Nutcracker Ballet

Aaron and I went to Ballet West's Nutcracker performance on Friday night in SLC. I absolutely loved it! I saw the Nutcracker for the first time last year and now I'm hooked. It's going to have to be a yearly tradition from now on. This time while I watched I smiled to myself when it occurred to me how much I've felt like Mother Buffoon lately. I love how she comes out in her giant dress and all her little children pour out from underneath her skirt, dancing and flipping all around. And when it's time to go all of the children obediently run back underneath her skirt and Mother Buffoon dances off the stage. I imagine that Mother Buffoon has her hands full, but diligently keeps all her little buffoons in line. Sometimes I too feel like a miniature form of mother buffoon with children running and tumbling all around me. And here I am adding to my brood, another little buffoon on the way to dance and twirl around the house. And yet, just like Mother Buffoon, my hands are full despite the fact that my kids are obedient most of the time. Mother Buffoon dances around with an air of confidence about her, and perhaps a bit of pride in her children. I wonder if it's all an act. Maybe she falls apart at home and total chaos erupts! Either way, Mother Buffoon is a devoted mother, certainly has a sense of humor, and dances with her children! What could be more important than that!

We hope you are enjoying the snow as much as we are!

Oh the Hyprocrisy!

We used to have a tradition of hunting for the perfect Christmas tree; not in a store, or in a lot, but in the snowy Idaho mountains. We would drive up in our truck or my aunt's 4-wheeler and hike, saw in hand, looking for the perfect tree...one that wasn't too bushy or too bare on one side. But the perfect Christmas tree was never really perfect. We always chose one that looked like it needed a mother to love it, a little shabby and sparse. We always chose an orphan tree, and that was the perfect tree for me. When we got it home we always gave it time to defrost in the garage and then eagerly brought it in, and decorated it. I loved the fresh smell! I loved our silly, not-at-all-fancy ornaments, mostly made by our kids. I loved everything about our fresh-cut orphan tree!!!

When we moved to Utah we found it hard to know where to go to cut down our own tree without driving for hours. We didn't even know where to go to get permits. So we settled for buying a tree from a lot. It wasn't as much fun to circle the trees in a lot. Usually they were bound up and impossible to know what they looked like without unwinding all the twine. After unwinding as many as we had patience for we would end up settling for a tree that was too bushy, not at all fresh, and lacked the orphan-appearance I yearned for. When we got home, we squeezed the tree through the door, leaving a trail of dry pine needles all the way to where the tree stood to be decorated. More and more needles fell as it was decorated. I worried that our new tree was combustible and would suddenly burst into flames at any given moment. And the only pine smell came when I vacuumed up all the dry needles. Needless to say, I was disappointed in our Utah selection of lot trees.

So this year I put off buying a Christmas tree week after week. One day as I was cruising hobby lobby I saw their FAKE Christmas trees at a 50% discount. Never in my life had buying a fake tree ever crossed my mind. It's against my upbringing to do such a thing! Later I asked Aaron what he thought about it. He told me to do whatever (I think he's adapted to living with a preggo once more and knows to just let her do "whatever" and everyone will be happy). So I went back to the store and bought my favorite one. It's far from orphan-looking. It's very symmetrical, but it does look like it came from the forest and it is a little shabby looking, but on purpose. And it still lacks the fresh pine tree smell, so I bought a candle that smells like a fresh pine tree, too. Last night we finally got to decorating a Christmas tree, a few weeks later than normal, but at least it got done. I put on our Kenny G Christmas CD, set out the ornaments, and lit my pine-smelling candle...and we decked the tree! And yes, I am happy with it. I hope in the following years we'll have a chance to cut down more trees in the snowy mountains, but if we can't we will bring out our fake tree, light a pine-smelling candle, and call it good enough.

Our little decorators :-)

High-waters

Today I noticed that Rylie's pants that I bought her at the beginning of the school year were already too short for her. I told her she needed to stop growing right this instant! She told me she couldn't help it, that her body was doing it all by itself. Then she quickly corrected herself, "NO, it's Jesus who is doing it!" I thought that was so funny.

Little Tumblers

Kaeli and Rylie had their gymnastics performance on Monday night. They did AWESOME!!! They both love to tumble for a crowd :-) We were 30 minutes early and were still up in the nose bleed section so I didn't get any non-blurry pictures during the performance.

A Must Read!

When you have the time, sit and read these chapters about Stephanie (nie nie). This is the most detailed and most touching version of her story I've ever read!

