My own private concert

This girl asked me to find the sheet music for Little Drummer Boy and Christmas Canon. Then she gave me my own private Christmas Concert. I love to hear her play. Both of these were just the first time she'd played them. I think she did pretty well!

Little Drummer Boy

Christmas Canon (this one doesn't sound much like the song. It's written for a full orchestra, and this is just the violin part.)

Santa Pictures

Just the obligatory Santa pictures from our family Christmas party.

~Hannah~

~Seth~

~Lyra~

~Pyper~

Christmas Concerts

This year Pyper decided to follow Bugga's footsteps and play the violin.  She had her first concert on the 11th. Seth had his concert that night too. Since we've been to his before, and this was Pyper's first, we made him go alone. But don't worry, I have it on good authority that he did awesome as usual! I really do love to listen to him play his clarinet, and it makes me happy that these kiddos have musical talent. I always wished I had chosen to play an instrument! Anyway, back to Pyper's concert!  They played a few selections to show off their budding skills. It's been fun to watch her learn to play. (And I don't even wish for earplugs all that often!)  Pardon the shaky videos, I'm no cinematographer!

She reminded me as I dropped her off for practice that I couldn't forget her flowers! She got Whoppers, too! (Her dad rocks!)

Then on the 18th, Lyra had her orchestra concert. I really love to hear Lyra play. She's getting quite good. It's not uncommon for her to come home and ask me to find music for a certain song that her teacher has told her to try and play.  For her concert, she was supposed to play in a duo at the beginning of the concert. Then she decided to get bronchitis and miss a week of school, which is when she was supposed to learn to play the song. So,that didn't happen, but maybe next time!

It's a blurry picture, but I do love her bright blue violin. Besides making it easy to pick her out from the crowd, it suits her personality so well!

It's fun to see how much better these kids get from year to year!

Wisdom Teeth

Hannah got her wisdom teeth out on Friday, all four of them.  Today she's a little sore, but doing quite well. But, she did provide us with quite a bit of entertainment while she was sedated!  She made me come back and sit with her, then she decided I needed to take some videos of her. In the first one she thought it was really funny that her face was numb before she got her teeth out.

These ones were after she had her teeth out, while we were waiting for Lyra and Pyper to be finished with their appointments.  In this first one she decided she wanted mac and cheese and pudding for lunch. It was VERY important to her for me to take a video of her telling me what she wanted.So, I obliged. Of course, it was purely since she wanted me to, not to give myself something to laugh at later. (These two videos may or may not still be on my phone. I may or may not have watched them almost a hundred times, and laugh every single time!)

Then she was very upset because her tongue wasn't very long. It wouldn't stick out very far. I tried to explain to her that it just felt short because her face was numb, but she wouldn't believe me. (As a side note, it was like herding cats trying to get her to walk anywhere!)

I think the funniest part of the day was on the way home. I was driving and didn't get a video of it, but all of a sudden Hannah says, "Oh no!" She was very distraught, so I asked her what was wrong. She said, "I can't find my wisdom teeth!" I reminded her that we just went to the dentist and he took them out. Her reply,"Why would he do that? They were mine, I wanted to keep them and put them on my dresser!" Then she started to cry, and she informed me "I'm crying, and I don't even know why, but I can't stop!"

After we got home, I told her she should have a nap. She told me she wasn't tired, but she would relax in David's chair just to make me feel better.I set her up with some ice for her chipmunk cheeks, and tucked her in. (She was very needy! I'm pretty sure that has NEVER happened, not even when she was little!) Then I went to change the laundry from the washer to the dryer and came back in to find this...

Yep, she wasn't tired at all!

Halloween 2014

For Halloween this year we had~

Elsa from Frozen (SURPRISE! I think every girl in the US aged 4-10 was Elsa!)

A skeleton (She wore the costume Lyra did a couple years ago. She wouldn't tell me what she wanted to be until I had all the costumes sewn. So, she just used this one again. I'm good with that, it's one of my favorites I've ever done!)

A broken china doll (I loved this one too!)

And finally, Dr. Horrible from Dr Horrible's Sing Along Blog. This was my favorite costume this year. It was really fun to make and I was pretty proud of how accurate it was!

Lyra convinced David to "gorify" our yard and scare the trick or treaters. 

They put gross dummies all over, then dresses up and hid amongst them. As the kids came for candy, they'd move, or talk and scare the beejeebers out of them. I'll admit, there were some pretty funny ones!

