Letters to Santa

For Family Home Evening we wrote our letters to Santa. As you might expect, this was a pretty exciting night for everyone. After painstakingly narrowing our Christmas wishlists down to only two items we got to put them on our Christmas tree.

Normally, Santa's elves will sneak into our house during the night and whisk our letters off to Santa, but this year they must have had a very busy night because our letters were still there when we woke up! But you will never guess what happened... while we were getting ready for school those sneaky elves crept into our house and took our letters! They did it while we were awake and nobody saw them! We have no idea how they did it, but we are pretty sure magic was involved.

That caused no small stir in our house and, as a result of all the excitement and speculating as to how this feat was accomplished, we were late for school. Oops. Those elves even left a trail of cookies leaving our house. Now how can you not be late for school after something like that I ask you? The answer is, you cannot.

New Teeth!

Cruz has had a pretty rough week healing from his crash and waiting for his teeth to be fixed. Mara was such a sweetie and made him this...

I will interpret since it might be hard to figure out what some of the words are. :) 

It reads, "I hope you feel better soon. I hope you get back in shape. I love you so much.

I am so sorry that happened. I really hope that you get better by tomorrow.

I hope that you don't get hurt again. You are so so so so so nice to me. 

I love you so so so so so so so so so so so much. I am so so so so so sorry Cruz."

How adorable is that I ask you? Pretty stinkin' adorable! She loves her brother!

so, Cruz finally got to go in to get his teeth fixed today. He was such a trooper! It took quite a while and he held my hand the entire time. I have to admit, I rather enjoyed that part. :) 

So, without further ado, here they are...

Don't they look great?! The dentist did a wonderful job! 

When Koen saw them he said "Cruzy's teeth are fixed! You need to get me some 

teeth like Cruzy's!" Ha ha! After that he seemed pretty put out that Cruz's teeth 

are fixed and his aren't. I'm sure he can't understand why his are still gone 

if the dentist can fix teeth. Poor kid!

Ouch!!!

Today was a bad day. 

A really bad day. 

It started of like any other day. Get the kids up, get ready for school, out the door, and off they go on their bikes and scooters with their friends. Koen and I cuddle up on the couch to read a few books. Maybe 10 minutes pass and then there is a knock. I go to the door and what do I see?

Yep! (Only imagine more blood.) 

Check out those teeth (only imagine them covered in blood).

Face plant off his scooter onto a driveway. I'll let you in on something... teeth and concrete don't mix.

So we had an emergency trip to the dentist. It will be 5 days before he can fix them to give his gums time to heal. He is not a happy camper. Poor, Cruz!

Oh, Christmas Tree...

Today we did something we have never done before, we went to a Christmas tree farm to get our tree this year. We got to walk through hundreds of trees, pick the one we all wanted (no easy task!), and they chopped it down for us. It was so fun! 

TIIIMMMMBBBBEEERRRR!!!!!

Loaded up and ready to go!

Reflections

This year Kenyon and Mara entered the Reflections contest. Kenyon entered for music and Mara entered for dance.

Kenyon had to compose his own song. He has been playing just under a year, so that was quite a challenge for him, but he did it.

He did a great job and received an Honorable Mention!  I am so proud of him!

Mara had to choreograph a dance. She had some practice from last year when she entered in dance (and won). This year she won again!

At the awards ceremony there was a technical problem and they couldn't get the video of her performance to play. She was pretty disappointed, but I think the trophy helped lift her spirits.

They both did such a great job!

Violinist

Kenyon had his first violin recital tonight. He has only been playing for about 8 months. 

He worked so hard to get ready. 

He played 2 songs, Irish Washer Woman and Allegro. 

Great job, Kenyon! I'm so proud of you!

Beach Party!!!

For Kenyon's 7th birthday he wanted a beach party. I was very excited about that! He had a great party.

We had a seafood buffet with shrimp, fish n' chips, and "chicken of the sea."

There were Shark Attack cupcakes, octopus cakeballs, life preserver donuts, life savers, swedish fish, goldfish, and tropical fruit salad.

They played in the pool and sandbox. We had a volleyball net set up and we played volleyball with beachballs.

He had a great day, and his favorite gift was a giant "Wild Animals" book.

What a great day! Happy Birthday, Kenyon! I love you a ton!

Soccer

Cruz played soccer for the first time and absolutely fell in love with it. I think this season was just the first of many soccer seasons to come.

Mara's Dance Recital

Mara took a dance class and loved every minute of it. The day of her recital she was so excited and she looked so pretty. She is pretty shy, so I wasn't sure how the recital would go, but the shyness won out over the excitement. She did a few moves here and there, but mostly she just followed the other girls around with her head down. Poor thing, she was just so scared. But she still enjoyed her dance class and can't wait until she gets to start again next year.

She also loved the cupcakes she helped me make for the recital.

Red and White

We had a blast at the red and white game this year.

The family with Eric Weddle.

On the 50 yard line.

Mara was in heaven getting her picture with the cheerleaders.

Go Utes!!!