Christmas Eve

On Christmas Eve we always go over to my in-laws and do the big gift exchange with all of his siblings and their families. We were missing Dave and Kenia this year because they were in Miami visiting her parents

This year it was I who made the "birthday cake" for Jesus. White cake with homemade peppermint cream cheese frosting.....YUM!!! I love this tradition! And speaking of tradition, my in-laws also gave all of the kids some new pj's (they get double because we always get some for them too), and then we went home and had the traditional "sleepy" hot chocolate. What a fun Christmas Eve!

Peyton Claus

Peyton opening her Tinkerbell coloring set

Wow, could he be any giddier?

My gift was in a very oversized package. I totally thought it was a gag gift and that it was going to turn out to be a gift card inside. Turns out I was wrong. It was a very cute metal wall hanging. Now I just need to figure out where to put it....

Here are the kids being very goofy posing in their new pj's from Gma and Gpa Cluff

The kids enjoyed their "sleepy" hot chocolate....although it looks like it originally had an adverse effect on Logan.

Peyton REALLY enjoyed hers!!!

Sledding

I'm not really a huge fan of sledding (unless I'm bundled to the extreme!), but my kids LOVE it and are always begging us to take them. So we took them this year. We went up to the golf course right above my parents house and they had the absolute BEST hills! We met my brother, Nick, and his girlfriend, Sami, up there. The kids had a BLAST and did not want to leave. We pretty much had to drag them off the mountain after it started getting dark.

They were even able to get ME up the mountain with my bum foot. We "waterproofed" it with some grocery bags, and then they hauled me up the mountain on a sled! Originally I didn't want to go up at all, but I really wanted pictures and knew there was no way it would work if I stayed in the car. I would have been too far away. So this worked quite well.

Here's my "square" child! She's my own little "Ralphie" from "A Christmas Story"! LOL :)

Here's Nick sporting his Santa snowsuit. He really is St. Nick! ;) Last year he went skiing in this outfit....complete with beard. No beard this year.....snow sticks to it and freezes his face!

Logan's cheeks were BRIGHT RED and he looked SOOOOO freezing, but he just kept going and going and going.....

Could my square child be any cuter?!?

Peyton and "St. Nick"

This was one of the views from the area we went to. It was absolutely breathtaking! I don't often find snow beautiful, so this was a big moment for me. ;)

Choir concerts

At the beginning of the school year a friend of mine passed on some information about a gospel-oriented youth choir that her daughter had been a part of the year before and was planning on being in during the upcoming year. September and Kya LOVE to sing and it sounded like a great opportunity and it was quite inexpensive compared to most extracurricular things. But money was really tight at the time and I just didn't think we could do it. But they had scholarships available and so I applied for one. They granted us a partial one with the agreement that I would be the "roll taker" for class every week. So we decided to do it and we passed the word around to other friends and September's best friend, Ariel, ended up wanting to do it as well. But they didn't end up getting to be together after all. When I originally called the director to see if it would even be possible for Kya to be in it because she was only 7 and the age requirement was 8, he said he wanted them both to come in and audition so he could hear them and help make the decision whether or not he felt she would be "mature" enough to be a part of it. There are two different choirs: a "prep" choir for kids 8-12, and an auditioned "concert" choir for kids 8-18. Well, their auditions went so well that not only did they make an exception for Kya, but September was invited to be in the concert choir! She was actually a little bummed originally because she wasn't going to be able to be with Ariel, but after reminding her that this wasn't going to be anything that they were really going to be able to interact at anyway and it was such a great opportunity, she was o.k. with it.....nervous but o.k. The first day we went September felt really out of place. She wasn't the youngest, but she was the smallest, especially considering the director had placed her in the Alto section as well which was pretty much entirely teenage girls. At first I didn't know how I felt about this and either did September. Sure, she has a pretty low voice, but just because you sing lower doesn't necessarily mean you're an Alto. But then my mother-in-law had a talk with September about it and suddenly her attitude was, "ANYONE can sing the melody!" Ha ha, I loved it. But it really is true, anyone can pick out the melody, but if you can learn alto then you can obviously sing both parts. So in the end it actually turned out to be something she was very excited about.

