Snowed in for Christmas

We had a fun and quiet Christmas Eve at home. As is our family tradition we started with a reenactment of the Nativity. Each child picks a part and is given 5 minutes to find some sort of costume. I've included a picture of Ruth as the Angel and Kaitlin as Mary at the Enuciation. Ruth is quite the actress.

The rest of the evening was full of good food, crafts and games. Our family's favorite game is PIT and yes, we got in a few rounds right before bed.



We woke up to a blizzard Christmas morning. A real out and out blizzard that blew and blew until well past noon. We had to cancel our plans to visit my parents that day but we didn't mind so much. We had a great day playing with our new toys and enjoying a quiet Christmas day as a family.

The snow drifted up four feet against our house. Chuck and I shoveled, and Chaz helped a bit too. Later that day our Bishop called and asked Chuck and Chaz to join a neighborhood shoveling brigade organized by our church. They spent a couple of hours shoveling out the homes of people that needed it. Oh yeah! We were really feeling the Christmas spirit.

The next day we finally made it to my parents house. A drive that usually takes us a little less then 2 hours took us 3 hours that day. The highway was packed with snow and ice and we counted 14 skid offs or accidents along the way.

We enjoyed a fun day there visiting with family. Playing Apples to Apples, eating and the kids went sledding.


I don't know if it was the shoveling or wii boxing but my shoulders were almost immovable the day after Christmas. A sign of ageing for sure.

Let's Hear from You!

I got this idea from Kaitlin's blog. You come here to read about us, but we would love to hear more from you. So if you have a minute, please take time to answer some questions.

1)What is your favorite Christmas treat? (would you share the recipe if you have one?)

2)What are you doing for Christmas eve?

3)What fun thing did you do this holiday that you really enjoyed?


To show good faith I will now answer these questions.

1)I love to make toffee every Christmas. I have my very own original recipe and yes I'll share it with you at the end of this post.

2)We are planning Christmas Eve at home with the kids. Each child gets to choose one activity that we enjoy and we will spend the evening doing those things.

3)The funnest thing I personally did this Christmas was to sing the Messiah. The kids say that they've enjoyed making Christmas Candy (they didn't enjoy the Messiah so much).


Happy Birthday Jared!

Thursday was Jared's birthday. We celebrated by eating is favorite dinner (Hawaiian Haystacks), eating chocolate cake, and going to Chaz's piano recital.









Chaz's Piano Recital




Paper Craft instructions Coming Soon

Several of you asked for instructions on how to make the paper "palms" and the hat. It would be kind of tricky to type out instructions so I decided that I'll make you an instruction video some time this week. So check back!


Buttery English Toffee

1 lb. Butter
2 c Sugar
1/2 c Water
2 T Light Corn Syrup
1/2 c Almond powder*
8 oz Chocolate Bar
Chopped walnuts, pecans or almonds (optional)

Butter a cookie sheet or dripper pan, set aside. Butter sides of a heavy 2 quart saucepan. In saucepan melt butter, add sugar, water, corn syrup and almond powder. Bring to boiling. Clip candy thermometer to pan. Cook and stir constantly over medium heat until 290, soft-crack stage (15-20 mins.) Mixture will turn brown, be extra careful after 280 to make sure it doesn’t scorch. Pour mixture into pan. Let stand 5 mins. Sprinkle top with small chocolate pieces. Let stand 2 mins until chocolate melts. Spread chocolate, sprinkle with nuts. Chill until firm.

*Optional. This is the "“secret ingredient" in my toffee. Also, you will probably not find powdered almonds at the store. I buy almond pieces and blend them in the blender.

Note: Toffee must be loved like a child. It takes constant attention and patience. Make sure you have 30 mins undisturbed time before you begin. Once you start, there is no stopping until it is finished.

Holiday Band Concert

Chaz's holiday concert was great! Their last band concert was over 2 hours long and this one was only 45 minutes. But that wasn't the only reason it was great. Chaz is doing a really good job on trumpet (and we hope he decides to stick with it). For those of you not able to attend (all of you) you can listen to a short clip below. The clip is "Sleigh Ride" which is one of my favorites.

I love blogging! It helps us all be a little more connected.

