Temple Square Lights FREAK OUT!

Let me esplain...no, there is too much.

Let me sum-up!

 We went to Utah to do 2 things...1, buy Emily a much needed dresser at IKEA for her Christmas present, and

2, go see the Temple Square Christmas Lights.

We went on Friday Night...and it was a MAD house! 

I hate crowds, and this gave me soooo much anxiety!

We did have the right cloths this time...and 3 out of the 4 kids were thankful for the layers.
Lilli was NOT excited about wearing her dorking snow gear, and her teenage side took a nasty turn.
She threw a super mega ultra fit...and it was ugly.
In the end, I won, she decided it was cold enough to wear the snow gear and put it on.

I couldn't figure out how to use the flash on my camera without it being super washed out and ugly..

.but I got a few pictures anyway to help us remember this event.

This is my favorite shot from the night. She was still sort of pissy...because we had to walk like 6 blocks.

Joe decided to park like a mile and a half away because he figured there would be no parking closer.

I think he forgot that there is a parking garage right under Temple Square... I know I did.

But this picture is so pretty.

 Here is my family, under the glow of the millions of lights. 

I don't think this will be a family tradition...

only because I had such bad anxiety about it. Crowds and me do not mix.

But it was a wonderful weekend, and lots of memories were made with my sister and her family. 

And we did get both of the objectives met!

So, not all was lost!

Dance Camp

Emily and Maggie begged to do this Nampa High Dance Camp, presented by the Drill Team.

I let them. It was cute...but if I didn't know a girl on the drill team that I was supporting,

I probably wouldn't have done it.

Here is their dance numbers.

Emily

Maggie

This is the big group final number. They performed it at the Varsity Basketball game that night.
They had fun, but like I said...it was basically for this one girl!
We will not be doing it next year.
At least they got a t-shirt out of it!

Christmas Concerts

Lilli's Christmas Concert, at Nampa High Auditorium

I had to include a picture of her teacher, Mr. Ledbetter. 

He is a silly and fun, and he is a perfect fit for a Jr. High choir teacher! 

Lilli loves him, and she loves being in choir!

 Lilli had her 1st solo! It was only 2 measures long, but still!

I was not this brave in 6th grade! Go Lilli!!!

The song is "Christmas Fever" and I included the video in this post! It's great!

Maggie is also in Choir this year! I love all the concerts!!! It's so much fun to see them enjoying their talents!

Both Lilli and Maggie are awesome Choir girls! They knew how to position their mouths for the best sound! And they are so poised! Never goofing off, always looking to their director! I guess I taught them well!

And I am so proud.

Katie is her usual spot.

Maggie's choir singing, "Masters in this Hall"

 

Lilli's Choir singing, "Christmas Fever"

 "Winter Has Begun"

Hope you enjoyed some sounds of the season.

I have been hearing these songs in my house since October.

It's a great time of life!

Lilli's Piano Recital

Lilli and Brooke after the Recital and award ceremony.

With their teacher, Wendy Winston

Emily and Dani watching their big sisters get their awards.

I just had to take a picture...I love how they were both in pony tails!

Playing one of her pieces, "Oh Little Town of Bethlehem".

We are so proud of her accomplishments in piano, and we love her teacher so much! 

We found out yesterday at church that Wendy is very ill! 

She has been having bad nose bleeds lately, and the other day she finally went into the ER. 

They do not have insurance, so it take a lot to get her to the hospital.

She had to have 4 pints of blood put back into her.

Some Dr.'s are worried it might be leukemia, some are not worried at all.

We love her so much, and we pray for her quick recovery.

Caldwell Night Christmas Lights

This year, we started a new family tradition...a cold one.

The city of Caldwell, has been doing some major urban renewal around Indian Creek, 

and at Christmas time, they like to show it off by lighting it up!

It is magical! 

We took the kids on Monday night, the 1st day of the 12 Day of Christmas,  for Family Home Evening.

I tried yo bundle the kids up, we wore gloves and hats and scarfs...

but we forgot the snow pants and boots, and I have to say...we were warm, except our legs and feet! 

Next year, we will bring the snow pants.

The kids loved it! 

Christmas Music was playing over loud speakers, and we sang as we walked and looked!

We will definitely do this every year.

 

The best part...the price! FREE and the memories made...PRICELESS!

Thanksgiving Day Photos

We are a happy Family... I just love how this photo turned out. Emily is saying, "See, I am holding Maggie's hand."

But it just symbolizes that our family is connected and loving. AWWWWW... love!

This is my favorite picture of Katie. I had to blow this one up for her frame.

 She is not sad, she is posing... WOW! look at those eyes!

 There's my Maggie!

Yep, I am in a lot of trouble!

It was a good day.

Friends are the Best

For Christmas, my girls wanted to do a photo collage of their friends for their friends.

It was a lot of fun.

With Brooke

With Lexy

With Tanna

 Maggie's Group

With Ashley

With Madeline

With Liv

Emily's Group

With Dani

With Collin

 This is one of the finished collages.

Lilli has a friend who is a boy, and we had to go out and do some pictures with him...but because he isn't apart of the "girl group", we had to go separately with him. 

With Cameron

Katie is still a bit too young to have friends that need Christmas presents...thank goodness, this was alot of work on my part. But, I do hope that she will have friends that are as good to her as these kids are to the older 3.

November Leaves

The leaves started falling...like moths hitting the zapper. 

One morning after a hard frost, I looked out the window to see this.

Katie is standing in about 3 inches of leaves.

 10 am.

 Noon.

Notice that there are no leaves what so ever left on the tree. 

I love this tree. It is crazy!

One great thing about having a tree like this, is you get to play in it's huge leaves.

Picture time!

 Katie, after jumping in a small pile of raked leaves.

 Lilli...no she isn't help rake the leaves to bag them... 

she is raking them so she can jump in them and scatter them everywhere.

See? I told ya!

 This is the 1st year since we moved into this house (and we've been here 8 years) that Lilli has come out to play in the leaves with us. She is usually such an inside girl. I think growing up is changing her a little.

Notice that Emily is not in any of these pictures? Yeah...she's just like Lilli was.

Maggie's mountain of leaves. She raked them by herself, she gets to jump in them all by herself.

 Liftoff!

 Flight!

 Coming in for the landing!

 "That was AWESOME!" 

We sure did have fun with our leaves.

It took us 3 days to rake them, 

but only because we had to stop and play and enjoy our time with them before they went away.