PHEW!!!!

This has just been a crazy last couple of weeks and I have failed to post about all the fun we have been having.  I have spent the afternoon working on my pictures so they are ready to add to posts and so now I best get writing those said posts so that I can get my blog up to date.  There is only 3 more days until the end of the year and I must get it all in before 2013.  Wow, that sounds so weird saying that year.....I wonder what it will bring.  2012 was a great year full of fun and lots of changes so I am excited to get my yearly book done and have it to read.

A LITTLE B-BALL    (Dec 4)

December started off with basketball....Yea, M started BB again and it consumes her every spare minute.  OK, so she gets time in to sleep and eat and read, but other than homework and some babysitting jobs, she is always playing.  She had 3 games in one week before the holidays and so she was happy to have a break from it all this past week.  However, practices started up again today and will continue til school starts.  So glad we were able to get some playing in there....

Here are some pix from her first game (I was rebelling the other 2 games and didn't take any)

  

WINTER   (Dec 9)

 

So we finally got some snow.....I was beginning to forget what it looked like.  Even though I am a warm weather gal and the beach is my favorite spot ever, I do like snow and having it during the winter makes it seem more like, well.....winter.

 

 SPACE SHUTTLE   (Dec 12)

 

K loves to watch the space shuttle when it flies over our house.  Her dad prints off the schedule and then they highlight the days that it will be the best viewing and she never misses it.  In fact, we all like to watch the skies so it is a family event normally.  However, this particular night, it was to pass over around 5:30pm.  Daddy wasn't home from work, J was somewhere and I was running M to practice so K was at the house.  I actually had no idea that it was going to be early that night, so when I came home from dropping M off, she and Duke were in the back yard watching it.  I was amazed at her....not sure why, but I just thought how great that was that she took the initiative to remember and go out to watch.  So I stayed out there with her to watch the end of its flight, which was the best part as it looked liked it flew right in to Jupiter.  So cool. 

 

 

 HORIZON CHOIR   (Dec 17)

 

So J decided a month ago that she wanted to switch from band to choir.  Actually she has wanted to get out of band since the first year she started in 6th grade.  But she didn't say anything that year and then last year she kept saying how she hated it and wanted out.  We told her no since we felt she needed to stick it out until high school.  Then this year, she started up again about it and kept presisting all the way through fall break.  She wasn't getting  her way.  But then in Nov, she asked if she could switch to choir.  She had never had another plan before, but I still wanted her to not quit.  She batted her eyes at her father and she got her way.  And I must say, she is so much happier.  She dreaded band every day and hated to practice and so I am happier for her as she loves it.  I still wish she wouldn't had quit, but....... She had her first choir performance this month at Sand Creek.  I love it so much better when they hold them there and not the middle school.  She did well....it was short and sweet and it was a good show.

 

 Afterwards, I told her she did great but needed to smile more.  Her reaction......she got mad and told me she was smiling.  It is a good thing that I don't have proof she wasn't  :)  (I actually was nice and didn't post the pix that she looked down right mad in)  But I must remember.....she was smiling!

 

 

 SUNSETS  (Dec 19)

 

I have posted before about the gorgeous sunsets we have here, but M took some pictures one night of the colors and so I thought I would post them.

 

 MORE CHOIR  (Dec 20)

 

K had her 5th Grade Christmas Choir performance this month.  It was scheduled for a Wed and we ended up having a snow day that day, so she was really bummed thinking she wouldn't get to do it.  But they rescheduled it for the next day.  I was subbing that day, so got to see it twice.  She was thrilled that she had a big dancing part in the song Footloose.  She did a great job and she looks good as a "hick". 

 

 

 NEXT POST.......a much-needed weekend getaway and our Christmas festivities.  Stay tuned!

 



It's December

NOTE:  I wrote this post several weeks ago and finally got the pix fixed to add to it...can't believe it is this late being posted...eek!

WOW.....I can't believe it is already December.  So you know what that means.....CHRISTMAS!

M didn't like it but we put the lights on the outside of the house the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  She doesn't like anything Christmas until Dec 1st.  I know...she is weird.  But she was put out and we told her too bad.  It was a nice day and we were doing it.

T wasn't here to help us this year, so the girls were more than happy to get out on the roof to help.  But no one wanted to be a daredevil like T and so we only put them up around the bottom half of the roof.

 

Then came the hunt for our Christmas tree.....

