I bought all of the ingredients to make Oreo Truffles for our neighbor gifts but decided at the last minute to go with something safe and pre-packaged. I'm not a baker and didn't want to have my first attempts be for neighbor gifts. Too much stress of not knowing how they would turn out. But I did have a great time making these with Hadley and the family loved them so who knows, maybe I'll be braver next year and attempt some homemade goodness.
The oreo balls start out looking more like reindeer poop than dessert but just wait until they are rolled in the white almond bark. Yum!
Hadley and Sylvie loved piping on the chocolate and got very creative with their designs.
They took a picture of the ONE truffle that looked good enough to give away.
I really over-estimated my abilities as a mother with this activity. How hard could it be to take all six kids to the dollar store by myself and let them choose some gifts for their friends? Um. In case you still aren't sure, it's really hard, maybe even teetering on the edge of losing my mind for a moment. The aisles are tiny. The shopping carts aren't meant to be used as strollers and are too small to hold children. All of the kids were having the best time ever. Bouncing balls down the aisles. Blowing these awful horns (so awful that Jack and Ryan picked them for part of their friends' gifts. I am so sorry to the families who ended up with the horns!) that only added to the chaos. And they were the big kids. The ones who said they would be my helpers in the store. We made quite the scene. And it didn't help that I was taking pictures of the chaos. Just made it look like I was enjoying the madness and actually welcomed it.
We managed to get some of the shopping done and left as quickly (not quietly) as we could. Then headed over to Target with extra appreciation for bigger aisles and shopping carts that hold kids. Morgan, Griffin and Mia all got strapped into a shopping cart and we were on our way.
Maybe you didn't notice Jack's helmet hair. I won't feel badly if you noticed. It's hard not to miss. I think he finally realized it was time for a change. So when my cousin called and said she could cut my boys hair if I could get to the salon right then, I immediately piled the boys in the car, pajamas and all.
Jack went first and decided he wanted to cut it short. All or nothing for this boy.
The before
He tried out the mullet. Not his style.
But it was definitely his dad's style back in the day.
The after.
Ryan's turn. He didn't care what his hair looked like. Just wanted it short. Really short!
The before
The after
Jack and Ryan found this great book of hairstyle ideas while Griffin was getting his haircut. They felt a little jipped that they didn't find this book with all the cutting edge styles before they chose their cut.
My three sons all ready for Christmas with their new haircuts!
Hadley made a Christmas FHE (Family Home Evening) kit with her Activity Girls group and was so excited to share it with our family. She had to wait a week to do it since we went to Temple Square last week for FHE. She started preparing first thing in the morning, getting everything ready for the night. She made the treat (brownies) that afternoon and then it was finally time! We each got our parts and read different sections of Luke 2 together and sang Christmas songs together. It was a really nice Family Home Evening and perfect for the week of Christmas.
Piano Lessons. It's such a love hate relationship for me. I hate the part of enforcing the kids to practice the piano and the battles that always seem to follow. Life is so much easier when there isn't piano (like when we take the month off of piano in summer. . . ahhhh, nothing compares!) but the guilt of having them quit is overwhelming. For whatever reason I just can't do it. So they continue to take piano even though I know some months are just a waste of money and the time needed to practice just wasn't there. Busier with football, school, soccer, whatever else and they didn't have the time they needed to dedicate to piano and I didn't have the time to sit down and help them with their songs (not that I could help Jack. He's long since left me behind.) but at least they are progressing, even if it is slow and steady. It's progression and that really is more than enough! And the big reward for all of their hard work comes once a year at their piano recital. They each played two songs and did a great job. And we are all now enjoying the two week break for Christmas vacation.
Grandma, Grandpa, Morgan, Griffin and Gavin excited to hear all of the talent!
Ryan got to go first. He was so nervous. He kept saying all day that he just couldn't wait for tomorrow. Knowing this was all behind him. He didn't really practice his songs until the day of his recital which probably didn't help calm his nerves. And of course he pulled it off like a champ!
Hadley had quite the time getting her recital songs. The first Christmas song her teacher gave her was a little advanced for her but something I knew she could learn with practice. She didn't even want to try and surprisingly, one day when it was time to practice, that piece of music just disappeared. The next week her teacher had to give her a different piece because the one that disappeared was her only copy. The new was full of octaves that her little fingers couldn't even reach. It was much harder than her original piece and I could tell one little girl was regretting the "disappearing music" from the week before. She practiced it for a few weeks but it was obvious it was going to take a few months, not weeks, for her to master the piece. So her teacher gave her two songs she already knew and changed the title of "Country Hoe Down" to "Christmas Hoe Down" and she was set.
