Holly Jolly Holidays

After Thanksgiving, we jumped right into the Christmas Festivities.  Since we made plans to visit family for Christmas,  I wasn't into doing a whole bunch of decorating.  However, the girls wanted to do a little something so Aly and Lise hung up snowflakes and we got out the nativity sets.  I love that the girls favorite Christmas decoration is the Little People Nativity Set.  They play with it for hours when we get it out.

Also, just a quick picture of some cute winter jammies.  It finally got cold enough (for a few days) for us to wear them.

   

Here we are at the Christmas parade.  Only in Florida can you be sweating at a Christmas parade - it got up to 75 degrees that day.  It was lots of fun though and we got loads of candy.

That night was the Christmas tree lighting.  Aly's Chorus group sang and Aly even had a solo and did a great job.  Unfortunately it was too dark to get pictures of that.  Afterwards we stuck around for all the  festivities . . .  Kylie was made into Rudolph . . .

. . . and I loved Kate and Analise's letters to Santa. Kate’s said, “Give me whatever you think is good, but no boy stuff.”  We had a previous conversation about writing to Santa and Kate didn’t know what to ask for.  I told her just to ask Santa to give her something she’d like.  I love the way that turned out.  Lise of course wrote a letter to Santa but didn’t want to send it – she wants to put it out with the plate and cookies again just like last year because she loved how he wrote her back.

 We also got free balloons,  popcorn, cookies, and hot chocolate,  and Analise bought a scarf from  a vendor.  We went on a hay ride, which was fun, and saw a few characters walking around.  Kylie was really funny around the people in costumes.  She was scared of the Grinch and even Winnie the Pooh, Frosty the Snowman, and Rudolph.  Pretty much anyone who you couldn’t see their face she didn’t want anything to do with.  Overall a fun night and not too cold either.  

One night for Family Home Evening, we went to The Beehive home.  They asked us to come back and do “The symbols of Christmas” and snowflakes again because they said the residents loved it last year.  (They probably just loved watching our kids be kids, but whatever.  It works.  I am totally comfortable with the fact that all we have to do is show up somewhere and we’re instant entertainment.  It goes without saying. J)  Anyhoo, Kylie and Kate would hold up the symbols and then pass them around to the ladies.  Aly read the story and Lise taught them how to do snowflakes, but I had to repeat everything they said because they weren’t talking loud enough and the ladies are kind of hard of hearing, ya know?  Anyhoo, Kylie was freaking out about the Nemo and his dad that they had in their aquarium and after that we helped them decorate their Christmas tree, which was fun. 

Here is Kylie with her snowflake.  She was adamant about using the kid scissors by herself and this is what she came up with.  She was so proud of it.

Can you see the snowflakes hanging up on the windows in the background?

Also, extra bonus about the tree - we weren't putting one up in our house for reasons mentioned earlier, and once we got to Utah the tree would already be decorated.  So I was glad that my girls still had  the "decorating the tree" experience this year.

Amazingly enough, I also got a little crafty this season.  We had a playgroup at someone's house where the ladies made a pine cone craft while the kids played in the backyard.  I decided to make mine into  mini Christmas trees with mardi gras beads they'd thrown out at the parade and bows.  We also scented the pine cones to make the house smell good. Mmm . . .

Our next stop was our ward Christmas party (The Polar Express Pajama Party).   Santa came and it was funny to see the varying reactions from the kids.  None of the kids could really think of what to ask Santa for this year, so the break down was as follows: Aly was too mature to sit on Santa’s lap.  She hung out with her friends and one time when I was taking Kylie to the bathroom I found Aly in the bathroom “fixing her ponytail because her hair was a mess.”  I heard her friend tell her, “Aly, you’re turning into more and more of a girly girl every day.”  Yikes!  Analise sat on Santa’s lap, but asked for “facial hair”, to be funny in front of her friends.  (She says she wants a fake mustache that she can curl around her finger?!?)  Kate was all about Santa and started yelling “Feliz Navidad” the minute he entered the room.  She thinks it’s so cool he’s bilingual since he delivers presents to people who speak Spanish.  Then when she sat on his lap she told this joke, “What does Santa say when he wants to get his Reindeer to fly?” – “Go, ho, ho”.  Santa bust a gut on that one.  Kylie liked the idea of Santa, but wanted nothing to do with sitting on his lap.  Later she said she had fun with Santa, even though she was scared of him. 

They had "Rides on the Polar Express" out in the parking lot as well.  Our ward had done this float for the parade, and why not put it to great use?

