Dancing Queen

I still need to blog more about Christmas, but I have been in such a good mood today and just have to share my joy.  About two years ago I started a high intermediate-level adult ballet class with Ballet West once a week.  It was so, so hard for a long time (I hadn't danced in like 16 years), but I loved it so much!  I could tell I was gradually getting stronger and more flexible.  It was my outlet.  I attended this class for a little over a year, until I was about 21 weeks pregnant with Abigail.

Well, I made it my goal to start attending again after this past Christmas.  I went yesterday for the first time again and was seriously in heaven!  I still have lots of baby weight to lose, but I am excited to gain my flexibility and strength back.  I love having a body that can dance and being with other grown-ups who love dancing as much as I do.  The teacher is amazing!  He stretches our abilities and wants us to improve, but he always reminds us that we are not getting a grade and don't have to audition for anything.  We are just there to have fun.  And I am!

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.  

Santa photos

The kids had two opportunities to see Santa this month.  I took the kids to our city's Christmas party with Santa.  Then, a couple of weeks later, Santa came to our ward Christmas breakfast.  When he came out at the ward breakfast Jared sighed and said, "Been there, done that."  He's been a good sport, though.  We have never had a serious conversation about Santa with Jared, but I believe he has somehow figured things out for himself in the past year.  It's a bit sad for me.  

Abby was sad she didn't get her own individual picture with Santa at the city party, so here she is all by herself.  She's even dressed as Santa's helper.  

"Who is this guy?"

Halloween

 We had a busy October with lots of fun parties! It gave the kids chances to dress up in several different costumes, so they didn't have to choose just one.  Ha ha.

Here the kids are at the Stouts' Halloween carnival! There were fun carnival games and delicious food!  My kids had a blast.  Also, we took home our pet goldfish, Henry.

"Mean witch" (a repeat costume from when Maggie was 4),  ballerina, and Harry Potter

Halloween Bingo with aunts and uncles

Grandpa Stout in his "bloody" shirt holding almost-twins:  Abigail on the right and her cousin James who is six days older on the left

Abigail didn't wear this costume for longer than 5 minutes.  I just put her in it to take a picture since all of my other kids all wore it.  

Abigail in her leopard costume.  I couldn't get a smile out of her. 

 Next up was the Curtis family Halloween party.  Alan was in Mexico City on vacation with some buddies, so he unfortunately missed this party.  We carved our pumpkins, at yummy food, and sang Pumpkin Carols.  Maggie dressed up as Anna from Frozen this time, and Evelyn was Belle.

Curtis cousins.  Evelyn was having a meltdown on the front row.

Princesses (and witches, etc.)

The three Belles: Evelyn and her cousins Christina and Lily

My family (minus Alan) 

Jared did a good job carving this spider pumpkin by himself.  I helped find a pattern and showed him how to poke holes around the pattern, but then he did the cutting himself.  

 Here were the final costumes for trick-or-treating.  Maggie was a witch again (no green face this time--too itchy), Jared was Harry Potter, and Evelyn was a hamburger (ballerina and Belle costumes were not warm enough to go trick or treating in.)

Alan was home from his Mexico trip just in time for Halloween, but he came home feeling a bit sick (one too many street tacos, I guess!!), so we broke with tradition this year.  I took the kids out trick-or-treating, and Alan stayed home to pass out candy.

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.  

Family Pictures

We had a friend take some family pictures for us this year.  We had a very tiny window of time to get them done one afternoon, and I'm pretty happy with the results.

These are the original, uncropped versions.  I photoshopped them to get them closer up for the final versions that I had printed.

My kids are so cute:

Henry

Two of Alan's sisters planned an amazing Halloween carnival for the family.  Seriously, it was top notch.  I will have to upload pictures when I get around to it.

We came home from said carnival with a new pet goldfish.  The kids named him Henry.  I warned the kids that goldfish don't usually live very long, sometimes a few weeks, sometimes a few days.

Henry was mentioned in every family prayer.  We had to explain why Henry couldn't come with us places in the car.  The kids each took turns feeding him. Unfortunately, we were only able to enjoy 2 1/2 days with him. We think he may have died because we didn't know that you were only supposed to change half or less of goldfish's water at a time to keep it oxygenated.  Jared and Maggie both cried and cried and cried before school that day.  It was a sad, sad day.

Alan's sister Shawna said, "I only thought of the joy they would get in taking home a goldfish!  I didn't think about the dying part!"  Ha ha.

Poor Henry.  May he rest in peace.