Emily's Piano and Violin Recital

Today starts 4 performances from these kids in 5 days. We'll be busy, busy, busy. It was so wonderful hearing Emily play today. We usually do a recital at her teachers house and a performance at the senior home. But, as it worked out, we did both performances at once. Which works out great with how busy this time always is before Christmas.

My girl looked so pretty. Thanks Aunt Pam for the lovely red sweater.

 

Here's her and Alanah.  Alanah had on heels and Em was in flats. Alanah is taller, but not a foot taller!  :) 

 

Here are the girls playing the violin.  Ellie played the cello. 

 

Here's Em on the baby grand piano. Emily wants a real piano instead of the electric one we have.  Yeah, right.  She'll have to keep dreaming.

 

And here's Noah lulled to sleep by the music.  He was out.  It was hysterical. He fits right in with the old people.  I told him he takes after my Dad.  He can fall asleep anywhere at church, the movies... 

 

And here's a few videos of her performance:

 

We are so proud of her. She's been playing piano for 7 years and violin for 18 months. She's doing so well, and this will be a talent she'll have with her for the rest of her life.

All I Want For Christmas....

is my two front teeth!

 

Spelling Bee

Ben was in the spelling bee again this year. I thought this might be his year but he was down to like the final 5, and he did great. They give you a copy of all the words, so kids have the option to study. Ben never does.  So, the fact that he makes it so far is pretty impressive.

 

This was the beginning with 65 kids.   

 

Ben's words were 

once

crooked

correctional

chimpanzee

This was the kid before him that got out.  Ben missed the last e in chimpanzee.  

He did great though and we are always super proud of him.

Around Our House

This time of year is always so busy.  Here's a little that's been going on here. 

Friday night, Emily had a Christmas dance at school. They were supposed to dress in an ugly sweater.  But, does any Junior High girl want to wear something ugly?  No.  So, she wore a cute red sweater Aunt Pam gave her.  She looked sweet.

 

Dakri and Ryan had their annual holiday party this weekend.  I didn't take many pictures, which is fine with me. But, I did snap a few of Noah and Savannah.  They are so cute. We had a great time at the party catching up with our friends.

 

 This morning, David was ready to go for his 3 mile run.  Then, he said to Ben and Noah, do you guys want to come.  Fully thinking both of them would say no. But, Ben said yes.  What?  So, we got him ready and David took him out for a mile run.  

They took off down the street and David was teaching him how to pace himself. 

 

 

About 8 minutes later, they came running back.  Ben ran the whole way, which is good for a kid who hasn't run a mile ever.  As Ben crossed the finish line, he requested I sing the Rocky theme.  He's funny.  I'm proud that he could run that far. 

 

The kids have 10 days left of school before break. Gwynne flies in on Friday.  Then, next week is filled with piano/violin concert, drama production, Ben & Noah's music concerts.  It's going to be crazy, but I'm looking forward to all of it. 

Mingus Mountain

Anytime we have a three day weekend, I want to get us out and about to enjoy nature. There is so much to see and do around us.

Mingus Mountain is 20 minutes from us. We've been up there sledding, but we've never really checked out anymore than that. There is a campground there and hiking too. So, off we went. For some reason, I said let's take Rocko. He usually vomits in the car, so we don't take him. But, we took him this time.

I had just read a thing about the 30 best places to visit in the United States and five of them were in Arizona.  One commented on the beautiful blue skies we have.  I do have to admit, they are gorgeous.  I'm not sure why they seem more blue here, but it is some of the bluest skies. Maybe it's all our sunshine. We rarely have a cloudy day, so the sky just get's to shine in all it's glory.

We got to the top and there was this overlook with pretty views of Sedona, Cottonwood and Camp Verde.

Then, we started walking.

We quickly realized that it was straight down the mountain. We weren't prepared for that, so we came back up the mountain.

We headed off in another direction to go 'sploring. That's what we call exploring. Noah found a tree, but needed a boost.

This tree was super cool looking.

Here's another pretty outlook.

It looks like a big drop off, but it wasn't. 

Another good tree to climb.

On the way home, Rocko looked pooped.  But, he did good.

Then, he got home, drank water and puked all over our carpet.  

Better than in the car, but next time, he'll stay home.  

It was a beautiful day though, and I'm glad we got to go sploring.

Thanksgiving

A month ago, my Stepmom, Suzy, retired from hosting the holidays. Well, she's still doing Christmas. But, her back and the stress of hosting is a lot. So, I took the reins for Thanksgiving. And when I say I, I mean, my husband. Since he does about 80% of it.

The kids had Wednesday off, so I put them to work helping. The actually did pretty good and didn't complain the entire time. Emily did olives and pickles. Ben did salami. Ben and Noah did green beans. Emily and Noah did pumpkin muffins.

And, they only ate about half of everything.  For every one piece of salami Ben rolled, he ate one. Emily did the same thing with the olives.  

Thanksgiving rolled around, and we had a nice full house.  The kids had to sit at the island.  I had to put a heart on the fridge. I had our WIFI code and password on the fridge for guests since cell service is sketchy in our house.  So, I put on a heart on the pic to cover it up. 

And here's the whole table.  Let's see...my niece Tiffany and she brought her boyfriend, Triv.  They've been dating for 3 years and we finally got to meet him.  Then, Suzy, and her granddaughter Amanda. Suzy's daughter Nikki and her husband Mike.  Then, my Dad and my Mom and Russ, who works with David.  

It was a lovely day and we had a great time with family. 

We have so much to be thankful for.

Stranger Things

I always tell my kids that growing up in the 80's was the best.  We had some of the cool stuff, like Atari and projector TV's, and we used our imagination every day playing with the neighborhood kids.  I'm so thankful that I didn't grow up in an age where my childhood was spent looking at a screen.  Well, I did enjoy Three's Company, Love Boat and shows like that, but a few hours of TV a week is a far cry from what these kids watch.

David and I watched Stranger Things when it came out last year.  They just released season 2, so we started watching it last weekend after our marathon hike.  We had the volume up and the kids slowly trickled in and wanted to watch it.  We were three episodes in.  But, we stopped and started up with season 1, which was 8 episodes.  By Sunday night, we had watched all of season 1 an season 2. 

It was the first time my kids ever binged watched something.  I was so proud!  HA!  No really, at least it was a show I love.  After it ended, I could tell they would all agree, that the 80's were a magical time.  True, me and the kids in the hood didn't fight a Demogorgan, but we would've if one was  haunting us. 

If you haven't watched it, you must!