Winter Concerts

Lights

Last weekend was the light parade.  It ended up raining but the band still marched the two miles.  Those that could play did and the rest carried their instruments.

We went to check out some lights and saw this on our way to another house.  Kind of a fun display with flamingo "reindeer".

Jessica and Stephanie went to an office party that their friend's dad had.  Stephanie even rode a mechanical bull at it.  All the kids had to pick a present and Stephanie chose a truck that held three of the above 4-wheelers for her hamsters.  Browni seemed to like it and rode around the Family Room floor for a bit.

She is too young to have to worry about facial hair.  haha

Birthdays

I still need to take pictures outside to show how we decorated this year.  I was playing around with the settings on my camera, trying out some settings in the manual mode.  Not bad but not what I was looking for.  I will have to check my other camera to see if it has the settings available that I was looking for.

I had a pretty good birthday.  Flowers from my mom, Jessica made me a card with a nice note inside and Rad sent me a table runner with napkins.  I also got money and gift cards and birthday cards, along with quite a few e-mails and posts on Facebook wishing me a happy birthday.  I had lunch with a friend that will be stationed in Germany at the beginning of the year.  Definitely felt loved.

The sun was shining in brightly when I took the picture, which made the napkins appear orange.  I messed around with the color a little, but still not the true color of red that they are.  I really just wanted to show the design on the napkins, which is also along the runner.  Quite festive for Christmas.

I had Activity Days on my birthday too.  I was supposed to spend the hour focusing on the gifts we have from the Savior but I didn't have the time to prepare like I should have lately (still working on Christmas cards) so I switched our meetings for December.  We read the story "The Mansion" by Henry Van Dyke and the girls made a gum drop topiary for their homes.  The girls seemed to have a lot of fun with this activity and I heard several comments of how great the night was.  We only do crafts a couple of times a year so they are pretty happy when they get to make something.

For Rad's birthday, we sent him a birthday party box.  I sent him a pound cake, frosting, a gel tube to write "happy birthday" on the cake, sprinkles, candles, noise makers, balloons, Lord of the Rings pez dispensers (Ben wanted to get those for him) that he can use as favors if he chooses, plates, napkins, utensils, and Hershey kisses.  We also sent him a Mannheim Steamroller CD that came out this year so he could play some Christmas music there and a box of monogrammed handkerchiefs.   He told me that his contractors are off on his birthday so they will have the party Saturday. 

The Tortoise or the Hare?

Jessica had her bunny out to let it sniff and get used to outside so it wouldn't be as curious when it came time to hop the maze for her science fair project.  We thought it would be fun to see who made it through the maze faster, the tortoise or the hare.  Becca brought out Torti for us.

You can see the Torti is taking this seriously and is moving right along while Skittles just doesn't seem to get what the goal is.  Maybe he is giving her a head start . . .

Yep, Skittles is just hanging around at the starting point.

I think she was pushed along or picked up and moved along because she wan't getting the hang of this.  This science project is going to take a long time.  The only time she hopped the maze was when her treat container was being shaken ahead of her a few feet.

Chilly Willy

I can't say winter is here but it has cooled down a little.  We used our air conditioner 8 days in November because our temperatures were around 81 to 83 and the house would get to 86.  It has been in the 70's this week, we may have even had a day that was 69.  The house is 72 in the morning and warms up to 76 by late afternoon.  This week, one of the twins asked if they could put their electric blanket on their bed because they woke up cold in the morning.  I agreed and we got them hooked up.  When I went to check on them that night, they had a sheet and the electric blanket on them, their comforters were on the floor and the ceiling fan was on.

Turkey Trot

Today was the Turkey Trot, which is a 5K/10K race.  The cub scouts from our ward hand out the water to the runners at the half way point of the run.  This was the second year that the girls and I helped out with the race.  Ben is usually playing football and Rad runs it.

The tables ended up divided and on both sides of the road.  The cub scouts were on one side and we were on the other.

We ran out of cups.  After all of the 5K runners were through and the 10K were still going and looking hot, one of the leaders got a couple cases of water from their car and we handed out those 48 bottles.

We had a sea of people at this point.  (That is Adam, 782.)  The race had online registration and same day registration.  They said they weren't going to sign anyone in the day of the race because they reached the cap of 700.  They ended up registering almost 200 more.

There's Ben running his first 5K race.  His time was 35:08.  I don't think that is too bad given he doesn't run and didn't make any effort to train for it.  Rad is proud of him for doing it.

After we were done at the water station, the girls and I set off for the country club to find Ben.  We ended up with a police escort.

