December

PC had to work on his birthday, but we were able to celebrate real quick at dinner before he had to run off.

Shortcake loves playing with her Doc McStuffins doctor kit. The other kids were really getting tired of being "sick" to play with her, so when her cousin was here, she had so much fun! They really got along well and had so much fun together.

Nana and Papa have this cool wall with all their grandkids pictures on it. We played a trick on one of PC's brothers and put all our kids pictures in 8 x 10 inch frames. This is what it looked like. It was pretty funny and we all got a good laugh.

We did the nativity on Christmas Eve. Minnie is the angel on the stairs. Bucko is a shepherd who is "sore afraid." PC and I were Joseph and Mary this year with Rosie being baby Jesus. (That reminds me--our little friend with Down's Syndrome kept calling Rosie "Baby Jesus" every time he saw her around Christmas this year. It was so cute!)

We had our annual New Years Eve party too. We did three different countdowns to accommodate everyone's schedules. We had some sick kids and others that needed to go to bed earlier, but we had a lot of fun and way too much food.

Christmas

Christmas was really low key this year. We were still able to continue our three gift tradition though. Each child received books for their gift of learning. I was able to find books for each of them from the Friends of Library section at our local library, so I spend about $5 total for all the kids books. Tink got blue Converse shoes for her gift of fun and perfume for her gift of love. Bucko got a sleeper yo-yo for fun and a phone for love (PC's old one but Bucko really needed one because he has been babysitting a lot more lately). Minnie got boots for love and a drawing set for fun. Goofy got a remote control truck and a Spiderman lunchbox for fun and Epic Mickey Wii game for love.  Shortcake got a Rapunzel dress for love and a Doc McStuffins doctor set and a Belle Magiclip doll for fun. Rosie got a sweater Nana knitted for her and a training sippy cup that counted for love, gift, and learning. She loved tearing and "eating" the wrapping paper.

 The kids each used a coupon they had gotten for the summer reading program to get gifts for each other. It was so nice they could continue the sibling gifts and not have to spend any money at all on them.

 With some of PC's family in town, we all went bowling one day. It seems to be tradition now. The kids had a lot of fun.

This face

I just can't get enough of this sweet face. It's just so precious! She loves making this silly face where she pushes out her lips. And her hair is so long, we can even do a ponytail on top of her head. We just have so much fun with her, as you can see.

Cookies

Nana decided to have the grandkids decorate cookies this year instead of making gingerbread houses. It's a lot easier and the kids actually eat the cookies when its over!

Tink and Minnie each invited a friend over to join them. I even snatched a little nap with Rosie upstairs that afternoon. It was the same day as the ward party, so I was exhausted!

Ward Christmas Party

The YW and YM were in charge of the Ward Christmas Party. We chose to do a Polar Express themed breakfast with Santa visiting at the end. We spent five hours setting up the day before, but it looked great in the end. I forgot to take pictures like I wanted, but I got a few and snagged some from a friend as well. We had karaoke available during the breakfast. My friend and I sang "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" to get it started. I found my ugly Christmas sweater at The Arc. We went to two ugly sweater parties this year and I wore it to this party as well, so I definitely got good use out of it. We showed a DVD of the Polar Express book being read. Then the bishop talked about believing in Jesus Christ and how that is the true meaning of Christmas. (He was dressed as the Conductor.) 

My wonderful Laurel Advisor and her husband were Santa and Mrs. Claus. She worked so hard to get the North Pole room just right. It looked great. 

 I thought Shortcake would be so excited when Santa came in, but. . .

she ran straight to me and wouldn't leave my lap. Wouldn't go near Santa! But she did look outside and said she saw his reindeer!

Moving

 Our dear friends and neighbors are moving across town. It is best for their family, but many, many tears have been shed. He happens to be the bishop in our ward as well. They are simply an amazing family and I love the kids like my own, especially the two in Young Womens. They called up one Sunday afternoon and asked if they could invite us to dinner by bringing it to us. Their house is all packed up and they needed to get rid of some crock pot freezer meals, so it worked out great. We played a game afterwards. My phone took horrible pictures, but it was so much fun. We hope to continue getting together even if it takes 45 minutes and a little more planning than before.