I also sang in another concert on Sunday. This one was for Stake Christmas Sing along. (For those of you that don't speak "mormon" a stake is a group of congregations. In our case, our stake has 8 local congregations.) There was a large choir and a small orchestra. It turned out very nice.

Christmas is Coming

It is amazing on how quickly Christmas is coming. I've realized that just because I have so many hours to do things in, it does not mean that I can do everything in those hours. My mind can only be high functioning for so many hours in the day. I tell myself that I can just cut out my facebook time or reading time and then I can get this or that thing done. But it isn't true. I just can't seem to mentally stay "on" that long in a day. I hope this is also true of the rest of you - or maybe I'm just dysfunctional in that way.

The picture to the right is my Gaudy Ball Wreath II and it is my favorite Christmas decoration. I've often considered hanging it somewhere year round and even did that for awhile with Gaudy Ball Wreath I (which had a flawed construction so it only lasted 3 years before giving up the ghost). It is constructed on a wire wreath with a cotton stuffed tube in the middle. Green floral wire is run around the ring every 2 inches with Christmas balls threaded on the wire. I'm not sure how many Christmas balls, perhaps 300? Anyway, I love this wreath and wanted to share it with you.

Fun with Newspaper

Today Jared wanted a project. This is one I grew up doing. Isn't it amazing what you can do with 7 sheets of newspaper and 10 inches of tape? My mother is fantastically creative. What makes her creativity extra special is that her crafts/activities were always made from little or no money. I guess that is the only way to raise many kids on one income. Thanks Mom for passing on a portion of your gift to me and my children!

You Are Invited to a Lego Party

Jared had an early birthday party on Friday. This was his first "friends" party ever and he was very excited. His friends had fun building with legos, playing games and running an obstacle course in the back yard (I love 40's in December!).

I made his birthday cake. If you can't tell, it is a red lego brick, with two bionicles fighting on top of it.




I twisted balloons for the kids at the party. Every kid, even the girls, wanted a sword. Those are easy to twist so I was okay with that. The swords were the hit of the party, all-be-it noisy.








Who wrote Handel's Messiah?

Okay, so the title is a joke but Becky did sing in our community's Messiah choir on Friday. The choir sang highlights of the Messiah, followed by a sing along and then a visit from Santa and cookies.



Our choir was humble, but full of spirit. (I added a red arrow so you can tell which one is me) I sang in the choir with my old friend Kristen (see blog link to left). She is the one who turned me on to singing the Messiah almost 10 years ago so, thank you Kristen.

Our director, Michelle, just won the Relief Society music awards for 2008, so it was cool to be working with an up and coming LDS composer.

My new favorite Cookie Recipe.

Step aside Iris Moon! a new cookie has stolen my heart. This is a chocolate chocolate chip recipe came from allrecipes.com and is easy, has simple ingredients and is sooo yummy!

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups white sugar
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

DIRECTIONS:
1.Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2.In large bowl, beat butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt; stir into the butter mixture until well blended. Mix in the chocolate chips and walnuts. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets.
3.Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven, or just until set. Cool slightly on the cookie sheets before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Chuck felt left out of the last elf video so I made one just for him :o) Love ya honey!

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Thanksgiving

Ruth and I started Thanksgiving by joining a neighborhood "fun run" for the local Food Bank. What Ruth and I didn't know going into it was that the fun run was actually a 3 mile run, one and a half miles down, and then one and a half miles up. Undaunted, Ruth road her bike and I ran. We finished in a little over 45 minutes. It was a beautiful morning in the low 40's and it has just finished raining so the air was moist and cool. Although I was tired (and my legs ached the rest of the day) I was glad we did it.

We drove up to the farm where my parents live and spent Thanksgiving with them. All my other siblings had other obligations so we had the whole holiday to ourselves. We made a table cloth using block prints, then we went on a hike up the mountainside and the kids collected treasures. After a very nice dinner we wrapped up the evening cutting snowflakes to decorate my mother's house. It's a family tradition and every year we all try to out-do what was done the year before. While we were cutting snowflakes, Chuck set up the digital boxes on all their TVs. All-in-all a very fine and relaxed holiday.

Chaz and I cutting out snowflakes.














Grandma cutting Jared's favorite Thanksgiving food.















Jared and Ruth showing off the coolest thing they collected on their mountain walk - bones!















