Our Tree Tradition

We love our tree picking tradition at Helvetia Tree Farm. We've gone for about 6 or 7 years now. And it's the only place the girls remember getting Christmas trees from. They really got into it this year and had a lot of fun.

Angela found little stumps to sit down on...
Natalie found trees to practice violin on...

...and Sarah pretended the trees were alive and had quite the conversations with the little ones. I don't remember exactly what she was saying or pretending with them, but at one point I heard some chuckling and looked at a nice family who were enjoying the "show". They smiled and pointed at Sarah, who didn't know she had an audience.

It was a beautiful and warm day - we probably didn't need all the gloves, hats and scarves, but it's tradition! And looks cuter for the pictures!

Natalie wanted this little one. Maybe in a few years... Although putting lights on it would be a breeze!

This was the coolest part! As Mo* and I were carrying the tree back to pay for it, a nice man came by and picked up our tree AND our girls for a ride! Mo* and I enjoyed a nice leisurely walk back as we listened to the squeals and laughter of the girls taking the "long way" back.

The girls liked this Santa on a motorcycle and wanted a picture.

A fun extra - it started snowing! Well, not really - it was a "snow" machine. The little "flakes" were actually itty bitty suds or soap or something. They probably didn't taste too good, but the girls still loved to catch them on their tongues. I wasn't going to ruin the magical moment by pointing out they were eating soap!

Crimson From Head to Toe

There is one game that I anticipate the whole football season as many other U of U and BYU fans as well.

Thanks to my little sis - I was able to dress from head to toe in my team colors. I got my new hat just in time to surprise my resident BYU fan on game day. (o:
Ned* and I anticipate the big game and always make an event out of it. We have fun, but when the game actually starts . . . things can get a little tense in our house as we cheer for our opposing teams. (o: The girls feel a little confused and roll their eyes a lot.

This years game was a sad one for those who cheer for the red team. )o: The Utes came close and even tied things up at the very end, but somehow those blue guys pulled off the extra points first. DARN! There's always next year.

And I just want to say a little thank you to all my dear BYU fans who called or e-mailed to rub in the win. I will be sure to return the favor next time! (o:

Feeling Thankful

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving with one of my bestest friends, Tina, and her cute family! The kids read a fun story together in the living room while we finished food preparations. Our kids have known each other for so long, they get along fabulous. It was a very relaxing afternoon and the kids were so good.
Baby Maddie slept through most of the celebrating. Sarah even made a cute table place setting for her and set it by her carseat.

Taylor always hides when I pull out the camera. (o: But I got him!

Sarah helped make these cute place setting nametags.

Natalie and Connor ready to devour lots and lots of rolls. Seriously. A lot of rolls!

Ned's* famous rolls that disappeared quickly. (o:

Natalie liked the idea of getting the drumstick, but really didn't each much of it.

What a fun dinner we had together!

I am so grateful for such a wonderful friend! I'm glad we could spend this holiday together!

Gymnastics "Graduation"

I mentioned earlier that my friend and neighbor, Rebecca, and her daughter teach a little gymnastics class in their garage. She's got quite the setup and my girls love to go play at her house. It's wayyy more fun than our house. Angela smiles and giggles with joy through the whole class. She absolutely LOVED it!
The tongue is key to balance.

Rebecca said that Angela was very nervous to hang upsidedown and this was a huge act of courage on the last day that I attended. Yeah!

There's a smile.

Hannah is so cute with the girls.

Party Animal

Check out my friend Kelly's house the night of her New Moon party!

Can you tell she is a super fun hostess? Kelly is the biggest Twilight fan that I know. She has hosted several parties now - every time a book or movie comes out. She reserved about 60 seats in this theater (below) and ended up having to get even more. It's so fun going to opening night of a movie with so many friends. Before the midnight showing we all went to Kelly's for a showing of Twilight and some fun trivia games and yummy food.

Michelle came along too! What a fun night.

Missy sat on the other side of me. It was funny sitting between an avid Edward fan and a practical Jacob fan and hearing the comments from them throughout the movie. I am impartial, it depends on my mood. Typical me - I can't make decisions. We had a lot of fun and got home from our partying at around 2:30 a.m. It was hard to wake up at 6:30 the next day, but I got to take a nap while Angela watched morning cartoons after getting Sarah and Natalie on the bus.

