School Christmas Sing

 We got a new (fancy--for us) camera for Christmas!  I'm still figuring out how it works.  We took pictures of Christmas morning on it, but here are the last videos from our old crappy camera.

Sunday before Christmas, before Abby had a blowout in her dress.  Ha ha.
My favorite Christmas decoration, besides the tree, is seeing the stockings I made lined up on the mantel.
Six stockings now!

During Christmas break Alan taught Jared how to ski!  We splurged and bought all the ski equipment for Alan and Jared and found a cheap(er) way to go skiing at one of the local resorts.  The first time was a little rough, but each time just keeps getting better.  Jared thinks it is super fun and I am proud of him for learning something hard.  

Alan found Evelyn playing on her bed with this laundry basket.  What a cutie!

The following videos are from the Christmas sing at the Elementary School.  Here are the 1st graders.  Maggie is on the middle row just to the right of someone wearing a green shirt.  

Here are the 4th graders.  Jared is on the top row in the middle in a green shirt.  

Fall Happenings

This post has a bunch of random stuff from the past five weeks.  I'm just throwing them all together.  Ha ha.  

Four years ago Alan performed the Napoleon Dynamite dance at a ward talent show.  Well, last week he was asked to reprise it for our Stake Talent Show.  Alan spent a week and a half re-learning the dance and then did a beautiful job performing it. The crowd went wild!   Here is a link to the original performance four years ago. 

This video has terrible quality, plus I was holding Evelyn (who had fallen asleep) on my lap.  It is hard to hold a sleeping 3-year-old and try to film at the same time!

 I just had to take a picture of Abigail all bundled up when I went on a walk one chilly morning.  She is so cute!!!!

 At the end of September, Maggie learned how to ride her 2-wheeler with confidence!  It was really hard for her to learn and took many hours of practice.  Even when she had finally learned, she didn't feel confident for another month or so to ride anywhere but the empty church parking lot.  But then she has since seen the light.  She and Jared love to ride their bikes to school, and they have both gone with Alan on really lengthy (6-miles!) bike rides a couple of times.

Evelyn wanted a picture on her bike, too.  

This past week I gave Evelyn a proper haircut and Maggie a trim.  Here they are showing off their new 'dos!  

It is hard to tell, but Maggie is also missing her two front teeth right now!  Maggie and Jared have lost a combined total of 5 teeth in the past month and a half.  Plus they both have more loose ones!  I joked that the tooth fairy is going to go out of business.  

Random picture of Maggie and Abby in jammies

 Here is a picture of Jared with his Utah desert diorama he made for school. It took him many hours of work to make this!  Fourth grade seems to be the magic year when projects are more numerous.  (It is the first year I have been a little bit stressed trying to help him with all his homework!)  Jared's diorama has three desert plants and three desert animals he made, plus he colored the Delicate Arch background (I printed off a coloring page for him.)

Here is a video of Abigail giggling at about 3 months old.  

Maggie's Dance Recital

Maggie with her teacher, Miss Korrin

Maggie finished up another year of ballet.  She has improved so much since last year!  We had a good experience with her ballet studio this year (I especially loved that she had a morning dance class before PM Kindergarten), but I am excited to put her into an even better studio next year where hopefully she can improve her technique even more.  

Maggie in her recital costume

Maggie is 2nd from the left

Taking a bow

Maggie loved receiving a medal after her concert was over

Maggie's Kindergarten Program

Random picture of Evy with her Cinco de Mayo balloon from Grandma Stout

For some reason, our elementary school only does end-of-year singing programs for Kindergarten and 5th grade.  I think when I was young we did a program every year.  It's kind of a bummer.

I loved hearing Maggie sing her cute songs.  She was lucky to be standing right next to her cousin and BFF Summer.

Here are a few of the songs for your enjoyment:

This next video is my favorite:

Maggie and her teacher, Mrs. R.  She was the best (also Jared's Kindergarten teacher).  I hope she is not retiring any time soon.