We would like to apologize to anyone who might be offended by our thanksgiving hats.


Black Friday

Yes, Chuck and I braved the black friday sales but we didn't get up until 8am. Off to Walmart we went and scrounged down some deals with the other thousand shoppers. By the time we got out of Walmart (unscathed I might add) we headed over to Target for one particular gift. Upon arrival we learned that the thing we were seeking were sold out. Disappointed we headed over to the Christmas tree area to buy a new tree (we tossed ours out last year "I'm not going to duct tape this thing again another year" I said in my wrath). As we wheeled our large tree box to the front to check out I saw an employed pulling a cart loaded with returns for restocking. Looking closely as we passed by I saw it! The thing that we wanted that was sold out. I chased the employee down through the crowd looking at $5 DVDs (pardon me, excuse me, pardon me), and finally getting the employee's attention asked if I could have something out of her cart. "Sure" she said "one less thing I have to shelve." Score!!!

Hair Cut

I got my bi-annual hair cut this week. The lady that does my hair always blows it straight to be sure she got everything even. This woman has some secret hero power with hair because I, for the life of me, can't ever get my hair to go this straight. Anyway, I'm including a picture for any that were wondering what I look like with straight hair.

Dear Edwina

All encompassing this week was the performance of Kaitlin's musical Dear Edwina. I served as stage manager, whose most important job was to change the 5 body microphones between the 15 kids who were using the mics for their musical numbers. After a rough start on opening night on Thursday, the kids really hit their stride on Fridays and Saturdays performances. It was really amazing, they seemed to improve exponentially with each show. I was so proud of all the kids (which I grew to think of as my own kids) and especially my own kid Kaitlin. I asked Chaz to help on Monday, as I had one scene change that required heavy lifting. He was good enough to come to every practice and performance.

Kaitlin wanted to add: "The shows were so much fun. It was very satisfying to perform after all our hard work. I really loved the people I was working with and now I'm totally sad because it is over. And my life is so boring now."

I don't yet have a DVD of the whole show, but Chuck was able to take a few short clips of a few of the songs that Kaitlin sang and danced in. We were so excited to have Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Kathy and Amy come down to see the show. I posted a couple other videos (not included in these compilations) on my Facebook page.

Here are Chaz and Kaitlin back stage.

Kaitlin (on the left in the purple) is dancing with a boy named Dion in the song "Put it in the Piggy."

"Wait one more second, I'm almost ready!" That is what Kaitlin thinks this picture looks like. Really it is her singing in "RSVP."

A cast photo. Kaitlin is in the center in the green.

We all had a great time!

Archie's Angel

After musical practice on Tuesday Kaitlin and I rushed over to the store to get the new David Archuleta album. Kaitlin was so excited she speed walked down the isle and snatched one off the display. She clutched it to her chest as we stood to check out and barely was able to part with it to have the cashier scan it. I swear her hands were shaking as she fumbled with the plastic wrapping in the car. When we arrived home Kaitlin refused to leave the car, locking herself in. From what I've heard of it it seems like a pretty good album (there were even some songs I liked). You can read more about this on Kaitlin's blog (link to the right - if you need to be invited email me or leave a comment and I'll let her know).

Twilight Cram

Kaitlin took a break from the Archuleta overdose to read Twilight. On Saturday afternoon she disappeared. After an hour or so I went looking for her expecting her to be taking a nap or something and I found her with my copy of Twilight. She read the whole book that day, finishing late in the night. I guess she liked it. (She also reads much faster than me evidently because it took me 3 days to read the book and I felt like I read it non-stop).

Dear Edwina Coming this Thursday-Saturday!

Dress rehearsals start for Dear Edwina on Monday and opening night is Thursday at 7:00pm. It will be a very busy week for us! Everyone is invited, $5 at the door. Come watch Kaitlin sing and dance, and watch me move a table and some boxes.

Chaz gives up the Shag Hair

Yes it's true, we have prevailed upon Chaz to give up his dreams of shaggy skater hair. I cut his hair on Saturday and it looks much better (at least I think so). Chaz has the thickest wavy hair I have ever seen. If he were a girl he would be the envy of all his friends, but for a boy, it just didn't lay down over his ears, it stuck out everywhere all the time. Sorry Chaz - it's the missionary cut for you.

