The Christmas Card

For the past 3 years, I have taken photos of the three girls - the day before Thanksgiving -- at the District. No one is there and the holiday decorations are out. I have used these photos in the past for my Christmas card. Well this year, I had to wait for Dagney to get out of school - so it was late to begin with and it was cloudy so to make a long story short - the pics turned out well dark. Plus, I did not like the outfits (they were Gymboree and they reminded me of stuff I would have worn in 1979 and let me tell you 1979 was not a very good year for fashion) and since I did not like the clothes nor the pictures I decided to retake. So a perfect opportunity came up. My mother in law needed some help with a recipe book she was putting together for Christmas (she was trasfering recipes sent to her into a 4x6 format) and I knew she would need some help and while I was up there I would take the opportunity to retake the kids pics -- Southern Utah has way better photo sites than here in my opinion. So I packed the kids up for 2 days of playing with their grandmother and beloved cousin. Well the recipes took quite a bit longer than I anticipated and I watched my window of picture opportunities dwindle as the overwheming recipe project kept sucking up my time. (There were over 140 recipes that had to be reformated) So I found that the only time I had to snap some shots was when we were hand delivering the disk of recipes to the printer. While my mom in law was in the printers, I ran next door (it was an old church converted into the Chamber of Commerence) and took some pics. The setting was great but the temperature was not and the kids were not very coorporative -- the only pose they liked was the one where they got to huddle together. So that is the one we used -- let me know what you think.

December Part 1

As we were returning home from spending Christmas at my parent's cabin in Pine Valley, Remi asked me why we didn't get to do any fun things. Since she was watching "Nim's Island" at the time I can only assume that she meant why didn't she get stranded on an island and fall off a volcano. But really do you think she didn't get to do anything for the month of December?

Chad and the girls having a special camp out on the couch.


Santa's train -- a super fun way to begin the holidays!
I told the girls 2 years ago that they probably would not see snow again for another decade -- boy was I ever wrong -- FYI the snowman's name is Millie-Candy III.
Kanab's Christmas party -- a weekend of letting the children run free (in the Stampin'Up factory) and not having to worry about them. There is food, entertainment and of course, this year - snow for sledding. I took a pic of Chad's childhood home - he really did have an amazing backyard - 10 miles out of town.
In an attempt to be more "outdoorsish" this year, Chad and I bought a year pass to all National Parks. This is our first excursion to Zion for the year -- my goal is to do something with the pass at least 8 times in 2009. We had a ton of fun hiking up to this incredible view. The kids were more impressed with icicles than the view but whatever makes them happy makes me happy as well.

This post is all about Dagney. She had lots going on before her first track break. The most challenging of them all was her part in "The Polar Express" a mini play put on by her kindergarten track. Her part is as follows:"Soon there were no more lights to be seen. We traveled through cold, dark forests where lean wolves roamed and white tailed rabbits hid from our train as it thundered through the quiet wilderness. We climbed mountains so high it seemed as if we could scrape the moon. But the Polar Express never slowed down. Faster and faster we ran along, rolling over peaks and through valleys like a car on a roller coaster." Seriously, I thought I would faint when I saw the size of the part. When we were memorizing her part I realized that she was saying "forestes" instead of "forests" and try as I might I could not get her to say it correctly. She refused to say forests right but she did not mind memorizing a huge part -- very strange but age 6 does have a few interesting quirks about it. Needless to say we were terribly proud of her when it came to the performance.















We also had the end of another season of playing soccer. We did not originally sign up for the season but the team she played on needed a player so we were able to play for free - minus the cost of the coach's gift and of course the requisite trophy. She did much better this season and did score one goal. Because she is now six, she will have to play in the 6-8 league. I think we will sit out Winter season -- too cold.