She's an odd duck

We had some neighbors (The Cottles), who lived just through our backyard for many years.  They have a son, Johnny, who is just a few days older than Seth, they are great friends. A couple of years ago, the Cottles moved to Draper for work. We've all missed them, but none of us as much as Seth has.  Johnny comes to visit every time they come up to visit their grandparents, and they talk on the phone while playing video games ALL THE TIME! So this year for UEA, Johnny invited Seth to come down to his house.  To make it a real adventure, we decided he could ride the FrontRunner. ( I was really only OK with it because it was a straight shot from one station to the other, IF he got off at the right stop...which he didn't. But that's alright, he wasn't lost for long before Cristi rescued him!)  

After Lyra and I saw him off at the station, she HAD to have her picture taken in the poke-your-head-through thingies.  She may be an odd duck, but she's my odd duck. And life is never boring with her around!

Huckleberries

On Saturday we went to pick huckleberries. We must really like them, it was rainy and cold and we went anyway. My friend Jody and her girls came with us. It hailed, and rained, and was so very cold! But we powered through and ended up with quite a few huckleberries.

While we were picking, with our numb fingers, my Bug started yelling that she was stuck. What kind of a parent would I be if I didn't take a few pictures of her predicament before I rescued her?

After we came home and warmed ourselves up, we rewarded ourselves with dinner of huckleberry pancakes, bacon and sausage, and eggs.  We all decided that our very blustery day was worth it once we tasted those delicious berries!

First Day of School 2014

School started. We took pictures. Here they are.

Hannah~12th Grade

Lyra~7th grade

Pyper~4th grade

Seth~9th grade

It was actually a pretty big day for Seth. He's saved all the money he earned this summer and bought a car. It's a 1983 Camaro. David and I went and picked it up today while he was at school. He didn't know we had gotten it for him,so he was pretty excited and surprised when he saw it on the trailer. It'll be a great project for him to work on while he gets his license.  He's actually spent every day after school out working on it, and even bought his own tools!

Up, up,and away

While we were in St. George for the fair, we got to go on a helicopter ride. It was short, but very fun and pretty!  I didn't get great pictures, it was much prettier in person!

Pyper and I took a selfie.

Amy was busy taking pictures of her own.

Silly boys!

I don't know why I found this so funny, but these two boys are pretty silly when they get together!  Pyper wanted to teeter totter on this little plane, and they decided to join her. Then they had a little "flight" of their own. It was funniest watching them try to get their long legs OUT once they were finished!

Seth, Pyper, Michael

 Seth, Pyper, Michael

 Seth, Michael

 Michael, Seth

Puppy child

It was pretty slow at the fair in Filer, and the face painting booth needed a a volunteer to get their face painted and then run around and play for advertising. Pyper volunteered.

SV Senior Ball

It's been a fun couple of weekends for Hannah. She went to the SV Senior Ball last night.  Her friends set her up on a blind date, his name was Nikhil. Their dance was a masquerade, and we found a fabulous dress.  It was a bit over the top, but perfect for a masquerade!  

David and I decorated the little gazebo in the park and I made them a fondue dinner. Wouldn't you know it, I realized I didn't take a picture as we were taking everything down.  But Pyper said it "looked fancy like a wedding place", so I guess it must have been OK!

I DID, however, get a picture of Hannah and her date!

It was starting to storm, and we were trying to get them out of there (since dinner was outside) before it got too cold, so I just snapped the one picture.

Today after church, we took these...

She even had sparkly gold slippers!

MC Senior Prom

My Hannah has a friend, Megan, from Cosmetology who goes to Mountain Crest.  It was their Senior Prom on Saturday night.  Megan wanted to go, and wanted Hannah to come with her. So Hannah asked our good friends' son, Micheal if he'd go with her. He may have a weensy bit of a crush on Hannah,so of course he said yes!  They looked pretty great, and had a fantastic time!

The carnival was set up for Health days, so Hannah and Micheal stopped off so that David could see them before they left.  They took a ride on the Scrambler. It had been rainy all day and it was SO cold!

 She had a hard time getting all of her dress in!

 Then Michael sat on it! She's telling him to scoot over.

 Cheese!

 And they're off...

We took a few pictures before they left.

These next three are my favorites. She got a phone call from Megan just as we were finishing up.  We had a little fun while Micheal was waiting for her to finish.

A princess and her Prince Charming?

She's gorgeous, I'm a lucky mama!