Christmas Day

Aubrey opening her dance gear

Megan got an ipod

Jungle Fury Mission Helmet

Zac our Eagles fan

We had a great Christmas Day. Slept in until 8:30am and then got to open presents with the kids. Alan gave me a great gift, all of the movies and books for Pride and Prejudice, Sense and Sensibility, Persuasion, and Anne of Green Gables (the who series). I loved it!!!! We then had all of the family from both sides over for dinner. What a great holiday!

Christmas Eve

Alan's nephew Michael

Meg

Garrett

Zac

Aubrey

We spent Christmas Eve with Alan's sister Marlene and her family. They have dinner, perform a talent show (piano numbers from the girls) and then Santa visits, This was great since I had neglected to get the kids picture done with Santa this year. Thanks for the lifesaver Mar!

Childhood friends

I have a friend named Jen who who I lived by when I was three years old in California. My family moved to Utah right before Kindergarten. Our parents have stayed friends all these years. Jen's family eventually moved to Utah so we were close again. Since getting married she moved back to Cali and comes to visit all the time. Our sisters are also close. The dads, and all four girls went out to Cheesecake Factory for a night out tonight. It was great catching up. The lighting in the restuarant is awful. You can kind of see Jen and Kristin (or as we call Kay since we both have the same name).

Activity Days

This turned out to be my last Activity Day activity with my girls I have since been released. I now get to teach teenagers in Sunday School. Scarey I know! We had a Christmas treat taste test and had a great time. The girls then got themselves tangled up. I will miss that calling!

Recital Recording

Piano Recital

Christmas Piano Recital

The girls played Christmas songs in a group and as a single at their recital.

Dance Recital

Meg and Aubrey had a dance recital. They did a great job. I did have to however complain about the people leaving constantly during the performance. A big pet peeve of mine, story for another time.

Way to go Megan and Aubrey and the Production class!!!

My Soapbox Moment

I apologize if I offend anyone with my opinion here, but stuff at our elementary school has gotten out of hand and I am frustrated. My blog is mine so I can vent right? I don't know who heard about this but our school did a Christmas musical called "Santa Goes Green". What do you think this would be about? The name says it all and my kids had been singing their class songs so I could tell it was about recycling. It was made to be humorous and funny. When the time came so many people showed up that it was a fire hazard since so many people were standing in the aisles and hallways. The principal did something that I thought was the only fair thing to do. She had to ask the people standing to leave the room (it is law) and she held another showing right after the first one just for them. It was inconvenient for all families since those who saw the first one waited after for their kids to perform the second show. I personally didn't see another way out of the situation and applaud Ms. Strauss for doing what she could. That was the first hurdle. Apparently some people had expected the program to be only traditional Christmas music and were furious that it was not, some had referred to it as a Pageant which it was never to be. It went to furious parents calling the school and one even took it to family value talk radio who then called our teachers and staff and community a godless community. Now to my opinion-I am sorry but if you were paying attention you should have known what the play was about, I was. Also, the kids were so excited and had a lot of fun. Shouldn't it be about them? The play was based around the curriculum so it fit for the year. Those out there believed the school was trying to push a political agenda. I am so sad that it was taken this far. Now the school is talking about pulling several programs like our Shakespearean Festival due to a few parents voicing their nasty opinion. I am really frustrated because my daughter was one of those to be involved in the Shakespearean Festival this year. I am sorry but how should all this get taken away because someone decided they didn't like a musical? Sorry, thank you for letting me vent. It helped get it out of my system.

Santa Goes Green Pics

Aubrey

Megan

For those who know Garrett he does not perform, he refuses. He sang out loud and did all the actions for this performance, I was thrilled!!!!

Proud our my Star Student

Aubrey and Aubree R. who got the award for Nov.

Today was the monthly Star Student assembly for the school. Aubrey was nominated by her teacherfor December as most generous. Good job Aubrey!

BYU/UofU Game

Today was the so sad BYU/UofU game. I am totaly for BYU, but did go to the U for a quarter. Unfortunatly my Cougars lost. I wore Ute colors since I was sitting in a sea of Ute fans. I did get gutsy when I realized their was blue sitting right behind me.

Twilight!!!!!!!!!!

I am so excited! We saw Twilight tonight, note I say we. Alan came along. My sister Lisa's sister-in-law rented out a theater. I loved it!!! I am ready to see it again. Thanks to Alan for being a good sport.

Team Party

Zac with Coach Raffie

Zac's team the Black Bantams had a team party today. Each boy was brought up, given a blaze jersey, a team shirt with all the boys names on it, a season DVD and the coach that worked with him talked about him. They stressed the amount of character Zac has and how much he has improved since he started football. Thanks to our amazing team mom and the coaches for the pizza party!

Playoffs!

Our team mom Cary brought signs to each boys yard! Way to go team mom.

Coach Raffie and Coach Dixon after the game trying to cheer up the boys after our loss.

Today was our playoff game with Alta to see who went to the championship game. We went down to overtime and ended up losing. We did really well! Our team has had a rough go, with three of its major players going down with injuries. We had torn ACL's, broken femur, and a collarbone break. Good job Bingham Black Bantams!

Halloween

Garrett at Fall Festival the night before.

Bryn, Megan, Caitlyn, Aubrey

Seven kids in my bathroom - that in itself is scarey!

The kids trick or treating at Caitlyn's house- her brother Trevor got to hand out candy too.

Zac

This year was the first year that Alan and I both got to go out with the kids Trick-or-Treating. It was fun. We had Garrett, Aubrey, Megan and her friends Caitlyn and Bryn. Zac decided that he was too old so he and his friends stayed on the porch with costumes on scaring people. They handed out the candy as well. They had a mist machine, strobe light and scary masks. Zac had one injury when he got shoved against a wall scratching his face after he scared someone pretty good. Happy Halloween! Garrett and I went to the school fall festival the night before.

Burning of the B

Football will soon be over. The tradition is the "Burning of the B". Each team in the Bingham District does a skit for the crowd in the Bingham High School Stands. It was fun, but since the new field had been laid we were not able to burn the B. The kids had a great time!

Halloween fun

Alan and I went to a Halloween party and Zac also went to one. I have to say you gotta love a guy who will put on a tutu. Alan is such a good sport. We had a great time. Thanks Jen and Tim!

Football woes

Oh yes, we have fallen. I have to say shame on our competition, East. The first half was about to end and East tried to cheat by put in a smaller ball than is allowed to try to throw farther. They got caught, unfortunatly we have to wait to find out the backfire (possibly forfeit), we should hear tonight. We ended up losing, the boys were so frustrated with the problems and bad calls from the refs that they lost momentum.

HSM3

Caitlyn, Megan, Lizzie, Camry, Kaya, Sammy, Amy, Aubrey

I am so bummed. First, I thought to take a picture of the kids after 8 of them had already left (oh yes, we had 16 with 5 of us adults), then the ones I did get a picture of didn't come out clear on my phone since it was dark. Oh well, it is cute anyway.

Oquirrh Lake Fun

Each year our community has a Halloween party. This year was part two of a story of the haunted lake. One of the ghouls had an interest in Zac and followed him around.

Halloween Band

Zac and Ethan

The Grandparents

The concert band at Elk Ridge did their show for the quarter with Halloween songs. It was a lot of fun, and I am not one bit prejudice.