Oh Christmas Tree

We were right on top of it this year!  We went as a family and picked out our Christmas Tree the Monday after Thanksgiving.

We did our tradition of going to the Merrill Family Christmas Tree stand.  We love their trees.  You can get a great tree for a reasonable price.

I think we picked a good one this year!  I love the facial expressions on each of the girls faces.  Hannah and Ashley were happy to be there.  Nicole was bugged.  She was cold and wanted to be in the house.

 

NovemberFest TaVaci Performance

The Friday after Thanksgiving, all three girls performed at the NovemberFest, which is held at the Rec Center in Logan.  It's a big craft fair that is held every year.  This is the second year TaVaci has performed.

Here's a few photos:

 Hannah practicing her speaking part....

 

 

 

Caught Jumping

Hannah had the idea on Thanksgiving Day that she wanted to get caught on camera jumping.

We would count to three, jump and try to catch the person in the air.

Here's some shots:

 

 

 

 

Too Involved in the Movie.....

to notice that the pen she was playing with had leaked all over.

Thanksgiving Weekend

It seems as though the Holidays are always full of going here and there and doing this and that.  This Thanksgiving Holiday was no different but we sure had fun!

Thursday we spent Thanksgiving with my mom in Mendon.  Grandma arrived at our house with yummy dips around 2:00.  Dave actually had to work so we coordinated our Thanksgiving Feast around him and didn't eat until 5:30.  We had a yummy moist turkey that we started slow cooking from frozen the night before.  I have decided that I won't cook a turkey any other way.  It was so moist and yummy!  We also had our famous sweet potato souffle, which all three of my girls loved.  I made homemade garlic cheese rolls....another yum.  Grandma made delicious mashed potatoes and gravy and a yummy cherry cheesecake.  we ended the night by watching a movie and then taking Grandma home at 9 p.m.

On Friday, all three girls performed with their TaVaci group at the Novemberfest, which is a craft show held at the Rec center every year on Thanksgiving weekend.  It was such a hoot watching Nicole.  I'll post pictures of the performance later in it's own post.

After the performance, it was off to Nibley to enjoy round two of the Thanksgiving Feast with the Welkers.  We ate dinner at the church and this allowed the kids to have a large place to run and play.  Later in the evening, we returned to the Welker Ranch to enjoy pie and ice cream.  The homemade apple pie was my favorite.

Dave took a couple of days off, which is giving him a really nice "long" weekend.  He doesn't return to work until Wednesday.  It was nice to have a weekend together (we don't get these very often) and to actually have two adults cleaning.  Aaaahhhh......it brought a cleaning project of the storage room to an end and the amazing cleansing feeling throughout the body.

We worked in the house Saturday morning and then that afternoon we headed into town for family pictures!  The girls did really good.  The photographer was amazing with Nicole.  The pictures are cute and I can't wait until I can pick them up on Thursday.

Then came Sunday.......now comes Monday and back to work and school.

I love this time of year.  I love celebrating Thanksgiving and Christmas.  Too bad it goes by so quickly.

Hannah's School Play on the Water Cycle

It was fun to take a few minutes out of my work day to run to Hannah's school and watch her be a snowflake in her class play on the Water Cycle.

Hannah practiced hard the entire week before the play to make sure she had her part memorized perfectly.

Here's my cute snowflake!

Crazy Hair Day

November 10 - Crazy Hair Day at School for Hannah and Ashley

Ashley and Nicole in the Fashion Show

My work had their Fall Fashion show on November 3 & 4.  About a week before the show, the director of the Fashion department came and asked if I thought Ashley and Nicole would be interested in participating.  They were trying to ask in-house staff's kids because the proceeds of the show were going to the Hobbs family.  I work with Emily and her husband was in a major car accident on Labor Day weekend and he's still trying to recover.
That day after work, I asked Ashley if she'd be interested and she immediately became excited and said she would.  Hannah was instantly bugged because they only wanted kids 8 and younger and this was one of those times where being the big sister didn't work out in her favor.  I did ask Nicole and she said she'd do it even though she had no clue as to what I was talking about.  She did tell me that she didn't want to do it with Ashley.  She wanted to do it herself.  That's my independent girl!

On Tuesday, we had to meet the Fashion director at JC Penney's to try on the dresses.  It only took about 15 minutes for them to try on their clothes and get the correct fit.  Upon leaving, Nicole was upset because we were leaving her dress behind.  Try explaining to a young four year old that the dress will be waiting for her at the fashion show.

Thursday afternoon brought my mom checking Hannah and Ashley out of school early and swinging by to pick up Nicole from Emma's (according to Hannah, she had to remind Grandma to go back and pick her up) and bringing them to me at work so they could practice.  It was a bit of a crazy afternoon/night.  Practice ran from 3-5 p.m.  Then we took the girls for dinner at Texas Roadhouse and then we had to be back to BATC by 6:30 so Ashley and Nicole could get their hair and makeup done.

