To start of the month, Keegan was picked to be the student of the month :) which means that mom had to make a poster. He was soooo excited.
Some of the things on the paper....
favorite food.....pizza
Lives in a....house :)
My Pet....We don't have any (my kids are deprived!)
I want to be a.....fireman....when I grow up
AND I LOVED THE DRAWINGS OF HIMSELF AND THE FAMILY!!! None of us have bodies, just faces, hands, and feet. Hahahaha!
Here are some pictures on the hayride...we almost didn't go because the group before us got drentched with a 2 minute downpour of rain. But it stopped we got on and enjoyed a dry ride. And Gerald didn't want me to take his picture, but I had to capture that everyone was there that night :)
During the month of december Mya also won a bike at school. I was so green with envy because I NEVER won anything like that when I was going to school. When she first told me about it I thought that it was going to be one of those things where everyone does the work and then they put all of your names in a hat and draw out one lucky person's name. NOPE!!! They had all the kids in the school set a reading goal, and then they tested them every month and once they made their goal they earned their bike. Everyone in the school was able to win a bike. They set up the time to pick up the bikes on the saturday before Christmas so that they could enjoy them through the christmas break. What an exciting thing for all the kids to be able to do. The second picture is Mya and her best friend Anoi....they are BFF'S and do everything together. If they haven't seen each other in 2 days they are going through withdrawls. Good thing they are in the same class this year!
WARD CHRISTMAS PARTY!
The ward christmas party was a lot of fun. They had snacks and a real hot chocolate bar....yummmmm! We made christmas cards for the wounded soldiers and there was entertainment. Mya and I sang a duet of Mary's Lulliby from the children's song book. We were going to sing the round during the chorus and practiced it like that but something happend during the actual performance :) It was fun to be able to sing with Mya. What a great thing to be able to do as a mother and daughter. I am so thankful for the opportunities that we had to practice together and the fun that we had.
I didn't get any pictures of Mya and Keegan with santa clause this year. They were too fast and were gone by the time that I made it to the stage. Don't worry....the moment was still captured by our proffessional photographer in the ward (Ursula Williams) I just didn't get it on my camera. But I had to capture Jacob's "JOY" of sitting on Santa's lap.....
Waiting in line...doesn't know what is going on but still happy about whatever it is....
Screaming....why are you making me sit on this scary mans lap????
I think everyone has to have the 1-2 year old screaming like they are going to die picture on sata's lap! PRICELESS!!!!
CHRISTMAS
Christmas was great to be able to enjoy this year. Mya and Keegan are at such fun stages! To them I am sure that the month of december was never going to end! At school they were writing letters to santa clause, and because santa was so busy only the elves were able to write them back (which I am pretty sure were high school students writing as elves for an english project) but still really exciting for both of my kids to hear back from anyone from the north pole! There were projects to decorate ornaments and polor express day where they were able to wear their pajama's to school and watch the polar express. Keegan's teacher even gave them all whistles and let them blow them every time the whistle blew in the movie!
When I was little during the month of december we would read a scripture, sing a christmas song and read a christmas story for the 24 days of Christmas. Kind of a miniture devotional every night. It was something that I will always associate with the month of december. About 4 years ago my mom bought me a 24 days of christmas book with the devotionals in them for each day and this year I pulled it out and started doing it with the kids. Some of the stories were really good for my kids to hear. It got them thinking about things that they could do and how they could serve others. One of the stories that we read was about a little boy that got up early to get all the milking done so that his father could enjoy the christmas morning and watch the kids open up their gifts. The father said that it was the best gift that he ever recieved. We had talked to the kids about how christmas morning we were going to wake up and get ready to go to church and that we would wait to open up presents until after dad got home. I went to go and wake them up to get them ready and Mya had made her bed and gotten dressed already. She said she wanted to be like the little boy in the story....talk about tears....she has a heart of gold sometimes! Then she helped me get her brother's ready so that we wouldn't be late for church.
On Christmas eve we have started a tradition where the missionaries come over and we have a big meal. This year we also had some really good friends of our join us. It was fun being able to make chicken, ham, mashed potatoes, gravy, rolls, green salad, green bean casserole, and macaroni and cheese. And it was fun to have the house full of people! Sometimes around the holidays it gets kind of lonely for me because I am used to big families....so it didn't seem so lonely this year....it was great!
Mya wanted an I-Pad for christmas, but there was no way I could justify getting a 7 year old a $600 gift! She was so persistant....even after we told her that santa was poor this year and that he doesn't give expensive electronics. She would say things like she would be just as happy if she got the happy feet 2 movie and that it wasn't as expensive....but then she would secretly say I really wish that santa could get me the i-pad. Luckily she is 7...and doesn't know the difference between brands! Her reaction is priceless!!!!!! And Keegan at the end of the movie....after watching mya open up the gift that she really really wanted....bless is heart....still mustered up a smile when he opened up clothes. It was a great christmas, and we were extremely blessed this year.