Christmas Traditions!

We ("we" being Mary's Family) have always celebrated Christmas starting on Christmas Eve. We have lasagna for dinner (we tried a Turkey Dinner one year, instead of the Lasagna and it just was NOT the same!) After torturing the kids by doing the dinner dishes and chatting a bit, while they bounce off the ceiling Waiting and Waiting to get to those presents!! We FINALLY open Family Presents!!

It starts out nice and organized-one present to everyone, open it, see what everyone got, then pass out another one to each person. After about 3 or 4 'rounds' it just becomes useless and it's make your pile of presents and rip them open!!

Whew!

Christmas Morning! The kids, amazingly enough, didn't get up until 7 (mom and dad were SO happy with that hour!) They got a pretty decent haul to add to their pretty decent haul the night before!

Nintendo DSs, DS games, Wii Games, PlayStation Games, Clothes, Lego Sets, Zhu Zhu Pets, Clothes, an iPod, Bakugan, and lots more! Mom & Dad were ready for a nap by 7:30 (Slept until 10:30)!!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

December 2009

December gets Super Busy!
Starting with the Festival of Trees-local clubs, churches, individuals decorate trees, display them at this function-the trees (and wreaths, gingerbread houses, donated gift baskets, etc...) are silent auctioned over 4-5 days. The schools, dancing studios, etc... perform on one of the nights!

Sophie and Katy clogging!

Another night is Katy's Band Concert. We were given the pleasure of sitting through the 5-6th Grade Band playing 4/5 songs, the 7th Grade Band playing 4/5 songs (Katy's Band), and the 8th Grade Band playing 4/5 songs! What Beautiful Music!?!

A younger Brother's take sitting through all of these bands! Aren't brothers wonderful!!

The Charter School the kids attend produced a Christmas Program, performed an Another night this month! The kids/classes sang, performed readings, skits, played instruments-the recorder and the harmonica, and danced (Ben had some MOVES!!-the Robot, Travolta's Stayin' Alive, the twist and more)!

Here is a video of Our Ben's Dance Moves!

Who Knew!!

And, in the middle of all of this excitement, Denny got his braces off!!! (We were quoted 12-18 months-Denny had them on for 23 months!) Katy was jealous that her Dad got his braces off before she did! (He did get them 9 months before she got hers!!)

Thanksgiving!

Denny's family came North & South to share Thanksgiving with us & Mary's Mom!

After dinner, before dessert...you know the point where you are SO stuffed you are afraid to move for fear that your pants will just give up the fight and let go at the waist band...
we sent to kids out to play, ride bikes, anything just to have a little quiet in the house and a little room to sit back, relax, and for some of us-to unbutton those pants!

Some of the 'big' kids (Uncle Matt) came back early to have a little wii Star Wars Light Saber fight, before the rest of the kids returned, and the volume increased 10 fold, and the other kids wanted to play, too!

We are SO Thankful to have family and friends that mean so much to each other, who visit and share, and play, and laugh with you and at you-that's what family is for!

Adults Only!

Denny decided to take the year off from reffing basketball. Yeah!
Instead, Denny decided to play Adult Indoor Soccer. The team consists of mostly hispanic men, a few asian men, a woman or two, and just a couple of white guys (I'm classifying Denny as a white guy here!)

This is his practice 'uniform'!

He's SO color coordinated!

I will post some more pics of actual practices and some games as soon as they start playing the games!

Birthday Boy!

As luck would have it, a "kids" movie was released to theaters on this weekend! So, instead of the annual Bowling Birthday Party, Asa opted for a Movie Party!

Asa invited nine 10-11 year old boys!

There was NO way I was keeping ALL of these boys here for long, but we need a place to 'do' the presents and cake...

Then we loaded everyone in to the vehicles and took them to the theater, where I didn't mind if they made a minor mess!

The featured film: The Christmas Carol! (I won't go into a full movie review, I'll just say-it would have been better viewed in 3D! But, the boys all liked it!)

Fall 2009

Sophie was the only one playing AYSO soccer this season! Of course, Denny was her coach!!

The boys played basketball!
This was Asa's second year playing, and he did pretty good (once he got over his allergies-he had some serious breathing difficulties the first 2 1/2 weeks of practices and games, coughing and wheezing to the point that he didn't make practices or games those 2 1/2 weeks!) His average, once he got to play, was 3/4 baskets a game!

This was Ben's first year and he learned about running while dribbing! He did try a couple of attemps at shooting a basket, maybe next year he'll make a few!

Katy's competition team, INDAR, went to 3 tournaments in October: Boise, Id; Reno, Nv; and Las Vegas, Nv. These photos are from the Vegas Tourney!

Do you remember those Funny Home Videos of the liter of Kittens watching something go back and forth, and ALL of there heads would turn at the same time?

During the Team Pictures at the tournament, something happened of to the right and nearly ALL of the girls looked at once, just as Denny snapped the picture!

And HALLOWEEN!

Harry Potter (Ben)

The Penguin {from Batman} (Asa)

A Mongolian Child (Sophie)

and a Teen Girl Vampire (Katy)













Halloween ends up being a 3 day ordeal here in Nv!

Thursday was the 'last' day of school before Halloween, so it was Halloween Party Day at school-the kids dressed up and got to eat lots of candy and cakes and sugary sweets!

Friday was the day before Halloween, and the weekday off to celebrate Nv Day. There was a parade through town, Sophie got to ride on the Girl Scout Float with her Daisy Troop! Trick or Treat St started today-this is a fire department coordinated/sponsered thing where local businesses 'rent' a door and this fairly elaborate 'faux' city. The kids walk down plywood 'sidewalks' to each door and they Trick or Treat-the businesses hand out More Candy!

Saturday-Halloween Day! Once more, the kids got to go Trick or Treating in the neighborhood! Amazingly, the weather (had been in the 40's Monday, Tuesday & Wednesday) was Nice-no wind, nice 64 degrees at 5pm--Yipee!! No heavy jackets to hide the costumes this year!

First Day at a NEW School

Asa, Ben and Sophie started school today, 2 week after the County School District. They started a New Charter school in town and these 3 are lucky enough to be some of the first students to attend!

We know Ben's teacher really well, and the kids know Sophie's teacher as she was a sub at their old school. And all of the grades (it is a k-8 school) are learning Spanish, built in to the curriculum! And they have Uniforms! Made school shopping nice and easy and a little easier on the pocket book!

The kids were All VERY excited to go to school today. I think they were a little bored with all of their friends in school already!