Jack is busy with school homework and practicing the trumpet and piano every night. He does better with his practicing some weeks than others. He's usually trying to fit in all of his trumpet practicing the last week of the quarter and staying up until late hours and waking up early to fit in 20+ hours of trumpet. His recital songs were beautiful and he continues to learn and grow in his piano talent!
Why it that whenever you have a camera in your hand and you're trying to hold really still that your kids decide it's the perfect time to hang on your legs and talk to you? And not sure what happened to the sound while I was taping Hadley. Must've (is that not a word? It's showing up on my spell checker. Oh well) had my hand over the mic. Enjoy! I kept it short just for you.
We went directly from the piano recital to my extended family Christmas party. It was a little different this year. It was our first year without our Santa and we felt his absence. I spent most of the weekend putting together a DVD for the party. Footage from 1969 through the previous Christmas. It just reminded me how lucky I am to be a part of this amazing family. The memories and traditions of Christmas are so valuable to me. My childhood memories of Christmas always go immediately to my Grandma Norma's house on Christmas Eve. Sitting on Santa's lap. Sharing in laughter with my cousins. Eating yummy food. Being all together. So the tradition continues in it's own way. Santa got too old after 40 years of coming to our Christmas party and it just didn't seem right replacing the real Santa with one of his helpers. At least not yet. We still gather together. My aunts and uncles. My cousins. Their spouses and their children. It's crowded but it's full of family and just the way Christmas should be celebrated.
This year we had two new little girls join the party. Aren't they the sweetest little things?
My little one couldn't get enough of them. This girl LOVES babies! Really loves them. And she does really well holding them until it's time to give them back. Then she gets overwhelmed with her excitement and screams. It always scares the sweet little baby (and whoever is near). Thanks Doree for letting Morgan fill her cup up with baby love this night. It means so much to her!
There's lots of eating and catching up too.
And then it's time for the Christmas program. We used to do the program when we were young but now our children read the parts. I love seeing the tradition continue with the next generation. And it's impossible to do this program without fond memories of Grandma Norma. She cried through the whole program. Every year. Overwhelmed with the spirit of Christmas and love for her family. Oh how I miss my cute Grandma Norma!
Morgan read the last lines of the program. I don't know if anyone else could hear her soft words but I know I loved hearing her read about the birth of our Savior.
Instead of Santa . . . we had Christmas crafts.
Bracelet making for the older girls.
Sticker nativities and snowflake ornaments for the younger kids.
It's not a Christmas party without a forced picture. Jack and Ryan had been playing basketball in the court and were a hot, sweaty mess for this picture and not excited about putting on their sweaters to pose for this picture but they did it. They grow up too fast to not get a picture (even if it's forced) of all of us together every once in awhile.
P.S. The DVD was the hit of the party. The old, never seen before, footage was perfect for the evening even if it did make it that much harder not having Santa at the party!
One last performance. The big concert she had been waiting and preparing for all month. Hadley did a fantastic job once again. The whole family went to this performance and the little kids actually did really well for how long this show was. It seemed to just go on and on and . . . on! Hadley's group performed for about 15 minutes and then the other groups performed. Two and half hours later it was over and the kids were ready to GO!
Hadley with her biggest fans! Of course her biggest fan is behind the camera. Love you Hadley!
We got lots of snow last week and the kids were so excited to get all dressed up in their snow clothes and go play and roll around in it.
It snowed for a few days and then it started warming up again. Gavin knew it was now or never if they were gonna make that snowman.
Morgan took a break from the hard work of rolling the snow for some basketball action.
She's actually pretty good. Gotta love the squat.
Look at that air and form!
Now back to helping with the snowman. She did not like the frisbee on the snowman and kept pulling it off. Griffin was not happy with the dismantling of his snowman.
Morgan kept taking snow off of the snowman and eating it. Which usually wouldn't be a big deal but check out that snowman full of leaves, yellow snow and dirt. Gross!
The finished snowman. Shameless advertising for the neighbors. Wonder who had the great idea of using Allstate frisbees for the buttons?
And check out the life-like arms and hands on our snowman!