Part ONE: (Chapters 1-4)
Part TWO: (Chapters 5-10)

Sara's First Haircut!

OK, so this wasn't nearly as dramatic as you may think. I only trimmed a few inches off, but still this was Sara's very first haircut and she's three years old! You may think that's a long time to wait before a trim, but I've been in love with Sara's golden locks for the longest time and couldn't bring myself to trim them off. With that said, I knew Aaron would have a harder time with even the slightest trim (he loves his girls w/ long hair) so I quickly did the job when he wasn't home. He was just fine with the results and was grateful it was just a trim and not a chop :-)

BEFORE:

AFTER:

And here she is before church yesterday morning:

She still has a little bit of curl (phew):

And while I'm on the subject of Sara, I have to tell you the funniest thing. Last week we were planning a quick trip to Aaron's work to meet Santa. I asked the kids what they were going to ask Santa for Christmas. Sara ran into her bedroom and grabbed a yellow stuffed duck and said, "I'm going to ask Santa for this duck!" I explained to her that she needed to ask for something she didn't already have, but she insisted that she wanted to ask Santa for a duck. When we showed up at Dannon, Sara's excitement in seeing Santa was through the roof. She just couldn't wait to sit with him. Indeed we heard Santa ask her what she wanted for Christmas and as expected she said "A duck!" The funniest part was when we heard Santa's confused response as though he didn't quite hear her right, "A duck?"

Acting Debut!

Last week Sam performed in his very first play/musical called "Bugsy Malone"! He played the part of Dandy Dan's butler, and he was adorable in his butler suit and bow tie. They performed for 4 nights in a row. I was bummed when we went to go see it because they asked that we not take any pictures or record it in any way for copyright issues. I would have loved to get a picture of Sam twirling another little girl (just his size) around in their finale dance. It was really cute.

I snapped this picture of Sam on the set right afterwards:

Turkey Day!

We had a total of 24 people at our home for Thanksgiving dinner! Of course I was a little stressed that something might be forgotten or the turkey would get scorched...or not cook at all! But of course my mom was there, so I had nothing to fear!

Here are the MEN doing what MEN do on Thanksgiving...carve turkeys:

And of course the "grown-up table". My living room turned into an extension to the dining room:

The kid table, over the TILE, not over the carpet :-)

Oh and our BOUNTY of PIES!!! I was worried about having enough so I made assignments to my sister and sister-in-law and they dutifully brought even more than I asked of them! Each and every one was delicious! Even my 10 year old niece, Lindsey, brought some chocolate pies that she made herself!

The KIDS! There were 14 in all. Will is the one missing. And yes, this was the best picture I could get :-)

We bravely road the UTA Trax up to Temple Square in SLC to see the lights (because finding a place to park would be impossible). It was soooo CROWDED that we spent most of our time trying to stay together and work our way through the mob.

The Salt Lake Temple is always so pretty. It's a special place for our family because that's where my parents were married and sealed for eternity:
All in all, Thanksgiving was a success! It was great to have all my siblings and their families and my parents under one roof.

Little Feather-weight

Sara had a "well-baby" visit today. Do they still call them that when they're three? Any way, we were behind on a set of vaccinations so I took her in. Good news, she went up from the 4th percentile to the 5th percentile in her weight. She is almost 26 pounds! Sooooooo tiny! She is somewhere in the 30th percentile for her height. And so I've learned how vital the self-adjustment waist bands are! I won't buy a pair of pants for her without them. (The only downside is when the elastic gets lost inside the back of the waist band. It's impossible to retrieve!) And in case you're wondering, we're not concerned about Sara's size. I was always really tiny, and so are her siblings. It's just in their genes. You would think marrying a guy who is 6'2" would have factored in there somewhere, but his genes haven't made themselves known...yet. We'll see what happens in the long run. Aaron tells me he didn't hit a growth spurt until later in high school and continued to grow throughout his mission. I always embraced my petite-ness and I hope my kids will love that about themselves too. Small, but MIGHTY is a great way to be :-)

2009 School Pictures

Here are the kids' school pictures for this year. They wear school uniforms so that's why they're in blue polos :-)

Rylie - kindergarten

Kaeli - 3rd grade

Sam - 4th grade

Don't they look studious?