On the Sunday before our big trip, we did "Christmas Part I" where we opened all the family Christmas presents while skyping with Chris.  Here's a picture of the whole family together about to begin the mayhem.  If you look on the computer, you can see Chris. :)

Also, one night when I was bringing the girls home from activity days, we found this Christmas surprise left by our front door.  The girls were ECSTATIC and played tether ball for a few minutes every afternoon when they got off the bus before coming inside.

And the final hurrah before we headed off to the airport was Aly's Chorus Christmas Concert.  The place was packed, the kids were restless, and of course we had a potty break in the middle, but Aly did great and it was awesome to support her.  She is such a multi-talented girl.

Well, that's all for now.  Stay tuned for "Christmas Part II - Utah Style" after we return from our adventures.  

Thankful for Family

 So, as mentioned before in this blog, my wonderful brother and sister-in-law and their family came down to spend Thanksgiving with us and it was a BLAST!  The older ones loved playing with Rachel and Rebecca - Apples to Apples Junior, Wii Wipeout, scooters, and the like.   The younger two loved having their older cousins Benj and Jared tease, chase, and wrestle them.  Meanwhile, I loved having adults to chat with and play games with.

 There was tons of scrumptious food to be had, thanks to Carolyn's amazing recipes . . . our family benefitted from the leftovers for a whole week!

 There was also the 2nd Annual Gingerbread House Extravaganza with much creativity going into those houses.  There were windows, chimneys, trees, sleds - you name it!

 This year Aly's actual birthday was on Thanksgiving, just like the day she was born. So she was privileged to have the first piece of pumpkin pie - with a candle in it.

 Cousins were only going to be here for one more day, so the day after Thanksgiving we crammed as much fun as you could into Black Friday - and we weren't even Christmas Shopping! :)

 First we followed my family tradition of bowling during Thanksgiving.  I bowled horribly, but had a lot of fun.  Here are the girls posing with the statue at the bowling alley.

 After a yummy lunch, we headed to the beach to splash around for a bit.  It was only around 70 degrees, but there were people out there in their bikinis!  They must have come from somewhere really cold.  Of course Kate managed to fall into the ocean, but I had a change of clothes in the car so we were all good.

 Next up we were off to the movies to see "The Guardian" while the boys saw "Skyfall."  While we were waiting around for a few people to regroup, the girls found this abandoned trolley in the parking garage and were pretending to be mannequins in it.  Whenever a car would come by they'd wave and try to get people to wave back at them.  I love how when kids get together they can have fun doing anything.

It was a super short trip and my kids were asking for their cousins and going through withdrawals for days, but man, we had SO MUCH FUN in those 2 1/2 days.  It was a wonderful Thanksgiving that truly made me thankful for family.

More Videos

And here's a few other things we've been up to . . .

 

 

 

Soccer Highlights

Okay, so if I can get this to work, here are a few videos of the girl's soccer - mainly for Chris. Enjoy!

 

Fall is for Fun

So, after I blogged about how Chris and I are doing, I realized that I forgot to answer the third question I get asked all the time - How are the girls doing?  Actually, they are doing much better than anticipated.  I was worried about how this deployment was going to affect the girls since they were older and we hadn't done one in a few years, but they seem to take it in stride.  Afterwords I realized it was probably because he is in-and-out so often even when he's here that they are already pros at handling this.  So I've only had to deal with my emotional issues, which is good.  We do end up with a lot of sleepovers in Mom's bed, but I'm totally okay with that. :)

 

So we've just been truckin' on with all of our usual craziness, which I will discuss below.  But first, a couple pictures of my beautiful Autumn wreath I got and the pumpkins we had on display (we had to display them in the house so they wouldn't rot outside in the 80 degree weather!)

 

This Fall Aly and Kate wanted to do soccer.  This was Kate's first time doing an extra activity like this and I was interested to see how it would go.  It was interesting to say the least.  Kate loved playing with the other kids and seeing her friends on other teams, but the fact that there was a ball on the field was superfluous to her.  She said she liked practice better than the games because everybody got their own ball at practice.  She also liked running over to the sidelines to give me hugs during the game and LOVED the trophy she got at the end.  So yeah, I'm glad we stuck it through to the end, but I'm not sure soccer is going to be Kate's muse.  Maybe in a few more years if she wants to do it we'll let her try again.

 

Aly had a great season this year.  Her team did not win very many games, but I would give them the "Most Improved Team" award.  All of the girls on her team were really nice and had fun playing  together and encouraging each other, which is what I liked the most.  Aly learned more ball handling skills and how to be more aggressive, as well as doing a couple of assists on goal.  I'm really proud of her and how hard she worked.

