Easton's Christmas program

I am way behind in my posting. I guess that I will be doing several posts tonight to catch up.

On December 18th, Easton had his Christmas program at school. They did the whole school's program in one night. Each grade sang a few songs. It started at 7:00. I knew that it was going to be a crowded night so I got to the school about 6:15. I was one of the first ones there, so I got seats on the front row. It filled up pretty quick. By the time that it started it was standing room only. It was packed! I am sure that next year they are going to split up the programs.

Luckily Easton is only in 1st grade, so we didn't have to stay long. We left after he was done. (After every performance some people would leave and others would take their spots. So, we weren't being rude to leave!) :) They sang a couple of really cute songs, my favorite being All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth! Very cute!! They did great and it was fun to go watch!


I told Dave that within the next couple of years we wouldn't be able to pay Easton to wear that hat! :) But, I am glad that at least for now he didn't mind! I thought they all looked cute! But, he kept making faces at me as I tried to take a picture of him. Typical Easton!! :)

Most Traditional

Friday night was our ward Christmas party/chili cook-off. So, I signed up to make chili. I talked to my friend in the ward and told her that I have a good recipe for chili, but that it is just normal chili, nothing fancy. I told her that if I win a category it will be for the most traditional.

Anyway, they had several categories, most spicy, most unique, best tasting, and most traditional.

Sure enough, I won for most traditional! I was pretty excited! I have never won (or entered) any cooking contests before and so I was glad to be recognized. :) They gave me an apron that said, "Most Traditional." There were lots of good competition there.



Santa Clause also attended our party. He came around to each table and talked to each child. He gave them each an orange, to go along with a story that was read about a Christmas orange. The kids loved that part!



All the primary children serenaded us with a couple of Christmas songs. Avery really wanted to go stand up with Easton and Paisley as they sang. I let her for a minute but then she became too much of a show off and she had to come sit down. :) And then it was over. Short and sweet. :) It was a fun little get together. It was good to visit with ward members, and oh so fun to win! :)

Do they make me look smart?

I don't often blog about just myself. But, today my new glasses came in! I have had one other pair of glasses, and they broke well over a year ago. I have missed them. I always wear contacts, but it will be nice to have a break from them now and again. So, here they are! I like them. Now, obviously I am no model. But, I am happy to finally have glasses! Yea for me!

Gingerbread House...Going, going, gone!!

I thought it would be fun to do a gingerbread house this year as a family. I found one in a kit at Sam's Club. It was a good deal, less than $10 with the house, frosting, and candy included. So, we decided to do it tonight.


The kids all got their aprons on and we were ready to go!

We got it together and it was a bit fragile, but me being the impatient person I am, decided to go ahead and let them start to decorate. About 1/2 way through, Easton added a candy to the seam at the top and for some reason the roof started coming down. So, it took a while, but we got it back together.



The kids had a great time decorating it. We tried to let Avery help, but she really wasn't any help, so she watched in her high chair while she ate marshmallows. :) Easton and Paisley did a really good job. I helped them here and there, too. When it was fully covered in candy, I decided to move it over to a less messy area to get a picture.



I decided that that wasn't enough for the pictures. I needed to get one with Easton, Paisley, and I. So I carefully picked it up and kneeled on the floor so the kids and I could take the picture. Right as Dave was ready to take it, half the roof fell off, right onto the ground.



I picked it up and tried to fix it, but pretty much the whole thing fell apart at that point. We just laughed. I mean, what else can you do? The kids laughed.



They had done the fun part already and so it didn't really hurt them that once it was done it fell apart. They did say that they had a lot of fun, though, and that is what matters! And, luckily, I got several pictures before it fell apart!

Wrestling is over

Easton has been in wrestling for a while now. He had about 6 matches. He finally won his first match on Tuesday. He wrestled so well! It was the best he had done ever. He was really aggressive and took control of the match. I was really proud of him. He was also very excited and proud of himself! : )



Then Friday night he had the big tournament with all the schools. There were so many people there. They had grades K-6 wrestling. And, within each grade there were several weight classes. Easton is in 1st and weighs 45 pounds. So, they started with kindergarten and went up through 6th for Round 1. Then Round 2 they did the same. Needless to say, it was a long time in between matches. And, to make it worse, Easton ended up with two byes. Then both of the matches he had he lost. But, he tried so hard and never gave up. I was so proud of him. I know that he was a bit disappointed on his first loss.



The second match he was able to wrestle a friend of his from his class in school. He was all smiles that match. He lost, but was happy for his friend and genuinely had a great time!

