Adventure

Aliza's kindergarten teacher mentioned to the class that they should go on more adventures. I'm not sure if they read a book about someone on an adventure or what, but it stuck.

She took it very seriously and right when she got home created an adventure in our back yard.

It was cold but she was out there for hours doing homework, and just enjoying doing something new.
Love this girl!!!

Christmas Fun

Christmas is in full swing at our house. We have our presents wrapped and under the tree, Christmas cards are almost ready to be put in the mail, and we have been running around like CRAZY all week. It seems like our calendars get full so fast this time of year it's hard to take time to really enjoy the Christmas Season. Here are are a few things we have done this week:

There is a Christmas light street not to far from our home that we love to visit each year. It reminds me of the street in Utah with the twelve days of Christmas, but this streets theme is cartoon characters. Most of it revolves around Disney, but Spider man is swinging across the street along with some Charlie Brown and others too.

My phone didn't take the best pic's, but you can see some Madagascar.

Last Tuesday Avery was able to participate in a Live Nativity put on by the Red Rock Stake across town. This is the first year we have gone, and it was amazing. They had a large room filled with nativity display's from across the world that was beautiful, and Avery performed on this stage with her violin group between each performance of the Nativity.

They let us sneak out and watch the last performance for the night, and they did such a beautiful job. I was so grateful that we were able to have that special evening to feel the spirit and really remember why we celebrate Christmas. I also loved that there are very few at her violin studio that are LDS, but everyone stayed to watch and had a great experience. What a great missionary tool.

The Elders Quorum was in charge of the ward Christmas party last night. Micah has a great presidency that he is able to work with, and they did a fantastic job. I do have to admit that the Sunday prior to the party I was a little nervous. They had the great idea of making graham cracker ginger bread houses and it was such a hit. Everyone at every table young and old were very involved in making a house, and they all turned out so well. It was fun to see everyones creativity.

The Primary sang a few Holiday songs, and there was more than enough food for everyone. It's always better to have too much than not enough I suppose. Abbie was mentioning to me that this was her last time singing with the Primary. So crazy that she is growing up so fast. They did a great job.  This next photo is random, but Aliza is always making us laugh so I wanted to include it.

This week alone I had a Holiday book club dinner at our home, did a Student of the Month luncheon, and then preparing for the the ward Christmas party and service project it has been a crazy week. Adding Avery's performances and our regularly scheduled lessons, meetings and youth activities I'm so glad this week is over.

Our Elf on the shelf Fredrick Hansel came to visit for the month starting on December 1st, and our holiday count down box is in full swing. It really is a wonderful, but crazy time of year.

Thanksgiving 2012

Wow time flies, and now we are into the business of the Christmas Season. Right before Thanksgiving we were able to go out with my sister and her husband to a fun dinner as they were heading through Vegas. It was the week before Thanksgiving, and we were not even aware that they were lighting the tree at the District near our home, but they were. Every year the tree lightings and Christmas music creeps its way in further and further away from Christmas. We will soon be setting up our Christmas trees in September if it keeps up. We did have a fun time with them, and it was fun to see the lights.

Through the month of November we decided to keep our Thankful chart simple this year and just had a Thankful Jar. It was fun to watch is slowly fill with these little papers of everyones Thankfulness.

We did head up to Utah to visit family for Thanksgiving. We ate dinner with Micah's side of the family, and then headed back to my parents for dessert. It was so fun visiting with everyone and the kids had a great time playing in Micah's parent's back yard with their cousins. It was decent weather the entire time we were there which was nice.

I must have been really proud of my turkey relish tray because it's the only picture I took of the entire day of Thanksgiving. I thought that was pretty silly of me. What did we ever do without Pinterest ideas? [Insert Micah rolling eyes here.]

One of the days while in Utah we were able to see the movie "Wreck it Ralph" with Micah's family, and then had a great time at dinner with all of Micah's siblings and his parents. It was an all adult dinner which is rare, and even more rare that ALL of his siblings were there. It was a wonderful meal with wonderful company.

We spent a day doing crafts, bowling, and eating at the Olive Garden with my parents which was wonderful too. Abbie was given the responsibility to put the lights up outside my parent's home. She did a great job and it looked beautiful. We even made it to Temple Square this trip. The lights were beautiful, and it felt good to be home in Utah.

This is the silliness I get when I want to take a picture. No one would hold still long enough for a shot.

I loved that they started to decorate in the windows of Macy's (was ZCMI) downtown again. It brought back memories of looking in those candy filled windows as a kid myself. It was a wonderful trip, and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing and visiting with everyone.