Mother Daughter Night

I got to join Sarah for a lovely Mother/Daughter night with her activity day friends. I remember being the activity day leader when she was a baby. Tina and I would host similar activities for the girls and their moms. It was fun to be a participant this time. I can't believe how fast time flies. Sarah was a wonderful date. The girls sang "I am a Child of God" for us so sweetly. We played some fun "get to know you" games and had a very nice dinner. We played a game that tested our ability to remember what our "date" was wearing. (the girls left the room) We almost won and Sarah was really ticked off that we weren't the winners. She is so competitive. So for part of our "date" we had to have a talk about being good sports and just having fun. (o:
I love my cute Sarah. Who wouldn't love a face like this?! (o:

Too Cute

Angela has discovered this princess eye mask and uses it a lot lately when she goes to bed. (o: It works well for kids who have parents that take pictures of them when they're sleeping. It helps to block the flash. (o: But the mask is so cute it causes parents to take even more pictures of them while they're sleeping, so it can kind of backfire.
Angela was determined to be in charge of the treat for family home evening one night. She had an idea in her head and this was the result. She wanted to make a treat that looked like the scriptures. A graham cracker with yellow frosting and licorice, that I think represented lines of words. I thought that was pretty clever. (Although it sounded really gross to eat.)

Sickness, a Movie Night and Good Luck

I considered myself very lucky to get through the week of jury duty with no illness during the height of the swine flu "epidemic". Just a few days after jury duty, Nat woke up with a fever and I figured my luck had run out. It turned out to be nothing more than a fever though. Unfortunately, this meant that Natalie missed the school movie night that she was so looking forward to. She and daddy had their own movie night with Angela. Sarah and I went so that I could help the Booster club.
Our Monsters vs. Aliens night was a big hit.
This was our first time trying a movie night and it looks like it will be a new tradition.

I "helped" Terri and Angela at the popcorn station. Actually, I think I got in the way more than anything, but I learned how to use this baby. We had a hard time keeping up with the huge, huge line of people wanting popcorn! Check out our new snazzy hot pink T-shirts.

Good Job Nackie!

Melvin* and I have been so proud of the progress Natalie has made this year in her reading and math! She is just taking off and doing great work. Last year in Kindergarten, she was not really that interested in doing her work. (Which, thankfully, isn't a huge deal in Kindergarten.) She just had more fun daydreaming, socializing and playing. Again, totally acceptable for a Kindergartener. But this year, she has started to really take pride in doing a good job and becoming a great reader. We are so proud of the good little student she is becoming. I have been especially surprised how well she remembers which days she needs to bring library books back (I always forget) and which folders she needs to bring home and papers she needs to return. She is becoming so responsible! Great job Natalie! (o: What a cute first grader!
One thing about Natalie that I don't think will ever change is her nurturing side with animals and babies. She loves all creatures - even little frogs and worms we find in our yard. (o: Note: the funny marks on her nose are from a Halloween tattoo - they are ghost eyes that she put on her nose. What a nut.

One of the reasons I am able to do so much catching up on my blogging this week is because Natalie has been sick for two days. Poor baby. Luckily, it's just been a strange fluctuating fever and she doesn't feel too miserable. I worried that we might have been hit with Swine flu, if so, it's not the big deal that the media is making over it - for us anyway. The worst part is she's just stressed about missing school. I hope you feel better soon sweetie.

Creative Spelling Sentences

Sarah has super easy spelling words this year. I loved the spelling curriculum she had in 2nd grade. It was very catered to each student and she learned some really hard words. By the end of the year, she was doing words I didn't know how to spell without looking. For some reason this year the district or school has all the kids doing the same words. It is a little frustrating because they are not very challenging for some of the students. A lot of the parents miss the spelling program from last year because it was tailored for each student.

Because they are easier, Sarah has taken a new spin on doing her spelling word sentences. Every week she makes each sentence build on the last and turns it into a story. I thought that was pretty creative. This was her idea and she really has fun with it. Here is this weeks list of 13 sentences. Some of the sentences are a bit of a stretch. (o:

1. Mom, I feel like I want to speak to you about something.
2. I feel the same way.
3. It seems like you have a secret your keeping from me mom.
4. At the most, yes I have a secret.
5. We should both have some apples and cheese and talk about it.
6. I know honey, but we're out of cheese.
7. We could ask our neighbor across the street for some.
8. The people across the street lie, remember?
9. Your right, we need someone we can trust to give us cheese mom, but who?
10. We could paint a poster that says, "We Need Cheeese!"
11. Hold on a minute, is that a cheese truck on the road?
12. You mean the truck with the birds floating it, yes!
13. Let's grab some cheese from that truck on the count of three, one two, three!

Super Twilight

Daddy is always doing something funny to make the girls laugh with the kitty.

Poor kitty.

Aren't they cute?

Here's a couple cute pictures of my girls - my bigger girls. (o:

This was the day I completed my jury duty and could finally talk about the trial. The girls were sweet and so interested in what happened. (or they pretended to be (o: ) It was nice to finally be able to talk about it. It was hardest to not talk with Buster*. I was relieved to move on with life.
We played a couple games that night too.

This was taken after our "rake and run" service activity. It was muddy and dark, but fun to help some of the people in our ward who have a hard time keeping up with all their leaves.

Little Violinist

Natalie recently started violin lessons with one of my very accomplished young women.

We have this family in our ward. They are very musically talented and perform all together often in the community and for our ward activities and programs.

