December extras

I went with sports theme for our Christmas letter and cards this year, because basically our life revolved around church and sports this year.  I carted the kids around to practices and games - 7 cross country practices and 4 meets, 60 soccer practices and 27 games, 33 basketball practices and 113 high school practices, 52 basketball games, 8 soccer games refereed, and 45 runs with the kids in the morning. Alex forked out the money for all the sports, and I was the primary cheerleader and bus driver!  Luckily, Nathan walks to and from most of his practices, except the ones during the summer that were at another high school.  We had lots of basketball during December, but I'll save that for a later post.  

It took several tries to get a suitable picture.  The outtakes are pretty funny, although not too funny at the time, being out there for an hour trying to get one good picture.  

Speaking of running though... here is my morning running crew two mornings a week.  The other mornings it's just Alex, the dog, and me.  They don't like the cold mornings much, but at least it's getting lighter again.  Sometimes we started in the dark.  They have been getting up on Monday (or Tuesday) and Friday mornings to run at 6:30am.  The one who is ALWAYS excited is the dog!  She loves her morning outings.    

I added a new thing to my schedule - once a month, I'm doing a catering job at lunchtime for 3 days.  We set up, serve, and clean up lunch for a local business.  I've only done it twice - it's easy and hard at the same time.  Lots of time on my feet, re-filling and lifting heavy things full of food, but easy when you're just standing there serving the food.  I think the thing I like the least about it is interacting with the people though... I guess I'm not much of a people person!  It's not too bad of pay for 12 hours a month - the little extra money is nice, but I mostly said "yes" to doing the job because my catering friend asked if I could help out.  Alex and the kids are excited about my work days, because I have been bringing home yummy leftover food for dinner.      

 Some pictures from one of Jared's hikes.  

We celebrated New Year's with friends (at their place - we weren't the host).  I only took a picture of the balloons - having too much fun to take pictures... we had yummy Chinese food, lots of desserts, and Martinelli's.  Fun times! 

Christmas

Nathan is definitely taller than the tree this year!  Jared led the putting up of the tree and decorating it this year (I didn't do any of the tree decorating).    

We had a lot of activities during December - didn't get pictures from many of them.  We went to the ward party at church, with dinner and Santa Claus.  I'm guessing this might be the last year for sitting on Santa's lap.

  

Savannah, Weston, and Owen participated in the annual children's program the second Sunday in December.  They did well on their speaking parts and singing.  It was Owen's last primary program, as he'll be old enough to be in the youth program in January.  I teach the 3-4 year olds, so I was up there trying to keep my class still.  They did really well on their speaking parts, but not so well on the singing and sitting still.  I kept pulling more things out of my bag for one little girl who was having a particularly hard time.  

On the third Sunday, Owen, Savannah, and I sang in sacrament meeting.  We sang "Baby in a Manger", which Nathan and Jared sang a little while back.  I know that Savannah and Owen were nervous, but they got up there and did a good job.  Savannah sang a solo for the first verse - I was very proud of her for being so brave.  She also sounded good too - she has a pretty singing voice.  I sang a descant above them on the last verse.  We got lots of compliments on it.  

I got to sing with the choir a couple of times during December.  I was moved to tears while we were singing "Silent Night" - there is something really special about the Christmas songs.  

We gave cinnamon rolls and oranges for teacher gifts this year, along with the story of the "Christmas Orange."  We also made cinnamon rolls for friends and neighbors.

We made it to a couple parties before we all got sick... Owen got the flu first, a few days before Christmas.  Then Savannah, Alex, and I got it on Christmas Eve, and Weston shortly followed.  Nathan and Jared managed to make it another 10 days before getting it.  They made it through their scout activities and basketball.  So I guess we were able to accomplish everything we needed to, but unfortunately it wasn't fun to be sick the entire Christmas break.  

We did manage to get in some kickball and a new game we call "In-box" at the church gym.  The boys went to see the newest Star Wars movie, and Savannah and I saw Frozen II.  

