Christmas Concert

Olivia had her first band concert this month.  It reminded me of my orchestra days in elementary school.  While some people might cringe at the sound of an elementary school music group, I find that I really appreciate it.  I love it when kids learn music.  It has been such a big part of my own life.  Olivia looked so cute up there.  She's not sure how she feels about learning to play the clarinet and I have been horrible at reminding her to practice.  She's actually taken to it pretty well, so we will see if it lasts into next year.

Sammie as Mary

Sammie was chosen to be Mary at our Ward Christmas party.  She was excited about it, but wouldn't let anyone know.  Not a smile to be seen.  She can get so shy.  It was very cute.  Joseph, was not shy one bit.  It was such a sweet program.  It was special and quiet while the nativity was read from the bible.  The primary children sang and there were a couple of other musical numbers all done by children and youth in our ward.  It was simple and lovely and quiet which is unusual for a ward party.  For some reason I got a little teared up.  Children are so precious and for a moment I was seeing the Christmas story through their eyes.  I was struck by the miracle of Christ's birth.  I am so grateful for Him; For his life and his mission.  I know that he lives and loves each of us.

 Trying so hard not to smile :)

 

Tinker

Sammie loves to build things.  Especially out of paper.  She made this little covered wagon and pioneers to sit inside.  She comes up with these little creations all the time.  Just a few days ago, she wanted to show me a game they played in math at school and she made her own 6 sided die out of paper.  I love Sammie's pictures of people.  Everyone always looks so happy.  I'm sure if she was a fairy, she would be a tinker fairy, like Tinkerbell.

Pajama Day!

Nothing gets you out of bed early like the excitement of wearing your pajamas to school.  We've been having a hard time dragging ourselves out of bed lately.  Not this morning.  It's pajama day, and things don't get much more exciting than that when you're a kid.

Piano Recital

Sammie and Olivia both had Christmas recitals this month.  Olivia is still taking lessons from me and I had a recital at home with the other family I teach and then we decorated graham cracker houses.  It's a tradition that we have been doing for a few years with our friends.  It's very low key, but the kids practice hard and perform well.  Olivia has learned so much over the years and played "Let it Snow" and "Hallelujah."
Sammie started taking lessons from someone just around the corner from us.  It has been a great thing for both of us.  Sometimes it is just better when mom is not the teacher.  She performed "Heigh-Ho" and "Silent Night."  We've been enjoying singing along as she plays "Silent Night."  It has been our Family Home Evening opening song a few times.  She was the only student that played without her music.  She insisted that she knew them by heart, and she did.

 It was hard to squeeze in between all the cameras to take a picture.

Thinking

Abby told me yesterday,

"Mom, you know what?  Sometimes I feel like I'm just actually six." 

 

Christmas time is here...

I don't know how, but somehow I got all of the Christmas things up.  On our way home from our crazy Thanksgiving, I told myself that I wasn't going to stress or worry about getting anything ready for Christmas.  I would feel better sometime in the next 3 weeks and I would just get a little out at a time or even just do the tree and stockings and not worry about anything else.  I needed to unpack first and do laundry and I would just take my time doing that.  That was late Saturday night and we got home about 11pm.
Then Sunday morning came and we got the tree up.  The girls were so excited to see the tree and Joey had gotten all the tree décor down so I started decorating it.  Then the girls were all cute in their holiday dresses and I took a picture of that.  Slowly the tree got decorated on Sunday and the girls even got to put their new ornaments on and we started our Christmas scripture advent.  Then yesterday I finished the rest of the decorations.  I don't have that much.  I don't even know how it happened.  After our Thanksgiving I was prepared to do nothing for Christmas.  I was just so worn out.  And here we are, all ready for Christmas without even trying.  Small miracles that I wouldn't even have noticed if I didn't stop to think about it.

Giving Thanks and being sick

My mom really outdid herself for Thanksgiving.  It was so delicious and the table was beautiful. I didn't know that turkey could taste so good. 

We have had so much sickness in our house the last few weeks.  It just seems like we go from one cold to a worse cold to colds with ear infections and then colds with ear infections that won't go away.  The day that we left for Tahoe for Thanksgiving, I had taken Sammie back to the urgent care for another shot of antibiotics.  She had been so sick the weekend before Thanksgiving and had missed a few days of school.  We packed up anyway, although I was getting sick that day.  We still enjoyed ourselves.  It was either sick at home with no Thanksgiving dinner, or be sick and enjoy being with family and having Thanksgiving all planned and prepared.  So, we still decided to go.  Then we realized Abby's ear infection hadn't cleared up either with her antibiotics and she and I made a trip to urgent care the day after Thanksgiving because I thought I might have strep throat, but don't. Just a really bad virus.
We are all much better this week, but still slowly getting better.  Sammie is at least back at school, although exhausted at the end of the day.
In spite of the not ideal circumstances of our Thanksgiving (I've had worse days) I reflected on all that we do have.  We have been blessed with so much and I try not to take those things for granted.  Sometimes it is so hard not having a body that can do all that I want it to do, or even what I need it to do at times, but I remember how much worse it can be.  We have been blessed through our trials and that is truly a miracle.

 

 

Speak Out!

 Olivia participated in "Speak Out" again this year.  Her group memorizes a story and then perform it with actions.  They are judged on a number of things and in spite of losing a team member late in the game and having to improvise a bit, this year her group qualified to go on to the district.  Olivia actually wasn't that excited to qualify.  I think she was ready to be done reciting this story over and over and I'm pretty sure the whole family now has "The Wacky Substitute" by Sally Derby completely memorized.  They put in lots of practice time and it is a lot of work for the parents too as we have to coach them and help them refine their pieces.  I am always impressed when my kids do things like this when it is just up to them.  Good job girls!