The Nutcracker Ballet

A couple weeks before Christmas, Kate said the most glorious words to me. She said, "Mom. When are you going to take me to the Nutcracker?" Oh, I was so excited! I said, "I've just been waiting for you to ask me!" So after some deliberation about whether or not she was really old enough and if she'd be able to see from the cheap seats and if it would be too long, etc. I bought the tickets and gave them to her for Christmas. So Tuesday night was our girl's night at the ballet. When we were first getting in the car she said, "I'm so excited I could melt." And then when we were close to the theater and I told her that she said, "Oh, I just melted a little." It cracked me up. She did great. Capitol Theater is a really cool building even if it is haunted. I can't believe I've never been there. Anyway, Kate was really into it except for about the last 15 minutes. At that point she was just tired. She was so excited when the Sugar Plum Fairy came on stage. It was pretty cute. I love raw emotions! And of course, it was so fun to have a night with just her.

If you look closely, you can see the top of the tiara she wanted to wear. So cute!

Christmas-finally!

You might remember my recent post about it not feeling like Christmas because the weather was so warm and there wasn't any snow. Well, a couple of days later, the snow came. It wasn't a ton, but it didn't take a bunch to make it feel like Christmas. Unfortunately, with the snow, came the flu and we have been in an influenza induced stupor around here. Everyone was mostly over it a couple of days before Christmas and I thought I had escaped it, but then on Christmas Eve, when I woke up buried in covers and freezing, I knew I was down for the count. I think we had a good Christmas. All the things were in place for a good Christmas, but it just seems like a fog for me. In fact, going through these pictures is like living it for me!

We started out with a good Christmas Eve (or so I hear). We knew the suspense was killing the kids, so we took them to see Tangled. I love how excited for things Kate gets. It was an especially fun afternoon for her. Then we headed down to my sister, Peggy's, for a fun night with her boys. There was eating and Wii playing and, of course, acting out the Christmas story.

Kate and Sara each took turns being Mary and an angel. I love how even at that young of an age, they can feel, to a very small degree, how important Mary's role was. They took their parts very seriously. Such sweet girls. Oh, and didn't you know angel's have swords? They totally do and of course, they take part in chasing Samuel the Lamanite...

Christmas morning came much too early. Not because we stayed up so late, but because sleep felt so good. This is the part that is so vague. I remember Matt opening his Slave 1 ship from Santa and I remember the big smile on his face and I remember thinking, "Oh good. He's still young enough." And I was relieved Kate was excited about her Easy Bake Oven. And that's about it. I had to ask Jerry later, "Did it go ok?" The girls finally got bunk beds. Sara, thank goodness was not shy about emotions. She was so excited about everything and about Santa coming. When they found the bunk bed box, Sara said, "Bunk bed... Come out, come out wherever you are..."

Here is the crib in the final stages of being taken down. 7 years we have had it in that very spot. I'm confident we'll get to set it back up someday, but until then I'll enjoy a little extra space and my big kids!Sara holding her beloved pillow pet. It's a pillow... it's a pet... it's a pillow pet. Oh yes, we've been singing it all week.Matt with his Slave 1 ship. He has already loved playing with it so much.

I'm pretty sure it was a good Christmas Day around here. One thing is for sure, our bodies have loved sleeping in and having a break from school and schedules. Hopefully we'll start off 2011 in good health!

Christmas traditions

Every year that we've been in Utah we've gone to see the lights at Temple Square. It's my very favorite thing to do. And this year we were lucky enough to spend the evening with Jerry's brother Jason and his family. It was a fun and beautiful night!

Christmas Cookie Friday

I've always been a lover of these cookies, but never a maker of them until today. Let me just say... YUMMY! These are the best cookies I've ever had right out of the oven! They were so good the girls and I ate them for lunch and nothing else!! And it also prompted a tea party with water and sugar:
Here goes the water...

And here goes the sugar. Yum.

1 year 1000 miles

I did it!! 1000 running miles in 1 year. It feels good to have that done! And here's what I've learned this year:

1. 1000 miles takes a long time to add up.

2. 1000 miles at an average of 8:30 minutes per mile equals 12,000 minutes running.

3. I am better at running than math, but I think that amounts to 200 hours of running, which then amounts to 8.3 days of running. 8.3 days!! I spent 8 days of my life that I'll never get back, running! Was it worth it?

