Winter Wonderland concert at school

Our elementary school music teacher is the BEST.  Each year she helps each grade learn a few songs and then they present those at a concert in December.  This year, my kindergartener and 2nd grader were sick, so they didn't get to participate.  Only my 5th grader was able to take part.  This was December 12, 2013.

Sleigh bells ring...

525,600 minutes...

 Here they are playing recorders...

Young Women's

Our fearless Young Women's leader challenged us and all the girls to memorize the Family Proclamation.  We had a certain number of weeks and passed it off paragraph by paragraph, even being able to split the long paragraph in two.  The reward for following through on that challenge was a dinner at the restaurant BRAVO! on December 11th.  All three of my girls and four others-one being an investigator-(out of 20 girls) completed the task.  And most of the leaders did too.

Way to Go Kammie, Kate, Maggie, Kaylianna, Jordan, NingLi and Ana Grace

We didn't get a shot of the leaders, but they were:  Karen, Kathie, Natalie, Kaitlin, and Amanda.

It took hard work, courage and follow through to get this done.  I'm proud of these girls.  Espeically my Jordan, who didn't pass it off paragraph by paragraph, but did the entire Proclamation in one shot.  So very Impressive.  And then she had a challenge with the Stake President (Beheshti) where they went back and forth saying paragraphs.  She won by his own admission.  Wonderful!

From there we went to Sister Beheshti's home for our last Project Motherhood activity (we focused this year on helping prepare the girls for their future role as a Mother).  The girls took turns teaching us how to prepare some creative Christmas treats.

 

The first up were some of our Laurels teaching us how to make crock-pot-hot-cocoa

 The captive audience...

 Next up were Jordan and NingLi teaching us how to make a snowman cheeseball...

  Best YW President EVER! Our fearless and INCREDIBLE leader...

 Some of our Beehives teaching us about Nutella Smores...

 A parting shot of our amazing young women...

Getting ready to dance

With her upcoming dance concert, we took a few photos of Sidnie in her costume in front of our Christmas Tree.

Sewing

A friends brother's wife had a baby, so I made this for her/them.  They said it was their favorite gift for their daughter they had received.  That always makes you feel good.  I like making things for people when they appreciate it and will use it.  (Not when they have a bunch of blankets and aren't going to use it at all.)

Then I made another one, a bit more scrappy (because my minkee piece wasn't large enough) for my daughter's track coach who's wife was expecting their first little girl.

My Little Boy

Spencer is always busy getting into things and being on the go.  Here he is trying to climb in the cupboard like the cat does sometimes...

 One night when his brother was snoring, he jumped at the chance to sleep in the living room with the Christmas tree...

Enjoying the SNOW

In Arkansas we don't get lots of snow usually, but we enjoy the little bits that we do get.  On Dec. 6th and 7th we got to play in the snow.

 Ana Grace, Jordan, and Kammie

 Little Missy Sidnie ready to go

 Selfie...

We left our sled in Utah years ago, thinking we'd have more of a chance to use it there on winter visits then here.  There are always a few times each year we wish we had it here.  Thankfully our friends share theirs.

 Spencer sliding on his feet...

Kammie and Sidnie on the sled...

The boys together on the sled...

Kammie on her back...

Spencer snow surfing...

Zack's turn...

Christmas Tree/Lights/Elf on the Shelf

With Thanksgiving being so late this year, it seems like when we got our Christmas tree up and decorated on the 1st, that didn't give us much time to enjoy it.  But, we went to work and got it done.

Sidnie got to put up the Star again.  But, the kids decided that it's not fair if the youngest one always gets to do it.  We'll see what we do next year.

 Ta Da!  All done.

 Our Charlie Brown Tree is finished...

 James worked diligently to get the lights on the outside of the house up.  But not long after that, a fuse blew.  He fixed it and then it blew again.  We finally had to re-string a new strand of lights in our 3 red, 1 green pattern and replace that one strand that was giving us troube.  It may not show here, but the house really looks great.  Thanks for all the hard work James.

 The stockings were hung...

Our window cling decorations left fun shadows on the wall for us with the early morning sun...

Thankfully, I have older teens who help our elf on the shelf, Zingle Kringle, make his nightly moves.  They got creative sometimes...