Christmas 2011

Christmas 2011

 December 19th baking fest.  Did it all again on the 20th.

 December 21st gingerbread house.

 December 23rd nails are ready.  Bring on Christmas!

 Christmas Eve at grandma Bonnies and grandpi's with grammy and the Campbell's.

 Christmas day at home. Mom made Serbian brunch eggs with honey sausage and Trav's pan seared onions. And Travis made homemade donuts, yum! Had a wonderful Christmas with the Campbells and grandma Bonnie and grandpi and grammy. Were glad that we were all well so that we could share the day together with grandpi. Ella is hooked on Skipbo now. She and Shaila played it while they were here and now every day she plays it with mom or dad or Keira.

 Rapunzel Rapunzel let down your hair!

Good times - December 2011

The Griffeth's visited us today yay!  It was good to see them.  The Mills and Cards visited too.  All of the girls, and Tate, are getting so big.  The girls played together upstairs most of the time and then requested an audience for their musical numbers which included "Hark the Herald Angels Sing," "Jingle Bells," and many more.  Ella knew the words really well to Hark the Herald Angels Sing.  And Avery had a number of solos while Phoebe and Ashley had some super sweet dance moves.

Elf on a Shelf/Snowflake Lane/Go carts - December 2011

Travis and I have been moving furniture around since getting a new TV and we decided to put a bookshelf that was in our room into Keira's room today.  We put it in there today while she and Ella were watching Alice in Wonderland.  We threw a few things on the shelves but her room was still in a little disarray when she walked in after the movie was over.  It was lunchtime so a hungry Keira walked into her room and saw her new bookshelf and messy room and was not pleased.  She started to cry and dad tried to console her.  Referring to the mess, she told dad that this was his problem and he needed to take care of it.  She's getting bigger and smarter every day.

Speaking of shelves...we started Elf on a Shelf the other day.  Auntie Heather bought one for us and we named him Bixby (from the Dr. Seuss book "Oh the Places You'll Go!")  He has tried to play with the ornaments on our tree, eaten our mini wheats while watching TV, and tried to hide in a vase so far.

Last Thursday we went to Snowflake lane again.  This time with the Clark's.  Good times.  The girls were in love with baby Dustin.  And we all went to the Disney Store afterward where the girls played in the princess castle with mirrors.

And last but not least, today we were invited by the Mills to ride in their brakeless go-cart in the church parking lot. We all made it to the church and had a great time in some rare sunshine and warm spell. Keira wasn't sure of her go-cart skills at first because once you start in the cart you don't stop unless you hit the little lever down. It's simple but for someone who doesn't ride her scooter or bike often she was a little thrown at first.  Eventually she was riding circles around Travis.

Also pictured: Snowflake Lane with Jeff, Laura, Haley, Chase, and Dustin Clark.

Backfire - December 2011

You'll have to visualize the picture for this one because I did not have a camera.  Imagine Travis carrying a miffed Ella out of Sacrament meeting.  This story ended with two timeouts at home before returning to church late for Keira's first day in Primary.  So let's rewind.  Sacrament was going pretty well.  But Ella quickly exhuasted her drawing materials and books and was looking antsy.  So I thought it'd be brilliant to play a game that I used to play with my brothers and sisters in sacrament meeting hoping it'd keep her still and maybe she'd listen to the speakers.  But I was wrong.  Very wrong.  I'd played it before with Ella on my phone but on paper it was somehow more cruel.  You see I got a couple of squares after some back and forth and warnings to Ella about what to do and what not to do.  I wrote the "m" (for mom) in the middle of the two squares.  But I didn't take into account one very imporant detail.  You see, Ella does not like to lose.  All it took was those two squares to bring on some tears and a mini tantrum which meant dad gets to carry her into the foyer.  Usually when this happens, which is fortunately not very often, she'll return later or Keira and I will meet them in the foyer after she learned some sort of lesson.  But this time was different because not only was Ella suffering from Dots trauma but she also lost her shoe on her way out.  So now we have not just one mini tantrum, but a full blown, cannot calm down or listen to any reason and won't stop whining about her shoe, tantrum.  Unfortunately for Travis, I didn't notice Ella's missing shoe until long after it was too late.  So Travis had no choice but to take her home and later dispell me from playing dots with Ella anymore in Sacrament meeting:)  Well...I don't like losing either and am determined to turn this dots experience upside down and carry on the tradition;)

I later talked to Ella about what happened and knew that she grasped the concept when she told me that she was happy once when Keira won at Mickey Mouse Yhatzee.  Well, shortly after that we had another game of Mickey Mouse Yhatzee which Keira got two Yhatzee's in and Ella was happy for her once again.

Just Right Books - December 2011

Ella is your classic 'doesn't always tell me everything about her day' kind of kindergartener.  So tonight when I was tucking her in and a big deal to mom kind of story spilled out I was not suprised.  She showed me her pile of books she was going to read before bed which triggered my memory of reading Mrs. Orkney's newsletter today about what went on this week which mentioned just right books.  So I asked her if she got hers and she said that she got to read by herself when the rest of the class read poems.  I couldn't quite tell from our conversation if she did it in the classroom once and then in anther class or what.  But she said that she got to read and was able to do so even though Mrs. Orkney was yelling out other kids names while they were reading poems.  So I wonder if she mentioned it and then was able to go to another room the next time.  I really have no idea except that she also said Mrs. Orkney took her to another room with two other adults besides herself.  One was a teacher and another had gray hair kind of like grandma Bonnie's she said:)  She got to pick out which book she wanted and she chose a book called Bookstore Cat about a cat who owned a bookstore visited by people.  She said she finished it and that her reading level is "I."  She didn't seem to be phased by the fact that she was the only one singled out which i think is great.  I hope she continues to enjoy it and learn from it.

Also tonight, dad was making a yummy candy bar pie and Ella saw the cocoa powder and asked dad for a taste of it.  Travis warned her that it was bitter.  "What's bitter?" she says to which dad answers something like not sweet.  She still is adament about trying some and upon trying it makes a terrible face and whine that she does not like it.  Keira inhales some on accident and immediately starts coughing.  Life is sweet!