Beginning of December 2010

On December 1st Tony, Buddy and I went to the Parade of Trees in Salt Lake to meet up with Faith's third grade, who were singing there. First we enjoyed the trees. Here are the kids next to what they dubbed "Creepy Santa" - a singing, hip swaying robot.

Christian loved this dinosaur tree and toy extravaganza,

but his favorite one was this snowman tree with an umbrella bottomed "fountain" that continually sprayed out tiny, styrofoam pellet snow.

The singing was amazing! Here's the news story about why they were there.

After the school kids left to return to school, we took Buddy over to the activity area where he was encased by a giant bubble, made lots of crafts, "fished" for a treat. It was so fun! I definately want to take both kids and spend more time next year.

We also bought a selection of cute felt pouches that held treats and toys. Everything is very reasonably priced and ALL of the money goes to Primary Children's Hospital!

The next night, the kids sang at the school for family and freinds, especially the ones who couldn't make it the day before.

I loved this song! Too bad the kids got a little sidetracked by the big guy's surprise appearance to sing their best.

This time while Christian had my camera he took some pics of our Christmas decor:

family room tree

front living room tree

bonus room loft banister

And lately he is obsessed with looking "cool"!?

On the 3rd the kids had a sleepover at Braeggers' and we met up with them the next day at the movie theater to see "Tangled." We all TOTALLY LOVED IT!

On the evening of the 4th we went to "Journey to Bethlehem" at the Mountain View Baptist Church in Layton. It was a bit drizzly, but it wasn't too cold and we really enjoyed ourselves. The last time we went, Faith was only two! We really want to start going every year.

Later that week we met up with Tony's family at the Ogden Christmas Park. We love looking in the little buildings

and visiting the big guy!

I have to give some explanation about Buddy's leopard print hat--he picked it out. Tony and I tried talking him into black or blue or any other color, but he just wasn't having it. I decided that if he loved it, he should have it. And a lady at the Journey to Bethlehem thought he was a girl. And Tony wasn't so happy with my decision. The end.  :)   Also, while we're on the subject of hats, the darling one Faith's wearing was made for me by Porter, one of my cute preschool students. His mom was making a bunch for Young Women's and he wanted to make one for "Miss Emily." Such a wonderful gift! Christian has worn it on occasion, too. Maybe someday I'll acutally get to wear it.

Faith has been doing so well with her piano lessons! Her teacher told me that she has been progressing faster than any student she has ever had. I told her that was great to hear, and she said "No, I don't think you understand--I'm not just being nice because I enjoy teaching her, she's truly the fastest learner I've ever seen!" We're so proud of her. She truly has a gift for it and is even pretty good at practicing without whining, which I never perfected :)

Sometime in late November, Christian came across the program from Grandpa Mitchell's funeral that he had kept. He immediately cut the photos out, drew a picture (unexplicably of a monster holding scriptures), taped it them on a piece of yarn and hung the garland on the wall in his room. There's definately some otherworldly connection between the two of them, because Christian never really got to know Grandpa very well in this life. Cute!

On the 11th our ward had a Christmas breakfast with a fun program where Santa told children about the meaning of Christmas. Afterward the kids got to sit on his lap.

That afternoon Faith wanted a picture with her fuzzy girl.

November 2010

We went trick-or-treating on the 30th since Halloween fell on a Sunday this year and that is what our community does. Since we went to the parents' on the 31st, we decided to celebrate Faith's birthday a day early.

At my mom & dad's

(I love that Tony is attacking Joy with a big bear hug in this photo! He usually attacks everyone, including my mom, with bum pinching :)

 

Grandma Tesch

Grandma Quinn

Faith decroated her own cake! I love the Littlest Pet Shop Party theme even though Tammy and I tried to get her to pick "Twilight" instead.

At Tony's mom & dad's.

we played some dominoes after gifts and cake

The next day, Faith wore her favorite new outfit to school.

This is one of the 3 pumpkins we got out of our garden. The first one rotted through before it was ready to pick, and the other two looked like this: two-toned with a regular side and a shiny side, and the flower end close to the stem end and not on opposite sides. Also, when we cut them open they smelled like cucumber. Weird!

Here's Faith's book report diorama on Flame: The Desert Pony (The fifth book in the Magic Pony Carousel series). She did such a great job!

And Buddy's picture of a slug :)

Inspired by an activity at the farmer's market, we bought different kinds of apples that we weren't as familliar with and had a taste test. We especially loved the HoneyCrisp and Jazz apples.

Home Depot project for November--firehouse piggy banks.

I took down our Halloween stuff and had this witch (given to us by Lana) sitting in the family room. All of a sudden, Christian passionately grabs her, says (in a particularly low and seductive voice) "You a evil, old witch and I wuv evil people!" and starts making out with it!! I love how he considers himself a comedian and is always playing for laughs :D

Christian got this costume for 75% off and wore it for preschool on the 10th. I guess he thought it was appropriate attire for our Veteran's Day flag march. (????)

Later that day we went to meet with Faith's teachers for Student/Educator/Parent conference and took some pics while waiting our turn out in the hall.

Buddy's striking a karate pose because it goes with his "bar-ka-wee (sparkly) dragon shirt.

Here is some artwork Faith got to bring home:

a pasta skeleton complete with curly hair and bow

a darling leaf puppy

For "Fun Friday" on the 19th, I taught about turkeys. We talked about scientific classification, labled body parts, and learned fun facts. We played "Turkey Term Pictionary" and made handprint turkeys. Afterward, Buddy and I stayed for lunch and lunch recess.

Because I'm on their mailing list, we got invited to Santa breakfast at the Newgate Mall on the 20th. We got blueberry cream cheese crepes, Chick-fil-A nuggets, gogurt, granola bar, apple and yucky punch drinks for free!

We got to see a magician perform, Santa arrive at the mall and ride the train to his display, and meet Rudolph!

Later that morning--Lowe's project: snowman gift card holder.

The day before Thanksgiving Tony had surgery to fix an umbilical hernia. The kids were very good at the hospital for the first two and a half hours before Tammy picked them up as a surprise. Everything went well and Tony was released just a half hour after that. He was sore for about a week, but healed up fairly quickly. He was even able to attend the family dinners the next day.

We enjoyed two Thanksgiving dinners, as usual. Here are my grandparents and neices Lily and Sierra.

My mom made cute Oreo and candy turkeys for the grandkids.

As usual, I got caught up in the awesome feasts and forgot to get many pictures. None of Buddy, or anyone at Tony's parents'!

My mom invited us for the third annual Night of the Nutcracker and it was amazing as always!

She gifted the girls with ornaments of the Nutcracker, himself, wielding a sword and one of Uncle Drosselmeyer. Faith always looks forward to the ballet soooo much!

On the 27th we went to the Christmas Nativity Celebration at the Kaysville Tabernacle. We loved looking at the gorgeous nativities from around the world, doing a searching game to find specific pieces, and listening to the live music.

The kids even drew pictures to be hung in a nearby nursing home (except Buddy couldn't let his go and it came home with us. He's still working on the "it's better to give than to receive" part of Christmas).