5th Position and Jump Shot

Kate started ballet this year in September at a different studio. She is in the same class again as her friend Alyssa. We had stopped ballet in Feb/March of this year because of lack of students at the other studio. So far this new studio has been better. The teacher is more strict so Kate misses the other teacher. ha. But overall, she likes it still. They had a winter recital this year, but it was on a Sunday so Kate didn't participate. We've been having to tell a few people about what we do and don't do on the Sabbath Day...like no birthday parties for friends or no shopping or no going to events. We keep it as a family and Church day. Since we didn't go to the recital the owners let us parents come in and watch them perform it in class last week. It was good to see Kate dance with the other girls. I have no idea about ballet technique so I think she did good. haha! She has her final recital performance in June and thank goodness it's on a Saturday.

Kate is also doing basketball this winter. It's been crazier than her basketball schedule last year because it's 2 practices a week and games either on Friday night or Saturday. We are doing it through the Boys and Girls Club since it was longer playing season and cheaper than the YMCA. But now with overlapping ballet, basketball and activity days for Church it makes for crazy Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I'm glad it's temporary because I'm going nuts on those two nights. Kate likes basketball, but the first game they had was hard. It was hard for me to watch too! I love playing basketball and I know the rules so it's different watching her do basketball versus ballet. The other team they played was amazing (all the teams she plays are 3rd/4th grade girls) and the coaches were intense. Our team looked so ill prepared and most of the girls had no clue what to do, like they didn't know the basic rules of basketball. It was painful. I was in a bad mood watching it so I had to call my parents to calm me down and ask how they watched our sport teams when we would lose all the time. ha! I need to lower my expectations and realize these girls are only in 3rd/4th grades. And I want Kate to have fun doing it. 

Snowflake Lane

Snowflake Lane is one of our family's favorite activity in December. We look forward to it. We met up earlier for dinner at Red Robin (terrible service there) then enjoyed the show at 7pm. Snowflake Lane is in Bellevue and there are drummers, dancers, princesses, characters, toy soldiers on stilts and this year they added more dancers with umbrellas that danced in the street. It was more like a parade this year. Marci met up with us too so it was fun to have her there. It was a chilly night and everyone did okay until the end when Preston was crying because his feet were so cold, mine were too. Brrr! Chelsea eventually took off a glove so she could eat her sucker and her hand was freezing by the end. It was nice to warm up in the car on the way home. 

They hand out candy cane tootsie pops to everyone. The kids all got 2 of them. At first, Chelsea was sucking on hers without holding it with her hands and it was funny.

At the end they have fake snow that falls from above and it's so cool. The kids love it. I like the whole ambiance of Snowflake Lane with the festive Christmas music and the drummers and dancers playing and dancing to the music. Fun night.

Dresses and Houses All Dolled Up

I had the kids wear their Christmas Church outfits this last Sunday just because. They get to wear them again in a couple weeks too. :) I wanted a picture of them all dolled up.

Chelsea's face in this one cracks me up. She's good at having an attitude already, it scares me. She kept ripping her bow out of her hair. 

I liked the younger girls laughing.

And Chelsea was done.

We decorated our gingerbread house. The kids had fun putting all the candy on it. Kate tried making icicles for the first time and did a pretty good job. This kit is from Costco and it's my favorite because the house is pre-built so you can just do the fun part of decorating it. I learned the hard way a few years ago of buying a different kit from Walmart and having to put the house together and it then dealing with it falling apart while decorating. The kids want to eat it already, but I'm making them wait. I think eating the candy or the house sounds gross, but whatever.

Santa and Nativity

Last Saturday we had our Ward Christmas Party, which was a breakfast. Santa visited first thing so we got pictures with him and Chelsea screamed right away and didn't want anything to do with Santa. Then Lindsey said "hi", but wouldn't look him in the eye. Kate thought she was too old to get a picture with Santa. Preston was the only one that was okay with it and even told Santa what he wanted for Christmas. It was pretty funny to see how they all reacted differently.

Santa was asking Preston what he wanted for Christmas and so Preston told him he wanted a Lego Fire station. It was cute.

Lindsey was the angel in the nativity put on by the nursery kids. She didn't want to stand on the stage so I had to carry her on there and then she stayed. They showed some videos about Christmas after the nativity and we sang some songs. It was a good program and the breakfast was yummy- pancakes, eggs, ham, fruit and rice crispy treats for a dessert. :)

P.S. This is my 500th blog post! Holy cow that's a lot of posts! :)

Oh Christmas Tree

We started our advent activities for our Christmas countdown. On Sunday, it was Dec 1st and we were still at my parent's house with all my siblings (except Jeff & Sadie and Jared). Jeni and my Mom talked about the meanings of Christmas (like the evergreen tree, star, bow, etc.) then we watched 2 videos from Mormon Messages that talked about the real meaning of Christmas. Becky Christensen had taught RS at Church and shared these 2 videos and I loved them and so we shared them with everyone. One of them is about a boy who gives his  new coat that his Mom had just made him to a boy he sees on the street that doesn't have a coat. So sweet. We got home late Sunday night so the next day we wanted to decorate our tree and house for Christmas. We still need to put up our lights outside, but we got the tree decorated. The kids were excited to help. We have to rearrange our furniture to get the tree to fit in our room and we store the tree up in the attic so it's quite the process. haha! But it's pretty nice having a fake pre-lit tree. I used to always want a real Christmas tree and was staunch about it, but then after vacuuming the needles over and over it got tiresome. Now I'm sold on the fake one's. 

