didn't go last year, we might as well. As you can see from the picture, Jayden is wrapped in my coat (good thing I brought me two of them) because his really smart Mom forgot to bring his coat.

But this year to make it more fun, we rode the Frontrunner into Salt Lake to see the lights. It actually worked out pretty slick. We caught the Frontrunner close to home, and rode it to Salt Lake where we switched to Trax and took that straight to Temple Square. This is Melissa, Jenna and Rebecca (Michelle's oldest). You can't tell from the picture, but they were sitting in the spot with an emergency window where if you pull down on the red bar at the top... well, I don't know what it does, but I was sure that we were going to find out because everytime I looked over there, Jenna had her hands on it kind of hanging on, watching out the window.

Here's Spencer and Jayden. Spencer was excited, Jayden was nervous, but eventually he got down and was true to form. He would go and say Hi to everyone on the train (even people he didn't know) and liked trying to stay standing while the train would slow to a stop and then go again.

So now, we're good for two years. And in those two years, Jenna will realize not to try grabbing the bar to the emergency window and Jayden will remember his own coat. Then I will have a little less stressful ride.

Christmas Week #1

I just plugged in my camera to download what pictures I have taken this past week, and there were 76! I thought that I downloaded more often than that, but I guess not this week! So, rather than unload all of what we did this past week, I think I'll do it a day at a time...

Saturday night, Michelle came to town, only she stayed at my Mom's, so we didn't see her until Sunday when I invited everyone over for dinner. David and his family didn't come because of the weather, but EVERYONE else was here.

When planning for this event, we decided that the two times everyone would be together for dinner would be this Sunday and then Christmas. Our two traditions for Christmas has been Ham one night and Enchiladas another night. So, we decided that we would do Enchiladas on Sunday. We had enchiladas, beef and chicken, 7 layer bean dip, a salad, some corn, and of course, lots of stuff to snack on before we even ate.

I didn't take any pictures, (Shame on me), but there were 26 of us. Had Dave and family been here that would have been 32! I guess that's what happens when there are 5 kids in a family. I couldn't imagine some of the other families I hear about that have like 9 kids in their family and their all married with kids of their own!

We had a good time, the food was good, oh, and I forgot the best part! Dessert we had the ice-cream cookie stuff! Plus some pie and cookies - but mostly excited about the ice-cream cookie stuff!

So there you have it, the first in our festivities Christmas week!

Hello Santa Claus!

The year of Christmas that Spencer was 2, Steve and I were passing by Spencer's room and he was in his crib talking to himself, so we stopped and listened. Spencer was just saying some of the most random things ever, and then we hear this, "Hello Santa Claus!" And we just about died laughing! So ever since it has been a family joke that we walk around saying "Hello Santa Claus!" at random times. Well, this morning I was being lazy, I was laying in my bed and Spencer comes in and says, "Mom? Jayden is kind of making a mess on the table." This is what I found...

Can you say, "Hello Santa Claus"?This is why ...

Yea, I know better than to leave some powdered sugar out on the kitchen table, but like I said I was being lazy this morning.

Last day of school before Christmas

I've heard a lot of people say that some parents live vicariously through their kids, and I will admit that I guess maybe I do. For example, for the last day of school before the "Winter Break" (if I'm being politically correct) Melissa wanted to get all Christmasy. She wore a red and white shirt, her Santa hat, and Santa earings. Then she asked me to curl her hair (she even got dressed and brushed her teeth in record time to make it happen). When I was little, this was one of my dreams- to dress up all Christmasy just for school. What can I say, I was silly, but Melissa really looked cute, and had a good time doing it!

I also was in charge of the Christmas party in Spencer's class. I didn't take any pictures and it turned out all fine, but boy was it a mess trying to come up with the party. For example, we planned the party. There were three of us Mom's. I couldn't get ahold of the third mom until two days before the party because I had the wrong phone number, so the two of us, me and my neighbor, decided our party. We thought we would split the class into three groups each mom would take a group, then have the kids rotate. We were going to decorate a cookie, make an ornament, and play a game. Then when it was over we were going to have a little gift exchange game and a snack. When I ran that by Spencer's teacher, she thought the gift exchange would end in tears (or at least it has in the past) and would rather not. So no problem, we nixed it and thought we would just do a big group game instead.

