Ward Christmas Party

Our ward Christmas Party was held December 3.  It was a very busy day as the Relief Society was in charge of the whole thing.  After spending the morning getting ready, going to pick up all the hams and pies at the store we got to the church about 2:30.  Don helped me get all the hams cooking and I made the green beans.  We helped get the tables and chairs all set up and the stage ready for the program.  We had the ward members bring baked potatoes, rolls and jello salad and then we bought hams and  pumpkin pies from the store.  We served the meal family style meaning each family got to sit down at their table and their food was brought to them in tin pans. No one had to line up or wait for their food or eat cold food because they had waited for so long.  It was much calmer and more reverent but it was a lot of work for those in charge.  We also kept the lights down low in the cultural hall and since there it was full of tables there wasn't lots of room for kids to run around.  Unfortunately there was plenty of room in the halls to run around.  Enough room that we found baked potato all over the hallway floor.   We had to buy all the tins for the tables which was about 75 tins.  Then we had to portion out the food into the tins and get it all out to the tables in a timely manner.  The young women did a great job decorating the tables and the room and they helped us get the food into the tins and out to the tables.  It was really busy but once the food gets out it really is nice for everyone-everyone except me running around crazy making sure every table has what they need.  After dinner and dessert was the program.  Don was Samuel the Lamanite and he read from the scriptures about Samuel's prophecy about the Savior.  We also had other ward members dressed as Joseph Smith, Mary, the mother of Jesus, Peter, the apostle, and Isaiah.  There was a narrator behind the big screen as well.  After each character shared their testimony of belief in the Savior, we watched a short Mormon Message of the First Presidency sharing their testimonies and then the Primary children sang the first verse of Jesus is Real to Me and then the congregation sang the second verse with them.  After that the Bishop had some closing remarks and then everyone cleaned up.  It was a short program entitled We Believe but it was very powerful.  Our Relief Society president, Kay Barlow, wrote it.  I was mostly in charge of the organizing, ordering and purchasing the food plus getting the stuff we were cooking ready on the day of.  Stephanie McCauley, the first counselor went to Costco for the beans and sour cream and the paper goods that we needed so that was very helpful.    Santa came to visit the kids before the party and Caleb took Kyle over to see him.  That didn't go very well!  Kyle was not too thrilled to see him.  Cayden and Caleb were so good all afternoon and helped take care of Kyle while Don and I were at the church from 2:30 on getting ready for the party.  I am grateful that my kids can help out so that Don can help me and I can do my calling. It was a good party and we had lots of compliments on it.  It only lasted until a little after 7 and then with everyone helping to clean up we were out of there before 8.  I was totally useless though on Wednesday!

Play Time

On November 22-24 the high school put on the play Anne of a Green Gables.  They have been working on it for months and months.  Caleb had been staying after school for rehearsal and for many hours of set building.  He had a small part as the ice cream man and he did a lot with the props and moving the sets and staging.  He was a very good ice cream man.  The play was very well done and he enjoyed it.  He really likes theater.  

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had a busy fun Thanksgiving weekend this year.  We didn't go to Provo like we usually do but stayed home and cooked our whole dinner ourselves!  It was a lot of work but super yummy!  We had new neighbors move in the week before and they didn't have anywhere to go so we invited them over for dinner.  Wednesday night I made the pies, chocolate and lemon meringue, plus some yummy pecan pie bars and the jello and Thursday morning we got everything else ready.  Don took care of the turkey and the potatoes,  and the spinach artichoke dip.  I made green bean casserole, stuffing, rolls, candied yams, a cheese ball and cream cheese and pomegranate jelly spread.  We did not go hungry.  We got Kyle to take a nap around 12:30 so he wouldn't be so crabby at dinner and then we ate dinner at 2:30 with our new neighbors Richard and Gwen Weiler and their friend from the UK, Andy.  Funny story, Andy is vegan and Gwen didn't tell me before because she didn't want to stress me out!  She brought a huge veggie tray in the shape of a turkey and Andy mostly ate that.  We made him a baked potato and gave him a banana.  He did eat some of the gravy and decided that a piece of the pumpkin pie probably would be ok!  It was quite the entertaining evening with Connor's billion question and trying to keep the toddler under control!  The Weilers don't have kids so it was probably quite the experience for them.  After dinner and dessert, Gwen helped me with the mountain of dishes and we sat around and chatted until about 7 when it was time for the traditional Thanksgiving day viewing of  Christmas Vacation.  Since my brother and sisters were all faraway this year we synchronized our DVD players for precisely 7pm PST and enjoyed texting photos and quotes back and forth for 2 hours together.  