Lego Batman

Jared and Ruth are off-track. We have enjoyed spending many hours playing the Lego Batman PC game together. In fact I think Jared and Ruth would play all day if I let them. Usually when they start fighting with each other I know it's time for them to take a break and do something else.

Hard Drive Attack! Emergency Transplant Preformed!

It's true. Our main computer's hard drive died this week. Chuck got a new one and he has spent all weekend transporting our files from the old drive to the new one. Our new hard drive is 500 Gig. That is really amazing considering the computer I had when we were first married was not quite 1 Gig.

Dear Edwina

Kaitlin's musical practices are in full swing with less then two weeks to go until her opening night. She has made a lot of friends and is really loving doing the show. It looks like I have a thespian on my hands. My role as stage manager has also gotten busier as I'm now required at all the practices and I'm trying to work out the sound design. It is a real challenge working with middle school students who all seem to have a very short attention span. But when I step back and remind myself that these kids are just 12-14 years old, it really is amazing that they are doing so well.

New Year Celebration

Chuck and Chaz got to be part of the making of the New Year Celebration video that the church is making to be shown all the youth groups around the world this coming new years. They said it was a really amazing experience. The filming was held at the Conference Center which seats around 21,000 and it was totally full of teenagers. The show included music, speakers and dancing. The video will be free to watch online starting in the new year but don't count on seeing Chaz, he was in the nosebleed section.

Reflection's Video

Ruth and Jared turned in their Reflections entries this week. Ruth entered a video, photo and artwork. Jared entered a song (that he sang himself), photo and artwork. I've shrunk down Ruth's video here. As always, a lot of quality is lost when shrinking videos but you should get the gist of it.

This week Mom is not feeling like doing the blog so Chaz and me, Kaitlin, are doing the blog,on a deal that Mom gets to review and edit before we can publish it.

Halloween Festivities

Kaitlin: On Friday Chaz and I had no school because of the end of 1st quarter. So, I went with Mom and Dad to see the elementary school Halloween parade. Jared's kindergarten class was right on time, but everybody else in the school was about half an hour late. I chatted with some friends and then went to join Mom. There were 17 Hannah Montanas and about 40 Indiana Jones.

Chaz: What are we going to type now?

Kaitlin: I dunno. What else have we done all last week? Your line.

Chaz: Whats my line? Don't type that. HaHAHAHa.

Kaitlin: Well, we carved pumpkins. You tell me what to type.

Chaz: UMMM....I think the pumpkins were very good this year. I especially liked my Indiana Jones duck pumpkin.

Kaitlin: So, tell the people what we carved in the pumpkins.Or about the size of the pumpkins. anything will work as long as it amuses the masses.

Chaz: Well. Me personally. On Halloween. I tried to watch all the Harry Potter movies. (distracted)

Kaitlin: I will take over now. I carved a Mickey Mouse pumpkin and then Ruth carved a Minnie. Jared did a Gromit and then added some shapes on the side of his. Chaz did a classic cartoon he draws in his boring classes at school, but the pumpkin was small and it didn't work out. in all they are very cute. Chaz left around 9 to go watch a HP marathon with his friend Spencer and didn't come home till eleven. Jared and Ruth and Dad went trick-or-treating and so it was kinda a Mom and Kaitlin evening. We sat in the front room and played 10 rounds of Boggle and answered the door. It was fun. The End.

My name is Becky and I approve this message.

Becky: I wanted to add that Kaitlin has started her own blog on the agreement that it be invited readers only. She has already invited some of you. If you haven't received an invitation, Kaitlin would be happy to add you (as long as you aren't a stalker she said). Just email or post a comment here if you are interested.

Three Videos

It's video night at the Family Circus blog.

1)Ruth Soccer Wizard...Yanni Style

Here are some highlights from Ruth's last soccer game.




2)Chaz's Band Concert

Here is a short segment of Chaz's last band concert. This will be his last performance on the French Horn as he is switching to trumpet from now on.




3)A Mouse in the House!

Chaz yelled from the bathroom today that there was a mouse in the bathtub. Chuck and I said simultaneously "a real one?" Listen closely and you will hear both Ruth and Jared begging Chuck to let them keep the mouse as a pet. Chuck then tells them that the mouse is "cat food."

