Christmas Concerts

 On my birthday we celebrated by going to Britten and Lindy's Christmas concert. They did a great job and they looked sooooo adorable. I'm so proud of my munchins!

Lindy Baby with her hair flower, she's soooo pretty!

My Handsome B. He loves to dress up in his suit and tie. I hope the trend continues!

My munchkins in their Christmas outfits.

Britten singing and being reverent.

I know this shot is blurry but I loved the picture of him singing.

Lindy being nervous.

She did a great job and looked beautiful while doing it.

The whold 3rd grade.

                                                                     Crazy boy!

Wearing the hats that some teachers and parents spent many endless hours putting together in order for our concerters to look their bestest! So cute!

On December 20th Chelsea had her Strings Concert at the HS. The auditorium is really really really small for a school our size so you have to get there super early if you want a seat. For Britten and Lindy's concert most of us were left standing for the concert. Here is Chelsea preconcert talking very animatedly with her friend.

It was fun to see her interacting with her friends.

 Chelsea plays the violin, here she is warming up.

It was an awesome concert. I loved it and they did a great job! Truly a Christmas treat.

Our Ward Christmas party and Santa Claus

There was a bit of a damper on this years Christmas party. We all tried to do our best to make the event festive and merry like a Christmas party should be, but the absence or our Beloved Bishop weighed heavily on our minds. Earlier in the day the Priesthood had a wood cutting service activity and a tree fell, hit another tree and turned the wrong way landing on our Bishop. He was life flighted to Reno where he had surgery to remove his spleen and was discovered to have a broken back and many broken ribs. His blessed wife was told at this point that it was a miracle that he had lived because usually a blow like that causes the artieries to detach from the heart causing death. She has been told repeatedly over the last few days that its a miracle that he's alive because of this and that. We as members of his ward are truly grateful that he's alive and healing well. It turned out that the muscles in his back where the ribs were broken are shredded which is the reason for much of the swelling.

The primary children put on a very nice program for us. Clayton is more than ready to graduate from nursery and join the older kids in primary. We let him join the primary for the program and he was very obedient. He didn't cause any problems or get rowdy at all. It was very cute!

Madison and her dolly were Mary and the baby Jesus again and this year Lindy was a star. They both did great, even Lindy who is usually very nervous to be up in public like this.

She smiled beautifully and did very well throughout the program.

Santa Time!!!!

Clayton was one of the first in line to see Santa. He had been looking forward to this moment for days!

He was very talkative and told Santa many things.

It was a very sweet moment to observe.

 Talk Talk Talk and Santa very patiently listened to all that was said. Funny how kids can be so shy and scared to talk to strangers but will pour their hearts out to Santa.

Allen was unsure of this bearded man in red from the beginning.............

as soon as he turned his head and saw me he broke down and cried. Needless to say, I did not get a picture of Allen looking at the camera with while on Santa's lap. Too funny!

MadN as cute and sweet as ever.

LineE being herself. What a cutie!

Britten didn't make it to the ward party this year. He was throwing a fit about changing his clothes so we left him home.

Heres Clayton enjoying his Christmas treat from Santa while trying to sneak in to see him again.

O Christmas Tree

Last year our tree was red and gold, this year we added some green to it and it turned out pretty awesome. Of course there's the pink pig and the soccer ball and a few other ornaments that don't match our color scheme but to me a tree should say something about the people living in the home in which it stands. So, I like having the few unmatching ornaments that say something about us.

 Natasha was sick the night that we decorated and she flat out refused to be in the photo. I can't say that I blame her. However our picture is looking a little empty. Minnie was at work and didn't want to join us for tree decorating so there you are, only 7 of the 9. Amazing how the absence of 2 makes it all look a bit empty. It seems strange and somehow not right to go about our family traditions when a child is missing, even though the only reason that they're missing is because they have grown up and flown the nest. We can't skip all of our traditions and family events just because the grown child can't make it but it somehow seems not right and just a little bit empty having them gone. I guess this is all part of the growing up process, for mom's and dad's as well as children.

Doesn't Myles look extremely excited to be here!

As perfect as our tree was to begin with, to me there was something missing. I really wanted red beaded garland. I just knew that would do complete the whole tree. I looked and looked and couldn't find any anywhere. It was getting very late in the season so I had pretty much given up and had decided that next year I'll start looking early. Well, one day I just happened to go into a new craft store near our home and they had my beaded garland on one of their display tree. So I looked through the store and nope, no beaded garland for sale. The store clerk then let me know that there was a 40% off sale on all Christmas decorations and I told him thats great but the only thing I want is on that tree right there. He took down the garland for me! I was super excited, I had my red beaded garland. But I only had 4 strands and our tree at home was bigger than the store display. Well, the next day I found 2 more strands for $.75 at the thrift store! I got home and put my tree together and of course, it was just the look I was going for. Now my tree was perfect!

Reality Hits MiMi!

I'll get picts posted later, MiMi got a job at Walmart. Not that we need to make a big deal out of every job a person gets but it is a big deal to have your very first job! It's totally cool to go into Walmart and see my MiMi in a blue shirt and a Walmart id tag working. It's totally nice for her to have her own money! Welcome to this thing we call Life MiMi!

Our Current Family Photos

We had to wait and wait for everyone to get together. Man if its this hard to get the family together now, I can't even imagine what its going to be like when more of the kids are grown.

I was beginning to lose cooperation at this point and everyone was getting very cold! As a result the kids aren't set up very good but sometimes you got to take what you can get!

By the time it got to be Mine and Myles turn it was getting dark. Still, we didn't turn out toooo bad did we???!!!???