I have to admit, I am not one who necessarily "loves" listening to choirs and after enrolling them and looking at their schedule and all of the dates they'd be performing, I suddenly wasn't so excited anymore of having to attend concert after concert. But my mind was quickly changed as soon as I heard them singing. From the very first rehearsal I was absolutely blown away! Not only did they just jump right in with some pretty difficult songs (within the first 10 minutes of being there they were singing Handel's "Messiah"!), but they also sounded amazing! Even the prep choir sounded great. I was actually looking forward to their concerts!

The first opportunity the Concert Choir had to perform was at an Interfaith Celebration at a church here in Lehi. They did really well and afterward the kids enjoyed interacting with the LIVE nativity they had set up outside. I've never seen a live nativity before and at first we didn't think it WAS real, but suddenly the animals started moving! The kids had a blast getting to touch the animals!




Their next performance (and the one and only one for the prep choir) was held at the Alpine Tabernacle. For their grand entrance they all came walking up through the aisles and from the sides of the stage carrying these fake little candle things. It looked so cool. Logan and Peyton were being very obnoxious and hard to deal with (it had been a long day and Pey had not had a nap), but you could still feel the spirit very strongly from these sweet little spirits!

Here's Kya!

Here's September.....and proof of our "oops"! She got a little confused about what they were supposed to wear. She told me that they were supposed to wear red or black or white. I asked her if she was sure and that it wasn't just for the prep choir who didn't have uniform attire like the concert choir. She was pretty insistent that it was everyone. So she wore her black dress and we arrived to find the rest of the concert choir in their uniform blue skirts and white shirts! Oops! No big deal, right? We didn't think so until the very end when the director had them all stay up on the stage to take a few pictures......that they were going to use to promote their "tour" in the Spring. So now as if she didn't already stand out enough because of how tiny she is, she'll stand out even more. What do you do? ;)

The final opportunity we had to watch September perform (for the season) was at a benefit concert with Michael Ballam as the main performer! I completely forgot my camera and was so bummed!! The choir rehearsals are at the American Heritage school, which is a private LDS school (it's across the street from the Mt. Timp temple). Because it's a private school they do different things throughout the year to raise money for the school. Every Christmas they do a big concert thing as one of the means of raising money and for the past couple years they have been fortunate enough to have Michael Ballam come and be the main performer. The choir is an extracurricular thing and is separate from the one at the school, but they were invited to join the school choir, as well as the orchestra, in being a part of this event. Originally we didn't plan on going because it was pretty expensive, but then their director announced that they were going to be going on "tour" in the Spring and would need to raise money for it. The kids were given the opportunity to sell tickets to the concert to raise money and all but $5 of the tickets was going to go straight into their account. So we figured that we were going to either have to pay later or pay the extra $5 per ticket and go to the concert. I'm so glad we ended up going! It was an amazing night!! Basically, Michael Ballam gave the history behind many well-known, yet little known about (as far as the meanings and stories behind them), Christmas songs. It was incredible to hear the stories and it gave me a completely different respect and understanding for these beautiful Christmas songs that we nonchalantly sing every year without having a clue what they're about or where they came from. Stephen R. Covey also did some narration throughout the night, and President Uchtdorf and Elder Oaks and their wives were in attendance! The orchestra and the combined choirs sang some songs separately, and some right along with Michael Ballam. So now I can say that my daughter has performed WITH Michael Ballam!!

One more cool thing.....at one point during the night the choir had left for a while and would be back at the end. When they came back though, September was missing! I was so scared that something had happened and that she was either sick or hurt. I almost got up to go find out what had happened. But then they did some presentations of some special thank you gifts to the key performers and participants. Suddenly there was MY tiny little daughter up on the stage handing out some of the gifts!

The spirit was so strong that night and it is a night I won't soon forget! It definitely put me in the Christmas spirit!!

Riding in a one-horse open sleigh....

My kids love the part of Jingle Bells where it talks about riding in a one-horse open sleigh and have thought it would be a fun thing to do. And this year they got to do just that! There's a bunch of shops up near my parents house that puts on this event every year where some of the shops have little stands out front with goodies that you can go around and snack on. A few of the shops have different special deals going. Some were giving away freebies. Plus, there was Santa.....and even more exciting than Santa.....a horse drawn carriage ride!!! That was the single most thing the kids were looking forward to and indeed it ended up being the highlight of their night! It was a pretty chilly night (it was one of the first big snowfalls of the season), but we all bundled up and had a great time! I think it may be a new tradition!

