Spring

I'm feeling very springy lately. The beautiful weather last week and the temperatures in the 70s really got me ready for spring. Then the snow came and I'm hoping it will melt soon and we can be outside again.

Recently we got the kids into some classes at the rec center near our home. Karen is in a performance dance class where she is learning to dance and sing at the same time. She's really enjoying it and having fun. She will be having some performances in June and we are looking forward to seeing her perform since she won't practice at home in front of us.

Michael has been in an indoor soccer class that he has loved! He's had games on Saturday with the last one this coming Saturday. There isn't a lot of structure since most of the kids are 5 years old. My husband calls it "bunch ball" since they all bunch around the ball and try to kick it and when they do kick it they all run and bunch back around the ball again. It is so much fun to watch him and he's really enjoyed it. He gets so excited that he wakes up and gets his soccer outfit on and wears it all day long. Here are a couple of pictures in his soccer outfit.

We've had our ward was split at the first of the year. It's been quite a change, but has been really good. Neils is now the assistant to the clerk over membership and it makes Sunday's a bit busier, but he's enjoyed it and is really good at it. It's also helping him to get to know more people in the ward. I'm in primary teaching the 7 turning 8 year olds. Karen is in my class and she was ecstatic to have me be her teacher. I'm really enjoying the kids and enjoying helping them get ready for baptism. We've already had 2 baptisms so far. I love the special spirit at baptisms and the excuse I have to go to all of them this year.

I'm also getting ideas on what to do for Karen's baptism this year in June. It's hard to believe that my little girl is going to be 8! She's very excited to have her family and friends come to her baptism and share this special time with everyone.

Christmas Time

Christmas time was a wonderful time at our house this year. I was a little afraid because the kids had all of December off of school because we changed to B track this year. When the kids are off track they tend to be fighting a lot and don't play together too well, so I was worried that this would ruin Christmas. To prepare for this time off, I spent a lot of time shopping, looking on pinterest and crafting to get ready for it. Well, all my plans and preparations turned out to be a great success! I was so happy and best of all, the kids were happy too! It even made it less stressful because I had prepared so much ahead of time. As I look back I think there were 3 things that really helped make it a good time.

1. We had a return visit from our elf on the shelf and the kids were so excited they would wake up early every morning to find him. Plus he was a good watcher to make sure the kids were good for Santa. Here are some pictures of some different things they found him doing each morning.

 Coloring a picture in the kids coloring book

 Watching TV & eating marshmallows

 Hanging out with all of Karen's Barbies

 Snowball (marshmallow) fight with a snowman and penguin decoration

 Reading in 3rd Nephi about the birth of Jesus

 Sitting in our new ornament wreath

 Showing how much he loves Karen & Michael

Fishing for goldfish crackers

2. We had an advent calendar to count down the days, which helped the kids have another thing to look forward to. I found some ideas on pinterest and made our own advent calendar. Each day had a small treat in it and an activity that we would do that day. We had some fun activities like cutting out snowflakes, making a snowman, making gingerbread nativity scenes, reading The Night Before Christmas and the nativity story, etc. We also did some service activities like hiding dollar bills at the Dollar Tree store, taking flowers to the hospital, giving a surprise gift to someone, and other stuff. We had a lot of fun and I think it helped the kids learn a little something about giving. Here's a picture of the advent calendar and  a couple  of the crafts we did.

Made from a 24 count muffin tin for $5.00. Totally worth it and reusable too.

 "gingerbread" nativity scenes (lots of sheep)

 snowflake patterns courtesy of pinterest

 there was no snow this year so we had to make snowmen this way

3.  The kids had things to do and look forward to so they didn't get as bored and they didn't fight as much and they played better together. 

Over all, the Christmas break off track was wonderful and I'm looking forward to having it again next year.

Family Pictures

We got family pictures taken. What do you think?  I think they all turned out quite well, especially the ones of my kids. They can be quite adorable at times. 

Thanksgiving

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving this year. I was so excited, we got to be with my side of the family this year and nearly everyone was there, though we missed the one sister that couldn't be there. We had a great spread.

Everyone contributed and it all tasted scrumptious. My favorite part however was the pies. These are only a few of the many we had at the end of the meal.

Pam had her preschool room all set up for us to eat in. Amazing how we all fit and still had room to move around in, she did a good job of fitting us all in. I didn't quite get a picture of everyone, but I got nearly everyone in the pictures.

Pam's kids (well Heather) made these darling little center pieces. They were very yummy too.

It was nice to spend the afternoon and evening with everyone eating, playing games, chatting and even checking out pinterest and teaching a few family members about it. It was wonderful. Thank Pam and the rest of my family for a great Thanksgiving.

Halloween

 We had a great, busy, fun filled Halloween weekend filled with parties and lots of treats. The kids kicked off the weekend on Friday with their Halloween parade and parties at school. They were so excited! Here they are ready for school. Let me introduce Sir Knight King Michael and the purple witch Karen.

They had a blast and the room mothers did such a great job preparing the parties for the kids. We also had a Fall Festival at our ward. There were a lot of fun carnival type games, but the one the kids enjoyed the most was the donut eating contest. As you can see they each missed a few times, though I think Michael had better aim then Karen (see pics below).









With such a full weekend and no costumes at school on Monday, Halloween was almost anti-climatic for me, until the trick-or-treaters started coming. Karen and Michael suddenly got very excited and their excitement was contagious. Michael is the "black spiderman" or Venom and Karen again is the purple witch. Face painting done by me. (you can get face paint done by me too, see the top right hand side for my website)

They kids had a blast and the weather was perfect, mild and not too cold. They stayed out longer and went to more homes than previous years and came home with quite a haul with several full size candy bars. We didn't hit the jackpot though, we missed out on one street in our neighborhood that had homemade donuts, soda, pizza, hot dogs, & hot chocolate. We are definitely hitting that street next year. Dang!