Vakama Toa of Fire


I mentioned a few weeks ago that Jared wanted to be a Bionicle for Halloween. Well, I've been working feverishly on a costume for him. It was a fun challenge.



On Saturday Vakama Toa of Fire made is debut at our city's Pumpkin Festival. He entered the cotume contest. Unfortunately he didn't win (mostly store purchased costumes won in his category) but Jared still had fun. I, however, felt a bit robbed. After all that work to lose out to some kangaroo a mom bought at Costco was discouraging. Oh well.
























Primary Program


Today was my the Primary Sunday program at our church. 140 children sang and said lines for a 45 minute presentation. The whole thing went pretty smoothly. I had designed a system where children spoke at four different microphones. It all went well in practice, but during the performance the sound system started a loud hum, then the hand held mic I was holding went dead. I was on one side of the stand, and the mic was plugged in at the other side. So I dashed out the side door, ran around the whole chapel, entered in at the other side door and then went on the stand, crawling under the sacrament table in my dress to unplug the mic. It caused a bit of a commotion, but as soon as the mic was unplugged the humming stopped and the program continued uninterrupted.

After the program I was lamenting that we had had that problem. The technical aspect of the presentation was my job and I had felt as if I had blown it. Chuck cheered me up by telling me that everyone in the congregation had watched me jump up and fumble around under the table and then the loud humming (not feedback but static) stopped. He said that noone looked at me as if I had failed, but saw that I was so smart and capable that I was able to immediately act and correct the problem. So I ended up looking good... yeah... I meant for that to happen like that... yeah.

All in all, the program was a big success. Both Ruth and Jared had parts and they did a great job and they sang really well too.

Whew! I went home after church and took a nap.

One Night - Video

Today Ruth asked to see the movie we made last summer for a family reunion. We laughed as we rewatched it. I was amazed at how much the children have grown in just a year, especially Chaz. I've shrunk the file way down so you can view it. It looks a lot better on a bigger screen but you will get the gist of it.

Snow!

We woke up this morning to snow. Even now as I'm writing the snow is coming down. I'm not ready for winter. Ruth and Jared are excited though. This morning they were out playing in the snow. When Ruth came in she reported that the best tasting snow was on Chuck's truck. Yum!

Tomatoes

Have you ever heard that folk song about home grown tomatoes? It says something like "the only two things that money can't buy is true love and home grown tomatoes." In anticipation of the coming freeze and snow we stripped our tomato plant of all red tomatoes. I had enough to can 15 pints of crushed tomatoes. Oh they will taste good in spaghetti sauce this winter, but I will miss the sliced tomatoes with Italian dressing and feta for lunch. I haven't given up yet though, Utah is known for it's Indian Summers, so I've thrown a blanket over the tomato plants in hopes of squeezing out a few more weeks of those fresh tomatoes.

Learning to Speak Mom's Language

So this week I had plans to go out to dinner with some girl friends. I was talking on the phone while with one of these friends discussing where we wanted to eat. I asked her if she had any coupons and I checked mine and then we decided on a place. When I hung up the phone I found Jared with all my coupons out on the counter and a pen in his hand. He had written on the calender "Jared mom go artic cir." He then held up a coupon that he had found for the local burger joint and told me that he had found a good coupon so that we could go out to lunch together. See how well he listens to my phone conversations?? Looking into his expectant shiny eyes made my heart melt, and so on Thursday we went on a Mother/Son outing for ice cream at the Arctic Circle.

Happy Birthday Ruth!

In honor of her birthday Ruth wanted to write something on the blog this week:

Ruth: I WANT A E-MALL it was fun i got beads and bunnys and i had a b-day party i got enchanted move and a jernal it was fun love'ruth ;]

(Yes it is true, Ruth has been begging for her own email account and I haven't relented yet. I'm sure she will wear me down eventually.)

Ruth had a princess party that included making necklaces and going on a treasure hunt.


Kaitlin's Play

Kaitlin continues to practice for her Jr. High Musical, Dear Edwina, and she is having a great time. The dates for the musical have changed to November 20-22.

I've volunteered to be the Stage Manager for the show. I'm glad that I'm a stay-home Mom and have time to give to the school and the kids.

A note from Kaitlin: "Sometimes it get's annoying because the songs get stuck in your head and they play over and over and over and over and over until you go insane."


