Piano recital

These kids had their piano recital this month too.  All of the three oldest played hymns and Seth played Go tell it on the Mountain.  Ada's was It Came Upon a Midnight Clear, which I think is the hardest Christmas hymn.  She had so many finals and stuff for FBLA so she didn't get to practice a ton.... and still she did marvelously.  Evelyn played Joy to World. Sam played I Heard the bells on Christmas Day. I love seeing them learning and growing.  I LOVE also that they are developing the skill of making a mistake publicly and continuing on anyways.

 

Ada's the cutest conductor

 

Polar Express

Ada's FBLA club has a certain amount of volunteer hours that they require.  This year they answered Santa letters for local elementary schools and hosted a Polar Express activity for the Police and Fire Department.  Ada was one of the conductors.  She stamped their tickets and took them all on the train from station to station.  It was a lot better put together than I thought it would be for a high school thing.  It was cute.

Rose, Evelyn, Ian, Seth, Jack

Ada the conductor

Ada, Jimmy, Lucas

 

Randomness

In the last couple weeks, we got Ada new glasses, I went to Sarah Komen's voice recital.  She's got a nice soprano voice.  Ada did her first ever self portrait for her drawing class final. And just a quick picture with my latest baby. I've had all baby girls in the last 3 years.... but now I have this baby boy and a new one starting in Feb.

 

Provo Pioneer village Christmas

This place has my absolute favorite Santa Claus ever.  He's old timey and looks more authentic than the others that I have seen. My friend, Beth, invited us to go to this with her and her kids this year.  It was nice and warm.  It was fun.

Jer told Ada and Sam that if they sat by Santa, he would too.

Blacksmithed candycane.

The family learning how to do Scottish reels. Evelyn especially loved it.  He smile while everyone was dancing together!  I loved hearing Jer laugh so happily and I wish I could keep that in my heart forever.

At the park on the way over.

 

Ward Christmas party

 

At the beginning of the month, we had a Ward Christmas Party.  I didn't really want to go.  There's so much to get done and it was on our "free" Saturday.  It was fun though.  I helped the Primary perform Silent Night with bells after one practice.  Yeah, it wasn't great, but they had fun.

The people that showed up in plaid.

Thanksgiving Point Luminaria

Nellie invited us to go to Luminaria with her and Robert this year.  It was nice and warm... during the day it was 45* so it was a perfect night for it.  Despite two of our four starting with tired/angry days, we had a great time.  We'd never been to this before, so it was fun to see the gardens all lit up. 

These tulips were my favorite.

Robert and Janelle

Me and Nels

Sam and Seth

Miss Evelyn

I think this tunnel was my favorite of the 4 tunnels.

This part was neat.  If you step on the disks, they change color. We tried seeing how many we could get to change to white at the same time.  

The Light the World Garden was pretty.  I always liked the wispy tall grass around it, but the floating lights was a perfect addition.

Chocolate soldier

Evelyn's turn taking pictures.

Ada's turn taking pictures

The kids loved the xylophone.  Especially Sam. A little girl stayed to have a turn with it and didn't realize that her family had left.  We helped her catch up and she was relieved.

Seth was stoked that there were reindeer!

There was some neat shadows that I wanted to see what we could do.... Ada was tolerating me taking her picture and said, "Hey Mom, look. I'm a Vogue model." She made the most serious face.  It was funny and I took her picture. This is her making faces at me and standing right next to it.

The kids called this the D20. 

This is the lighting when the d20 is spinning because Seth is spinning it.

This is when it's held still and Ada isn't right next to it.

The biggest tunnel.  Evelyn said that it felt like we were walking through the end credits.

There was a scavenger hunt.  Sam did it with Seth.... Seth was so excited about it.  He found all the letters.