Where is the real food?  I don't want just crackers!

The turkey veggie tray.

Caleb spent the afternoon making weapons out of pens and the dart gun.  Cayden make a friend out of a Nerf dart.

Kyle thought he needed a little snack after dinner.

This is how I spent my Black Friday!  The best way to shop EVER!

On Saturday Don and the boys put up all the outside lights and decorations.

Halloweentown

Halloween is always on the 31 of October but that is also Nevada Day and we usually have the day off from school.  This year they did the day off the week before so Halloween was actually a school night which was a little strange for us.  The boys carved their pumpkins the night before because we were out of town for the 4 day weekend.  Connor's pumpkin ended up getting trashed and they had a pumpkin guts fight in the yard and garage.  There is still pumpkin seeds all over my lawn.  It was a very very warm Halloween, warmer than usual which actually makes it nice to trick or treat since we don't have to bundle the kids in parkas and hide their costumes.  Kyle was very sweet trick or treating and said thank you at all the houses and said "tri tree" at a few of them.  He was the cutest spiderman ever and many people said so.  Cayden was a minion from Despicable Me and he got lots of compliments on his costume!  Amazing what you can get on Amazon and I didn't pay too much more for the pieces to his costume than I would have it I had bought him a pre-made one.  Connor didn't participate in the festivities as he had way to much work to do.  Caleb hung out with friends, watched movies and went trick or treating in their neighborhood.  Cayden made sure the house was suitably decorated by the first Monday of October.  I didn't have to do anything at all.  Don got the totes down and Cayden did all the decorating.  If I moved anything he had put up while he was at school, he would come home, see the change and move whatever it was back immediately.  Most of the things I moved was to keep them out of Kyle's hands but Cayden didn't think it mattered.  I'm pretty sure that I won't have to do much for Christmas decorating either!

This was the best we could do for Toodles and he was obviously still thrilled.

Pumpkin gutting in the garage.

The school parade.  I helped with Cayden's class party after the parade.  We played the dice game where they have to roll doubles and if they do they get to open and eat as much candy as they can before the next person rolls doubles.  I tried to keep it as sanitary as possible since the week before there had been a terrible terrible outbreak of salmonella in the 4th ward from a ward party.  Many of our friends were so very ill and had to be treated in the hospital multiple times.  Everyone was just a little overly cautious after that.

Cayden and his class mates at their school party.  Jace Brock is the "man in black", Carson Heiselbetz is the front football player and Cropper Henrie is in his very original costume from Hunger Games-he has a number on his sleeve.  All of these boys are in our ward except Jace who just moved out a few months ago.

Kyle's first treat of the day in the nurses office at school

Batman ready to go trick or treating.

This sweet angel boy stood next to Sophia and tried to carry on a conversation with her.  He said "my name is Kyle" right to her and we all just thought it was the cutest thing ever.  He loves fofia!

We trick or treated over to Aunt Dena's house for chili and birthday cake for Grandma and Grandpa and then we trick or treated back to our house. Don took Kyle and Cayden around our neighborhood after we got home while I handed out candy.  We seriously had people until 9:00.  I was going to turn out the lights at 8:30 but got busy and forgot.  Crazy people begging for candy!

Spiderman and all his loot.

Me and my two trick or treaters.

My ever festive orange and black clothes, skeleton and ghost earrings.  I have had the skeleton earring since high school

Caleb was a body guard for his friend Connor Waite who is from China and decided that he was Kim Jung Il.  This will be that last year of trick or treating for this one.

Kyle found the costume box and was thrilled with the Peter Pan hat.

