Twas 3 Weeks Before Christmas

When all through the house...there was concerts and parties, etc. etc.

It has been a busy week.  Here are just a few highlights...

Sunday we didn't attend Sunday services but instead we cleaned up our neighborhoods.  It was amazing how many people came out to help.  Almost everything was cleaned up by 3:00pm. 

We watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional and they announced the first official release of the New Testament Vignettes!  We did not participate in any of the scenes before the baptism of Jesus but it was amazing to see the final product.  They did an amazing job putting it all together.  And the truthfulness of it all can be felt very strongly!  They called it a gift to the world and they truly are!  You can watch the vignettes at: 

http://lds.org/bible-videos?lang=eng

Monday was supposed to be FHE but since we all worked together on Sunday and we had a million things going that night we considered that our FHE for the week.  Monday night CR was at gymnastics, S had to attend a band concert, and C was doing her nails for the Christmas Dance.


Tuesday night was youth activities and C, S, and CR went to temple square.

Wednesday night was class for me and CR had gymnastics and a big assignment due that he forgot about :(

Thursday night was the Dance Company Christmas Concert.

Friday night C went on her day date for the dance, CR had a fundrasing concert that he was playing in and we went to watch him.

Saturday we went and saw the a premier of "Chipwreked".  We weren't too excited about the movie but every once in a while we still have to see these type of movies for G's sake.  By the time we got there the tickets were all gone but a nice lady had extras and gave us 4 tickets so we got to see it. 

Afterwards we did some Christmas shopping.  And Jasmine had a recital that we attended. 

Then we hurried home so we could take pictures of C and her group getting ready to go to the Christmas Dance.  She looked beautiful.  And I guess in between everything else that was going on this week I had to alter C's dress and add sleeves to it to make it modest. 

And that's that for this week.  Another busy one next week!

Wind Storm

Just when we think that things are calm... that's when the storm comes!  True to this week and to life in general!  This week was supposed to be peaceful after Nutcracker and Thanksgiving but... not so!

We had been warned that a strong wind storm was coming on Wednesday night and we did take small precautions but we have had high winds before and it hasn't been a big deal.  Well at midnight we got woken up from the loud wind sounds.  In the morning the wind was so strong still but it wasn't until kids were going to school that we realized how much damage was happening.  Many schools did not have power.  The high school kids got sent home after a few hours because they did not have power.  The junior high stayed open because it is a brand new school and they use solar power.  For the first time for me in Utah they even canceled school on Friday.

We ended up having winds up to 100 mph.  Many homes are still without power and everyone is just trying to clean up the mess.

We were blessed to not have much damage at our house except for our garbage cans across the street and a glass table that got blown and hit the side of the house and shattered.  Our power went on and off a few times but we never completely lost it!  We were lucky not to loose any shingles or anything damage to our house or cars but others had significant damage.  We also do not have a fence or big trees and that is where lots of damage happened.  Here are a few pictures of what our area looks like:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  This looks like C's car but we are so glad it's not!

 

 This are an apartment complex that is being built close to our house.  It's so sad to see such damage!

 

 

 I'm writing this post so early because we found out that our entire stake canceled church services today so that we can all help get things cleaned because there is another wind and snow storm coming tonight.  They want to prevent all of the debris from the last storm to get blown around and cause more damage by the new storm coming tonight.

Thanksgiving Week

It was a short week.  The kids and KC only went to school/work for two days.  I did my internship for two days but did have to work my 3 hours on Wednesday morning.  Kailee also came home on Tuesday night.  Wednesday we tried to clean our house up a little bit and then in the afternoon we went and saw the movie Breaking Dawn.  

On Thursday, we got together with my parents, the M's family and Leonora and Eric.  There were 16 of us there.  We had a wonderful time together eating and having fun.

This is the girl's table:

 

 This is the boy's table:

 Part of the adult's table:

C made a Thanksgiving video for us and it was hilarious (as usual).  It's fun to have these videos that remind us of happy times.  This is the link:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iC69SQ



We played a game that I made up called "A Gratitude Game to Z" and the basic rules were that everyone had to write down something they were grateful for for each letter of the alphabet.  After-wards we all got together and read what we had on our lists.  If no one else wrote down what you had on your own paper then you got a point.  The person with the most points wins.  Everyone got prizes (silly prizes, cause it was a last minute thing but it was fun!)  It was just a small way for us to remember how many things we have to be grateful for that we usually don't think about.  I like this quote "What if you woke up today with only what you thanked God for yesterday????"  It makes  me wonder?

After eating and cleaning up, it was time to look through the ads for black Friday...  We were a little upset that they were starting at 9:00, 10:00, and 12:00.  We thought about going then but that thought left us quickly cause we were already tired.  So we made our lists and decided to go out at 5:00am (usual time). We only went to three stores but got some awesome deals!  And we found everything we were looking for.  The stores were relatively quiet for black Friday at that time and we didn't have to wait in long lines to pay.