My Mom carrying around my little Eskimo! Too cute!!

Here we are on the carriage ride. I wish we could have gotten a picture with all of us in it, but we had to take a picture of one side and then have them take a picture of our side.

Does my face look a bit tan? O.k. it's freakishly tan! There was a salon offering free spray tans for your face. I couldn't pass that one up! It looked ridiculous that night, but it actually looked pretty great the rest of the week. I would totally consider doing it again if it didn't cost an arm and a leg.

Here are the kids standing in front of the "our" horse. (There were 2 different carriages.)

They had these cool little portable fire pits set up every few feet. It gave the place a really cool look and helped keep us warm.

We went over to the boutique shop that my Mom has some items in. Peyton settled right in to this little rocking chair and found this stuffed animal.

Goodbye Pilot.....Hello Armada!!!

Can YOU tell the difference between the top picture and the bottom picture. Because apparently most people can't! :) We replaced the Pilot with an Armada three and half weeks ago....and only a handful of friends and family have even noticed. I guess most people just don't notice cars or deal with them as much as we do. Or maybe people have just lost track of what vehicle we currently have. (After all, this is #16 for us!) And sure, they're both SUV's and they're both silver, but come on people! They're totally different. It's not that I really care that people haven't noticed, I actually think it's kind of funny. It just shows me how different people are. I am just someone who notices things like that pretty easily. Oh well, what other people haven't noticed yet, we certainly have. Like how much more ROOM it has! Don't get me wrong, we LOVED our Pilot. Best car we'd ever had. It was great for hauling kids all over town. But going on vacation....ha! It just did not have much cargo space. And I think the kids were sick of holding all of their own luggage on their laps with them. I'm only half joking. But the Armada has SOOO much more room!!! I was a little nervous that it would feel too big and I'd be scared to drive it, but I actually feel VERY comfortable. It's actually great for little people like me because the foot pedals adjust and come up higher so I don't have to sit really close in order to reach them.

It was kind of sad to say goodbye to the Pilot. After all, we'd had it for 3 1/2 years, which is a LONG time for us! We'd been back and forth for a while between getting a bigger car (we'd had an Armada in mind for over a year) or just getting a car top carrier to use for vacations. Big problem though, the Pilot didn't have a luggage rack. We've been traveling quite a bit lately and plan on doing a lot more in the coming years, so we started looking more seriously at Armadas. We thought it would be at least another year away before we could afford to do it, but then we saw the beauty in the picture below at an unbelievable price that we just could not pass up. AND it had pretty much everything we were looking for.....not necessarily fancy bells and whistles, but things that were important to us. So even though it's been in the plans for quite a while now, it was still a pretty spontaneous decision. And one that I don't regret one bit!!

A boy and his tree :)

When we started decorating for Christmas a few weeks ago we had a little tree that the girls have always used to put in their room. Logan was a little sad that HE didn't have a tree to put in his room, so when we were out shopping a couple days later we saw a tiny little tree that would go perfectly in his room and it was very inexpensive so we bought it. He was SOOOO excited for his very own tree!! Right away he told us that this was a "boy" tree and he felt like it should have a name. So he thought of the best boy name he could think of. He named it "Matthew"! How cute is he?!? A few days later we were reading scriptures and Ember was thumbing through the Bible and asked, "Where's Matthew?".....to which Peyton quickly replied, "He's in Logan's room!"

Birthday getaway to Midway

For Matthew's birthday this year we decided to go on a quick one-night getaway up to Midway as a family. Our timeshare has a place up there and the kids have been wanting to go up there since we got the timeshare a little over a year ago. It's great because it's so close to home, and yet you still feel like you're "getting away". Plus, it has a pool.....which is one of the main reasons that the kids have been dying to go! It was a total treat for Ember and Kya because we even pulled them out of school to go. They're both doing so well in school, we figured one day couldn't hurt. We went up to Park City the next day and did a little shopping at the outlets. It was a fun, relaxing day!

Here's a picture of the place we stayed. Nothing fancy, but it was nice. I love the whole "Swiss" look of Midway. Even the churches have that "look" to them.

