Thanksgiving…..And the cats

We were very lucky to be able to head to Utah to see family over the Thanksgiving break. We first headed to Scipio to see my family and have a delicious Thanksgiving dinner with them. My mom planned a fun bingo with prizes that the kids loved, and we enjoyed hanging out and playing games with them. My mom mentioned that there were some abandoned cats up a few blocks that the girls could maybe go and feed. They hopped in the golf cart with some turkey leftovers, and this is what they found. I think this turned into the highlight of the girls whole trip to Utah.

When we pulled up there were about 20 cats that came out of nowhere hoping that we brought them food. My girls were in heaven. They named all of them, and we couldn't get them to stop thinking about the cats. We would go back to my parents home and all we would hear was "when can we go see the cats again."

We went to visit them several times over our short stay in Scipio. Luckily, we didn't bring any diseases home with us. Yuck!

The day after Thanksgiving we went up to visit Micah's family for a night. It was a short visit, but a good one. We managed to have all the cousins watch themselves so we could go out for an adult dinner. It's crazy that they were all old enough to do that. My girls LOVE spending time with their cousins. The next morning we attended the baptism of Grant Sondrup who was getting baptized while in utah visiting their family. We were then able to fit in a movie and dinner before heading back to Scipio for one more quick night to break up the driving. We loved our visit with family, and wish it could have been longer.

Abbie was able to make these cute pilgrims for a Relief Society activity she was able to attend with me. They turned out super cute, and we loved having them out during the Holiday.

Our Thankful jar was definitely full this year. Before we started even thinking about Christmas decorations we went through each paper, and reminded ourselves what we were thankful for. I love this time of year.

Tennis Buddies

Sally is a good friend of Aliza's from kindergarten last year. They ended up in the same tennis class for the past six months, and we have loved getting to know Sally and her family better. They showed up in exactly the same outfit last week, and I had to take a picture.

The tennis couch James gives everyone nicknames that he calls them by at tennis. Sally is "Fabulous" and Aliza is "Super girl." These ladies have a great time together.

Tea Party/ Student of the Month

For Activity Day's we threw a "Temple Tea Party." It was really fun to put together, and I think the girls enjoyed it. We carpooled to the temple, took pictures, and then went back to the church for lunch. We had the primary room all decked out with decorations, and lots of fun finger foods for the party. The only down side was that it was raining hard ALL day. When we entered the temple we were explaining how reverent it is inside, and how we should be so quiet at the temple, but when we went in it was so loud and crowded with people it was a little disappointing. I hope they got something out of our special day.

Sister Morgan in our ward came along to take pictures. It literally poured rain the entire time. I am so impressed that the pictures turned out as well as they did. We gave the girls a cute block with a temple on it at the tea party, and then a framed picture of each of them at the temple as a Christmas gift. 

Look at my beautiful Avery! I just love her to pieces, and am so blessed to be spending time with her is Activity Day's. It has taken me a long time to adjust to not serving in Young Women's because I miss the Young Women so much, but I have loved only having to be at the church two Wednesday's out of the month. I'm now loving spending time with these lovely young ladies who will be headed into Young Women's before we know it. I received a really nice letter and locket from one of my Young Women today. It makes all my hard work in there totally worth it to read her letter of appreciation. She told me how much she loves and misses me, and that means the world to me.

Avery was awarded Student of the Month for the month of November. This girl is doing amazing things. I'm so proud of her and all her hard work. Through the month of November and December she has stayed after school to choir practices 2-3 times per week, and has gone in early several day's for Student Council. The Student Council was able to organize a wonderful donation event to help out a school less fortunate than theirs. Each day the student's brought in items like books, toys, hygiene items, and clothing to donate. I loved that Avery was able to be a part of that. I was able to help drop off the donations while the kids were in school, and I was grateful for that experience. It makes us truly grateful for what we have.

Avery has loved making these paper snowflakes this year. The pictures do not even do her room justice to how many snowflakes there were. She covered her ceiling to make her room a Winter Wonderland. She is so very creative.