4. Yes.

5. There are times when I feel like the only thing I'll ever be truly good at is running.

6. I don't say that and expect you to say, "Oh, you're good at lots of things." Running is not subjective. You measure a distance and race to the end. The one who gets their first is the winner. Pretty simple.

7. I like to have something I'm good at. It feels good. And when I've had a crappy day as a mom, a wife, a primary president, a friend, an artist, a grocery shopper, a cook, a book reader, a teacher, a house cleaner etc., I can always say, at least I have running.

8. My body does not tolerate running as well as it used to. Blasted feet!

9. My mom always told me I was very determined. I like that I still am.

10. I like to be competitive. It's a lot of who I am. And when it comes to running, I am very competitive and it's fun.

11. I still don't want to run a marathon, but the highlight of my year was the half that I ran in March. I will run more of those.

12. 8 days of running gave me a lot of time to think. I solved all the world's problems on my runs. I just can't remember the answers when I stop running.

13. I love my GPS watch. How did I ever run without one?

14. My kids and Jerry are my biggest supporters. I appreciate them waiting around for me to run or rushing to get ready in the morning because I didn't get out the door as early as I meant to.

15. I've looked foward to a week or more off!

Saturday was the big day.

Here I am before I left. Just being goofy. What I didn't know was that Jerry had called some people to cheer me on at the finish line. He was secretly annoyed that I kept dinking around all morning. As I came to the end of the run I could see a group of people and I was really confused.Here is some of the group waiting for me to finish.My friends Barb and Cara who encouraged me along the way. I was totally shocked to see all the people at the finish. My sister drove 40 mins to watch. My old roommate and teammate came to watch. Families from the ward and neighborhood... It was crazy. And a little embarrassing. In fact, I told Jerry later that I was really embarrassed that he and Cara had called all those people, but he just said, "Look at all these people that care about you and want to cheer you on." He's right. I'm surrounded by a whole bunch of really cool people and we've made a lot of memories together over the years and I'm pretty grateful for them. I wish I didn't have to run 1000 miles to realize things like that! Now to my week off...

Christmas Spirit

I try so hard to make Christmas a fun time for the whole family so it's not all about what we're getting. This year we've done the typical: put up decorations, listened to Christmas music, danced to Christmas music, checked a billion Christmas books from the library, gone to parties, ate cookies, opened advent calenders (of the candy AND religious types), talked about the birth of Christ, talked about why it's fun to give gifts, watched Christmas shows together, burned Christmas candles, and many more things. But something just feels weird this year. I keep trying to think of what I'm missing... We've finished most of the shopping and it was all on a list and budgeted out so no stress there, we don't have a list of events and parties that we're trying to hit, I'm so looking forward to having my kids home for a long break... I've really been struggling trying to figure what is bothering me this year. And then today, as we walked to the library together in thin jackets, it hit me...

IT'S 50 DEGREES!!! And NO snow! I'm not drinking hot chocolate, we're not snuggling under blankets together, I'm not wearing sweaters... What is going on?? We had better get some Christmas weather soon or we'll just start pulling out the summer gear! Here's to some snow!

Christmas Cookie Friday

Every year since we've been married, Jerry has asked for gingerbread of some sort. I'd much prefer something chocolatey, but I finally gave in.

I like gingerbread, but I like it even more with a little frosting and red hots!

I usually get glares from Matt when I pull out the camera, so this little pose cracked me up.

Inflation

A year ago I paid 30 dollars for this dryer. Last night I paid 60 dollars for this washing machine. Stupid inflation.

I Believe in Miracles

You might remember the post about the girl in my ward who recently had triplets and then suffered two brain aneurisms. If not, read about it here. Well, this past Sunday she came to church.

6 weeks after they removed a portion of her skull, they replaced it. The doctors had told the family when they removed it that the best case scenario for replacing it would be in 6 months. After it was replaced, the doctor confided that he didn't think he would ever be replacing it. A month ago she came home. She still was not supposed to have been out of her coma. At first she couldn't walk by herself because of balance issues, but Sunday she walked down the aisle entirely by herself. Although the family still has a ton of help from other ward members, they have been trying to cut down a little bit and take on more and more of it because they are now able to.

