And today, when I decided it was high time I caught up, I went through all of my pictures and calendar and found a long list of things that go back months.
Here goes!
*In October (yes, I have to reach that far back), we took the kids to the BYU Homecoming parade. We barely made it as the parade started, but the kids loved it. Honestly, candy per minute, it can't be beat, even by Trick or Treating. Every float throws out candy by the handful. And it turns out that if your kids bring buckets for their candy, the college students all try and throw the candy in the bucket as a game and your kids get more than anyone else.
After that, we took the kids on a hike at Cascade Springs.
No one could guess where we had been that morning, I tell ya.
Someday I hope to have more than one child that knows how to look at a camera. Someday.
*My sewing table has been booked for months! Tyler's school did a huge Gala fundraiser the first week of November. Rather than beg random businesses to give donations, I decided I would rather sew things to donate myself. At first I commited to sewing an Elsa dress, but after I got a few hours into my fifth (!) Elsa dress, I just couldn't do it. Everywhere I looked there were Elsa dresses on every shelf for Halloween, and to be honest every parent I knew was a bit over the movie by that point. I'm fine with putting in the effort if people will appreciate it, but I realized that if I put in all that time and no one bid on that thing, I was going to be fuming.
So instead, I quickly made a few tiny things that . . . no one really bid on.
I made an Elsa purse and a Little Mermaid purse, and a Toy Story crayon fold up. I don't think what they sold it for covered the materials cost.
*Once I got that off of my sewing table, it was on to ballet. I added some tops to the snowflake costumes, and learned the hard way that dance costumes must always be out of stretchy fabric, no matter how cute the snowflake fabric looks. ("Are you making and Elsa costume?" the Jo-Anns lady asks as she cut it for me. "No, a snowflake ballerina this time." "Oh, thank heavens!" she replied. "Something different!" I couldn't agree more.)
Every picture I have of Kaitlyn is of her looking intently at her teacher in the wings.
After the snowflakes got their yoke and scarves, I turned to the more fun project. Kaitlyn's teacher couldn't find a Clara costume anywhere near her price range, so I got to make it from scratch. It was so much fun to add all the pretty lace and ribbons!
I wish I had a better picture, but the ones that the photographer that night took aren't back yet. I also wish I had a picture of Abby's face when she first saw it, because it was adorable how much she loved her dress. That makes it worth it!
*Kaitlyn also had a piano recital. Her teacher gave her a really easy song to play, so when Kaitlyn had it memorized quickly, I told her that perhaps she could play it upside down. Then the challenge was on, and sure enough, she was thrilled to surprise her teacher at the group practice with her new trick.
Of course, I realized halfway through her performance that I was holding the camera instead of recording it, so she had to do it one more time afterward so I could get it on video. She didn't mind that one bit though! She has been showing off her new trick to anyone who will watch.
*Kaitlyn's grade put on a "First Grade Sing" where the performed all of their Christmas songs. I can't wait until they rebuild her school and we have a bigger gym or an auditorium for this, because that tiny gym was packed to the rafters with families and chaos. Kaitln loved it anyway! (Middle row, far right in the picture.)
Kaitlyn also came home very excited one day, and told me all about how if they got to the school at 6:30 in the morning, she could be on TV! The morning news crew was making a trip around various elementary schools, I guess. I tried to talk her out of it, but in the end, we got up at the crack of dawn and headed down there.
She admitted afterward that is probably wasn't worth it. She mostly stood there, mildly scared of it all, and watched them.
*Tyler and I got to go see "A Christmas Carol" play one day, and then Tyler's school had a big Christmas party at a nearby trampoline park right before break. What an awesome party! It was a total miracle, but Daddy even managed to come. Normally he is working all day about 30 miles away, but that day he had something just after the party not that far away, so he was able to just head out early and play with us.
And there is nothing our kids love more than goofing off with Daddy. I'm never as good at that sort of thing, but Christopher gets in these places and is like a big, giant kid himself. It is honestly one of my favorite things to watch!
Slack-lining is harder than I thought. At least, I assumed that since it is so popular, it must somehow be easier than I would have guessed, but I don't think any of us made it too far.
Not that any of us cared too much. It was just fun.
The tiny one goes like an Energizer Bunny when she sees a trampoline! I got her a little 3' one in the house over the summer, and she adores that thing. So when we got to this place, she was basically doing this for 2 hours straight.
And the best part was that we all got to see Santa! He was SO wonderful with the kids. He had a wonderful costume and a real beard, and apparently volunteered his time to come and see all the kids at Tyler's special little school. They emailed us all beforehand that he was prepped on how autistic kids might react to sitting on Santa's lap, and not to worry.
Tyler was so excited that he just climbed on up, closed his eyes, and hugged him as tightly as he could. As a reflex, I apologized - Tyler honestly has hugged random workers in Target before, so I'm used to apologizing as strangers look around to see what kid is hugging them and why - but Santa just smiled. "You never need to apologize for that," he said gently, as he hugged back with all of his might.
What a wonderful Santa.
Tyler, by this point, knew exactly what he wanted for Christmas. He had become obsessed with the old Kindle I passed on to the kids a year or two ago, and was playing Plants vs. Zombies every chance he got. He plays "Zombie's brains", or Plants Vs. Zombies, every chance he gets. In fact, the other day, I had to stop the radio on the drive to school in the morning to listen because he was singing to himself as he played. He was making up words as he went - "Do not let the Zombies eat your only brains!"- to the tune of "Follow the Prophet". And when I went to his Thanksgiving celebration at school, I found Tyler's tag among all the "I'm grateful for food" or family, or other typical things.
Slowly, charging that Kindle became a harder task, though. We had to wiggle the cord juuuust right . . . and then, one day, it wouldn't charge no matter how we plugged it in. Tyler had a week of denial, and then quite a bit of mourning.
So when Santa asked what he wanted, he said "a new black iPad", since that's what he called the old tablet.
Kaitlyn had some ideas early on, but I told her that Santa knows her really well, and they had a lesson on needs and wants at school. Bless her heart, she told Santa that all she wanted for Christmas was a surprise and "Christmas Joy", which she told me meant she wanted a happy Christmas.
Jasmine might not have known how Christmas worked, but she sure liked Santa and his cool bells.
She loves Jingle Bells. (Sometime she seems to think it is a song about Tinkerbell.)
I took this video after Christmas, but it makes me laugh.
Whew! I think I made it to week of Christmas!
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