Rock'N Lights

For Family Home Evening on Monday night we went to the new drive-thru light display in Old Settler's Park.  It was great for little kids, and there was a small carnival at the end.  When you pay to see the lights each child gets a free carnival ticket.  At the beginning there were a bunch of town displays, like the water tower and local businesses.  I thought this one was appropriate for us.

 

 

 

 

 This one made me think of my mom.

 We took this picture for Steven & Sarah, who live in west Texas.

 And in honor of our AZ roots...

 At the end they had a bunch of patriotic displays.

 This was the kids favorite part.  These lights moved in patterns and flashed all around you.

 

 Each of the kids went down the "fun slide" with their free ticket, even though it was pretty cold outside.

 

 Landon' didn't know quite what to think.  He didn't look scared, but he didn't look very happy about it either.

 

Pioneer Christmas Party

We had our ward Christmas party on Friday night and had a GREAT time!  It was a pioneer theme.  We learned to dance the Virginia Reel and Cotton Eyed Joe.  Connor, Savannah, and Jacob loved the dancing.  Landon was pretty overwhelmed with all the people and wouldn't let me put him down for a while, so I just danced holding him.  Zach wouldn't do any dancing that involved touching girls, but he had fun doing the line dance at the end with Sister Townsend.  

 

 

 

 Then we did some "stick pulling."

 

 There was lots of appetizers and treats, and a room with crafts for the kids.

 At the end Sister Millett let all the kids have a turn with her bells and led them through some Christmas hymns.

 Instead of Santa we had a visit from Mary, Joseph, and baby "Jesus."  I loved that it brought the real Christmas spirit.

This was probably one of my favorite ward parties.  I loved how the dancing brought everyone together, young and old.  It was nice to have a big open room with no tables too, because it made it much easier to move around and talk to people.

Jacob's Braces...Round 2

On Thursday, December 6 Jacob got braces on...again.  When he was 8 years old he had an expander put on the top and bottom, and then eventually braces, for a total of 14 months.  The hope was that it would make enough room in his mouth for the adult teeth to come in without crowding because he had a really narrow arch in his mouth.  But they had to take out the bottom expander early, and his bottom teeth don't have quite enough room.  His top teeth look nice, but one of his adult teeth came in rotated 100 degrees.  So Phase 2 started last week, and he will most likely have them on for about 21 months.  He's not too excited about it, but he said it's definitely better without the expander in there.  Hopefully he'll thank us someday.

Oh Christmas Tree

We put up our Christmas tree on Saturday.  This year it is absent of anything even remotely breakable, thanks to Landon being two years old.  But he is loving it nonetheless and rearranges it for us on a daily basis.  This afternoon I finished decorating the rest of the house while Landon was taking his nap.  He came out and said "Wow, Christmas!  Pretty, Mom!" over and over again. 

 

 

 

Can you tell how much Zach "loves" to have his picture taken lately?

Just to make you smile

Landon has discovered the dress-up bin.  Connor never really got into dressing up very much, so it's kind of fun to see a little Spiderman hopping through the kitchen again.  He also loves to play peek-a-boo.  He hides and then jumps out and yells "PEE-BOO!"  It's fun times here.

Biker Chick

Savannah has been wanting to learn to ride her bike for a couple of years.  But she was very nervous, and it didn't help that we live on a sloped street.  She's been practicing lately, but was always going too fast downhill or had a hard time getting fast enough to go uphill.  On Thanksgiving after my parents left I took Savannah and Connor over to the school parking lot to practice.  After about a minute she was riding on her own.  Way to go Savannah!

 Connor is very fearful about some things and has always been terrified of any bike taller than a big wheel.  He finally overcame that fear and was loving riding all over the parking lot.  I was so proud of both of them.

 

 If you went to elementary school in the 80's you might remember this.  It's called the "Flying Turtle" and I remember using them in P.E.  It's an old school version of a plasma car, but you have to work even harder.  I found this one at a yard sale and the kids love it, although they mostly just like to ride it down the hill and then carry it back up.

Thanksgiving 2012

 This was the first time we've ever had grandparents at our house for Thanksgiving!  It was so nice to have my parents here for a visit, and it was even better to have them share our Thanksgiving dinner with us.  We were sad to see them go after we finished, but they had to travel to my brother's house that day too.

 

 

 We have much to be thankful for this holiday season, including these five amazing kids.

Hiking with Grandpa

On Wednesday morning the kids and I went hiking with Grandpa in the Barton Creek Greenbelt.  Landon stayed home to play with Grandma.  Hiking is something that I always enjoyed doing with my dad, so it was fun to do it with both my dad and my kids.

 Jacob liked using the hiking sticks that he "won" at the family reunion.

 

 

 

 Savannah loves her grandpa and made sure she was holding his hand for the ENTIRE hike.

 Connor loved being the leader at the front.  At one point he found a huge leaf and used it as his "flag" to wave around while he was marching.

 After our hike we stopped at Zilker Park for a few minutes to play.  I just love that Connor smile.