The Great Pumpkin Mystery

We have had such a funny experience with our jack-o-lanterns which sit on the stairs of our porch. Late on Halloween night just before bed I noticed there were 5 pumpkins sitting outside instead of 6. I realized Sammy's pumpkin had gone AWOL, all except for his lid, which sat right where his pumpkin should have been. I couldn't see any smashed pumpkin remains in the street so I figured his pumpkin met that fate on some other street by some thrill-seeking teenagers. On Monday as I pulled into the driveway and the kids and I noticed there were 4 pumpkins sitting on our steps instead of 5! This time Aaron's pumpkin had gone missing. I actually didn't mind. It's easier for me to have them stolen than for me to haul them to the garbage can. The next day, Kaeli's pumpkin met a different fate than the first two. It was EATEN ALIVE!!! Half the pumpkin lay in the flower garden in front of the porch, the other half undoubtedly in the tummy of a deer. The next day I noticed the three remaining pumpkins had their teeth eaten out, but the rest of the pumpkins remained intact. And finally this morning, this mystery really had me baffled! The three remaining pumpkins had been turned to face the house!!! So the backs of the pumpkins faced the street. How funny is that! And how the heck...? Or should I say, WHO the heck is messin' with me??? Garbage day is Friday, so I intend to keep my pumpkins where they sit and see how this mystery unfolds. And when Friday morning rolls around I will toss any remaining pumpkins, or pumpkin pieces away. I'll keep you posted :-)

Halloween!

I LOVE Halloween! I think my favorite part is dressing up the kids! Here are my little trick-or-treaters:

Sara the monkey

Rylie the witch

Kaeli the ghost

Sam the vampire

And what do my little monsters eat on Halloween night?

BOO-berry pancakes with goblin milk!

After trick-or-treating we sipped hot apple cider,
bathed the little monsters,
and put them to bed

...dreaming of candy :-)

Our little GHOUL is THREE!

Our sweet Sara turned 3 on Friday! She has looked forward to this birthday for the longest time! Her siblings all have birthdays in the first half of the year, so the wait for Sara to have her own celebration seemed like forever to her. At first she would say her birthday was "coming up", as her birthday got closer she would say it was "Halloween", and finally she was able to say her birthday was "the day before Halloween." Maybe next year we'll work on saying October 30th.

This birthday was so much fun for me because of Sara's sweet innocence of it all! She couldn't wait to have cake and she couldn't wait for us to sing to her! Having presents to open didn't occur to her until the day of. She would ask me if her "birthday" was in the fridge, referring to her cake. Her excitement for it all was through the roof and I loved every bit of it!

Of course Sara had to endure a photo shoot in a new and cute outfit.

Love dem BOOTS!

Sara loves to pretend to be a ballerina, so I couldn't resist this leotard, tutu, and slippers. I figure that out of four girls my odds of having a ballerina are increasing. Maybe it'll be my Sara Kate :-)

This little princess has captured our hearts. Here she is at just a few weeks old...with her crazy dark brown hair that I couldn't ever get to lay down :-) Who knew she would end up with "yellow" hair.

Breaking News!

We just found out that we're not having
a boy or a girl!

We're having a pumpkin!

How can that be?

Oh, this explains it:

Pumpkin Craze!

The kids had a blast cleaning out their pumpkins and sent pumpkin seeds flying in every direction! So much for my "O-kay kids, I only have ONE rule...no pumpkin guts on the floor!" This was the first year I let Sam and Kaeli carve their own pumpkins. Not because I trust them with knives, because I don't yet. But because I found a little carving kit with tiny saws. I didn't think they could do much damage to themselves with them, but the little saws had a different fate. They were broken before the carving was done.

Each kid wanted something different:

Sara wanted a silly face, just like her own! The similarities are scary!

Rylie wanted a mean face! How could something so sweet want something so mean?

Kaeli carved THREE different faces on her pumpkin! Here she is mimicking one of them.

And as always Sam went for the spookiest face he could dream up!

Every year I go for the classic Jack-o-lantern face. I love his jolliness! Aaron couldn't resist his romantic side and gutted out my pumpkin for me. It truly was the cleanest pumpkin I've ever seen! Not a seed or stringy thingy left!

And Aaron's pumpkin isn't one I'd ever want to meet in a dark alley!

Sadly, our little pumpkins are outside braving a little snow storm! Hopefully, the cold passes just long enough for us to enjoy a night of trick-or-treating on Saturday!

Caramel Apples!

We decorated caramel apples!

They were a bit tricky to eat, but oh soooo worth it!

Yum.