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Jenna is NOT a girly girl. In a way, it's kind of sad. No Barbies, very few baby dolls, etc. She has no desire to play sports or dance or tumble (as she informed Kristen and me last night). But she LOVES makeup!! I was getting ready the other day and she got into my makeup and did herself up. Blush, lipstick, and charcoal gray eye shadow (which is hard to see, but the way she put it on made her look bruised). What a girl!

Christmas Dance Recital

Kristen's dance recital was on December 11 and what a day that was!! I was solely in charge of our church Christmas dinner. We had to set up all morning and then rush off to a dance recital. This year, the teacher decided to have 2 recitals to cut down on the time and people, but...since Kristen's on the competition team, she had to perform in both. Then it was rushing off to get the dinner going. B-u-s-y day!!

Kristen did a production number (red, green, silver, and gold costumes) to "We Need A Little Christmas" and then she also did a dance to "Run, Run Rudolph." Her ballet class did a beautiful dance to "Bring A Torch, Jeanette Isabella" in these gorgeous pink costumes. She wasn't cooperating with the camera that day, so I didn't get the pink costume, but they'll use those again for comps.Kristen and her BFF, Hannah.

Gingerbread Houses

I decided to make some small gingerbread houses for the kids to decorate this year. I found a recipe and pattern online--but ended up using my own recipe. The pattern printed really small, but it was perfect for the kids. Jenna helped me buy the candy, hence the Swedish fish sea animals. :) They had fun making them and nibbling on the candy. Maybe I'll make this an annual tradition.Jarren's house. He looks so excited!! He really does have quite the sparkle in his eyes, he just gets silly for pictures.
Kristen's house. She did a very "perfectionist" job on hers.
Kendall's house. He just slapped some things on in about 3 minutes, so he could move on to more important things.
Jenna's house. She put as many sea critters as she could fit on there. Little Miss Sweet Tooth.

O Christmas Tree

We got our Christmas tree a couple of weeks ago. Jon had to go out of town, so we decided to get a real one before he left. We got it and he got the lights put on, but we waited until the next day to do the decorating, since it was so late. Jenna was soooo thrilled!! So excited that she had to sleep under the tree all night. Jarren was excited because he was the one who chose the tree. It's a very beautiful tree indeed. We had a "fancy" fake tree (all matching decorations) that we put up downstairs, but with all the remodeling going on down there, there's no room for it. Hopefully next year....

A Trip Down Memory Lane...

I'm feeling very nostalgic lately. My very favorite Christmas songs are the "classics" by the greats--Dean Martin, Johnny Mathis, Frank Sinatra, the Andrews sisters, Kate Smith, Perry Como, and of course, my most favorite of all, Bing Crosby, among others. Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong time period. I would have loved to have grown up in the 1940s or 50s--I love the movies and music. As I listen to these songs, they make me think back on my childhood and how magical everything was.

I remember it snowing in November and not melting until March--or even April. We would make sledding hills in the yard, snow houses/forts, etc. This year, we've had snow, then it melted and was warm and fall-ish. Now, we have lots of snow again (about 5 inches and still snowing)--but it's supposed to rain and melt it. I'm seriously dreaming of a white Christmas. There's nothing I love more than to wake up on Christmas morning to lots of fresh snow, with it still falling.

I remember that Christmas didn't come to the stores before summer was over. It didn't really hit until after Thanksgiving. I was in a store in August and they had aisles and aisles of Christmas stuff already. Stores had toys way back when, but not as many as around Christmas time. And the catalogs!! Oh, how much fun to look through those and decided what I was going to ask Santa for.

I LOVED waking up early, plugging in the Christmas tree lights, and sitting on the heat vent, watching the lights twinkle in the dark.

Christmas music wasn't non-stop until 5 days before Christmas. A radio station would do the 100 hours of Christmas music--8 pm on December 20 and play through midnight on Christmas night. I loved listening to the radio and hearing a Christmas song come on here and there and looked sooo forward to when it was non-stop. In fact, I used to put my radio right next to me in bed on Christmas Eve night and turn it on very, very quietly and listen to Christmas music all night long.

Even Santa comes earlier. I was in the mall before Thanksgiving and there sat Santa with a line of children waiting to visit him. I remember Santa making a big entrance the day after Thanksgiving.

I don't know if all these things make Christmas seem more magical or if I've just gotten older, but I miss the way things used to be.

Silver Linings....

Bad things always seem to happen in threes, right? At least that's how the old wives tale goes. I think our streak is over for awhile.

Our oven died--the day after my HUGE ward Christmas party. Thank goodness I made it through that first. And the new one is delayed and won't be here for awhile. Thank goodness for slow cookers (crock pots) and stove tops....and microwaves.

Our van needs new tires, new brakes, a new motor mount, struts, etc. Yeah, $3000+ in repairs. But at least we don't have a car payment and it runs.

Our remodel is going sooooo slow and STILL isn't done! At least the house is livable and warm though.