Conference weekend

On Saturday we went to our Grandma Snow's house for my great-niece's baby blessing (like a christening). We were able to visit with many of our family there and ate a lot of good food.

Twice a year all Mormons get to stay home from their regular church meetings and watch the Prophet and other leaders of our church speak. We call this General Conference. In Utah we get to watch this on TV in our very own living rooms! In Conference this year we heard a lot about trials and how the Savior will help us through them, and families and unity.

Here is a picture of the kids watching Conference.

Here is a picture Jared drew. It is him standing by the trampoline.

Jared, Soccer Wizard

I posted last week about Jared's soccer goal. Well, he had another great week at soccer. No goal, but still he was right in there. Last year he was always played the "tail of the comet" position (that is the kids just trailing behind the mob around the ball). Big improvement!




Outside the Window

What can you see outside Ruth's basement window? A squash of course.

Five Out of Six

On Saturday I went to my sister's house for a family gathering. My oldest brother and his wife had flown in from KY. We had 5 out of my 6 siblings in attendance. I also got to meet my new great-niece, Lydia.

Primary Program Coming

Every year our church's children's classes are in charge of doing to church service for a Sunday. This is called the annual Primary Program. We've been working on it all year and now it is only 3 weeks away! Yesterday I had 15 minutes to practice fitting 150 children onto the stage of our chapel for the first time. To put this in perspective, our chapel has 30 choir seats. Now where do the other 120 children and their 32 teachers sit? That is a good question! Needless to say my stress levels are a bit higher right now. I'll let you know how it goes.

This week Kaitlin has once again agreed to join me as co-writer of the blog.

Becky: Hi Kaitlin

Kaitlin: Hi Mom


Goal!!!!

Becky: Soccer was one of our family's highlights this week. Jared made his first goal of the season. It wasn't just any goal, it was a dribble the ball down the field, dodge around a defender and kick it into the goal, goal!

Kaitlin: Maybe it helps that he can see the ball.

Becky: Ruth made a shot on goal this week as well. She dribbled the ball down the field, dodged around a defender and kicked it...right into the goalie's hands. But it was still exciting!

Kaitlin: Great job guys!

Pizza

Kaitlin: A silly thing happened when we were making a pizza. Its not really important, but I'm gonna add it in anyway. So, we pulled the pizza out of the oven, and it had a huge bubble in it like a volcano! Too bad it soon deflated into a big hole in the pizza.

Becky: I thought the pizza looked pregnant when I pulled it out. I was disappointed that we didn't get a baby pizza out of it.

Canning Peaches

Becky: Here in Utah canning is a big topic of conversation. "Have you done any canning?" "Have you tried canning applesauce?" "I have a great salsa recipe." So I'm happy that I can say that I too have taken part in the annual canning. I canned 40 lbs of peaches. In the end I got 18 quarts and 2 batches of jam. Ruth was my biggest (and only) canning helper. She got really fast at peeling those peaches.

Kaitlin: Hey, I would have helped if I was there. You decided to do it without me. All the same, they will taste good in times to come.

Exclusive Photos

Becky: It seems that one of Chuck's sisters doesn't believe that Chuck could actually be doing all that recreational reading. I agree that it is somewhat out of character. She asked for a candid photo of Chuck in the act. This photo is not posed.

Kaitlin: What was he reading so much anyways?

Becky: This is the book "Five People you Meet in Heaven." Now he's reading the Tennis Shoes among the Nephites books. He just started book 3.

Kaitlin: Never read either of those. I wonder if they are entertaining. And its true, so I will restate, this photo is not posed.

We Have Talent!

This week for Family Home Evening (the one night we set aside to spend a few hours as a family doing fun stuff) Kaitlin organized a family talent show. We all had two weeks notice to put our talents together. We had such a great time at our talent show. Here are the highlights!

Note: Sorry to those of you (grandmas particularly) that can't see our videos :o(. I'll try to do some commentary as well.

Chuck impressed us all with is coin catching skill. This impressed the children very much and I've been picking pennies up off my carpet ever since.

Chaz played a song for us on the piano that he had only just learned 5 minutes before. He did this to show off his sight reading skills and so that we would hear something new (not something we hear him practice all the time). When he has time to practice a song, Chaz can play much more complicated pieces then this.