The kids just hung out at home in their PJ's pretty much all day.  We took a short nap and just enjoyed the time with the M Family.

I don't think I ever mentioned that our Stake got split and with that split our ward was also.  Our two cul-de-sacs were put in a different ward.  So we are in the same stake but in a different ward.  We got separated from so many of our good friends.  It was sad.  It's getting better but it was still hard.

Sunday KC and I had to speak in sacrament since we are new to the ward.  We got asked to speak on Monday night and with Thanksgiving and black Friday in between we didn't have much time to prepare.  Our topic was the Book of Mormon.  I spoke mainly on the title page and what we can learn from that to guide us through our reading.  KC spoke on why we need the Book of Mormon in the latter days.

One idea that I want to record here is that Satan doesn't want us to read the Book of Mormon because if we do we will remember the blessings he has given us and past generations, we will be reminded of the covenants we have made, and we will know that Jesus is our Savior and that because of Him we can repent and be forgiven.  I know the Book of Mormon is true and that if we read it we will stay on the right path and be guided on what we should do, if we ever have questions.

Nutcracker Week

It was a great but busy week.  We only got the basics and Nutcracker done.  But I'm glad to say that we survived another Nutcracker.  This completes our 12th Nutcracker!  I guess we are kind of NUTS!  We have been doing the Props committee for 10 years.  I co-chair the committee so we are backstage every night.  And we get the props put back after the show.

Here are a few pictures of the girls.  They were both Snow this year and can I just say that they are both beautiful inside and out!  But they are also beautiful and amazing dancers.  My dream of having beautiful ballerinas has come true!

 While waiting for the show to start on the night that we watched.  CR and KC could not help but take this picture.

 C and Jeaniece.  They have been friends since Kindergarten and they have danced in the Nutcracker together since they were 8 years old!  Now they are seniors!

The entire Snow Corps.

On Saturday we had two performances.  A matinee and the night performance.  The girls had to be at their warm up class at 9:30, the show started at 11:00, it ended at 1:00, we left and CR had a gymnastics inter-squad meet at 1:30 so we went to watch him.  We did not think it would take as long as it did.  I left early cause I had to be back with the girls at WSU.  KC waited for CR and G.  So here are a couple of pictures of the meet.

On a final note... We love our kids!

Halloween

10-31-2011

It's kind of sad that the kids are getting older and they go off with their friends on Halloween instead of coming with us.  But I still managed to get pictures of them...

We went Trick or Treating with CR and G.  G was so excited and wanted to keep going and going!

 G as The Little Mermaid (Ariel)

 CR as Harry Potter.  He now has the long messy hair for the costume.

 S as a nerd.  Last minute hurry and find something.

 C as Captain America (the costumes were lame so she just bough a t-shirt).

 K as Wonder Woman.  I didn't even get to see K in person but thanks to her blog I have this picture.

Me as a pirate.  (Really just the hat. I get a hat or a wig every year and I call it my costume)

The pumpkin carving activity that almost didn't happen.  It was so hard to find a time to carve pumpkins and we finally found a day to do it and then C was so sick that she couldn't do it.  Then we forgot to take pictures so after a few days we decided to just take pictures with those that were available before the pumpkins died.  So G's is Ariel.  KC's is some scary face.  CR's is the Harry Potter sign.  S's (not in the picture) is Teanna from Princess and the Frog.  I don't do pumpkin carving it's too messy.  I do get a pumpkin but just decorate the outside of it.  Fast, clean, and easy!

Planking Day

On the Saturday of UEA we let the kids decide what they wanted to do.  They didn't really know either they just wanted to do something...  We came up with a few things and all that C wanted to do was to plank in various places.  We were not thrilled of the idea but we told her that wherever we went we would plank just for her.  So you will see that throughout our day that is what we did.

So we started the day by seeing a premiere of "Puss in Boots".  This was just a cool poster that we saw as we came out of the movie.  We saw a premiere for this one a few weeks before.

 K was able to come with us cause she was face-painting at the Expo center but not until noon.  So after the movie we went to visit her at the "Kids Fair".  The kids got to see their cousins and we just hung out for a few hours.

 

 Leave it up to C to get the grandparents to "plank"! Wow! Aren't they awesome?!

After the Kids Fair we went to the Copper Mine.  We had not been here for at least 15 years.  We used to go with my parents all the time but we were so tired of it that we had blocked it out of our minds and now the kids wanted to see what it was.

 

 We later went to see Z who was face-painting at the Witch Fest at Gardner Village.  We walked around and did a puzzle for a cookie but it was fun.

 

 

It ended up being a great family day!  We spent it all together and had fun doing lots of different activities!