We still did our traditional reading and singing of the Christmas story, despite half of us not feeling well.  The kids each got their favorite cereal for breakfast, and we watched the movie "Abominable" on Christmas Eve.  They were probably a little disappointed with the cereal, since the wrapped boxes resembled Legos... but there were no tears, so that was good.  The cereal makes an easy fun breakfast on Christmas morning while they're waiting for Mom and Dad to get out of bed.   

The big box the kids are sitting by is a trampoline - when we went to England, we let the neighbors borrow our trampoline and it didn't make it... they finally got a new one.  We had crepes, bacon, and eggs for lunch and scalloped potatoes, ham, and green beans for dinner. 

The funniest thing was seeing Weston open the Charmin toilet paper, which was on his wish list.  I've never seen a kid so excited about toilet paper!  

I didn't get very many pictures of Owen, Jared, and Nathan opening presents.  One of their main gifts was tickets to the Thunder vs Clippers basketball game in April.  They each got these black chairs.  Nathan and Jared got desks and chairs for their room - I guess they've moved from putting together Legos to putting together their own furniture.  

Aunt Jane and the grandparents still spoiled the kids pretty good, so they got plenty of things!    

You can see that Savannah wasn't feeling well - she tried to put together her Lego set with Owen, but she didn't last very long. 

December birthdays

We did small celebrations in December for Owen and Savannah's birthdays.  It was a friend party year for Owen, but December was too busy for his party, so we did that later.  He was pretty excited about his new Lego set, Boba Fett's Slave 1, which he didn't know he was getting.  Alex picked it out for him.  Owen got a more sentimental gift from Grandma Fay - Jim's old football.  Owen is happy to take care of that now.   

He requested omelettes, bacon, and french toast for breakfast and scalloped potatoes, green beans, and rolls for dinner.  His favorite colors right now are purple and green, so he got a white cake mix colored purple with green frosting. 

Savannah got several fun things for her birthday.  She wanted some Legos, an interactive pony (which we had previously given as a birthday gift to a friend), and more "stuffies" (stuffed animals).  Our neighbor brought over an American Girl doll for her, which she loves.  She got a Frozen game, waterbottle, and princess books as well.

Savannah wanted bacon, eggs, and pancakes for breakfast and Wendy's for dinner.  I was happy not to cook dinner that night!  She wanted a chocolate heart cake with pink frosting, so that's what she got. 

Thanksgiving

Another Thanksgiving with our good friends!  

The day after Thanksgiving, we set off hoping to play in the snow.  They had the road closed that went right up to the snow, so we went hiking instead.  We did see snow from a distance.  It was a pretty chilly hike.  We enjoyed Thanksgiving leftovers on the trail, and we also took the dog with us. It was fun to watch her fetch the sticks from the water.  Nathan wasn't with us because he had basketball practice. 

End of soccer season

Soccer season ended the 2nd week of November.  This was likely Jared's last soccer game (unless he tries out and makes the school team next year).  He's already planning on doing cross country, so I don't know if he'll do soccer.  Jared's team had 4 wins, 6 losses, and 1 tie.  

This may have been Weston's last game as well, unless he decides to play again later.  He said he doesn't want to play next year.  He's not very athletic.  It's been pretty hard for him to figure out what to do out there.  We enjoyed watching him - dancing around, getting hit in the head, avoiding the ball, and generally not knowing what he was supposed to do.  The best part about Weston's season was having 2 buddies from school on his team.  Brandon actually moved (thus switching schools), so it was fun for them to be on the same soccer team at least.  Weston misses his friend. Weston's team had 2 wins and 8 losses.  

Savannah said she wants to play again, so at least we're not completely done with soccer.  I think I've got some more coaching in me - I'll probably be her coach next year.  They didn't keep score for Savannah's age group, but I think they only won 1 or 2 games.  She did score a goal this season.  

And Nathan was a referee this season.  He and Jared will probably do that again next year for school service hours.  We might still have busy Saturdays, but at least we won't be running around to so many soccer practices next year.  We'll see what Owen decides to do next fall.      

Halloween festivities

I went with Weston's class to the pumpkin patch.  

