Christmas Highlights

Here are some highlights from our Christmas in Blanding.

Christmas Sunday best

Opening presents!

Sanding and posing with walking sticks from Grandpa Worthy

Christmas pajamas.

Dancing!

Last fall, Sophia was in her first dance class and she LOVED it!  She didn't like us to watch her during class, and she was shy to show us anything she learned outside of class, but on her last day she had a mini recital that we were invited to, so we finally got to see her in action.  It was a creative movement class, so she wasn't exactly learning technique, but she was very creative with her movement.

The class was really small, so the teacher let the other kids join in and there was dancing all over the place!

December Activities

I knew I hadn't blogged for a while, but I didn't realize just how long until I saw on a friend's blog list that it has been 5 WEEKS!  I didn't give up on my blog, and I hope you haven't either.  I just haven't felt motivated lately, but I'm back now.

December is always full of things to do.  We had a ward Christmas party where the kids participated in a live nativity.  Richie was a shepherd and Sophia was an Angel.  As soon as Richie saw me holding the camera, he started posing and smiling.  Sophia is in the white dress and pink boots.

Richie also sang in a school Christmas concert.  His class sang Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer and Jingle Bells.  It was super cute, but you can't see him in the pictures I took, because he was in the back row.

One day Richie came home from school and asked if we could make gingerbread cookies.  I had never done it before, but as far as I could tell, they were a success.  Sophia helped me mix the dough while Richie was at school and they both helped decorate cookies.

The older kids decorated the tree almost all by themselves.  It looked great, until Grace discovered it the next morning and started grabbing ornaments and running.

Now the tree looks like this. None of the ornaments are where she can reach them anymore, and I don't spend my day chasing Grace down to recover decorations.

We visited Burley last weekend and luckily for us, Santa was visiting, too!

We finally joined the mini van club and we LOVE IT!

Only treats this Halloween

We had an awesome Halloween!

It was a beautiful day here in Logan, perfect for trick-or-treating.  After Richie got home from school we got costumes on and walked downtown to the treat walk at the businesses.  Richie was pretty timid and nervous about talking to people he didn't know, but Sophia was not shy at all and loved the whole thing.  We had dinner and then went out again.  We walked up the road to Great Grandpa's house and then back to our house.  The weather was so nice and we just took our time going from house to house and the kids had a great experience.  They also got a lot of candy, which Sophia would have already eaten if I hadn't put her bucket up high.  It was a pretty stress free day.  The kids costumes were things we already own and didn't require anything special to get on, but they were happy with them.  I never used to like Halloween very much, but having kids makes it a fun, family day.

Sophia was my sassy little ballerina.  I don't know where all her posing comes from, but I enjoy it!  Thanks for the little dress Stella and Eryka!

Grace was a tired little elephant before we even left the house, but she was such a trooper and never complained while we were out (probably because of the lollipop she was eating most of the way).  We got this costume from Mandy Maldonado in New Jersey, Sophia wore it when she was about Grace's age, and I am glad we got to use it again.

Richie was G.I. Joe, a defender of our country.  He has been a little obsessed with camo lately, so he was thrilled to get to wear it all over for Halloween.

It is nice to live in a community where we can walk up the street and trick-or-treat.  The kids buckets were full to the brim with candy, but they were extra excited about the play dough they got at one house.  It was a happy Halloween for all of us!

Celebrations

It has been a little while, and I have some catching up to do.   I had a birthday on September 28th and got this sparkly pink sapphire ring, lots of hugs and kisses from my family, and a surprise visit from my mom.  It was a great birthday. 

We celebrated our ninth wedding anniversary on October 12th. 

Sophia had her fourth birthday last week.  We have a birthday a month starting in July and she has been very excited for her day to arrive.  I didn't think she was going to go to sleep the night before because she was giddy with anticipation.  She slept-in the morning of her birthday and when she came out of her room she rubbed her eyes and asked why we were all awake.  It was still dark so she didn't think it was morning yet.  We told her we had been waiting for her because it was her birthday and the giddy excitement returned.  She was so happy all day long and it really was her special day.  

She opened some presents in the morning.

She opened some more presents in the afternoon.

We had her requested dinner of macaroni and cheese (not Kraft, the kind I make from scratch) and Sprite.  I also made pizza to go along with her choice.

She wanted purple cake with pink frosting, so I made cupcakes.  She liked the cupcakes, but has already asked that next year I make a BIG cake for her birthday.  She wanted to invite guests to have cake and ice cream so we had a couple of her friends and their families come over.

Grace enjoyed Sophia's birthday, especially the cupcakes.  She kept stealing cupcakes that party guests left lying around and would come in with a mischievous smile after eating them.

It was "crazy hair" day at school that day, and Richie wanted a mohawk.  It took A LOT of gel, but I got it to stay and it lasted all day long.  He thought it was pretty awesome.

So that is what we have been up to this month.

I am not sure where she is going, but she has her pajamas and her bag, so I guess it will be over night.