Recitals for Katie and Melissa

Both girls have a new piano teacher since we’ve come back from Boise.  And one good thing is that they both do recitals.  Melissa actually had the chance to play in Riverpark Square Mall and at a museum downtown over Christmas break.  Katie had a recital at her teacher’s studio.  Both of them are such great piano players.  I love to listen to them.

The Countdown Begins

The kids are so excited for the cruise.  The waiting and getting ready and feeling the anticipation is part of the fun too. 

Merry Christmas!

This year we got up early for 9 am church.  Such a great thing to go to church and see friends on Christmas Day!  The Bishopric gave good talks.  Then home for Christmas fun!  The kids still wanted to be surprised so  nobody peeked  before church…

Big kids – hard to buy for.  Andrew got a truck box for his truck,  Katie, Harry Potter books, Melissa glitter, Megan ab circle pro

But technology comes through.  The kids are loving the new i-pad and kindle fire.

It was so much fun to surprise the kids with the cruise.  I wrapped up little packages with the letters C R U I S E and the words SPRING BREAK.  They found them randomly through out the morning.  Once they found a few letters and the word spring, they were really searching for those little presents.  Katie was the first to figure it out.  They all screamed and jumped for joy.  all present opening stopped for an hour while we looked up the cruise and the ship and dreamed of our wonderful vacation!  Merry Christmas!!!!

It was a fun Christmas morning!  We missed the boys and Tammy and Toby.  First Christmas without a Thornton to be here!

Enjoying the Christmas Lights

Love the making of treats and sitting with the tree lights on.  This is truly the most wonderful time of the year!  We had a great experience doing the Moore and Golder families for 12 days.  The Golder kids were so excited and funny enough, Brother Golder was made our home teacher in December too!  He expressed how much his family enjoyed the 12 nights of fun!  The Moores had quite the Christmas with Brother Moore having a heart attack.  Sue cried at church when she found out it was us, she was so grateful for the chance to say thank you.  It meant a lot to their family to be remembered.  They left us a cute poem and a gift that says, “He who hath not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree.” 

We love this tradition.  Tammy and Toby got to do it too because they did not travel this year.  Wonderful memories.

Justin Bieber

The girls all love Justin Bieber, well now that I think of it, Melissa is not joining in the craze.  So, Megan and Katie really like Justin Bieber.  Katie’s good friend Krista Petersen dropped off a Christmas Eve gift.  She rang the bell and we found this guy standing on our porch!  Life sized cut out.

He has been standing in the corner of Katie’s room, scaring people ever since. 

Welcome to the family, Justin!  In my day it was David Cassidy….

Christmas Eve Dinner and Luminaria

Gradys came over to help us celebrate Christmas Eve.  Mike and I decided to do the Upper St. Clair tradition of luminaria up and down our cul de sac.  It was beautiful!  And it reminded us of when we were kids and everyone in the township did it.  I remember so many years driving around to look at it.  The kids were not so sure at first but they all helped get the sand in the bags and light the candles.  We had snow!  So everything looked so Christmasy and magical!  Merry Christmas!!!

Megan’s Stop Motion Videos

Megan is my technical child.  She figures out how things work.  She has been making stop motion videos which is a bunch of pictures put to music.  So creative and fun!  I am so proud of her.  She puts them on you-tube.  The good thing is that she captures so much of her everyday growing up fun stuff, around the house or with friends.