Our neighbor Al detests Halloween and answering the door so he goes to Vegas to his daughter's house.  He doesn't forget us though and always brings the boys a huge bag of candy.

If Fall Would Just Slow Down

I find myself getting busier and busier with no end in sight as of late.  I good intentions to keep up on this since it is our family history but time gets away for me. This week has been no exception.

My parents came down over the weekend so mom could go to Time Out For Women with me and they stayed until Monday. I left early Friday morning to go to St. George where Time Out was being held and I didn't get back until late Saturday afternoon. While I was gone Cody moved to Provo and will be staying with Grandma Penny until November 18 when he should get to move in to his new apartment. Don left for Texas early Monday and the kids had the day off from school for Veteran's Day. I did lots of cleaning and laundry. The kids got a day off but I sure didn't!

I have been really busy with my Relief Society calling.  I am the second counselor and so the activities fall to me.  We had a big tri-ward craft day on November 5.  It was about 3 months in the planning was really a pain to facilitate.  We thought it might be easier to include the other wards and distribute the work and that was a good idea in theory but when we had to collect about $1100 dollars between the 3 wards and then figure out who was supposed to get what money, it got pretty challenging.  I had to order 65 wooden letter B's from a craft wood store in Provo and I had to order them in advance, pay for them and then go pick them up.  That was about $225 right there.  Our ward had the most signups which tells me that I should pick crappier crafts next time-if there is a next time!  We had buy paint and brushes and order vinyl from a gal who has a big machine to do it on.  I have a great activities coordinator and that makes all the difference. We have our ward Christmas party in a few weeks that the Relief Society is over and we are doing a big lesson on December 1 where we are asking all the women in the ward to attend.  All of those things plus teaching, serving, visiting and having meetings is just super busy! It's a good busy but crazy for sure!  Some day it doesn't seem that I get anything even done!

We had to give back Blue Thunder last week. It hit 80,000 miles and triggered the "time for a new car" flag.  The boys had to give it one last hug with dramatic flair.  Don and I drove into Vegas to get his new car. It's a Subaru Legacy and it's a nice shiny silver.  It will heretofore be referred to as The Silver Bullet.  

Caleb has been busy everyday going to theater rehearsal. Some days it's right after school and other days it is in the evening.  He doesn't have a very big part but his teacher has been using him as stage manager. He has helped build sets and figure how to do various scenes with props and the sets.  The play is next week.  He went to a great mutual activity last week where they got "mission calls" and he was called to Baton Rouge, Louisiana coincidentally enough.  I asked him if he told them that place was part of our family history and he said that he did.  It was an interesting coincidence.  They had adults from the ward who had gone on missions come and tell about their experiences and bring a food from their mission. The kids also got to "knock on doors". It was a very long activity but Caleb said he enjoyed it.  

Connor has been busy helping as many people as he can, collecting cans to take in for money and relaxing after his anxiety ridden week of proficiency exams.  He helped roof the neighbor's house who is one of his mutual leaders.  He has been going to mutual more often.  They played fugitive last week and he went and played but he stayed on the leader's team.  He has been helping a couple who moved down the street from grandma and grandpa move into a house that needed a ton of work.  The house was a repo and the people literally walked away from it with food still in the cabinets.  He worked at the Pomegranate Festival the first weekend of November at the fairgrounds.  Last year he went up there to look around and saw that there was no one hauling their trash so he volunteered to do it.  This year they "hired" him as the garbage man and he got paid this time.  He also helped a bunch of vendors up their set up and take down.  The kid has more money than us!  

He is doing well in school. Hopefully if he passes his proficiency classes he can get out of the proficiency prep classes and take some fun classes.  He still works in the Special Ed class and gets to go on a few field trips with them.  Last Friday he went to the Special Olympics soccer tournament in Vegas. 

He had a bullying incident a few weeks ago that was pretty hard for him and we had to get involved.  By we I mean Don because Connor didn't want me to know what had even happened because the words the kid was saying to him were so foul and atrocious.  Don called the dean and we were ready to go up there but after a few days they took care of it and the kid actually came and apologized to Connor.  I thought that was a very mature thing to do.  I even saw the kid's mom at the store and I stopped her and told her that I appreciated her son apologizing to Connor.  She didn't even know anything had happened because she had been in Hawaii! 