Braces off!

And the braces came off! What a beautiful smile!

New temple and a baptism

We went up to PC's niece's baptism earlier this month. I didn't get any pictures except this one of the new Ft. Collin's temple being built right across the street from their stake center. I can't wait for it to be finished, and we can take the kids up for the open house.
It was nice to see family that day. We really don't go up there often enough. The baptism was so sweet and it's always fun to be with family. The trip wasn't bad either since PC drove and I read my Psychology book and got ahead for the next week's assignment.
During the confirmation, Rosie needed to eat so I went and found the Mother's Room. As I walked down the hallway of their stake center, I saw one of the most beautiful paintings I have ever seen. It's called "Tree of Life" by Steven Neil. I had never seen it before but I fell in love with it. You can see the picture here.

Gingerbread Houses

Have I told you how much I love working with the Laurels? We had so much fun this month at the Priest/Laurel activity. The girls paired everyone up and made gingerbread houses. They did a great job and it is always so fun to see them interact.

Snow

 The week before Thanksgiving, we got a pretty big snowstorm. At least it's the biggest one we've had since living here. The wind was insane, moving our trampoline all the way across the backyard after pulling the trampoline stakes out of the ground! The drifts were about 4 feet high. School was cancelled for two days.
We had fun with Rosie that day, making her giggle and getting some cute pictures.

 The kids had fun climbing all the drifts. They tried to shovel the driveway and walkway, but it was too much. I was so grateful we had just bought a 4-wheel drive Tacoma for PC. He would not have been able to make it to work and home safely.

English Event

For my English class this semester, I needed to attend (or watch online) three English events.  Amber Isaac, author of the children's book, Cody: The Teeny Tiny Alpaca, came to our local library with Cody. I took Bucko, Goofy, and Minnie, and we heard Ms. Isaac read her book. I wish I would have taken Shortcake because she would have loved to see Cody.

Young Women in Excellence

At the beginning of November, we had our Young Women in Excellence night. It turned out so well and we had so much fun with it. We chose a Dr. Seuss theme and ran with it! The decorations were amazing, even though our truffula trees started falling by the end. The food was yummy and also went along with the theme. We even conducted the meeting Dr. Seuss style. I wrote it and incorporated some quotes from Dr. Seuss books as well.  Here is how it went:

 Welcome, Welcome,

To all the Who’s

Who’ve decided to join us,

 You won’t want to snooze.

For tonight is a night

Of excellence and love

To show how our young women

Have received strength from above.

We’re glad you’ve come

And hope you don’t mind

All the Dr. Seuss references

You are bound to find.

We’ll start with a song—

One you all know

It’s Teach me to Walk in the Light

And then we’ll go. . .

On to a prayer by a good little Who

Named Axxxxxx Rich

And then we’ll sail right through

The rest of the program as outlined below

We hope you enjoy

And can go with the flow.                                                       OPENING SONG/PRAYER

To start the night off we decided to be silly

The presidency will perform a skit willy-nilly

The Book of Mormon, Dr. Seuss style

We hope, at least, to make you smile                                                            SKIT

 Great Day today!

Great Day for Up!

Up! Up! You!

Open up your eyes!

You worms!

You frogs!

You butterflies!

Up, Whales! Up, Snails!

Up, Rooster! Hen!

Up! Girls and women!

Boys and men!

It’s time for a story,

So open up those eyes!

Open up those ears,

I won’t tell no lies!                                                                  PP STORY

     (Here I read a story--Dr. Seussy of course--with a PowerPoint Presentation that included pictures of the young women at activities throughout the year.)

Look at me! Look at me!

Look at me now!

It is fun to have fun

But you have to know how!

These girls are great,

These girls are grand.

You won’t find much better

In all the land

We had five special girls

Finish Personal Progress this year

I love them so much,

I might shed a tear.

