Christmas Card

Our 2014 Christmas card.

Merry Christmas

Christmas 2014 is winding down.  Sawyer got sick this year, so he and Kent stayed at home during Christmas Eve at Korth's.  Sawyer and I took a turn staying home during Christmas at VL's on Christmas day.  He seems to be on an upswing today at least.  Poor kid.

This year's gifts for the kids inlcuded:

McKinley- nail stuff (polish, stickers, dryer), doll stuff, and clothes.

Sawyer- basketballs, footballs, video games, and clothes.

Hayden- legos, video games, helicopter, spy gear, and his least favorite...clothes.

Josh- cars, trucks, games, paint, clothes.

We spent Christmas playing with toys and video games, and watching our new movies in our jammies all day while it snowed beautifully outside.  Merry Christmas!

Retirement Center

Sawyer is the second one from the end on the right side.

Sawyer's class and another 4th grade class went to the retirement center today to sing songs, pass out handmade ornaments, and spread some cheer.

Good thing we practiced Jingle Bells on the recorder last night, because sure enough that was the opening piece today :)

Boots

Just waddling around the house in mommy's boots. 

3 years old is really cute today.

4th grade recorders

Sawyer started his mandatory 4th grade recorder unit at school.  He has been pretty happy about it.  He especially remembers to practice his recorder as I am trying to send him to bed.
Here he is doing his first song practice at home (we finally got the book so he could practice the songs instead of just notes).

I know I have my mom goggles on because I kind of think he's brilliant at the recorder :)

Aquarium

We went to the aquarium 2 times this week!  Once with visiting teachers, and once with Shelley.  There is a fun indoor playground.  It is enclosed, clean, has bathrooms and eating areas.  What more could you ask for?  

After the playground we took a quick 3-year-old-tour of the animals.  

He asked me to take his picture here.  So although it's fuzzy, it's still cute.

On the first day he wanted to see the sharks.  On the second day he actually stood and observed the crab for maybe 2 minutes!  He hasn't stood still in the aquarium that long for anything!

Looking cool on the way back home.

Good thing we have a pass, because I rarely get to pause at an exhibit for longer than 7 seconds.  One day I need to go back by myself so I can actually see the animals!

Happy Hannukah

Tonight was the first night of Hannukah.  As fate would have it, we got our "little passports" in the mail today and the country was Israel!  There was a dreidel inside our package, so we spent the evening spinning the dreidel, learning some Hebrew, and singing the dreidel song.  They were having so much fun that they want to do it again tomorrow night.  Maybe we'll throw some latkes into the mix tomorrow night!

Van Leeuwen party

Each year Kent's extended family on his dad's side holds a lovely Christmas dinner on Sunday.  It's the only time we ever see that side, so it is nice to keep a connection to those roots.  Tony lit the traditional Dutch Christmas tree complete with real candles (with a fire extinguisher nearby).  This year was extra nice because he sent us home with some nice family history for our files.

Practice

We picked up some wrapping paper at Costco last night.  Josh has been wrapping up anything we will let him ever since.  He has wrapped his toys, boxes of cereal, and himself.  We wrapped cousin's presents last night, and this morning Josh had confiscated a few in a corner of his room behind his rocking chair and opened them.

He is VERY excited for Christmas!

Coding

The boys are obsessed with video games.  Particularly Minecraft right now.  So I took them to the Hour of Code program at the library tonight.  They used a program called Scratch to create a little animated fun.  A good first step.

Ward Party

Today was our annual Ward Christmas party.  The decorations were above and beyond.  McKinley and Josh are the only ones interested in going.  The others were party poopers.

Light the Night

Friday was South Jordan's Light the Night Festivities.  It included the official tree lighting ceremony, hayrides, Santa, hot chocolate and cookies, crafts, and candy windows.  We went because we all completed a gingerbread house for the contest.  Oh, and we bought some skates from the skating rink for $1 a pair.  They're old, but they were a dollar!

Sawyer's gingerbread house.  He overheard one kid telling his mom that Sawyer's house was his favorite.  That made Sawyer's night.

Hayden's, complete with a sucker and candy cane garden. 

mine... 

and McKinley's... 

McKinley did the "UP" house for her entry.  And she won 1st place in the 9-12 age division!  Yay McKinley!  She scored $50 for a prize!

The rest of us participants got a bag of goodies with a SJ beanie and a giant bag of M&M's.  Josh was more than happy with my his goodie bag!

Dance Performance

This is a horrible, horrible, camera phone picture, but oh well.  On Wednesday evening the kids had a dance performance at the high school.  They have been learning dance from the fine arts program the school is a part of.  Hayden's class did a Bandlara dance from Bolivia.  He was not excited to dance, at all.  But the night of the performance he did just great.  Sawyer's class did a Cloud dance using black lights.  McKinley's class (pictured below) did a dance to Thriller using black lights.  She is the one on the far end of the stage in the front row.

Santa's little helper

So proud of taking off the jingle bell decorations from the tree.  He helps me undecorate all day long.  1 step forward, 3 steps back with a toddler.

Battle wounds

Nursery can be brutal.  Josh was on the receiving end of it this week and came home with a nasty human bite mark.  Poor kid.  :(

Gingerbread

McKinley, Hayden and I attended a community class on gingerbread house decorating tonight.  Hayden wants to make a Minecraft house.  McKinley wants to make the UP house.  They are hoping to enter them in a gingerbread house competition next week.  We'll see if they get done in time!

Christmas tree time

I can't believe it is already Christmas tree time.  Kent got home early on Friday and has even already put up our house lights!

Today we made our annual trek to hunt for Christmas trees.  The weather was perfect and there was only traces of snow in the mountains.



This was right before we left the mountains, and Josh would NOT be in the picture.

Lots of lady deer in the meadows.

We need to visit when these Aspens are golden in the fall.  I still love them in the winter though.  

Playing with the 'phone' (walkie talkie).

The only one who will let me take pictures.

Reflections

We received notification while we were off track that McKinley got an 'honorable mention' for her Reflections entry in photography this year. 
So we all went to the school for the assembly and picked up our participation treats. 
Included was a certificate for Menchies, so we celebrated there with some fro-yo.

Happy Halloween!

From the Ninja....

the Grim Reaper....

the Nerd...

and the little Dinosaur...

...who doesn't want to wear his tail, and doesn't want his picture taken, thank you very much.

New toy

McKinley saved up her money....for a while now.  She finally earned enough to get the little mod razor scooter she wanted.  It arrived yesterday and was charged and ready to go this morning.  She had fun trying it out and taking Josh for rides.

Aquarium

Kent has the week off.  Today we had lunch at Los Hermanos and then visited the aquarium.  We even sat through the movie this time since there were two adults to wrangle the tiny one.