Over the River and through the Woods . . . to find a Christmas Tree!

I know most people love their pre-lit fake Christmas trees, but I love REAL trees!  I love the tradition we have of heading to the forest and spending the day as a family finding our tree!  Oh I LOVE the memories!  One year Grace up-chucked on the way there, but she was ready for some fun by the time we arrived!  Another year, Maggie the Basset hound accompanied us!  Short legs, snow and big fallen trees are not a good match!  One year a male in our family chose not to follow instructions (the name will be redacted to protect his fledgling ego) and ended up falling in a tiny Creek!  Good thing we had found our tree, had our lunch and were just playing around.  He unfortunately had to spend  some time drying off in the car! 
This year was the most snow we had ever had!  It made for hard tracking, some of our wimpier members ended up back at the car, while we hoofed it through lots of snow searching for the TREE! 

Grace and Sarah

Snowball?

taking a rest in the SNOW!!!

Logs are slippery, good thing there is lots of padding on Caleb and under him!

Our BIG Tree! 

 It was a great day, with more great memories!!!  Some might not like our tree cause it's not "perfect"!  But neither are we, so it fits us just right!!!

Turkeys!

Our house is full of turkeys!  We made the cutest ones, the kids had fun and they tasted goooood!

Em, Ry, Caleb, and Grace, 4 of our turkeys!

We saved a turkey for daddy!

Blake liked the Turkey too!

November

This November was full of thanks!  What can be better than walking out of church and having snow coming down and it actually being stuck on the ground!  We couldn't let the snow pass by without a bit a play!  It NEVER snows before Thanksgiving!!! 

I know it isn't much, but it was snow and it had to be played in!!!!
While it snowed a 'skiff' at our house, it snowed lots at my moms!  That made for a fun Thanksgiving for everyone at Grandma Rose's house!  When we arrived on Wednesday night I was surprised that there was still snow!  The next morning there was more snow falling and we had to get out and play!

Grace, Leslie, and Cocoa and Maggie the doggies! 

Snow angels on the deck before breakfast!

Grace and Maggie enjoying the snow on Grandma's deck!

 After breakfast everyone headed out to grandma's front lawn for snowmen and the small front yard hill for some sledding! 

Ryan and the Snowman complete with Icicle Mowhawk!

Spencer and the Snowman

Grace and Em going down the hill

Everyone headed down the hill, snowman on the sidewalk!

Running into the house!

After we got the hang of the small hill we headed for the BIG hill, the long driveway to the big garage!  This hill is not for wimps!  (too many memories of faces bashed against the garage cause you are going so fast!  The key to safety?  Feet, to slow you down!)

Mom, trying the first run down the BIG hill!  AHHH MEMORIES!

 

Sarah and ? sledding right into the garage!

Mom, Grace, Caleb, and Spencer and Emily

Mom, Caleb and Grace all turned around!  360's are fun!

To go down you must go up!

Emily all bundled for fun!

Mom and Grace loving the sledding!

 Spencer luge(ing)(?) at least what they were calling it!  keep watching and you'll see Caleb going down the little hill too!  The hills are very different!

Ryan going down the hill Luge style! 

We had a great Thanksgiving at our Grandma's!  Lots of fun memories!!!

 

Dreams do come true!

Emily started taking dance at age 3 when we lived in Fairborn, Ohio.  I remember sitting at her first recital with her and her just being in love with all of the different types of dance going on in front of her.

Emily on her very first day of dance @ Miami Valley Dance Center Sept. 2000

Ready for her first Dance Recital, Emily danced to the 'I dream of Jeanie' theme song

She as been at 3 different studios since living in Vancouver.  She has loved each of them for different reasons.  This year, she started at the 3rd and last studio, Dayley Dance Academy!  She just LOVES it!  LOVES LOVES LOVES the Teachers!  It is amazing how much she has grown as a dancer!  In September, we were approached by her teachers with the idea of Emily starting on POINTE!  I had always been a bit nervous of this day, you know she is soooooo petite.  Of course Emily was EXCITED BEYOND BELIEF!!!!  This has been her DREAM for YEARS!!!  It took us some time to figure out a day that would work for us to head over to Dance Togs in Beaverton so Miss Emily could be fit for her first Pointe shoes!  That special day was October 8th (my big brothers birthday! so i'll never forget!)  We spent hours with the owner of the store trying on all different brands, and sizes.  Who knew there was so much to a point shoe?  I should have whipped out my camera right them, but I didn't want to embarrass my sweet ballerina too badly!!!  Evey time she would try on another shoe and go on point so they could check the fit, i would get tears starting!  It is amazing to see dreams being fulfilled!  She is a wonderful girl, and I am so happy for her!  The joy in her face as she dances is priceless!