Another picture of Maggie and Summer

Alan's Birthday and Tulip Festival

I guess grown-ups get the shaft with birthday pictures.  These are the only two pictures I took of Alan's birthday.  Ha ha.  I made stuffed pasta shells and yummy cheesy bread (at Alan's request) for dinner, plus Alan's favorite ice cream sandwich frozen birthday cake.  I love my hubby so much!  

We have been to the local Tulip Festival a couple of times lately (when the weather hasn't been rainy...) It has been pretty chilly!

Sweet Maggie

On a different matter, here is Jared playing his latest memorized song, the Star Wars Main Theme.  He has actually gotten even better since I took this video.  I am so proud of him.

Ice Skating

A couple of weeks ago I took Maggie and Evelyn ice skating.  They had a "Talls and Smalls" morning at a local rink, so it was a really great deal.  Jared was sad that he had to go to school and miss it, but I'm sure we'll go back sometime when he can go.  It worked out perfectly with Maggie's PM Kindergarten schedule to take her.  

This was Maggie and Evelyn's first time ice skating, so it was a bit of an adventure.  Luckily the rink had these plastic "walkers" that the girls could use to help with balance.  Maggie got the hang of it quickly, but Evy still needed a lot of help.  

 The walker in action:

As you can see, the place was pretty empty for most of the time!

Maggie wanted to try skating without the walker, so I told her she had to hold on to the wall.  It was super cute to watch her.  

Some December Photos

Alan and I were on the planning committee for our ward Christmas party.  Alan helped with set up the night before, and I helped organize all the kids games and activities for the Christmas carnival.  Unfortunately Alan and I had a conflict the same morning as the party and could not attend.  My mom was really nice to take Jared and Maggie to the party so that they could enjoy the games while we were gone.  This was Maggie's butterfly face painting.  

I found Evelyn like this in her crib one morning.  She can now climb freely in and out of her crib, so she loads it full of toys and books when she is supposed to be napping.  It is super frustrating for me, but at least she is quiet and stays in her room.  Soon we will move her to a new bedroom with a new big girl bed.  Then...I will think about potty training.  Ugh.

 The kids were excited to play in the snow.  Jared really enjoys pulling Maggie and Evelyn around the yard in our toboggan.  They wanted me to come out and help me build a snowman, but I just wasn't up to it that day.  Ha ha.

It was fun to hear and see TWO kids this year at the Christmas sing at the elementary school.  These videos were lousy because I couldn't really see my kids, so I stopped filming after a few seconds.  

Third grade:

Kindergarten:  (Maggie is in the green shirt and the pink pants (????) I don't argue with what she wants to wear to school.)

Maggie's Christmas Ballet Recital

Maggie had her in-class Christmas recital for her little ballet class this week.  She was so cute and has greatly improved over the past year.  

Plies in 2nd position

Battements across the floor

November Wrap-up

Evelyn was so excited to play in the snow on the day of the first real snowfall

Jared had a snake on his face from a Cub Scout Carnival.  

Jared has been working soooo hard on the piano lately.  He just finished level 2 and has begun level 3 in the Bastien books.  Here he is playing a simplified form of The Entertainer, several days before I passed it off.  

This picture was taken on the last Sunday in November.  Grandma Stout bought the girls cute new Christmas dresses, and Jared reluctantly agreed to wear his suit jacket.  I see he is not wearing the tie, however.

Maggie is a superb reader now and isn't too bad with her phonetic spelling, either:

Alan and I went to an adult masquerade ball in November for a birthday party for Alan's friend Jeremy.  We had fun dressing up (I wore my old choir dress from high school.) Darth Vader came as a special guest.  He was so tall, and the voice-changer in his mask was extremely realistic!

 A couple of days after Thanksgiving we met up for dinner with two of Alan's best friends from high school and their wives, Ammon and Jes, and Matt and Kat.  It was super fun to catch up with them again.