Kendall and I both had a day last week that nothing went right. It was one of those days when you just want to go back to bed and start over. At least not every day is like that.

Careful What You Wish For!

My baby sister (who is now going on 19) told me that she really wanted snow just before Thanksgiving. Well...she got what she wished for! We woke up to about 9 inches on Sunday morning. It melted off a little before our "blizzard" last night and now it's supposed to be so cold, I think it's here to stay. Welcome Winter!

Again, the trees still had so many leaves on them that the branches were touching the ground. One pretty good sized branch even broke!

Even though it was Sunday, the kids were soooooooo excited to go out and play in it and make snowmen and build forts. Ah, to be a kid again....I hate being cold now. :)

Blizzard

Last night was supposed to be the biggest storm in 20 years. A huge blizzard was moving in and I must admit, I got caught up in all the warnings too. I ran around stocking up on batteries and making sure we had enough food. I also filled the van with gas, just in case we had to go out and got stuck. I made a big pot of soup, rolls, and cinnamon rolls and then we waited. And waited. It finally blew in just before 6 pm and lasted about 4 hours. We got about 4 inches and it was very windy, but we never had whiteout conditions. We never lost power or heat. It was a fun little storm. The kids were sooo excited!

Jarren, Kendall, and a couple of neighbor boys were out playing in it, while Jenna and Kristen stayed indoors planning their girl sleepover. Kendall and the 2 neighbor boys built a fort out of snow and then added tarps for a roof. They piled sleeping bags and blankets out there, along with hot water bottles and snacks and they hunkered down to SLEEP out there. I was worried we'd wake up and find them all frozen to death or with extreme frostbite. But...they were okay. Around 12:30 or 1, they finally gave up and went indoors. It was a fun experience for them.

Pumpkin Party

Halloween week started out with a trick--a bunch of snow!! We hardly had any leaves down when the snow hit, so that made the branches weigh down. It melted off and we kept the trampoline up for a few more weeks, but luckily got it down before the next big storm.
We had such a busy week during the week leading up to Halloween, that we weren't able to carve pumpkins until about 2 hours before we went trick-or-treating. Kristen was worried about that--we always do it at night, but it was stormy and seemed darker than it really was, so it was all good. I bought one of those pumpkin carving kits last year on clearance, so we used that. Those things are sooo nifty! The pumpkin scooper gets all the goop out so easily and the little knives were handy too. But...they all broke before our pumpkins were carved. I picked up about 6 of them on clearance this year, so hopefully next year will go a little better.

Halloween Part II

Here are the other Halloween pictures....finally!!Kendall dressed up as Justin Bieber for school (he looked like a well-dressed middle schooler), but I didn't get any photos. He tore it off the second he got home--it was levis. So...for Halloween day, he dressed up like a nerd with his friend, Bryce. Pretty funny...We borrowed a dragon costume from my neighbor. Apparently, Jenna thought she had to look up in the photos to make the dragon look more scary. :) It was cute and warm--a good combination for a cool, rainy Halloween night.

Mice

Why is it cartoon mice are so cute? And real mice are so.....creepy? How can such a cute little thing scare me to death? We've caught 4 mice in the last 5 days in our garage. On Saturday, I was taking Kendall and Kristen to get new shoes and Kendall said, "Look! It's a mouse!" I saw a mouse scurrying into a box on the 2nd shelf in the garage. He went and got Jon and Jon tried to catch it, but it ran away. It had been into two boxes (yes, we had to throw some stuff away) and was building a nest under the freezer, next to the motor. We caught one and decided to set the trap again and the bait was gone, but no mouse. So....we knew there was another one. We caught it the next day and tried again and have now caught two babies. I feel awful, but I can't be overrun with mice (dirty, germy, disease-ridden creatures). I just wish they'd go build their house outside of my territory.

Halloween Part I

I think I rant about my camera a little too much, but here I go again. I put newly charged batteries in it (or brand new batteries) and after a few pictures, they're dead. I imagine that camera is sucking all the energy out of those batteries, so it's the camera's fault, not the batteries. That said, I have pictures of half of the Halloween costumes, but the other half will have to wait until the batteries charge so I can get them off the camera.

Kristen decided to be a pirate girl. She wanted her glitter lips (from dance) to go with it and I thought that turned out cute. We got her some new boots for winter (and to go with the costume). She wore them on Friday for the school Halloween parade and party and the zipper ripped out after about 10 minutes. So....we took them back. Of course, they didn't have her size, so she ended up getting some blue boots instead.Jarren decided to be a black rider from Lord of the Rings. I sewed his cape. I made one for Kendall last year, but it was way too big. Then I had to sew two mens larges for our ward play. This one was easy compared to those--a lot less material. Jon made the gloves out of magic gloves and duct tape. Pretty cool....
I usually dress up like either a witch or Princess Leia. This year, I decided to be a hippie. We had Kristen's party and a wedding reception that night (Friday) and I had a headache, so I didn't want to mess with the buns or with dying my hair. I also thought about being a Hawaiian girl, but again, I didn't want to dye my hair. Nice and easy. :) The shirt I'm wearing was actually my mom's from back in the 60s or 70s. It's amazing I still have it...
Stay tuned for pictures of Jenna and Kendall.... And of pumpkin carving....