Matthew LOVES Hot Tamales. It's tradition for the kids to always buy them for him for his birthday. This year we went one step further and we bought one for him from EACH of us! They lasted about 3 days! :)

Piano recitals

First of all I would like to say that my mother-in-law is a saint! A few years ago for Christmas my in-laws gave us a keyboard for Christmas as our family gift. Shortly after, my mother-in-law started giving September piano lessons. (As soon as she was reading well enough.) Originally she told us that she could only do it for a short while (just the basics) and then we'd need to find her a real teacher. Well, here we are 4 years later and she is still doing them....along with Kya who started a couple years later. She has done it all for no charge and she has even always provided all of their books as well. AND, most of the time she comes to OUR house for their lessons! Could it get any better??? What an amazing woman she is and I am very lucky to have her as my mother-in-law! September and Kya both are very musically talented and this has really helped cultivate that talent.

Once a year or so she even has them do a recital. We just got to enjoy one a few weeks ago. They both did a wonderful job!

Here's Kya doing a duet with my mother-in-law.

September performing one of her pieces.

September and Keely (my niece, who she also gives lessons to) doing a duet together. These girls LOVE to play the piano together!

Halloween!

Halloween turned out a lot different than planned this year. I had such big plans to do a full "Peter Pan" theme. Peyton is a huge Tinkerbell fan and my Mom happened to find a cute little Tinkerbell costume at a garage sale, so I thought it would be a great idea to kind of build around that. September was going to be Wendy, Kya was going to be Peter Pan (we talked her into being a boy by telling her that in most stage productions it's a girl who plays him), and Logan was going to be Captain Hook. (He's been a pirate twice before and he makes a very cute one!) But I didn't start thinking about everyone elses costumes soon enough, on top of the fact that I ended up with swine flu a week before Halloween, so those plans all had to change at the last minute! My mom to the rescue....again!! She had found a ladybug costume that would fit September (which she actually had already planned on wearing for school since "Wendy" without the rest of the Peter Pan crew would not really look like much of anything). The costume came with its own little tutu thing, but September wanted to wear the one my Mom had made her this summer since it coincidentally was a ladybug themed one. She had even made some cute little ladybug hair things to go with it that would be perfect. Then, that gave me the idea just to have Kya wear the tutu that my Mom had made her and just have her wear her dance leotard underneath paired with her old ballet slippers that actually still fit her and voila....she was a dancer! Then, I borrowed a football player costume from my sweet neighbor friend, Katie, for Logan to wear. It would have been fun for my original idea to have come to fruition....but this was a LOT less work!!

Everybody had been sick to one degree or another that week and I had kept September and Kya home from school for a few days. They were very happy to only have slight coughs by Friday because that was the day their school was going to be doing their costume parade and parties. So I let them go....even though I wanted to be selfish and keep my "helpers" home!




Peyton was still feeling a little sick. You can see it in her eyes. I can't believe I actually got a picture with a happy face and even a smile because she was GRUMPY that day! I completely forgot to have her wear her wings until I saw them in my room the next day. Oops! But she is complete with eyes watering, boogers running down her face, and a nice red mark on her forehead from running into something!

While I was taking the picture I just knew something was missing. Duh, I had forgotten the black marks under his eyes! The only thing I really had to use was make-up, which Logan was a little leery of letting me put on him. Really? He chose that moment to be a "man". He wears tutus and leotards and plays girl things all the time....but suddenly NOW he decides he's too cool for that? I guess being in a football uniform made him feel very manly!!

Peyton getting candy out of her teeth. We were only going to let her have one piece that night since she was sick, but she kept sneaking into the treat bucket while we weren't looking!

Logan and Peyton were very sad when they saw September and Kya heading out the door with their friends to go trick-or-treating. We hadn't been planning on taking them out because they were sick, but it broke Matthew's heart to see them all dressed up but not able to go anywhere so he talked me into letting him put their coats on and take them to 2 houses. They ended up going to 4 or 5. They were absolutely thrilled!

Can you get any cuter than this???

Even though it was a little disappointing not doing the original costumes I wanted, and not getting to do some of the usual Halloween activities (carving pumpkins, going to the trunk-or-treat, watching the kids costume parade at school), it still turned out to be a fun Halloween for the kids and not much work for me!