January 2011

We had such a busy December that we kept January very low key. Christian did lots of snuggling with his Dust Buster.

We volunteered at the school giving children the DIBELS test (counting how many words they can read correctly from selected stories). It took nearly three hours and Christian was a trooper!

Faith did this great animal habitat diorama.

It had to include four living things in addition to the pandas which were the main subject (bamboo, leopard, red panda, and a Hupeh Rowan tree) and four non-living things (soil, Chinese temple, clouds, bones from the leopard's meal). I think she did an amazing job! They each made their main animal out of Model Magic clay in class and Faith was super busy helping all of her classmates after they saw what a great job she did on her own :)

Buddy and I visited Faith (and did some PTA work) and had lunch at school with her.

Christian LOVES sending the bank cylinder through the pneumatic tube at the bank. He also loves receiving Dum Dum suckers.

For our January Fun Friday lesson in Faith's class, I told the children about elements and compounds. We made molecules out of colored mini marshmallows and toothpicks and I had them invent their own creative compound and write out the formula (example: PU2C-->Fairytale Land Molecule, with P=princess, U=unicorns, and C=castle).

On the 27th we went to the school for a reading activity. They had real-life applications for reading which included a short talk by author Val Bagley, reading the instructions to make a gingerbread man craft, writing postcards, and doing the written exam for their "driver's license" test. If they passed the written part, they got to do the driving test on wiggle cars! At the end they received a license which, as Faith was disappointed to find out, stated "License to Read." So cute!

to New Year's

This was taken on the 26th and I had to include it because the kids were looking so cute!

On the 29th we went over to my friend Ann's for a playdate. The kids especially loved petting the guinea pigs.

On the 31st we picked up the kids from a sleepover at my parents' with Sarah's kids (where they got the cute doggy pillow pets), then stopped by Chick-fil-A to pick up cole slaw for the party that evening. We decided to get a whole platter of nuggets instead of individual meals to feed us for lunch and have leftovers.

The Braegger New Year's Eve party was amazing, as always. Lots of Chili's baby back ribs and all the trimmings,

fun party supplies,

and wingo!

 

We brought the blow-up beds so the kids could watch a movie while we waited for the big countdown. This pic is just seconds before 2011. HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas 2010

Santa was good to us! Faith got a red camera and a Sims 3 Wii game,

and Buddy got a Lego Harry Potter set, Epic Mickey Wii game and Lego Star Wars Wii game.

One of the kids' favorite things was that we gave them each $3 at the dollar store and let them buy gifts for each other. They were so excited to exchange!

We got the kids these inflatable beds with attached sleeping bags, which were a big hit.

As a Christmas surprise for my mom, Tony hung the picture she gave us six months before. In our defense, it did need a good deal of repair work.

We met up with Sarah and family at my mom & dad's. We got Lagoon passes, money, toys and lots of other goodies.

I must have been caught up with the celebration because I hardly took any pictures over there. Oops!

Then on to Braegger's. We received Shakespearean Festival gift certificates (for myself and Faith), Steelers emblazened apparel (for Tony), and loads of gorgeous clothes and a remote control truck for each of the kids.

Crumpet's gift was spending the day at her grandparents'!

Lots of pics there! Guess I was trying to make up for my earlier mistake.

We stopped by to visit Grandma Mitchell.

(don't know what Christian's doing, he was acting crazy and asked me to take a picture of it!)

We also stopped by Grandma and Grandpa Quinn's.

We actually got back home before dark this year! We had a very wonderful, merry and blessed Christmas.

mid-December to Christmas Eve

After getting some rest from our vacation, we headed out to visit the fam on Dec. 19th. Tony was showing pictures from my camera and decided to get a little wacky with it. First he got a shot of Eric, Jordan, and himself (at a bizarre angle from holding the camera)

and then of me demonstrating the "gang sign" I flashed at the camera on the way down Splash Mountain on our last ride.

It was Christmas Eve before we knew it. The kids had been doing Santa advent calendars and the beards were now white and fluffy!

(Christian made me take a second picture of his, the little joker)

We wrapped our little gifts for the a white elephant gift exchange at my parents' (the first of many, most likely). I had seen the idea for the cute snowman wrap (gummy pandas were inside) and Faith did such a great job bringing it to fruition!

The nativity play was wonderful, as always. Christian got to be Joseph this year. The angel (Sierra) is delivering a message to Mary (Lily).

What a cute couple!

The whole gang. Brendon was a shepherd and Noah, his sheep.

The three wise (wo)men: Faith, Celeste and Alaura.

My cuties!

Christian's white elephant gift was a box of gag items from the dollar store. It included a thing that sqirts you when you sit on the potty, fake soap that has a fake fly attached to it, a whistle that made a whoopie cushion type sound (which he calls a "tootie whistle") and these crazy fake teeth.

He cried and cried over having to put it in the gift pile and then threw a big fit when Celeste chose it. She was soooo sweet, she traded Buddy for the votive candle holder he had. Later in the game Faith stole the candle, but I think all the kids were happy about what they ended up with. But none more than our little guy!

Afterward, we commenced with our annual family tradition of driving by Doctor John's, but first we swung by the Roy City offices and admired all the lighted trees.

There was even a sleigh where another family was taking pictures. They obliged in taking our family picture.

Unfortunately, there weren't many cars {to laugh and point at} in the parking lot of Doctor John's, probably due to the fact that we drove by before 9 p.m. The kids put out a great spread for Santa and the reindeer and got nestled snug in their beds. 

The reason for all the additional snacks, over and above the cookies & milk requisite: for the six months prior to Christmas, Buddy had been commenting about any food he deemed delicious enough, "Santa needs to taste this!" And in fact, he remembered that he wanted Santa to try the green Miracle Salsa with avacado, tomatillos & anaheim peppers that we got at the Kaysville farmers' market. He was quite sad that we didn't have any to share. What a thoughtful little guy!