Christmas Recital

Last night was our Christmas piano recital. My kids have settled into the idea of mom being their teacher and they are progressing really nicely on the piano. I also have 6 other students right now too. So the last couple days Shawn cleared out all the furniture from the family room and rolled the piano out of the spare room. He brought 50 chairs from the church and built a fire to create the mood. Brayton, Ethan, and Meri's school teachers, Jessi's primary teacher, and Orion's best friend came which really made it special for the kids since our family lives too far to come. The other students brought families and friends too and it was really a special night. I'm so grateful for Shawn for helping me get it all to turn out nicely. It was really fun to hear all the Christmas music. I loved it! (and I'm also glad it's over.) :)

welcome to the zoo

Our home is never very quiet, but the last few days I have been wondering if we have 5 kids or 5 animals. Wait, we do have 5 animals too, but anyway, our kids have had major ants in the pants issues lately. No matter what I do they seem to be constantly rough housing. Today before church, I got after them because we were trying to get everyone ready - not to mention they were just being so darn loud, and pregnant momma is very easily annoyed as of late. So we went to church -Orion having a tantrum and Brayton giving me dirty looks and saying how I always ruin all their fun. So we made it through church, although sacrament meeting was more irreverent than our normal irreverance. Then even though I have a hard time going to Gospel Doctrine class - I was greatful for an hour of sitting in peace and quiet. Then on to Young Women's which I am finding that I quite enjoy. It took me awhile to adjust from primary these last several months, but I can honestly say now that I LOVE working with the Young Women! So then back home, and the kids have been and still are in rough housing mode. For awhile I hid in my room and read and then I realized - I hadn't been hearing any fighting or calling names -all I am hearing is happy squeals of laughter and my kids enjoying each other. Yes, occasionally I would hear someone cry for a few minutes because of a bonked head or something, but mostly all the sounds were happy ones. So I came out to the family room and took a picture of them and decided to just enjoy them enjoying each other no matter how loud or wild they get - or no matter how many times one of them yells "someone farted!". The only thing I can think is that maybe they are so excited about Christmas and that it's supposed to snow tonight so they are anticipating a snow day tomorrow. We'll see if I'm so happy with all the rough housing after a joyous snow day tomorrow! But anyhow, I just love my kids. They each are such a treasure. I'm so proud of them how hard they work at school and they did so well at the piano recital last night. I'll have to post about that next.

Christmas at Disney!

Last Wednesday we decided to use our Disney passes again. We pulled the kids out of school and went to see Christmas as Disneyland for our first time. It was amazing. The decorations were beautiful and the best part was that it was not crowded and it was a cool day. Turns out, Wednesday is a perfect day to go to Disneyland. We had very little wait time or just walked on all the rides we wanted to. It was such a pleasant day. Meri was even brave enough to get her picture with Mickey and Minnie and get their autographs. Our kids have always been to nervous about people in costumes to get near them, but finally Meri decided it would be a fun thing to do. The only thing we missed was the snow at the end of the day. We saw the Christmas parade and then we were just too tired to stay for the fireworks and snow. But really, it was such a perfect day.

Thanksgiving

We had a terrific time up in San Ramon with the Teares for Thanksgiving. The boys loved picking apples out of Grandpa's apple tree, cutting and drying them with him. We also enjoyed an amazing train show and all had a great time there. But mostly it was just nice to be with our family. 1. Brayton excited about his Thanksgiving dinner 2. apples with Grandpa 3. train show with Grandpa and cousins 4. Meri and Mady playing uno