We ask for these parents to bring their girls up

And share with us all, how they filled their cup

Share what makes each girl special and how she does shine

With the light of Christ and all that is divine.                                                PP RECOGNITION GIRLS

    (We had parents come up and spotlight each girl. I made their little "Who" hats and they wore signs that said, "Thing 1," "Thing 2," etc. Our Honor Bee girl's said "Miss Thing."

We also had one more special Who,

A Girl who can probably move a mountain or two

This Who-Girl is named Kiley Schroeder you see

And she worked very hard to earn her Honor Bee.                           HONOR BEE RECOGNITION

Congratulations!

Today is your day

You’re off to Great Places!

You’re off and away!

So . . .

Be your name Virginia or Kiley or Court-nay

Or Mordecai Sydney Lindy van Emma O’Shea,

You’re off to Great Places!

Today is your day!

Your mountain is waiting,

So. . . get on your way!

But first start us off by sharing with all

An experience you worked on this year, tall or small.                                   GIRLS SHARE EXPERIENCES

    (Then the girls shared something they worked on in Personal Progress this year.)

And the people came shouting, “What’s all this about?”

They looked! And they stared with their eyes popping out!

Then they cheered and they cheered and they CHEERED more and more

They’d never seen anything like it before!

It came without ribbons! It came without tags!

It came without packages, boxes, or bags!

And he puzzled 3 hours, till his puzzler was sore.

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before

“Maybe Personal Progress,” he thought, “doesn’t come from a store.

“Maybe Personal Progress . . . perhaps . . . means a little bit more!”

We see them come.

We see them go.

Some are fast.

And some are slow.

Some are high.

And some are low.

Not one of them is like another.

Don’t ask us why

Go ask your mother.

In closing we will sing a song,

“Come, Follow Me” and sing along.

Then closing prayer by Sydney Lou Who

Egbert, I mean, Sydney Egbert—that’s who!

Today is gone. Today was fun.

Tomorrow is another one.

Every day from here to there.

Funny things are everywhere.

 It was such a fun night! Don't the decorations look cool?

Here is the slide presentation:

Randomness

 I really wanted to get some good pictures with the snow on the trees and the kids, so I tried after church the next Sunday. It was too bright though and they couldn't keep their eyes open!

 We also put up our other Christmas tree in the front room.

I got my first cavities of my life and had to have them filled. What a trip! Nana and Papa watched the little girls for me while I was at the dentist. I found Shortcake asleep on Papa when I came back. He had read The Wizard of Oz to her and she fell right to sleep. 

Thanksgiving

 For Family Home Evening, we did our annual Thankful Turkey. Tink was in charge this year. Looks pretty good. We definitely have much to be thankful for.

 The kids had the whole week of Thanksgiving off of school, which is a first since we've lived here. We all enjoyed it. We had fun playing games together.

 We has snow the week before Thanksgiving, but the morning of Thanksgiving brought some more snow as well. It was gorgeous because it was so cold it stuck to everything. I went out on a walk with my niece to take a few pictures after Thanksgiving dinner at Nana and Papa's house. That evening, we watched The Cokeville Miracle with everyone at our house. What a great movie! There were a lot of tears.

 We went on a triple date the day after Thanksgiving with two of PC's brothers and their wives. I had found a Groupon to an escape room, so that is where we went. It was in Manitou Springs and we had so much fun! We made it out by solving all the clues in 52 minutes.  There was a shooting and hostage situation in downtown Colorado Springs happening at the same time, so it was a pretty crazy day.

Princesses

 This little girl is so sweet. PC started his new job at the beginning of November. I honestly got a little bored not having him around to talk to and do things with all day, but these two little girls keep me busy for sure. Shortcake does not always want to share her things, but this day she was pretending to be a princess, spinning around and wearing a crown. Then she realized Rosie wasn't decked out and said in her sweet little voice, "Baby Eye-la princess too!" (She can't say her name right yet and it's too cute.) She went and found some bead necklaces and put them all on Rosie. She wanted them both to be princesses. What a great reminder that we are all princesses with great potential.