Changing of the Guard

Well, I am very bummed.  Sad.  Heavy heart.  Blah.  Why?  Because today was my last day as the official singing lady in primary.  Yup.  They released me.  BOOOOOO!!!!  With a very heavy heart I have accepted a new calling as the Ward Scout Committee Chair-Who Ha Whatever you call it person.  See, my new calling is not even half as cool as the primary chorister.  Yes, I am reluctant to leave primary.  The new woman called to fill the roll will be awesome.  And I already told the primary kids that they are not rid of me yet.  I will probably go visit often.  I am not a fan of Relief Society.  Forgive me all of you out there that are.  But, seriously?  Primary is so much fun!  The beauty of primary lies in the fact that it is the gospel in purity.  Primary is love, simple truths, innocence and happiness.  And talk about fun!  I loved it.  And I will miss it.  So, to help my kids and I all remember our amazing and awesome time in primary together I got us these singer kids.  

Each one represents one of my kids.  The smallest one was supposed to be mine, but Peter just claimed it.  They are nesting dolls but I split them up and inside each one is a roll of paper where I wrote down some memories I have of being in primary with my kids.  It was the best time ever.  I know, I may be in primary again one day.  But it will never be with all my kids at the same time.  Caleb leaves primary next year!  So, it is with a heavy heart that I leave my kids and primary.  How much can I say that I loved my time there.  It really is the best place to be on Sunday.

Christmas...started and ended perfectly

 Peter woke up at 7:45am, not too bad.  He was so excited to see what Santa brought him.  First words out of his mouth, "Awesome!"  And yes, Santa brought him plants, perfect for Peter.  When Haley woke up the first thing she did was give me a kiss and a hug.  It started out perfectly.

 Peter's presents from Santa.  He liked one present so much he did not open anything else until everyone else was done.

 Caleb was really stoked about these nesting nutcracker dolls.  And I must say, they are awesome.

 Haley was very happy with this princess nutcracker.

 The boys played happily for hours.  Like I said, going perfect so far.

Well, then there came that time where we made them leave home to go somewhere else and then someone got mad and there were some tears.  Not so perfect....but it did not last for long.

Because it snowed!!!!!  Yeah!  We all loved it.  Snowball fights, snow-ice cream, snow angels.  It was wonderful and fun and not cold and perfect.  Such a great way to spend the day together as a family.  Not 100% perfect, but nearly there. 

My kids are awesome

 So, two weeks ago Caleb came home from school informing us that he had volunteered to play Silent Night on his violin for his 6th grade Christmas program.  All of a sudden the practices became a little more serious and longer.  He proved his awesomeness several times by practicing while everyone else was playing.  He even skipped recess this week and stayed inside to practice his violin.  He also proved that he should not practice while tired, there were some cranky nights of violin.

 William had his Christmas program at school and it was cute, awesome and sweet.  And this teacher, Señorita Robles, is terrific!

 Today was the Day Of Truth for Caleb.  Today was the day that he had to play for the whole school and then the parents program in the class room.  He was great!  But this voluntary sharing of his talents did not come without some bumps in the road.  For two weeks Caleb practiced Silent Night in the key of D.  Also for a week and a half he was the only one playing music for the 6th grade to sing to.  HOWEVER, two days before the program (yes TWO DAYS) they changed the key from D to G on him!  They also added a piano player and two other violins for him to play with.  Caleb took it all in stride and was okay with the key change.  Man, talk about late notice.  But he did great.  My favorite parts of  the morning was watching Caleb play, hearing Peter's class Christmas song (5 hula hoops), and the 6th grade teachers performance.  It was awesome, epic, so fun and fabulous!  I wish I could show you the video, but trust me, 6th grade at Heartland Elementary has got to be the best!  Those teacher are fun and great!  Look at Señor Meza, he just emits coolness.

Then soccer tonight.  Wahoo!  The final score was 10 - 3, us!!!!!!  Caleb made amazing saves, terrific focus and the rest of the team did amazing (as is evident by the score).  Those three goals you are asking?  They were high, tough and one of them was even off of a ricochet that Caleb batted away.  Indoor soccer is intense, fun, fast and great training for these kids.  William and Haley were great siblings rooting for Caleb.  Peter is a terrific brother and even though he read a book the whole game, he still caught some of Caleb's saves.  Our family is awesome!

Christmas lunch day 5

All wrapped up, with yummy things inside and ready to start Christmas break.

Christmas lunch day 4

Snowman!  Unfortunately this lunch did not encourage the clouds to drop mountains of snow.

Christmas lunch day 3

Red, Green and Funny

I went with easy today and included some jokes to go along with it.

Christmas lunch day 2

Rudolph...

I only made one mistake in this lunch, I forgot to open the bottle of water for the boys before sending them off to school.  Dang.  I hope their little hands can crank it open.

Christmas lunch day 1

Since this is the last week the boys have school before Christmas vacation begins they will have fun little lunches each week.  Haley gets to have them too, just here at home.

Day 1: Gingerbread/Christmas tree theme.  My favorite is the juice box.

INTENSE!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We won 4 to 3!  What am I saying, Caleb's team won, I was just there biting my nails the whole time.  It was such an intense game!  So freaking hard and good!!!  I had so much adrenaline going through me I could not zip Haley's zipper after the game.  That was a hard game, and very fun.

Busy, Busy times

Well goodness, November really went by and I did not make much mention of it.  From soccer, homework, cleaning or nagging nothing much seems exciting enough to write.  The most news-worthy events were Thanksgiving and birthdays.  Thanksgiving was good, yummy good.  Kids got along pretty well....Diedre's birthday was relaxing and happy.  No big kid fights, no major problems.  It was good.  Rob's birthday was the most fun.  We went to the zoo.  It was packed because it was free zoo day, everyone in Utah went.  But it was also enjoyable because the animals were out and moving around, the kids were happy (Peter had a few problems with people getting in his space) and we walked away happy, contented people.  Pretty darn good for the month.