Nathan didn't want to carve pumpkins this year, but he was interested in the pumpkin seeds.  He cleaned them off and roasted them.

Army man, duck, skeleton, Jasmine, and Gru

I'm not actually a big fan of Halloween, mostly because it ends up being a lot of work.  I have a hard time spending $20-50 each on costumes, which is what they typically are these days.  That means that I usually try to make or find costumes or accessories at the thrift store.  I lucked out and found Jared's request on sale at Target for $8, so I bought that.  Owen wanted to be a duck - likely because he has a group of friends at school that call themselves the "duck squad".  I didn't have any luck finding yellow (or even white) shorts or hat at the thrift store, so I did order those on-line.  I found some old shoes at the thrift store and spray-painted them orange.  We put orange tape and cardboard eyes on the hat.  At least he still wears the shorts, shirt, shoes, and hat.  Weston wanted to be an army man, which you would think would be easy, but I didn't find any costumes at the thrift stores.  He already had a camouflage hat.  I finally found some adult sized jackets at the thrift store - most of them were $20, but I did find one that was only about $6.  I just had to alter the jacket a little bit to fit a little better.  Savannah wanted to be Jasmine, and I thought we had a suitable dress already.  About 3 days before the festivities, she tried it on and it was too small... I ended up cutting off the top part and cutting the sleeves so she could get her arms in.  Then I found a skin colored adult tank top that I altered so she could wear it under the top.  I also found the skirt at the thrift store.  The most expensive piece for her was the wig.  Nathan wasn't going to wear a costume at all, until he got invited to a costume party, and I thought he needed something.  So I put together a Gru costume at the last minute - he didn't pick it.  I just thought about what we already had - he had a black jacket and pointy black shoes.  He wore some of my black pants that are tighter around the legs.  The only thing I had to make was the scarf, sewing some gray fabric on black.  It was a pretty simple costume, almost to the point of not being a costume, but people did recognize that he was Gru from Despicable Me.  I made Alex's costume out of drapery fabric, and I did put together a pretty good hat just from cardstock with fabric glued around it.  I had to buy the beard.  I made my cloak, and I bought a skirt that I can wear again.  I calculated that I spent $103 total, but $47 was on things we can wear often.  For the non-rewearable, we averaged about $8 a costume, so I guess we did pretty good on being thrifty. 

We went to a fun Halloween night at the church - chili, games, and trunk-or-treat.  

We had German pancakes (colored orange) for breakfast on Halloween.  Grandma sent some fun self-inflating balloons in the mail.  We had pigs in a blanket, watermelon, and Martinelli's for dinner.  Nathan and Jared had other plans with friends.  Owen and Savannah did some trick or treating around the neighborhood.  Weston knocked on 3 doors, but then he was done.  He still doesn't like candy.  

We did our annual party with friends.  They always put on such a great party.  The theme this year was Harry Potter.  I made some "cockroach clusters" (in the first photo below) - chocolate balls with melted chocolate and pecans.  Alex dressed up as Dumbledore and I was Ginny Weasley.

Thanks Julie and Donald! 

Broken arm for a week

I got a phone call from the school one afternoon, saying that Owen was complaining about his arm that he hurt playing basketball.  He said it hurt in two different places, at his inner elbow and his wrist.  He'd fallen on his arm and it was hurting quite a bit.  We went ahead and took him to the urgent care to check it out.  They did x-rays, told us that it was fractured, and that we needed to schedule a time to come in for a cast.  They put a temporary cast on it and a sling.  

A couple days later we went to get the cast, but the specialist said it wasn't clear from the x-rays whether he actually fractured it.  She said it's possible that he fractured it along the growth plate, but we wouldn't be sure until 7-10 days later.  So, Owen wore the temporary cast and sling for about 9 days, until we went in for the follow-up and determined it wasn't fractured.  He was really happy not to miss the upcoming basketball season.  I guess he got to experience what it would be like to have a broken arm for a week.  He didn't like the cast or sling, but it made a nice addition to his Halloween costume (a "lame duck"!).