Left Coupe

Sousu

Don't mind the zombie eyes!!!

This past week (yes it takes me forever to post about anything! so i combine october with december.  it works for me!) Emily and Grace were able to be in their first dance recital together!  It was Emilys first time performing on POINTE!   And Grace's first time dancing in a recital!  It was a fun and crazy week with lots of practices, hair doo's, make-up, but it was so enjoyable on Friday night to see their sweet faces up on 'the big stage' as Grace says it! 
I LOVE the SISTERS Pictures!

Grace and her dance friends, Reagan, Maya, and Zhona (missing Callie)

Emily on Pointe!

As I look at theses pictures, and I think of Friday night it seems as if my life is starting over again, like it has reached full circle, or at that same starting point again.  Sitting with Grace on my lap on Friday night, her excitement over the dancers she was seeing, her excitement over dancing on the stage.  I was right back to Emily's first recital.  Except this time, my beautiful Emily was living her 4 year old dream.  She is dancing on pointe!  She was truly expressing herself through dance!  It was so wonderful to see her dance three times that night!  The music ~ amazing!  The feelings ~ indescribable!  It was a truly amazing night!

This is Emily's Point dance ~ Song for a Winters Night  ~ (hint look for the tiniest one!)


Grace's dance!  Oh, she makes me smile!!!  Grace is the 2nd in from the right side.

Emily's Jr. Ballet ~ Now Comes the Night  ~  The camera didn't get started right at the beginning, so Emily's solo is not quite there :(   but she is at the front for the first part.

Emily's Sr. Jazz/Contemporary ~ Leave the Light On!  ~ They took this dance to Rex Putnum HS Dance Festival 2010 as an exhibition.  It is a truly touching dance, it is hard to describe how I feel when I see and hear this.  It might even bring a  tear or two.  At least it does at our house.  (Remember to look for the tiniest one!)

Halloween! and October Pumpkin Fun!

We had a Halloween without our daddy this year.  He was at an Air National Guard meeting in Arizona.  We missed him, but we had plenty of fun!  Emily and 2 of her friends stayed home to pass out candy, while I took the kids out.  With Halloween being on Sunday, our Ward put together a trick-or-treating on Saturday night. 

Grace as Dorthy from the Wizard of OZ!

Bat boy Caleb

Spencer the Ninja

Ryan as Legolas from Lord of the Rings (note the pointy elf ears!)

The whole crew ready for some TREATS!

Oh, who is this person?  I had to dress up as daddy!!!

 

Emily Squared after school! Who knew a Zombie Ballerina and a Hippie could be such good friends!

 Both Caleb and Grace had a chance to go to Bizi pumpkin farm for their classes.  For Caleb's Kindergarten class I was only able to stay for the visiting the farm yard part (I had a sub job for the afternoon!) It was a beautiful day!  Better than any other time we have been there!

we thought this turkey was pretty cool!

Caleb and the cows!

Caleb's class at the hay pyrmid (he's 2nd row 3rd in on the right between his 2 girls friends)

Caleb ready for the hay ride and pumpkin picking!

I was sad to not be there for the pumpkin pictures, but he choose a great one and had a wonderful time!

For Grace, we had a big group of pre-schoolers that went together to the farm.  She had fun running around and getting muddy!  (not as nice a day as when I went with Caleb!) 

Grace and her friend the Goat!

Mom and Grace on the Hayride ready to choose a pumpkin!

Grace and her pumkin (at her feet)

Note the socks on her hands!  We couldn't find her mittens, but I had an extra pair of socks in the car! 

 Earlier in October we had gone over by Hood River in Oregon with some friends to check out the 'Fruit Loop'!  We tried lots of apples, and purchased even more!  YUM!!!  We also went to Rasmussen farm picked some pumpkins, went through a corn maze, and had lots of fun!

Caleb and Grace

Emily and Rachel, love those CRAZY girls!

The whole group!

We have no pictures of the pumpkins we picked, which is sad for 2 reasons!  They were GREAT pumpkins!  and someone stole all of them off our front porch the week Caleb went to the pumpkin farm for school!  I was so MAD!  But we did have some nice pumpkins from Bizi farms, and one from Wal-Mart! 

Our cute second chance pumpkins!

Next year, no pumpkins on our front porch till Halloween night!