Friday, December 25, 2015

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!
We had a blessed day.


Santa stopped by with presents and surprises.
He even ate his cookies and milk.

All the kids were so anxious to open presents, but we did have to wait for them to wake up.

The biggest surprise was our cotton candy machine, popcorn machine and snow cone machine.
We had a mini-carnival at our home today.

Joyanne made a French Christmas cake called "Buche de Noël".
It's a chocolate pudding cake.
We relaxed and enjoyed this special holiday that comes just once a year.
And the best part of all was that Daddy was home ALL DAY to enjoy it with us.

Thursday, December 24, 2015

Merry Christmas Eve!

Our traditions today include relaxing during the day, having a delicious dinner, and acting out the manger scene.
After singing a few carols, then we get to open one present.
Usually the kids open pajamas on Christmas Eve, but tonight, they each received a pillow instead.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Wednesday, December 23, 2015

Class Play and Sledding

Jaden performed in a class play, "Over the River and Through the Woods".
Jaden had his lines memorized as well as everyone else's.
You could see him mouthing all the lines.


He also had a great winter diarama on display.

The kids had a short day at school so we went sledding this afternoon for a short time.
The wind picked up and it got a bit chilly.

The rest of the day was spent relaxing, reading and watching a movie.

Tuesday, December 22, 2015

Pain and Blessings

Noah's PE teacher called me to tell me that Noah dived for a ball and rammed his head into the bleachers.
His head has a pretty good cut in it, but not deep enough to need stitches.
Because it's a head wound, it bled a lot.
Watching a movie "Where the Wild Things Are" helped him settle down a bit. ;)

Yesterday morning James' backpack zipper broke. (Sigh!)
One more thing to replace.
He came home with a brand new backpack his teacher gave him.
I emailed and thanked his teacher.
Then, today, James came home with a brand new coat because he had a broken zipper on his coat too, that has been broken for a while.
I'm so grateful for kind teachers who look out for and help their students, because in the end, it REALLY helps me.

Hiram gave a great presentation about Australia.
He's such a great kid!

Monday, December 21, 2015

Surprise Visit!

We happened to be at King's store and saw Santa.
The kids always love to see Santa no matter how many times.

Grandpa and Grandma made a surprise visit.
They took us to lunch at McDonald's and had some great Christmas presents for us.
The kids were excited to get tennis rackets.
Looks like this Spring and Summer we will be taking up a new family sport.

Sunday, December 20, 2015

Shop with a Cop

We had shop with a cop day.
Santa came in on a helicopter with tons of police cars coming down main street with their sirens on.
Each police officer had a child to shop with, and then they visited with Santa.



It was great to see these police officers doing so much good.

Friday, December 18, 2015

Scary Fall

On Wednesday, we had blizzard like conditions in the evening.
You couldn't see the road, even on the highways.

All the boys were playing nicely on the floor with toys, while I was preparing dinner.
One of the toys slid under the couch that is front of the stair railing.
Grant yelled, "I'll get it!"
 He climbed over the couch AND over the railing, holding on precariously over the edge of the railing.
He bent down to grab the toy, twisted around and fell about 6 feet, hitting his head.

Noah ran downstairs to a screaming Grant.
I came down and firmly told Noah not to move him.
I checked to see where Grant was hurt and didn't notice anything right off, except that he was clutching his ear.
He follows on his side.
I carried him upstairs to the couch and set him down.
I noticed blood coming out his left ear.
After calling Daddy and a nurse friend, I decided to take him to the emergency room.

Once there, they put him in a neck brace.
They wanted to do a CT Scan, but their machine was down.
The doctor called Primary Children's Hospital and it was decided he needed to be transported there by ambulance.
The doctor came back to a sleeping Grant.
The doctor couldn't rouse him, and when the doctor checked his eyes, one pupil was bigger than the other.
That's not good.
Once the nurse poked his arm to put in the IV line, Grant woke up screaming and his eyes were fine.