Then, another 1st grade class did some gingerbread houses on Monday before the last day, and my neighbor and I thought that wouldn't be much more difficult than the cookies, so I switched. However, the DAY BEFORE the party, Spencer comes home with a Gingerbread house that they had done in class. So, I had to nix that and went back to the cookie idea. Then, the day of the party, the other mom who was going to do the game, called and said she couldn't make it. So once again we were scrambling for what to do. The teacher just offered to do one of the stations. It all worked out, but it seemed like it was a mess coming up with it. I don't think I will volunteer to be incharge anymore.

Spencer's 1st grade program

Yesturday was Spencer's 1st Grade School program. They wore these cute little uh, what do you call them? Collars? I remember Melissa wearing them when she was in first grade and it makes me wonder how long they have been around. Will Jayden wear the same ones by the time he gets around to 1st grade?He likes to know exactly where we are sitting and a lot of times he will be smiling all big and singing like he is singing just for us. When we first walked into the auditorium, I sat on the right side, but then after they came in, I realized he was on the left, so I hurried and moved to the other side, before they started singing...Only he didn't see me move at first and this is him looking for us. He finally found us though, and then he sang...They wore these noses for a Rudolph song.

Here is a sample of two of the songs they sang!

It's Snow FUN!

It snowed! A WHOLE LOT! Around here at least. And the kids were pretty excited to play in it. They pretty much spent as much time outside as possible playing in it. We finally made them come in when it got dark. It is something I will never understand because the cold just makes the thought of being in the snow not fun, but the kids seem to not care. Including Jayden! Spencer and Melissa prefer to use the sleds as a Snowboards. I think the hill in our backyard just isn't as fun to sit down on, but it's not too scarey to stand!

Jayden enjoyed playing in the snow with the pail and shovel.

Jenna wasn't quite brave enough to stand on the sled, but she tried a bunch of different positions on the sled.

Jayden even took a turn sliding down the hill!

Your wish is my command!

So I have had some "polite reminders" from people about wanting to see the "after picture" of Melissa's desk in the basement. It isn't really hers, but she has certainly assumed the responsibility of it being hers. I went downstairs and took a picture of it in it's current state. Four bags of trash later, it was all cleaned out.
As you can see from the picture though, there were some things she couldn't stand to throw out. For example a diarama she did once on Cheetah's. Only the cheetah's aren't there any more, it has been taken over by some Panda bears that she made from another art project at school.Here is a picture that she painted on a piece of wood that Steve was tossing... Oh, and you can also see the owl there that she made by covering two tennis balls with a scrap piece of scrapbook paper I was going to throw out.This is a picture that she made for Thanksgiving and entered in a contest at school. She didn't win, but I thought it was well done...And here is her sewing box and stuff out because she has been working on "Lilly's Fashions"...

Lilly is Melissa's Webkin Beagle. Melissa has been making clothes for her. She took an empty food storage box and made it into a little Fashion store. She makes other clothes and will sell them to Spencer and Jenna for fake money.
This is the sign on the front of the store. The letter on the left of the door reads," Dear Lilly's Fashion: We are delighted to tell you that your store is the best. Love The City"

Here are some of her "fashions". This is the Sherlock homes meets Doris Day look. The hat is my favorite. You can't tell, but she actually took a piece of cardstock and sewed the fabric around the brim of the hat like an actual hat does. I did my best to dress the dog up and I didn't dare take the santa boots off because I don't think she would forgive me if I ruined them. The dog was already in the Santa outfit (you can see below) and I couldn't figure out how to get the stuff off, so I put the pink on over it.

Pretty clever huh?

He doesn't need anything

I think for Christmas we will get Jayden a big case of Mac n Cheese from Sam's Club. Why spend money on toys when there is a cupboard full of food boxes to play with?

The best part is he did this for about 20 min. What a treat for Mommy!

What's up with that?

For Jayden's birthday he got a bag of these animal cookies... Only what do you notice is wrong with them?

Yeah! No sprinkles, what a rip! (Although Jayden doesn't care, he still eats them all the time!)

Jayman's Birthday

It was Jayden's birthday last week and with all the stuff going on, we decided to wait and celebrate it on Sunday. Afterall, he doesn't know any better does he? So, here's the simple breakdown of it all. We opened some presents...