So, we were there 4 hours and he wrestled twice for a total of about 6 minutes! ;) Fortunately, Dave's mom watched the girls for us. She took them to McDonald's and let them watch a movie. So, that was nice for them and us. They wouldn't have had fun there and we wouldn't have had fun with them there probably! :) It was really nice to have some alone time with just our son. I am proud of him. He is ready to start a new season in February. He has the fever!!

Have you played this...

Yea, an oldie but definitely a goody. :)

Last night Dave and I played games with our good friends, Mike and Kalli. We really enjoy playing Ticket to Ride, another great game. (When the guys aren't cheating, but that's for another post.) But, last night they brought over Risk. Dave and Mike had both played, but not since like their missions, a long time ago. They were finally able to figure out/remember the rules and we played. Kalli and I were at a definite disadvantage. We had no clue as to what was good strategy and what wasn't. But, guess who won?? ME!! At one point in the game, I about strangled Dave. But, we joined forces a few times which really helped me out! Team work! I was able to take over Europe and Africa and held my own there for most the game and I finally took over South America and North America. We had to call it a game at that point because it was so late. But, it was evident that there was only a matter of time before I demolished Dave who was the only one standing at that point. That was fun!

I had never really had the desire to play that game before. I was pleasantly surprised. If you get a chance, play!! It will bring out the competitive side in you!

Decorating the tree

A few years ago my parents gave us their artificial tree. We put it up for a year or two and then I got sick of it. It was kind of a pain to put up and take down. Then I decided that I only wanted to get real trees from now on. After a couple years of that, I decided I wanted to go back to fake. I was tired of having to water it, only to have it dry up and then clean up the needles. Also, by Christmas it is usually so dry that I have to take it down the next day. Ideally I would like to keep it up until New Years. So, this year I was going to buy us a nice pre-lit tree. But, as money always is at this time of year, it is tight. So, I wasn't looking forward to having to spend a lot on a tree. I was telling this dilemma to my sister-in-law, Josie. She said that every year her family cuts their own trees. She offered to cut us one when they go. I just bought the permit, $10. Cheap! Just what I wanted!

They brought us a really cute tree. It is kind of sparse, but that is a given when you cut your own. But, I really liked our "Charlie Brown tree." So, Sunday night we began to decorate. I let the kids put on the ornaments. Somehow, the more decorations we got on it, the more Charlie Brown it became. By the time the kids were done, I couldn't bare to look at it anymore!! So, Dave went and dished them up some ice cream as a distraction and I tried to "fix" the tree. I basically took off all the decorations and attempted to space them out and make it look nice. But, a lot of my decorations are just too heavy for this little tree. So, we didn't end up using many of our decorations.







Bottom line, our little tree will not win any awards this year! :) But, I am sooo thankful for Dan and Josie and her family for getting this tree for us. Now that I look at the tree, it is cute. It is kind of fun not to have a perfectly shaped tree. It has personality! And, the kids had lots of fun decorating it. That is all that matters! They think it is the prettiest tree. It will be a fun memory for me!

Thank you again, Dan and Josie! That was sooo nice of you guys to offer to do that for us! You guys are so giving and kind and have done a lot for us this year. We appreciate it so much!

Paisley's Christmas program

Paisley's preschool had the opportunity to sing at the Festival of Trees a couple of weeks ago. She did such a good job! They sang six or seven really cute Christmas songs accompanied with some instruments and actions. Very cute!! Afterwards the girls and I ate lunch there, looked at the trees, and Paisley was very excited to get to sit on Santa's lap!


Avery with my parents :)

Quick trip!

Yesterday my sister-in-law and I took a quick shopping trip down to Salt Lake. She called me Saturday and said that she wanted to go get some decorations for her house at Taipan, a WONDERFUL store in Sandy. I had never been there and was excited!

I took the girls and we left as soon as I dropped Easton off at school. We ate lunch at Red Robin and then on to Taipan! It is a store full of affordable decorations and things for your house. Afterwards we went to IKEA which is one of my favorite stores. One of the best things is that they let you drop your kids off, the ones who are potty trained, to play and do crafts while you shop. We left Paisley in there and shopped for 2 hours! It was so nice. And, she had a lot of fun! We stopped on the way back at the Gateway Mall, which is an outdoor mall. During the day in Salt Lake it was about 57 degrees, sooo nice for the 1st day of December! So, shopping at the outdoor mall was doable!

It was a fun get-away. We shopped all day and we didn't get home until about 12:15 a.m.! It was a long day! The girls were really really good considering over 6 1/2 hours in the car in one day and lots of shopping. I was very thankful for them being good! I was able to get a couple Christmas presents that I had previously been stuck on, and so all in all the shopping trip was a success! (Thank you so much, Heather, for letting Easton play at your house after school! I owe ya!)