Transporting Grant took a long time due to blizzard conditions.
I was grateful to be riding in the ambulance with Grant and not driving.
Once at the hospital, he had a CT Scan and x-rays to find that he was perfectly and amazingly uninjured.
His bleeding ear came from a cut inside.
He received a blanket, stuffed lion, a toy figure, popsicles and Gatorade.
So for being hurt, he really got spoiled.

After being released at 1:45am, my parents drove me to their home to sleep that night.
Grant and I rode the Front-runner partway home on Thursday morning.

So, it was quite an expensive adventure, but we are so glad Grant is all right.


Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Crazy Hair and Dancing with Daddy

 

Noah woke up with quite the crazy hair.
He combed it nice for school, but it's too bad it's not Crazy Hair Day at school.

I just had to capture a picture of Daddy dancing with James and Grant to Joyanne's beautiful piano music.
It's the small moments like these that are worth remembering.

Monday, December 14, 2015

Yay for Snow!

We woke up to a gorgeous winter wonderland.
This picture is Grant on the netted trampoline.

I shoveled lots of snow.
Possum was a great companion.

We went caroling last night and tonight to deliver some "poppin'" neighbor gifts of soda pop and popcorn.

Hot chocolate is a must for my kids on these nice snowy days.

Friday, December 11, 2015

Recital

Joyanne has been teaching 9 students since September.
They had their Christmas recital tonight.
They all played really well.
Five of Joyanne's students are her very own brothers.
They are all progressing well.
It's wonderful to have such talented, good kids!
May they use their talents to bless others.

Saturday, December 5, 2015

America's Got Talent Auditions

Joyanne, Noah and I drove to Salt Lake city to the Salt Palace Convention center so Joyanne could audition for America's Got Talent.
She was sooooooo nervous before we left.
When we got there and were turning in paperwork, I asked if anyone could audition or if you had to have signed up already.
They said anyone could walk right in who had proper ID and sign up then and there.
So, I asked if I could audition, and they signed me up.
Who needs all the weeks of anticipation, practice and worry?
I just hoped I could do all right.

Joyanne was still quite nervous while we waited, but we only waited about 5 minutes before we were ushered into the room with the producers of the show.
There were about 5 or 6 judges and one guy recording us.
Joyanne went first, and she played beautifully and with so much expression.
She played a song, "Imagine This", which she composed herself.
I was so happy to see my little girl playing her heart out in front of these judges.
I sang a song "Share the Joy".
I did ok!
Anyone who auditions through singing has to sing acapella, which worked great for me since I decided to audition on a whim.

We find out in 3 or 4 weeks If we make it through.
But if don't make it through, they don't let us know; they just don't contact us.
So, we'll wait and see.

We had a lot of fun auditioning and seeing the whole process.
It was a great experience!

Friday, December 4, 2015

City Christmas

Our city had a Christmas festival with Christmas crafts, hot chocolate, s'mores, hay rides and Santa Claus.




Everything was outside, and it was cold, but we all had fun.

Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Puttin' Up the Tree

Sunday was spent eating yummy Thanksgiving leftovers and putting up the tree.
The kids were so excited to see all the bins of Christmas Decorations.
Joyanne starting pulling out decor and setting it up all over.
The other kids started helping out too.
It's such a fun time of year!

Tuesday, December 1, 2015

Stephen's Horse

We spent Saturday at Aunt Susan's.
Stephen showed me his horse that he received for his birthday.
The horse is about a year and a half old.

He was pretty proud of his horse.
The horse liked nibbling on Stephen's hand and shirt.

Later in the evening we spent time with Aunt Jamie's family.
We went to Thanksgiving Point to a couple museums and then we saw the lights.
We loved spending our weekend with family.

Monday, November 30, 2015

Happy Thanksgiving!

My brother, John, and his family and my sister, Linda, and her family joined us at our home for Thanksgiving dinner.
The cousins had a blast playing together.


Aunt Linda and Aunt Stephanie talked a LONG time together.

The cousins favorite thing to do together was to play "Just Dance" on the Wii.

It was a happy day filled with much gratitude for each other and the many things we have.