Cayden keeps to himself and really just likes to stay home.  He is doing pretty good in school and is trying hard to get his work done.  He has read 2 Little  House on the Prairie books since school started and that is huge for him. He has a reading response log that he has to fill out every day after he reads for 30 minutes.  There are 4 pages of different questions that he can choose to answer about what he has read.  He has had some really creative answers and does really good at remembering what he has read.  He is also working on cursive and actually doing a pretty good job considering how hard it is for him to do.  He is still obsessed with Legos and the fastest way to get him out of bed in the morning is to open his door and let Kyle in there.  Kyle heads right for the Legos and Cayden gets right out of bed to get Kyle out of his room.  He makes videos with anything he can when ever he gets a hold of an Iphone or Ipad.  We have be careful what we say because you never know when he is videoing us.  We have decided that his love language is gifts and we find that a child with that love language is pretty easy to show love to since we just get him a treat or something when we are out.  Cayden participated in a Walk-a-thon at his school to raise money for the PTO and he went to Grandma's house for breakfast on the morning of Grandparent's Day because it is so crazy up there when they do that.  Grandparent's Day coincides with the Book Fair and so the PTO cashes in on that fundraiser because the grandparents buy their grandkids lots of stuff from there.  

 Kyle is is right smack in the middle of the terrible tantrum throwing twos.  He is great at screaming at the top of his lungs when he doesn't get his way. He repeats everything anybody says. He asks questions in full sentences.  He talks in full 5-6 word sentences.  He is a juice maniac. He was in an "a juice apple" kick but has now gone to "ownge ju". He also likes cow moo which is Kyle for chocolate milk.  He has decided that he doesn't want white milk hardly ever.  He loves peepa- pizza and noni noni-macaroni and cheese.  He runs everywhere and loves being outside. He can now open the fridge and so we have had to put the child lock on it.  We got him a horse off the Facebook yard sale sight and he is not as taken with it as we thought he would be.  He is much happier to pet the horse than to ride it. He likes to take me by the ring finger on my left hand when he wants me to go somewhere with him.  He says "come on, ober here" and motions for us to follow him.  We have been teaching him to say his prayers at night and read to him from the scripture stories book.  I have been praying to know what to do to help him be still at church and be more reverent so we can make it through a sacrament meeting with out taking him out.  I don't know if is is working but there is nothing sweeter than seeing him kneeling down and saying his own prayer.  "a fodder, a day, a mommy daddy, brudders, my home, bleh me good boy, obey a mommy daddy  amen."  Translated that is Heavenly Father. Thank thee for this day.  Thank thee for mommy and daddy.  Thank thee for my brothers.  Thank thee for my home  Bless me to be a good boy and to obey mommy and daddy.  Amen.  I can't get him to say "in the name of Jesus Christ" but that's ok.  How can you be mad at that sweet angel when he is saying his prayers at the end of the day.  If I say my prayers in the morning in my room he kneels down with me and wants to say his prayers. We have even gotten him to say the dinner prayer once or twice.He is so funny at FHE.  He is not happy when we sing the song.  He hollers "stop" the whole time we are singing.  We were in the car the other morning taking the boys to school and he saying "stop stop"  I turned to look at him and he was fussing at the sun and telling it to stop being in his face.  He likes to go for rides in the car and we are pretty sure he knows how to spell go because if we say I need to G O he will say G O.    He calls m and m's "I ams".  He is obsessed with Cars and will not sleep without Mater and A Queen.  We had to buy a couple back ups because he hides them and we can't find them and then he has a fit.  I know that his fits are age appropriate but mercy, what do we do about them!  He is great about going to nursery and even takes my hand and drags me there now after Sacrament meeting is over.  

Don is busy working hard and traveling.  He is grateful for Saturday football when he has an excuse to sit and watch it.  It's a crazy busy life with lots to do and never enough time or money it seems but it is a good life and we are happy.