 

We have been so busy and with all the Saturdays taken up for at least part of the day, we have had no time to get to the mountains to get our tree.  We need pretty much a full day with travel time and "hunting" time and we just don't have it this year.  I could have pulled them out of school like I did last year, but it is just gotten so crazy.  So we had a couple of hours before M's game one Saturday and so we tried a new place.  We didn't want to go to a lot and buy those perfectly shaped trees, so we were happy when I found a place out in Black Forest that had them like the forest.....cut your own. 

gotta laugh....hubby forgot his gloves so used J's

It was weird to be on flat ground and have absolutely NO snow.  It was a chilly morning so we were happy to have our gloves at least.  There were not a lot to choose from.....compared to the mountains where we have millions to pick from.  But we did find one.  J took over the job of helping carry it back to the car.

We were even able to feed some alpacas and then head for breakfast before M had to be to her game.

 

Of course, then we had to decorate.  That would have to wait a few days until FHE as we have too much going on....no surprise there.  But we had a great time as usual.  Earlier in the day we went and let the kids pick out their yearly ornament.  They picked their usual, although J picked out Mater which I was surprised at.  We even got T his normal.  We hung it on the tree with a couple of other ones of his.  We sure miss him......just not the same without him.

T's plane to add to his collection

finished!

So I just have the banisters to decorate and then it will be on to wrapping the presents.  Not done shopping yet, but.....

13 Years Today

I always post something on December 11th...every year, never missed.  OK, so I have only had my blog for the last 4 years, so I haven't posted for 13 years straight........but the last 4 years I have remembered my sister on this day.

I can't believe that she has been gone this long.  I was talking to M in the car today about it....she was only 3 years old.  She doesn't remember much of the events after her Aunt Pam died.  She remembers it was snowy and cold at the cemetery.....that's about it.  I remember many details....details that I wish I never had to deal with.  She left way too soon. 

I often wonder what life would be like if she was still here.  I look back and see all the memories that were made without her.  How many events she missed in our family.  How many reunions we have had that she has not been a part of.  I know that she has been there in spirit, but I sure missed having her right by our sides laughing with us. 

My life is not the same without her.....I miss her and I am sure glad that she is still a part of me and a part of my family.  Can't wait to give her a hug and tell her how much I love her.  I love you big sis!

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving is always a holiday that we spend at home.  We never go anywhere as hubby has to work the day before and the day after.  It use to be  a holiday when all my in laws would get together, but now they all go their separate ways and so we are "just us".  It is a nice and quiet holiday with plenty of leftovers, that is for sure. 

Every year we invite our parents to dinner.  And almost every year, we get them to come too!  It is great....especially my parents who live in Utah.  Hubby's mom lives 20 minutes away, so it is a sure thing that she will come.  So it is wonderful when we get them all 3 here....which is what happened this year.  It is fun for them too as they get to catch up with each other and on all the old friends from CA.

 

The kids love having their grandparents travel over for...well, any occasion.  I am sure they love to see them and spend time with them, but I think most of it is because they stay in a hotel and there is a pool.  My kids are fishes and love to swim, so that is always an added bonus to have them visit.  We swam almost every night they were here, and even was able to get some friends to come with us one night.  They had so much fun.

 

We did manage to get some other things in too....shopping, a movie at the theater....videos at home...playing with new toys....it was a nice to chat and catch up and just hang out.

 

I am so grateful for such good parents.....ones that taught me all the right things....ones that loved me and I must say, spoiled me (according to my siblings that is).....ones that are fun to be with and so funny....ones that have always been a good example to me, and now to my kids......ones that are strong in the gospel and loves the temple.....they are the best parents around and I am so lucky to have them for eternity.  So happy they could spend the long weekend with us.

We sure missed T this holiday though.  The table seemed empty without him.  I sure miss that boy!

TSO Concert

For my hubby's birthday present, I gave him tickets to go see the Trans-Siberian Orchestra in concert.  (Click here to see them in action.)  Thank goodness he took me as his date.  We have always wanted to go....they come every year at this time and we have said we should go.  So what luck that they were here the day after my hubby's bday and we could get tickets.

It was a great show....one unlike any I have ever seen, or heard.  It was loud!  It was bright!  It was so rock n roll!  It was awesome!  There really was an orchestra playing but you would never know it from the electric guitars, the drums, the keyboards.  There were strobe lights and lasers and spotlights moving all around.  There was fire! There were visuals on the screens.  There was snow coming down onto the audience.  There were performers running down the isles....they were up on platforms in the air....they were flipping their long hair ALL THE TIME!  It was a great show.

 

It did tell a story....a Christmas story of sorts.  That was the first hour or so of the show....then the last hour or more was just plain rock.  It brought me back to my high school days and the concerts we used to go to.  We had to laugh as we were sitting next to a 75 year old man and his wife and he was loving it.  He told us he comes every year and thinks it is fabulous.  Really?  I would have totally thought it was too loud for someone that age, but he was totally rockin out.

 

We look forward to next year when we can see if we can get closer to the stage.....so it can be louder!  And brighter!  And we can totally rock out then!  We loved it!