Miller's Annual Ugly Sweater Party!

This is an event I look forward to all year. Our friends have thrown an Ugly Sweater for the past several years. We look forward to gathering all our friends each year as some have moved and our wards have changed. This year her invitation said wear your "ugly sweater/outfit/jammies/sweatsuit;whatever fits your fancy." So we took advantage of that! We decided to go in German attire, lederhosen and all!

If you marry a German, you go as Germans! Here we are in all our glory!! There were three categories for prizes..The best sweater, the most original, and the lamest. We won for the most original, so it was a success! Second year in a row we won.

We ate some yummy food and played games and then had our white elephant exchange. The hot item was this lovely calendar that Emily made. Each month had one of the men featured. Ragnar was the featured Keltic man for April :) haha!!

Here was the crew. We looked amazing ;) We sure have a fun time and we love this group of people!

Nutcracker Performance 2016

One of my favorite traditions with my mom is taking the girls each year to the Houston Ballets Nutcracker performance. I think this was Ella's 7th year and Channing's 2nd. We have tried to go to a couple amateur performances, but the one downtown is so much better, so we stuck with that one even though it is expensive!! 

Here are all the girls who could make it that live in Houston. My sister Natalie, my mom, my sister in law Chira and her daughter Charlotte, and then us of course.

We walked over and ate at the HardRock Cafe for lunch before the performance. It was delicious. 

We had great seats. There was snow and confetti that came down on us from the ceiling a couple times. The girls loved that! Also, the rats came through the walkways and the girls weren't as keen on that ;) It was a new version of the nutcracker, it definitely felt more modern. It was a little strange since we are so used to the original version, but it was still a great performance. We love this tradition!

Weekend Fun

A couple weekends ago we went over to the German Festival in Tomball, Texas. Ragnar was excited to eat his sausage and Reibekuchen. We had fun walking around the shops and reminiscing about Germany.

It was a cold morning! Sadly the only pictures I got were of the kids in the petting zoo area.

Their cousins got to join them so they had fun with that!

On the way home, the girls and I stopped at our community "Winter Festival". The boys had both fallen asleep in the car. We did some of the crafts and then rode on a train ride.

We also did our annual gingerbread houses. The girls did their house and the boys did their house. 

We love this time of year!!

Spelling bee 2016

The annual Eagle Springs Spelling Bee took place on Thursday, December 15th. Ella has qualified all three years. She was a runner up participant in 3rd grade, and in 4th and 5th grade she participated. This year was Cavin's first chance to make it. He tested and made it in. Two kids from every class in grades 3-5 are able to participate. Cavin actually found out he made it in before a couple days later when Ella found out. Ella was really hoping she would get in again so that they could study together. 

This a picture of the morning of. They woke up and were a little nervous!!

Ragnar took the day off to come watch them. There were a total of 40 kids who made it in from the school. Cavin was number 20, and Ella the last person to go at number 40.

Cavin's first round word was "pebbles" which he spelled correctly. There were a lot of kids that got out in the first round. He only made it two the second round and misspelled "Biology" which he knew how to spell but I think he was nervous.

Ella was the last one to go and her first word was "flexible" and 2nd round was "cupboard", 3rd round was "gnarled" and 4th round she misspelled "mystic", for some reason she said mi instead of my. She finished 13th. 

I am so proud of them for trying out and even being able to participate in the spelling bee. They did a good job. I don't think that either of them have gotten less than a 100 on their spelling test more than a couple times ever. They do well and are great students and I am lucky to be their mom!

Choir

During the month of December Ella has a lot of performances with her school choir. They sang at Barnes and Noble the first week of December to start the Christmas season off!

Doesn't she look adorable in her Santa hat!!

She sang for her school a few times and then they had a winter concert. Her grandma and Aunt Natalie joined our family to watch her perform.

She doesn't particularly love that she's in 5th grade and supposed to be the big kid on campus, but she is still too short so she's on the front row. Me on the other hand, I love that I can see her well!

They had cute songs and we had fun watching her do what she enjoys! 

The Fifth grade also had Patriots Day which Ella loved. They had to dress up in their colonial attire and spend a day doing activities that they did in the colonial times. She made corn husk dolls, candles, bags, and butter. She loved it!!