Whenever they play in sacrament meeting Natalie is in awe. Most of the family members play a string instrument. During one performance, Natalie didn't even blink. She sat up straight and listened so intently. After she said, "Mommy, I want to play that." pointing to the violin. At the time I said that she was too young. Then I laughed when she replied, "She's little!" Referring to one of the girls who isn't much older than Natalie.

So I mentioned this to the oldest daughter, Heidi, who is one of my young women.

Recently, one of her students moved and left a spot open for Natalie so I jumped at the opportunity. We found an adorable 1/8 size violin on EBay and Natalie is LOVING violin lessons. I don't know much about violin, but she seems to be doing great and is willing to practice.

So far most of her practice is a bit tedious because she has to practice holding the bow and violin correctly. I've been worried that she would get bored, but she is eating it all up and taking it very seriously. I'm so proud of her! I hope she sticks with it for a long time.

We had a few issues of jealousy from Sarah when the violin arrived. It looks like so much fun, like a toy. Sarah played with it a couple times and the feeling of being jealous has faded. Sarah is very passionate about her talent in piano and likes the idea, that we brought up, of her and Natalie getting to play duets together someday on their different instruments. (o: (And Angela says that she wants to be the one to play the drums . . .)

Natalie demonstrating the correct way to hold a bow.

She can play the first part of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and it sounds so pretty! (o: Go Nat!

Getting Into the Swing of Things . . . FINALLY!

Well, the girls are getting used to the "new" school year. Natalie officially hates getting up early in the mornings, she is having a hard time with that one. Sarah doesn't like it either, but she is more used to it. It takes us a while to get going in the morning so we have had to start getting up around 6:35 now. It sounds so stinkin' early for little kids, I think it is so lame that the elementary kids go to school before middle schoolers and high schoolers, but that's a whole different topic. Anyway, despite the early hours, our morning routine is going much better and enjoyable. We usually have plenty of time once the girls finish eating. They have even started helping make their own lunches! I think we will be sticking with our new morning routine. It is so nice to have better quality time together before the girls head off to school. I think this has also helped with our issues that each of the girls have struggled with this year.

Natalie has really struggled with homesickness. I remember Sarah having this problem in Kindergarten and 1st grade too, so I'm not worried. Natalie would have several mornings in a row where she'd be almost in tears not wanting to go to school because she said she missed me during the day. I've tried to go into the school a lot this year to volunteer and that seems to help her feel better. She is also doing much better as the year progresses as she gains confidence in herself to handle all the social situations and problem solving that make her nervous when mommy is not around. We've had about two times where I've had to come in to get her because she had a tummy ache or something else that I'm pretty sure was more homesickness than anything. But the last couple weeks have been much better and I think we're finally in a "groove". Our trip to Disneyland probably didn't help. Oh well!

Sarah has had her own struggles with issues this year that has affected her school. Mostly to do with eating. She has started having issues with nausea so frequently that I took her into her pediatrician on her birthday to see if she was hypoglycemic. For the whole month of October, she had several episodes during the week of feeling nauseous and not wanting to eat just as she should be getting really hungry for a meal. It started happening before and during school, which was causing some disruption to her ability to attend and pay attention at school. So we had to solve the problem quick. The doctor was pretty sure it was not hypoglycemia, just more of an issue of not understanding body signals.

Now that we are at the other side of the issue, it looks like what would happen is that she would start getting hungry and it would turn to kind of a sick feeling quickly. I experience that if I get too hungry myself. She is so terrified of throwing up that any feeling like nausea freaks her out. So she would totally avoid food, which is what she needed to feel better. It was a vicious cycle and so hard to get food in her stomach so she'd feel better. Poor thing. The doctor recommended giving her more protein at every meal and for snacks to help her blood sugar stay more stable rather than drop significantly like it does if you eat mostly carbs. (Which Sarah does.) The change in diet has worked great and Sarah has learned to listen to that "funny feeling" as we call it now and do something about it before it gets worse. We make sure to have snacks and she even has one at school in the morning before lunch. Usually, a cheesestick or almonds.

Now that we have worked all these kinks, life seems to be going really well for Sarah and Natalie. Thank heavens this all got solved before my call to be on jury duty last week! I "lucked out" and got chosen for a jury on a criminal trial which has lasted a whole week! More on that later, but if we were still having the issues we had a couple weeks ago, I would be a nervous wreck leaving the girls and unable to be reached even by cell phone. For the first two months of school, I have kept my cell phone close and several mornings completely expecting a phone call from the school. I don't think any of us could have handled this jury duty thing when we were having all the homesickness and nausea issues. While it has been inconvenient, I haven't been so worried about missing a call from the school while I'm in court. Phew!

Just For Fun

I have a lot of talented photographer friends. One day, after browsing my friend Julie's website I was inspired to do some macro photography. I have my title of this entry linked to her blog if you want to see her work - it is really fun!