And after decorating, we had to watch the Seahawks play the Monday Night Football game which they WON! It was an exciting game. They beat the Saints.

I had to get a picture of this. Chelsea crawls up on Kyle and lays down on him then kisses him over and over. It's pretty cute. She's always excited when Daddy comes home. She runs to him and yells, "dada" and wants him to hold her. He's quite the celebrity when he gets home.

Oh Christmas Tree! I love the ambience it gives our room. I love having all the lights off and just the Christmas lights on. It's so cozy and warm feeling. Now onto more fun activities for our Christmas countdown like a Christmas craft, Snowflake Lane, decorate a gingerbread house, movie night, eat dinner by candlelight, go swimming, take treats to friends, drive around and look at Christmas lights and get hot cocoa, read Christmas stories, service day, read the Nativity story from the scriptures, color Christmas pictures and more. What a fun time of year!

Thankful

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a good Thanksgiving with my parents, Marci and my Grandpa Bill. It was pretty low key with just a few of us. The turkey took a lot longer to cook (don't ask my Mom about that, she wasn't too happy, ha). But once we ate it was delish! I'm thankful that my Mom is a good cook.

I loved my Mom's mantel and all the decorations she had on it. With the fire going and it being all foggy outside it was very cozy. 

Lindsey loves to dress up at Grandma's house. Notice the cute scarecrow and pumpkin decorations outside.

My Dad, Grandpa, Marci and Kyle

We had fun laughing together and watching football. We played games together like Settlers of Catan and even a long game of Mexican train one night. 

Chelsea's look/scowl is funny to me. Her face is all dirty and she has bruises on her forehead. haha.  

My Mom had some Thanksgiving games for the kids to play. They played pin the hat on the turkey, Thanksgiving Bingo and Don't Eat Tom the Turkey (like Don't Eat Pete). 

 My Dad is good to let the kids play on his iPad. He is also good at letting a bunch of kids come sit on his lap or climb all over him while he's trying to take a nap on the floor. He is the most patient person ever!

On Friday, Marci and I went up to the HS gym to work out. My Dad was already up there from playing early morning basketball and so he let us in. Marci had me do squats with a bar plus weights and I was super duper sore afterwards. Like right after. It was a long next 3 days! ha! But now I'm going to try to do them more at the gym. My Mom, Marci and I got ready and went into Tri Cities before lunch. We dropped off Kate at Jeni's and picked Jeni up. Then we went shopping. It was pretty low key since it wasn't super early in the morning. We found some good deals and got things crossed off our lists. We ate lunch at Costa Vida then did some more shopping. The longest line was at Old Navy and I think it was a 20 min wait so overall it wasn't bad.  While we were shopping away Kyle and my Dad were watching the Apple Cup- WSU vs UW and UW won so they were both happy. They brought the kids into town and Dee Ann babysat them while all us adults went to the movie Catching Fire. Melanie joined us too. It was a good movie and yes I screamed at the scary part. Afterwards, we all went out to Red Robin for dinner. It was like 10 pm by the time we picked up the kids from Dee Ann's house. She had put Chelsea down in her porta crib so we woke her up and drove back to my parents house (1 hr away). I'm thankful for Dee Ann for watching them so we could go to the movie. 

On Saturday, we headed back into Tri Cities after lunch to go to Melanie's house. Kate had spent the night with Jeni and Kevin so we swung by there first to pick her up. We were supposed to do Thanksgiving with Kyle's family this year, but Melanie didn't have the kids for Thanksgiving this year so we ended up doing our Thanksgiving with them on Saturday. Dee Ann made yummy ribs and potatoes and Melanie made ham, rolls, and green beans. For dessert Melanie made delicious coconut creme pie cupcakes. The recipe is from Jamie Cooks it Up and they were yummy. I liked this picture of everyone in the kitchen because between 2 families there are 9 kids! It's pretty crazy at times, but fun for the cousins.

Dee Ann and I played some games with the kids- Apples to Apples, Spot it and Twister. Well we didn't play Twister with them. I spun the wheel. Melanie's kids are ultra flexible so they are pros at this game. Nathan won hands down. He was making me laugh. 

I'm thankful for a lot of things in my life like my kids, Kyle's job, our little home (yes I want a bigger house soon! But hey, it's less to clean.), the Gospel, our Prophet and his guidance during these changing times, my Parent's, my extended family, the kids' school and our good health. It can be easy to get discouraged, and at times I do, but then I remember all that I have and how I should be grateful and not think of what I don't have. When I was giving my Uncle Jim an update about our life last month at Ryan's funeral he was saying, "so you have a good life." And I thought yeah you're right, I do. And I want to enjoy it now because you never know what's going to happen or what trial will come along.