Here's a quick story about practice:  Dave and I had an appointment with our Financial guy at 4 o'clock.  I had made arrangements with my mom for her and Hannah to stay at the practice while we ran to the appointment and then we'd come back and go to dinner.  During the appointment, my phone rang and it was my Mom.  Now I knew something had to be up because she knew what we were doing.  The phone call was....."Your daughter has stopped the practice and will not continue on until her mom gets here.  They're trying to practice the finale and she refuses to walk across the stage."  Really?  Nicole has been going through this stage lately that she wants to be with me.  She doesn't want to go to Emma's or to preschool.  She wants to be with me.  At this point, I'm bugged.  Whatever these apron strings are, they need to be cut!  Thank goodness for the cute boy that was in the set with Ashley and Nicole.  He saw that she was crying and so he picked her up and carried her.  Aww....I think she subconsciously had a crush on him!

Dinner was yummy and during dinner we chatted with Nicole about walking herself on the stage.  We told her that Cameron would not be carrying her.  Then the praying began that the words were sinking in!  We made it back in time for the girls to get their hair and make up done.  Pampered they were!

It came time for the show and me, Dave and my Mom were holding our breath that Nicole would come out walking.......and she did!  The picture is blurry but it's proof that she did it!

After Thursday's show, they had all of the girls pose for pictures.  By now it's 8:30 p.m. and Nicole is done.  Her arms are folded because she told me as I was putting her on the stage that she didn't want her picture taken.



After the show and a donut, we headed home for bed and knew that we'd be back the next night to do it again.  Once again the girls came at 6 o'clock for hair and make up.  Hannah was such a big helper for me behind the scene.  She helped me get the girls dressed and undressed which was a bit stressful because it had to be done quickly.  Friday night they had all of the girls hair and make up done early so I asked the girl if she'd do Hannah's hair.  I needed to get her something to make her feel special too.

We were trying to get the camera to work right with the low lighting so we made Hannah pose.

Then the Stars of Friday's Show......

and the after show poses.....

What a fun experience.  They had a great time.  Ashley has already said she'll do it again next time!



TAPS

This seems appropriate for Veteran's Day.  Everytime I hear Taps played, I can't help it, the tears come.

I remember it played at my Grandpa's funeral because he served in WWII.

I remember it played at my Dad's funeral because he was in the Army and served in Germany.

Some day, and I hope and pray it's a really, really, long time from now it will be played for Dave and my brother for the service they give every day as Law Enforcement Officers.

What amazing people to know!

http://www.flixxy.com/trumpet-solo-melissa-venema.htm

Halloween

For me, Halloween is an okay holiday.  However, with kids it's a crazy holiday.  This holiday carries for a full week before it's finally over!

The girls started dressing up for things October 25!  Each of the girls needed to dress up for their TaVaci class, which meant Hannah on Tuesday and Nicole and Ashley on Wednesday.  Might I add that this requires planning before leaving Mendon that morning because there's no coming home before heading to class.  This year it didn't dawn on my that the girls would be dressing up for class.  It was a good thing Hannah's class doesn't start until 5:15 because this gave us time to hit Walmart to get the "final" stuff for costumes.  I was totally banking on having the weekend to pull costumes together.  Silly me!  What was I thinking?

Nicole then dressed up for preschool on Thursday.  Hannah had a Halloween birthday party on Saturday.  Hannah could dress up for the entire school day on Monday (Halloween) but Ashley had to take her costume with her and get herself dressed at 1:15.  Nicole spent Halloween day with Dave running to and fro with an air compressor blowing out sprinkler lines so we all had to meet in Macey's parking lot to finish Hannah and Ashley's costumes with make up and get Nicole dressed up for the evening.

This year we had Dorthy.....

Dracula's Daughter..... 

and a Witch..... 

It was a fun filled crazy night but we survived and returned home at 8:15 for showers and bed.  After getting everyone ready in Macey's parking lot, we headed into the store for a quick treat-or-treating walk.  Then we loaded in the van and went to Grandma Nana's and then up to Grandma Peterson's and her neighbor Audrey's.  After that it was a zoom back to pick up Dave's truck from Macey's and then a trip to Nibley to G'ma and G'pa Welker's, then off to Wellsville to Dave's friend from Mt. Crest.  The girls like to trick-or-treat here because she gives awesome treats!  We arrived in Mendon, set out our treats on the front porch, loaded on the golf cart and were off trick-or-treating our street.  We finished up at our prior Bishop's house for a roasted hot dog and hot chocolate.

Can I just say the golf cart is the only way to trick-or-treat.  Dave puts his read twirl light on top and off we go.  The girls think they're "up town" trick-or-treaters.

Oh yea....and the Sunday before Halloween we painted pumpkins!