December 2015- Santa

Our ward had a Christmas party on Saturday morning.  We had a million things already that morning, wrestling, dance, and more.  But we pulled in with minutes to spare to the church party and Santa was still there.  He was a wonderful Santa too.  The kids declared their wishes and I felt super lucky to have checked that Christmas thing off our list without it taking too much time.  The older kids are already uninamored with Santa it seems- but believing, Marianne and Beth were delightful.  I think it may have been Beth's first visit with Santa (and I feel horrible I don't know for sure) but she wasn't afraid one bit and was understood and declared Santa was going to bring her a puppy doll and several other things.

December 2015- Kate's Dance

Kate took a ballet class this fall.  She had a recital held at the gingerbread festival one Saturday morning.  It was a fun venue because we had to bring her early to get ready, but then our family walked around and got to look at all the gingerbread houses.   Kate was beautiful.  She has a gracefulness about her.  I have tried to get her to pick to do ballet year after year, but she wants to do new and different things which is fun too.  I hope she tries ballet again.  She makes the perfect ballerina!

December 3, 2015

Getting ready for Christmas!
I actually let the kids help me decorate the house and tree for Christmas before Thanksgiving.  Knowing we were going on a long trip to California and that it would take me at least a week to recover and catch up when we got back, I didn't want to not have Christmas up until mid way through December, so we put it up earlier than ever.

Early in December we had a fun evening out with the kids.  Before we left I gave each of the kids the ornament I picked out for them this year.  Kate got a cute nail polish ornament, Sam got a soccer ball ornament, Mari got Elsa and Beth got Anna.  We hung them on the tree and then went to the Festival of Trees in Salt Lake.  We had never been and it was a really festive and fun night.  I think it should be a tradition for years to come.

Kate drew this amazing portrait of our dog at school.

A cute picture of Beth pigging out on popcorn.  We watched Home Alone and ate popcorn with m & M's and it felt like 1992.

November 2015- Dance

Marianne has been taking a little dance class this fall.  It is really simple ballet and tumbling.  There are only four other girls and it is at a lady's house in the neighborhood.  There is not a dress code- other than for this rehearsal- so she has worn all kinds of delightful ballet outfits- old dance costumes of Kate's and kinds of leg warmers.  I think dressing for dance was Marianne's favorite part.
The afternoon of her performance sadly only her and one other girl could make it because of illness.  Really Marianne should not have been there either.  She had pneumonia.  But I figured she was acting fine we could go to do our performance.  I mean we had been working all week for it.  Well that was a bad idea.  Marianne refused to do it and cried and cried.  When we begged and bribed and nothing worked.  So we watched the one girl by herself and then went home.  Marianne felt bad because a few days later when she was feeling better wanted to show me all her dance moves.  I shouldn't have made her go sick.  Either way- her pre-recital pictures were cute.    This dance outfit sure shows too how much Marianne's body has changed this year.  She is a lean and tall girl now more like Kate- and not the chubby toddler she has been for so long.

November 2015- Wrestling

Samuel wrestled again this year with the Wasatch Wrestling team.  I was a bit worried because last year he was really good- but he was so little that he got to wrestle kids a year or two younger than him.  When you are five years old wrestling 3 and 4 year olds it is really easy- even if they are the same height as you (they do this younger league by height not weight).  This year he has grown a lot and is almost average size.  He would be wrestling mostly kids his age this year.  Which meant although he was use to creaming everybody this year might be more challenging.  People are really into wrestling here in Heber.  Their Dad's usually wrestled and are wearing some kind of wrestling coach sweatshirt, the kids come in singlets and wrestling helmets that are not required and their Dad's yell to them from the side of the mat about moves they practiced at home.  This is not us.  We don't really know anything about wrestling.  Sam wears soccer clothes, and it is usually me that is in his cheering corner of the mat.  So it came as a surprise when Sam basically threw every opponent around like they were a rag doll.  There were a few kids that held their own with him, and I think Sam even got pinned one time in the entire season.  But it is mostly Sam pinning the same kid over and over and over in their three minute round while we try to not cheer to loudly because the kid he is wrestling is crying because Sam hasn't let him up.  It is pretty fun to watch as a parent when your kid is really good at something.  The best part is when Sam isn't the one in control he is still all smiles and happy.   Also it is pretty awesome when the very wrestling serious Dad consoles his kid when they didn't even stand a chance next to Sam as I walk off the mat with Sam in my cute shoes and none wrestling lingo.