Party Time

Kristen convinced me (kinda last minute) to let her host a Halloween party on the Friday before Halloween. She invited some girls from school, church, and in the neighborhood. We just did typical party games--something like musical chairs, freeze dance, make your own story, body parts (food that is supposed to be like body parts and they have to guess which food it is), pictionary, ghost stories, decorated cupcakes, and murder in the dark. Did I leave anything out? Probably. But...it seemed like everyone had a fun time and I don't know why I was so hesitant. It really wasn't that bad. :) I only got one picture, since I was so busy helping with the games.

Cookies

We found a fun Halloween sugar cookie mix--Pillsbury, I believe. The kids were dying to make cookies. I hate the mess that cutting out sugar cookies brings, but we braved it and the kids had a blast! Luckily, we had a ghost cutter, since pretty much all the other cookie cutters I have are Christmas. Kendall missed out--he was camping with the scouts. I'm sure we had more fun than he did, since they had to do their big bike ride in the pouring rain. :)

Wacky Wednesday/Crazy Hair Day

Today is a wacky/crazy day. It's red ribbon week at the school and each day they do something new. Today is crazy hair day and Kristen and Jarren wanted to go all out. We messed Jarren's hair up and spray painted it blue, green, and pink.After the fact, we put little ponytails in it, but he was embarrassed by that, so I took them out. Kristen wanted hers really curly (didn't have enough time though) and colored. We used pipe cleaners to make it a little more crazy. I left Kristen with red-eye because I thought it made the picture even more crazy.The wacky part of today: we woke up to about 3 inches of snow--luckily, not that much stuck to the ground, just the deck and tramp. Since we've had such a warm fall, the leaves haven't changed colors yet on 9 of our 12 trees and those trees are still FULL of nice, green leaves. So...all that wet, heavy lake-effect snow weighed them way down. Our first snow of the season was on Monday, with just a skiff. The kids are so worried about the trampoline, but after today, it's supposed to be pretty nice for at least the next two weeks, so we'll get to it...

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes! The Answers are Known....

As I mentioned awhile ago, I was released from Young Women. I was calling-less for about 6 weeks, but have now been put to work. I am the new ward activities person (any ideas are very welcome) and the young women sports director. SPORTS?!?!? I am NOT athletic at all! I'm clumsy and uncoordinated. They put me in because "I look like I'm 16 and I look athletic." I thought that was pretty funny--apparently that old adage is true--looks can be deceiving. But....I'll do my best! Wish me luck!

And the Oscar Goes to.....

We had a church play a few weeks ago and Kristen decided that she wanted to be in it. So...she auditioned and made it (everyone did). She said she only wanted to dance, but ended up getting a few lines and a solo (singing part). She was Pinocchio and did a GREAT job!! Unfortunately, the camera batteries were dead and the video camera ran out of tape right before she came on, so....I'll have to round up some pictures from someone. The play was The Princess Dragon (two fine people in the ward wrote it years ago)--it's about a princess who has a spell placed on her and is a dragon. The prince can't marry her unless she's a girl, so different people come and try to break the spell. Kristen was also a lady. Anyway....they did a very good job and it turned out to be a success.

Fall Break

We had a fall break from school a few weeks ago and decided to take the kids on a little overnight outing. We went to Goblin Valley and Wild Horse Canyon and then spent the next day with my aunt and uncle on their ranch--with a picnic on the river. Surprise, surprise--the camera only lasted for part of the first day, so we have no pictures of the ranch, but Jenna LOVED it--pigs, horses, cows, cats, dogs, etc. One of the horses followed her around with his nose in her hair. When she finally noticed, she just sat an nuzzled him. Kristen was in heaven with the cats--we almost ended up bringing a few home "accidentally." All the kids loved the dogs, which seemed to love them too. Too bad my kids don't have a farm or a ranch....

Back to Goblin Valley and the canyon--Jarren was in heaven there, running, jumping, climbing, etc all over the place. He sure slept well that night, even dreaming that we got to do the day all over again. Fun times, fun memories.Jarren had soooooooooo much fun!! This is one place he definitely wants to visit again.This spread out as far as the eye could see--almost. It would be easy to get lost in the mazes of these formations.The formations were really cool!A little goblin cave complete with two little goblins. :)The girls had fun too, even though it got pretty hot. It was only upper 70s, but with no shade, it felt hot. The boys went ahead and took all the water with them, so we were quite thirsty by the time we caught up.Jon resting in Goblin ValleyJenna got a little tired of walking.
Kendall in Wild Horse Canyon
Wild Horse Canyon has a lot of slots and tight places. Also a lot of mud. :) I would NOT want to be caught here in a rainstorm.