Happy Christmas!

Happy Birthday Jared!

Jared turned seven. We celebrated his birthday by going to the planetarium earlier in the week and then on his birthday we went to a placed called Jumping Jacks, where the kids jump on all these blow ups in a warehouse. We had Jared's favorite dinner, Hawaiian Haystacks and played the new wii game he got for his birthday. By far his favorite gift was a snuggie he got from his Grandma Barnum




Chaz's Winter Choir Concert

It was really good!













Christmas Plans

We are all ready for Christmas and are settled in for a Christmas Eve at home. Seeing lights, making candy, delivering our secret santas and playing the wii are all on the agenda. We also always read the Christmas story from the Bible as a family.

We hope you all have a very Happy Christmas. And hope you each have a quiet moment when you can remember the One who came to save us from death and sin, who gave up his throne next to God the Father and came down as a baby in a stable, who lived a perfect life and set the example for all of us. We thank him by remembering him and following him, not just at Christmas time but all year.

No More Braces

After almost three years of orthodontia, Kaitlin got her braces removed on Monday. She is so happy and like I said on Facebook, who wants a car or several big screen TV when they can give their child a beautiful smile.


Natalie Cole and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir

Chuck and I went with some friends to a christmas concert this weekend. The crowds were horrible, the traffic atrocious, but the concert was wonderful!

You can watch video highlights of the concert here.




Singing

Kaitlin sang in a recital on Saturday. She sang "Mary Did you Know" and "Once Upon a December" as well as a few group numbers. She did a really good job. That night, Kaitlin sang again at our church Christmas dinner/party. She did an even better job there.

The next night Chaz and I sang in our Stake (a combination of 9 churches) Choir in an evening performance. Ruth and Jared sang in a children's choir that night as well.

This coming Sunday, Chaz and I will be singing in our Church Christmas service. I found out on Sunday that I'll also be singing a solo with the choir that morning.

So lots of singing for the holidays going on around our house. Whether singing or listening, what better way to bring in the spirit of Christmas?

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas

We decorated for Christmas this week. Some years I look forward to the annual tradition and other years I dread the holiday clutter. This is one of those clutter years, so when Ruth asked if she could set up the little tree (that usually goes in our front window) in the basement for a "kid's tree", I thought it was a great idea.





One of my favorite childhood Christmas memories is making and decorating sugar cookies. I don't have as many cookie cutters as my mother did, so we were making bunnies and houses and tractors along with the traditional stars and santas. We even have a big "it" cookie cutter we got as an eBay gift one year. Nothing says Christmas like eating a big "it" cookie.



Ruth's a Natural!



Ruth has been begging me for some time to give her guitar lessons. My steel string is a little too much for a ten year old to handle so I told her that she would have to start on the ukulele. For those that don't know, a ukulele is tuned the same as the highest 4 strings of the guitar. So the fingering of a uke is like playing the guitar - simplified. The video above is Ruth after only two lessons and two days of practice. Since the recording of this video I got her some Christmas music and she's learned a couple new chords. For awhile there we all thought we might suffer death via pearly shells.

A New Steam Vac

We've been needing our carpets cleaned for years now. But I am too cheep to call the professional cleaners. A friend recommended buying a steam vac, and then my sister over Thanksgiving also said how much she loves her steam vac. So when everything went on sale over Black Friday, we bought this hoover. It cost a little less than having the pros come out and clean our carpets one time.

After lots of hours of sweat labor, our high traffic areas upstairs are all cleaned. The results are better than any of the carpet cleaners I've ever rented, but probably not quite as good as a professional cleaning. My carpets were so filthy that they will need another cleaning to get them where I'd like them to be.