Tayevion Likes...

Playing with any kind of ball...

And dancing!

Ice Skating

In January we went ice skating a couple of times. Shayden has never wanted to ice skate before, he thought it was too scary. But this time he was eager to try and did pretty good. Jasmine (she has always been a risk taker) was excited to give it a shot. Because they were doing a "class" she got a bucket to slide around and had a ball! Then later in the month, we went back for a regular open session so she couldn't use the bucket, which she did not like at all. She did try a couple of times, but in the end, she gave up. We will have to keep trying.

Ringing in the New Year

This year we celebrated the new year by going to the Training Table earlier in the evening with the family, and then going home to celebrate on our own. It was quite nice.

p.s. this picture may not be suitable for vegetarians

Christmas Day 2009

Presents from Santa

Our Christmas Tree

Ruby got matching clothes of her and Sparkles the bunny. 

Chandelle's mom Verna was so nice to make these for them!

More Christmas Season

The kids at their respective Christmas performances at school:
Jasmine-here you can really see how small she is, it doesn't help, however, that they put her next to the tallest girl in the class.

Shayden, they did a song with flashlights, he is in the back with a blue light.

And this is a random picture at the ward party where the Primary Children sang. I had just been released as Primary President, and I remember when the kids were singing that I was in the audience, and I started singing right along with them. Because that is what you do when you are a leader in Primary. But then I realized that no one around me was singing, just listening, and I suddenly realized I was one of them now. It made me sad, but not that sad. You know that feeling like when you know it's the right thing, but it's still hard and kind of sad? Well that is how I felt. Relieved, but nostalgic.

Another really amazing thing that we did this last Christmas, was go see this live nativity at a park nearby. It was incredible, and if they keep doing it, will be one of our yearly traditions. The music was choreographed just for this, they brought in live animals and the performers sang beautifully.

Trip to see the Real Santa/Boston

As has been our tradition for several years now, we went to see Santa in his homeland, the Macy's store in New York City.
The kids were super excited.

Tell me this guy is not the real deal? I mean, tug at those wiskers!

So sweet...

This time we took Grandma with us. Actually, what happened is that we met my brother there and he drove around looking for parking all day long. Literally. He would drop us off, and we would go do something, and he would drive around, and around, with no luck. We have had such amazing parking experiences in New York, but not on that day.

Next we went to see the tree, then did a tiny bit of shopping.

The most hilarious thing is that my mom, she has a problem taking pictures. She just can't seem to get the subject completely in the frame. She tries so hard, bless her little heart, but it has been a problem as long as I can remember. So I had like 6 pictures like this, each one with a little bit cut off. The kids were like, "are we done yet?" but I was cracking up so hard.

This is much better, centered, and you can almost see the whole tree:

Then we drove to Boston and went straight to see my nieces perform in their little dance/singing group. It was so cute.

Shay has such a good time with his cousin Bri and they came up with their own play this time, it was called "The Christmas Dream Gone Wrong: The Preview"

Santa comes to Town

One of Santa's helpers came to visit the local Rec Center so went to say hello. We could have gone on a walk with him, but it was too cold.

I did take a picture with the 3 kids on his lap, but it didn't turn out.