This is Ruth juggling. She must get this from my side of the family.

What I love about this video is Ruth's dancing in the background. This should have been Ruth's talent. The song I'm playing is "Leave the Pieces" by the Wreckers.

Jared invented this talent all by himself. He is swinging around a volleyball in a cardboard box. The trick is that the volleyball doesn't fall out.

Kaitlin showed us the dance that she learned this week for the musical that she is in at school.

Soccer Season

So soccer season has started again. Jared is playing on the same team this year. His uniform is grey and green. He is playing much better this year now that he can see. Last year when he started soccer we didn't know of his eyesight problems, and then throughout the season he was getting tested and all that. It really helps to actually be able to see the ball in soccer evidently. Ruth is on an all girls team this year, the "Pink Panthers." So far at the two games they have played they have been decimated (much like what BYU did you UCLA this weekend). We keep cheering things like "good effort!" and "you're doing great!"


All is Well

There isn't much more to say about our family this week. We are all fine.


Answers to Last Week's Game

Thanks to those of you that played our game last week. Here are the answers: The David Archuleta lover is Kaitlin (anyone surprised?), Our reader is Chuck (which is really amazing because in 10 years of marriage he has only read the Harry Potter books up until this summer), Bionicles is Jared's latest fascination (He asked me to make him a bionicle costume for Halloween - that should be interesting), The Guitar player is Becky (or me, I feel like Bob Dole when I talk in the 3rd person), Ruth is our Bunny lover (she obtained yet another stuffed bunny from a yard sale yesterday, that should bring her total up to.. well I don't know.. 123?), Facebook is Chaz's thing (he has like 100 facebook friends but he never talks to any on the phone or even talks about them at all - it makes me wonder if they actually exist or not).

Matching Game!

We haven't played any games on this blog yet and since it was a slow week I thought it was time for one. This game is called...

The What-We-Are-Into-Right-Now Game

I'm going to list six things that the different members of our family are really interested in right now, then in the comments, you list who you think is interested in which thing. (This won't be that hard)


1. David Archuleta
Since the release of the new single "Crush" one member of our family has been very excited about David Archuleta. This family member has even used David's Idol journey as inspiration to face challenges.

2. Reading
One member of our family has had their nose in a book. In the last month they have read The City of Ember, The People of Sparks, The Prophet of Yonwood, and they are now reading Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites and a book on improving communication.

3. Bionicles
This person is so excited about Bionicles that they set up a soda stand to make money to buy another bionicle. In addition to playing with the toys, they are also reading the book Tales of the Toa, and playing the online games as well.

4. Playing the Guitar
Even with the door shut to their room, this person's guitar playing can be heard throughout the house. This month they have learned "Unwritten" by Natasha Bedingfield, "Bubbly" by Colbie Caillat and "Leave the Peices" by the Wreckers. (The Wreckers are affectionately known in our house as 'Rock Bra' which is how their album is labeled at the library).

5. Bunnies!
Someone in our house is obsessed with bunnies. They have already planed out their Halloween costume, and are seen often drawing bunnies. You may also spy this person playing and sleeping with any one of many plush bunnies that they own.

6. Facebook
If you haven't joined facebook yet, it may be the very best way to talk to one particular member of our family (or perhaps, more then one, but this one especially). This person can be heard bragging about how well their flair are doing (they have one that has over 300 users and counting). They also are making new friends almost daily.

***************************

Dear Edwina

I want to congratulate Kaitlin who made the chorus of Dear Edwina, her Jr. High musical. The competition here is fierce, and it is great for her to have made it into the show when 20 other kids were turned away. She starts practices this week. Her show will be November 13th-15th and all of you are welcome to come up and attend. Kaitlin is also starting voice lessons this week, which she is excited about.


My New Favorite Website: http://www.pinchingyourpennies.com/

This is an awesome site that keeps track of your local grocery store adds, comparing them for the best prices and alerting you of sales and coupons. Each state has their own section and Utah's is the most active. I guess we really like to pinch our pennies here - or we have to because we have so many mouths to feed. If you live in Utah, then you can get a weekly email that lists out all the grocery store sales that week, as well as other box stores like ShopKo and Kmart. You should try it. It's awesome!