At the end of the season I had another mom ask me if I was glad soccer was going to be over or if I was sad because it had kept me busy while Chris was gone. The answer is - both. I loved getting out in the sunshine and cheering on the girls and it was nice to make the first couple months go by quickly, but by the time Halloween hit I was ready to be done and just have some quiet nights to ourselves where we didn't need to go anywhere!

Kylie is my little ray of sunshine and happy as long as we're going somewhere or doing something.  She LOVED going to watch the girls play soccer and was the best echo cheerleader there was.  If I yelled "Go Aly" she'd yell "Go Aly", etc.  It was super cute.

 Kylie also loves having playdates with her friends and going to playgroup.  She also loves "coloring fireworks" (see picture below).  Her hair is finally long enough to put into a ponytail and she is adorable with that or pigtails.  I'm trying to hold onto that natural curl as long as possible! (The downside to the ponytails though, are that she asks me to tighten them every five minutes - no joke!)

Kate is doing well in school.  She just finished her 2nd Card at Mile Club and likes to have Kylie and I come have lunch with her at school.

Analise has been a gem during all the soccer craziness.  I think she was just happy for the times I'd let her stay home and have the quiet house to herself while I took everyone else to soccer.  She was even willing to unload the dishwasher or fold laundry for me while we were gone.  Here she is at her classes' Fall Party doing the candy corn relay.  I was there to help with pumpkin bowling and it was a lot of fun.  Analise's teacher has really helped Analise to bloom this year and made her "a quiet leader" by putting her in charge of groups sometimes to help her out of her shell a little bit.  She has also recognized Analise's great strength/passion for writing and told me "I hope Analise becomes an author one day", which is awesome, because Analise is always writing stories/newspapers/letters at home.  The girls have it planned out that when they grow up Lise is going to write books, Kate is going to illustrate them, and Aly is going to be the publisher.  Sounds good to me.

Aly has been my other great helper while Chris has been gone and loves staying as busy as ever.  She just finished her 5th card at Mile Club (25 Miles of running!) and is loving Chorus as well.  She had a solo in the Veteran's Day program and did a great job.  She's also been doing a little babysitting - Man! if she's this busy now, she's going to be hard to keep up with as a teenager!

Here was our setup for Conference in October.  The thing that impressed me most was how much the girls came in and listened with me while playing Conference Bingo or coloring.  I only require them to listen to the Sunday Morning Session and whenever the prophet speaks at the beginning and end, but they were with me the entire Saturday Morning Session and parts of the other two sessions as well.  I loved sharing that with them, because Conference is awesome!

Another thing we did in October was hit the pool a couple last times before it got too cold.  I told the girls how lucky they were to be swimming in October because in Utah when I grew up, more often than not it would snow at least once before Halloween and we would end up wearing our coats over our costumes.  My kids are spoiled, what can I say?

Another day we went to a state park on the bay with a bunch of families in the ward to play and go on nature walks in the woods.  Also, we had our great Military friends who were stationed with us at 2 military bases come to visit us for a weekend.  We had a blast while they were here!  We decided to try out some snorkeling -which was a great adventure.  Also, there was a massive aquarium in the making with some rather large hermit crabs.   October is one of my favorite months in the South - the weather is beautiful. 

 

And then, of course, there were the usual Halloween festivities.  Here is a picture of Aly as a 3 Musketeer - although we couldn't pin down the other musketeer to get a picture of them together.  Aly ended up being a cowgirl on Halloween itself.  Analise was a gypsy this year, Kylie was a bride, and Kate was a cheerleader for trunk-or-treat and a princess on Halloween.  I guess that's the thing about trunk-or-treats, they allow you to do multiple costumes in a year.

We did the annual "decorating of the pumpkins" - I wasn't up to carving this year - with the traditional pictures where you pose like the face you drew on your pumpkin.  I was also able to go to Kate's class party, which was a lot of fun.  When we went Trick-or-Treating this was Kylie's first year to really get into it.  Plus she was so cute and polite with her please and thank-you's that the people just gobbled it up. 

And finally, Aly turned 11 on Thanksgiving this year.  (More on that later).  She had a small party a couple days ahead of time, which mainly turned into a Wii Wipeout party.  But there was Oreo ice cream cake to be had, so all was well.  Only one more year until young women's - craziness!  I really am impressed with the young woman that Aly is growing into and I am excited to see her continue to grow and develop her talents.