A picture of Ben and Adam that someone in Adam's family took.  After the run, Ben went with Adam's family to play football.  He came home 20 minutes before the food was served.  Perfect timing.

I had the kids pick their "must haves" and w ended up having turkey, stuffing, peas, corn, squash, mashed potatoes w/ gravy, rolls (new favorite recipe), sweet potatoes and cranberry sauce.  Dessert will be pumpkin pie and cherry cobbler, although I'm not sure anyone will be up for dessert.

One Month

Ben got a single rose to give to Gianna for their one month anniversary of dating.

Scouting for Food, CiCi's, Battery

I took these 3 lovely ladies with me to a couple of areas to pick up the food people left out for Scouting for Food.  The crazy thing is, one community we dropped bags at the week before, the gate guard wouldn't let us into for the pick-up.  One of our leaders spent 20 minutes on the phone and finally, someone gave the authorization to let us in.  Our group of scouts collected a lot of food, more than in previous years.

After we did the collection for Scouting for Food, I needed to go to the Scout Shop to pick up an award that was overlooked at our court of honor.  We stopped at CiCi's for lunch.  This is one of Ben's plates.  He had several plates, not quite as full as this but he was a bottomless pit for lunch.

The battery is dead.

Veterans

Each student of the fifth grade class at the elementary school made a poster of a family member or friend to have displayed along the drive into the school.  The posters have the name, rank, where they served, and honors/medals received.  I was impressed with how focused the school is on Veterans.  It seems like every year they do more and more but it may be more that each grade does something different so they experience and honor it in a different way each year.

Halloween Candy

I don't recall where I saw this first but my understanding is that Jimmy Kimmel asked his viewers to tell their kids that they ate their Halloween candy, to video it, and upload it to youtube.  The entire clip is about 4 minutes long but someone has cut it to the best part, just over a minute.  This cracks me up every time and I have to admit, I've watched it more than once.

Tidbits

A couple of things worth noting.

Ben's last game is this week.  We are all excited to be done with another season.  He says this is his last year of band.  I met his history teacher and I love her.  She is the type of person you want to be with.  Ben says she is pretty cool.

Becca has been invited to be a part of the all-county honor choir.  They will be performing at the end of January.  Next week is the Reality Store.  Becca's profession, based on her grades, is CEO, she noted they make more money than the lawyers and I believe doctors.  I'm helping out with "housing" again this year.

Jessica was chosen as the alternate for the annual Geo Bowl at school.  Stephanie is keeping us all in line.  They hung the signs that each student in their grade made outside the school for Veteran's Day.  I hope to take a picture when I'm there for strings.  I knew their school focused on Veteran's Day more than any other we've been in.  Each year I learn how much they really do bring the attention of the students to the day and honoring those that have served and those that are serving.

Easiest Costumes Ever

Stephanie isn't wearing her glasses in this picture, but it is OK.  One of the perks of being twins is that you can do something fun like this.  Their costumes cost about $10 total for the 2 shirts and the iron letters and took about 5 minutes total to make.  Loved how easy it was and people thought it was clever and funny.

Pumpkins

We started off with 4 pumpkins to carve but one ended up altered by a friend that was over and then it just wasn't fun to carve anymore.  This was probably good because it was a booger to cut.  Ben was nice enough to let his sister have his pumpkin to carve, again, probably a good thing because he could focus on an assignment that earned extra credit if turned in early.

Jessica's Bunny Pumpkin

 Stephanie's Owl Pumpkin

She has a marble jewel that the photo didn't capture.

 Becca's Cat with a Pumpkin

Chili Cook-off and Bake-off

The sign-up went around for our fall festival for the chili cook-off and the bake-off.  I signed up for the chili and the twins signed up for the bake-off.  The kids asked me if I thought I would win and I told them probably not. I figured the chili won in Albuquerque because of the BBQ sauce and they love the BBQ out there.  Much to my surprise, it won here.  There were at least 19 chili pots entered in the contest.  Could have been more, I just know one of the winners was #19.  One of the judges told me the next day that my chili was a toss up between most original and best overall.   Then he asked me if the recipe was a secret or would I share.  I'm always happy to pass along a recipe.

Stephanie and Jessica made Mississippi Mud Cake and much to our chagrin, they didn't win but it was dang good.  Makes me wonder why we don't make it more often.  I'm sure they will try again if the opportunity presents itself.

Promised Pictures

Different poses than what I've shared with you.  There are some fun ones.  Love the last picture we had made up for Rad.