I know there are many wonderful, hard working, honest, and faithful people who have really bad things happen and the outcomes are different, but I know that miracles can happen. I know I don't understand all things, but I believe all things are possible. I believe in miracles

Light the Night

For the last few years we've kicked off our Christmas celebrations with SJ's Light the Night. It really is a fun and simple night. We always walk down to it and enjoy the night together. This year was about 40 degrees warmer than last year, so we were very happy! The highlight of the night is of course Santa! We love that he comes on a fire truck, but apparently Des Moines out does us a little and he doesn't spin around in the basket. Oh well, Kate especially was still very thrilled about it all!

Kate left me in the crowd and went right up to the front to watch Santa get out and followed him along to where he was sitting for the kids. So cute!

Matt was of course all business! Short list of presents, but the thing he really wanted to know was when Santa's birthday is. Apparently, it is December 24th. Great!

Kate was just all smiles and could have sat there for an hour thinking of things she wanted. Luckily, she is in the 10-20 dollar price range. I love it!

And big step for Sara! This was the first year she was willing to sit on Santa's lap. I did have to lift her up and give her a word of encouragement, but she did it!

The girls both tried out ice skates. This pretty much just meant sore backs for Jerry and I. It was fun to see them try though. And by try I mean go limp so Jerry and I could carry them around. Oh well. No broken bones at least! It was another fun night. Unfortunately, I carried the hot hot hot chocolate around for 10 minutes letting it cool before I promptly spilled it. All over myself. Lovely. At least that was the worst that happened! Merry Christmas!

Christmas Cookie Friday

Mmm, Cookies. I love you. You are not fancy and perhaps overlooked by those looking for a delicious dessert. But you'll always find a happy girl if you are in my hands. While I love you, I don't love cooking and therefore I apologize for not filling plates with you and giving them to friends like last year. It was just too much for me for one day. And so instead, we are celebrating you each week this Christmas season. Mmmm, you make my home smell good. You make my tummy filled. You make milk taste so perfect. I could go on, but there are more of you waiting downstairs for me so I will make this short so I can join you again. Thank you for being so good and having so many varieties, I'll never be bored of you!

On the menu this week: Chocolate Surprise Cookies. While the dough and the actual cookie are surprisingly not sweet, the marshmallow and icing with 3 cups of powdered sugar more than make up for it!

Sharing with friends always makes even the most yummy of foods taste better.

Mmm, strawberry marshmallows. Need I say more?!

And this is the best thing about our new activity of Christmas Cookie Friday. Time with my girls! We had to start early today since we had a birthday party and primary activity on the list of things to do as well, but next week, we'll add Matt into the cookie making!

New ways to dance

This evening we were driving in the car and I had the Christmas music playing loudly. We were stopped at a stop light so I turned around and was singing and dancing to my kids, with limited response until Sara says, "Mom, my bum is dancing!"

Things I learned during Thanksgiving

I learned that my girls will jump on a trampoline in what feels like single digit weather.

I learned that I can no longer beat my nephew Adam in running. I learned that it is fun to beat people who think they can beat me in running. Oh, wait, I already knew that. I guess Ben learned that I can beat him running!

I learned I have a pretty dedicated cheering section, even in 10 degree weather!

I learned that any picture of grandkids taken with my camera must have them lined up in two rows.

I learned that my nephews are growing up into some handsome, well-behaved boys!

But my nieces will always be cuter!

I learned what a 21 year age span looks like.

I learned that it hurts to lose at ping pong.

I learned that Grandpa still can't say no to a pinata.

I learned that it was pretty special to take my kids to one of my favorite temples, the Monticello, Utah Temple.

Thursday evening, I learned the story of the green windows at the temple. And I learned that my dad is still a great story teller.

I already knew I had a pretty great family! And the rest goes without saying.

My sisters Molly, Peggy and me in the middle.

My brothers Vaughn, Rex, Clark and Jay.

All of us with our spouses. Clark, the youngest, on the left and Vaughn, the oldest, on the right.

I learned that even though it's really hard to get everyone together at the same time in the same place, it is more than worth it. Thanks all! I learned I have alot to be thankful for. Oh wait, I already knew that too!

You be the judge...

With my help...

With Jerry's help...