 

Ragnar

Micah was able to participate in his first Ragnar race back in November. His team consisted of Cole, Kristi, Kyle, Kim (Cole's mom), Bryce and himself. They started at Mr. Charleston and ended in Lake Las Vegas. There was already snow in the mountains in November which seemed crazy.

These four men ride bikes and run together each week. We are so grateful for good friends where we live.

Here is the whole team. Micah and Kim are supposedly showing the back of their t-shirts and not their back sides. They chose the name "Back Fat -N- Bones." I don't get it, but apparently it's an inside joke between the men. Sometime I think it's better that I don't know. :)
 

Micah ran a total of 18 miles over three legs of the race. They were even lucky enough to head home for a shower and quick rest while the other half of the team ran through the middle of the night. When Micah showed up at home I wasn't expecting him and was ready to watch a chick flick. I wasn't too thrilled to turn it off so he could sleep, but I did. It's funny how I make plans for myself when I know he is not going to be home. I was disappointed to lose some me time, but glad he could sleep in a real bed for a few hours.

The other half of the team consisted of Kristi's sister and friends from Utah. They were in a different car running at different times so I don't think they even saw each other until the finish.

Yay of another medal to add to Micah's collection. Good Job Micah!

A Few More Halloween Picture I Love

I was in charge of decorating a pumpkin for Aliza's classroom for the Fall Festival at the school. I did steal this idea from Pinterest, but I loved how it turned out.

Below is Aliza waiting for the school parade to start. Her and Luke (right behind her) were in their own little world waiting for the parade to start. He was doing karate moves and Aliza was singing and dancing. So cute!

Our pumpkins all lit up.

Between school parties, a ward party, an activity day party, a YW's party, and two family friend parties (thank you Heagany and Church families) we were Halloweened out. But oh how I love my little goblins.

Halloween 2013

Our wonderful friends, the Church family have put together fun Halloween parties the past few years. This year took the cake. It was amazing! Each family was given a Halloween song to make into a music video. We had the song "Ghostbusters" to do what we wanted with. Abbie took on the part as director, which was perfect with her love of making movies, and we set to work. Our video turned out so cute, and I will treasure it always. We met at their home a few days before Halloween, had pizza dinner together, and watched all of our video's from a projector onto a large sheet. We were laughing so hard at all of the creative and cute idea's. Then it was all put to a vote. We won second place on our video, and first place in the food category for my discussing cake that looked like a kitty litter box. Yum!

Look at all those cute kiddo's!

                            

Their parents don't look so bad either…..

Being in charge of the Holiday parties really isn't that big of a deal, but I still stress about it. In fact I always forget to take pictures because I'm so busy running around. I think this party turned out great, and each time I learn to do something differently. 

The school parade is always fun. I was able to snap a quick picture of Avery as she walked by quickly. It was fun to see her chatting away with all of her friends. The fifth grade gets to have a party all together with food and socializing out on the playground. I was lucky enough to attend both Avery and Aliza's parties this year because of the timing of them.

The cutest Cookie Monster I have ever seen.

Abbie decided months before Halloween that she wanted to make a poodle skirt. When we went to visit Grandma during the Summer, she was able to help us make Abbie's costume. It was a very good experience for Abbie, and I'm glad we were able to have the help.

Aliza chose to be a vampire this year. She looked adorable, and I loved it even more that I could reuse a costume from her older sister.

I can't believe how much candy these little ladies got this year. Tons of full size candy bars, and people handing our handfuls of candy at a time.  Micah took them around our neighborhood, and Avery went with a friend for a little bit around her neighborhood.

Aliza was more than thrilled with her loot. 

Carving Pumpkins 2013

This years pumpkin carving was so easy compared to years past because everyone could pretty much get the goop out and carve their pumpkin with little or no help. Man these kiddo's are growing up too fast. :(

Everyone got their creative juices flowing, or picked a stencil, and off to work they went.

Rosted pumpkin seeds are one of our all time favorite things to do after pumpkin carving. Yum!

 They did a great job!