Trying out the new chair

We took down the Christmas tree and rearranged the new furniture. Olivia and Garrett were enjoying Robin's chair and reading together.

Merry Christmas

It is hard being so far away from family this time of year. We missed you and wanted to share with you highlights of our morning. Enjoy!


Christmas Traditions

We love Christmas!! Every year we try to do things to help us celebrate Christmas.
Here are a few of our favorite traditions.

1. We put up our Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving.
2. We go and see Christmas lights every year. This year we went to Thanksgiving point to see the lights.
3. We decorate gingerbread houses
4. We make treats for our neighbors, this year we made mint candies
5. We watch Christmas movies at home-- Miracle on 34th Street, the Santa Clause Movie, The Polar Express, The Nativity
6. We go and have the kids get their pictures taken with Santa
7. On Christmas Eve we make cookies for Santa
8. On Christmas Eve we read the nativity story and sing Christmas Carols
9. Every Monday in December we have a family home evening about Christmas. This year we made a paper Christmas trees to hang in the kids room and talked about why we have Christmas trees. We went and visited Grandma and Grandpa and got Christmas Ornaments, We made Christmas cards. Read a Christmas poem about the birth of Christ and put up ornaments on the tree that go with the poem.
10. On Christmas morning we open stockings then eat cinnamon rolls and have hot chocolate.
11. On Christmas morning after breakfast we open presents.
12. We have a nice Christmas dinner that evening- This year I am making ham, potatoes, green beans, rolls and having pie for desert.

Early Christmas Presents

We got a phone call at 7am this morning telling us that our Christmas present was about to be delivered. Here are two pictures of our two new couches and a rocker-recliner:

Gingerbread houses

After days of anticipation, we finally made gingerbread houses. We liked that everyone got to make their own. Olivia and Garrett had a blast.
We didn't have the music play automatically, but it's pretty good if you want to hear it click the little volume button on the slideshow.

Little Builders

So we followed Emily's example and took the kids to Lowe's to make projects. Today they made a little desk calendar thingy. Robin took pictures and Jennifer and Jeremy helped with the hammering and sanding. The kids did pretty good when they actually looked at what they were hammering. We're talking them back every few weeks and doing another project because the kids really had fun.

This would be fun to do with a class of students

You Be the Judge

Someone suggested that this purse would be cute with my daughter. The purse was one of those white elephant gifts that someone couldn't wait to give away. Well, I got it and despite my best efforts to trade, that's what I ended up with (Thanks Natalie!). Now, do you agree with me?
-Daughter with missing teeth cute? Yes
-Daughter with missing teeth holding a hideous purse cute? No

P.S. She loves the purse. She already put all her money in it and took it shopping to buy her aunt a Christmas present tonight.

Tooth Fairy's Going To Be Busy

It probably would have taken longer to lose the second tooth, but at school on Friday while playing she fell and hit her mouth which made the tooth really loose. Then we went to the movies and she was finishing the popcorn in the car when she took a bite of popcorn and the next thing we know she is crying saying it hurt. Then she was all smiles when she realized that the tooth had fallen out. We're glad she didn't swallow it.

We taught her the song, "All I want for christmas is my two front teeth." She is so cute singing it.

Tooth Fairy

Application Update

So, if you've been following this blog at all, you will know that I had an all-day interview to be an administrator in the Jordan School District a few days ago. Well, I got a phone call yesterday afternoon to let me know that I made it into the Administrator hiring pool. This was the best news I could get!

Next Wednesday, they will be calling me back for a secondary interview. They say this interview is only to ask questions to find out what I'm looking for and for them to get a better idea of what kind of school I would best fit in.

After that, I will just need to wait until around March for the district to know what their openings will be. The district has about 90 schools so there will certainly be openings.

This Friday I will also be submitting two applications in my current district (one for a principal and the other for an assistant principal). Needless to say, I would be fine with that!

Fun in the snow

Jeremy and Jennifer took the kids sledding yesterday (Robin didn't feel like braving the slick hillside). Everyone had fun!

It snowed!

The kids were so excited to wake up and see snow! They couldn't wait to put on their boots and go play. We taped a few minutes of it and thought we'd share it with you. Enjoy!

Fisher Price Nativity

We ordered our kids one of these nativity sets. It came last night and we opened it up. The kids have really enjoying playing with it and rearranging the set and it is fun to hear them tell the stories. It is great because they have been wanting to play with our ceramic set and I won't let them. Now they can play with this one. I saw one of these at the sitter's house and the sitter said that Garrett really liked hers. You have to order them online because the stores don't carry them. Which I think it is silly since it is the Christmas season, you would think they would sell. (fisherprice.com has the cheapest ones.)