Sang Happy Birthday and blew out the candles (that is my attempt at "decorating" his cupcakes).
Had cake and ice cream...

I am just going to sit back and relish the fact that his birthday was THAT easy and he was THAT happy. If only it was this way all the time... Honestly I like making big hooplas for my kids birthdays, I LOVED putting on Spencer's party. And I already have Melissa and Jenna's next parties all planned. However, it was refreshing to have something this simple.

{And no, I didn't mis-spell Jayden's name to begin with... He's got all sorts of nicknames- All my kids do, another post another time}

The Dance Recital!

So, last night was the DANCE RECITAL! I look forward to it every year, twice a year - at Christmas and in the Spring. I love to watch the dancing and this year didn't disappoint. Well, maybe a little, but I can't help it so whatever...

Jenna danced to Lollipop and Deck the Halls, they had some cute little lollipops that they held. Jenna actually licked hers once (when they were supposed to only pretend), but Shh.. (Don't tell anyone).

I don't know who put sugar in Jenna's mac n' cheese, but she was sure on one. I think she was just excited to be there! She came running on the stage the second time and just bounced the entire song. She wasn't really doing all the right stuff, but she sure looked like she was having fun!

Melissa's group danced to "Last Christmas" and "Whine up" I LOVED the second one. The first one Melissa kind of "played it safe" because when the song started the safety pin holding her costume on in the back, popped open. She said that she could feel the end poking her neck and she was really nervous about having a "wardrobe malfunction". The second one really showed Melissa's personality and skill. She is a very technical dancer and you can see in her turns she is perfectly "on center" she does a GREAT JOB. She really likes it too, so it is a double bonus.

It was a fun night for all. Jayden even cooperated and let us stay in our seats the whole time!

Choir concert

My camera sucks... And I've only realized even more so since I found out that Michelle and Brett got a new camera. I'm jealous. I have had to turn off the preview the picture after you take it feature so as to preserve battery for the entire use. I knew that I wanted to take some video at Melissa's choir concert so I didn't preview this picture, Melissa's eyes are a little droopy and the girl below her looks like she's picking her nose. But you get the idea.

Melissa is the fourth one from the right in the middle row. This is Spencer watching the show with his class. The girls have their dance recital tonight and the parent choir concert is also tonight, so Melissa is going to have to miss the choir thing. I went to one of the assemblies they did during school to listen. And it was a lot of fun!

Here is the "Hot Cup of Cocoa" song that we all love! Or at least 30 seconds of it because that is only as long as my camera will take for video.

A Hot Cup of Cocoa

After listening to a post of Melissa's Choir singing on Motherboard's blog. Jenna wanted a "Hot Cup of Cocoa" and chicken nuggets. Not sure where the idea of chicken nuggets came from, but that's what we did! We even added whip cream and a candy cane. YUM!

Jayden of course just had the candy cane because ever since the day he ate that whole box of chocolate covered macadamia nuts Lisa brought home from Hawaii, he just hasn't liked chocolate. It ruined Halloween for him. Not for me though, he would pick out a piece of candy to eat, and unwrap it then when he saw it was chocolate, he would ask for a different one. So, I helped him out by discarding of the chocolate in my mouth of course!

Basketball!

So, we started Basketball season... We (Spencer, but I wasn't complaining) opted not to do soccer this year. I don't think he really liked it. Instead, Spencer thought that he would give basketball a try. And WE LOVE IT! Not only does Spencer like going, but it is INDOORS so no worrying about being cold or it raining or anything like that. The other bonus, is there isn't any weekly practices yet. They meet for one hour on Saturday. The first 20 min. is practice, and that is followed by a 40 min. game. I know that when he gets older that will change, but then again it will be during the winter and so we'll be looking for things to do to get him out of the house anyway.

It is very clever the way that each team has five writbands of different colors and you find the guy on the other team with the same color wristband as you and that's who you guard.

Um, I am and was trying really hard not to be a naggy mom, but "Get in there Spencer!" He wasn't really paying attention to what his coach was saying. He was too busy trying to jump really high. This was his attempt to listen. It lasted all of one minute. I don't insist he be the best player out there or anything (cause he's not) but at least pay attention and do your best (oh, and no Spencer if Basketball doesn't work out, you CAN'T try football, I don't have the stomach for it).