Last but not least, Dagney was chosen for Eagle of the Month. When she came home and said that she was chosen, I first thought that she was joking or mistaken but no, there was a paper in her bag letting me know of her new status. I just did not think she was all that good in class -- I mean she does not behave all that well in church so I just assumed?? Well let me tell you, it went straight to her head. Some people can not handle certain kinds of limelight. She was not the only person from our ward to receive the honor -- there was Brooklyn and one of the Chase children also receiving the prestigious award. I guess the kids get to go on a special field trip with the principal which should be another fun activity for Dagney.
"Just as a side note -- I sent Dagney to school that day in a new beautiful dress. I believe that any special occasion whether small or large, deserves a new dress. In fact, when Dagney came out for her award, the principal made a comment to the audience about how cute she was dressed -- was I more excited about the award or the fact that the principal mentioned the dress???"

After church on Sunday, I am waiting in the hallway for Chad, (Chris has already taken the girls to her house for a snack) and Remi's Primary teacher comes up to chat. She starts to laugh and she says that she has a funny story to tell about Remi. I guess in class, the teacher was discussing with the children all the ways mommies and daddies show their love for their children. She then proceeds to ask the Sunbeams what are ways their parents show them love. Remi pippes up that mommy just "crapbooks all the time." Well the teacher thought that the most funny thing of all -- funny I don't. She could have said that I show her love by letting her sleep with me when she has a bad dream, or that her dad is building her a fancy bed for Christmas or any of the hundreds of other ways that we show our love to her -- but no she thinks that all I do every day is "crapbook" -- well baby here are some of the "crapbook" pages I have done for you lately -- maybe my "crapbooking" is a way I show love?

While Chris and Chad and I were eating our Sunday dinner, the girls came running into the house to tell us that there was a rainbow outside "really mom, you have to come right now - it's a real rainbow." Life is so much more fun when you get to see it through the magic of little minds.

Okay -- it's official, October is over!!! I love October but I am glad to send it on its way. There is still 5 lbs of candy to remind me of the good times but seriously, October is crazier than December for me. I ended up taking my three and Alexa and Jeremy around Audra's neighborhood to trick or treat. They have the best neighborhood there are so many who decorate their houses and make them into "spook" houses for the kids who come around. Some of the houses were too scary and Remi had a few bad dreams and ended up sleeping with me on Halloween night. Dagney is a machine trick or treater. I have never seen her have so much energy or stamina -- if only her soccer coach could have seen her. She ran (in her gold high-heals) from house to house. She outpaced Remi and Beth by a huge margin and when I went to Audra's to recoup -- big Jeremy took Alexa and Dagney back out. She not only wore me out she wore Big Jeremy out --hehe -- like I said a machine. October was great but the Halloween decorations have been put back down in the basement and I am glad to have 11 full months before I have to deal with them again.



Hannah Montana
"I think Remi is cuter than the real deal"











Mermaids again this year -- Chris bought a fancy cat costume for Beth but she and Dagney wanted to be mermaids again for the 2nd year in a row. Made me happy the Hannah Montana costumes (I bought 2 for Remi) were expensive enough.

The biggest party of the year for me is over!!! It was so much fun -- I have 15 or so photos of the big day in the below slide show. It was so much fun this year -- I want to thank Cassie who was in charge of the crafts -- she did an amazing job helping all of the guests make their trick or treat bag -- you are the best! I also want to thank Audra and Nicole and my Mom for helping out -- it made the party so much easier for me. I tried musical chairs but it was a bust, we need new games for next year (the kids are getting older and need a more difficult game to keep their interest level up) but the crafts were a hit (not really for the boys but they just all went outside and played on the motorized stuff and seemed happy) so we will do something like that again. Chad made ghost pizzas which I did not take a pic of, but were cute and the kids seemed to like the pizza. The cake looked fun but hardly anyone ate it -- and of course the mummy cookies were the most popular item on the menu. Dagney dressed up as a soccer player (she had to run to a game at 1:30), since she did not wear her outfit, Remi was allowed to be a Hannah Montanna mermaid (a Hannah Montanna wig and a mermaid costume?). Remi was very disappointed upon discovering that when she tried on the Hannah Montana costume I bought for her that she did not turn into the real Hannah Montana. Since I spent nearly $40 for the Hannah Montana costume I do not care that she does not become the real Hannah Montanna she will wear that costume for Halloween. However, the kids all seemed to enjoy the party and that is all that mattered to me.