Deck the Halls

 Pictures are pretty self explanatory.  We decorated the tree for Family Home Evening.  It is in the corner of our dining room.  It may be a little unconventional but it was really the only place it would fit nicely.

 And they're done.

        Then we had to get a picture of us in front of our fireplace when we actually had a fire!

                                   I really need to get Holland's name put on his stocking;)

Thanksgiving 2012

We had Thanksgiving this year with the Fledderjohns.  They were there when we unloaded our moving truck, invited us to their parties, invited Justin over before we even got there, and have been very fellowshipping.  Sister Fledderjohn is also the newly called Relief Society President and I am her second counselor. The girls and I went over to their house the night before to help make pies and ended up staying until 10:30 just visiting and attempting to make centerpieces.

 Merilee is sitting at her spot.  She shared the piano bench with Cara.

 Part of the spread.  There was much more added after I took this picture.  I think our favorite dish was the mashed potatoes and gravy.  I made green bean casserole which I was warned was not as popular as the "meat and potatoes", so I ended up bringing most of it home.

 This is Sister Stucki who is the 1st counselor in Relief Society.  She is fantastic and Merilee LOVES her.  She picks Merilee up for activity days and is so generous with everything.  She just sold her house and is moving back to Kentucky.  She has given me TONS of craft stuff that she is not taking with her.  We also chose to dress up a little.  I feel like the holidays are a special occasion and worthy of our nicer attire.  So the girls wore dresses and got their hair braided fancy.  Of course they never mind a good excuse to dress up!

Holland did pretty good.  He filled up on appetizers so when the meal was ready he didn't want to eat much but was not his usual terribly horrible self.  (just a little terrible).  He was pretty tired since eating time was also naptime.

It's Great to be Eight

This is the first ever friend invited birthday party we have hosted.

 With a suggestion from me, Merilee chose a pajama party. It was so fun!  The girls all wore pajamas and we continued with that theme.  We played pin the slippers on the girl that I made to look like Merilee.

 We invited 13 girls from church and 11 of them came.  I planned to have 10 girls total since only a couple of them had RSVPd.  So it also took much longer than I thought to get through the games, activities, food, and presents.

 After the game we decorated pillow cases with iron-on shapes.  We had a butterfly, flower, high heel shoe, star, and heart.  I ran out of pillow cases so Merilee, Cara, and one other girl had to use a pillowcase we already had.  It was chaos!!

 Merilee chose to have white cupcakes with chocolate frosting.  I counted out 6 candles and thought that was enough.  I pull them out and Justin says, "where's the rest of the candles?" and I say they are all there.  Then it dawned on me that she was 8 not 6....duh!!  I was actually still getting over my cold which I guess killed more brain cells than I thought;)  Well, I only had six so she blew out the six and then we lit two again and she blew those out.  It was so crazy, no one cared.  We also served grapes, orange and apple slices, and mini quiche.  Kind of like breakfast/tea party type food.  And we had hot cocoa to drink. 

Here are all the girls.  Merilee was really sweet and if her friend had a younger or older sister, she wanted to invite them too so they wouldn't feel left out.  I had to put my foot down for the sisters that were younger than 3 and older than 11.  We have Heidi and Maya, Millie, Madison, Emma and Natalie, Laynie and Nora, Emmi, Makayla and Aubrey, and Merilee and Cara.

Halloween 2012

At this point I was so sick and didn't care much about Halloween.  You can see all the medicine on the counter behind Merilee.  I did peel myself out of bed to walk along during trick or treating.  By the end of the night I felt terrible and went back to bed for the rest of the weekend.

 Merilee and Daddy gutted and carved the pumpkin.

 The girls got to choose their costumes again this year and I am grateful they chose things we already had.  Merilee is a witch and Cara is Snow White with a witch cape.

 We were given a dinosaur costume and Holland likes dinosaurs so he was not given a choice.

 Justin got this scary mask hoping to scare the kids.  It worked for a few minutes.  Holland was unsure of it the whole night but did not freak out like Cara did when she was his age.  That Halloween, we had to shield her eyes from everyone wearing a mask or she would scream and cry.

This is the finished pumpkin.  It is a witch on a broom.  I don't have much else to say about Halloween because I spent most of the time in bed missing out on all the fun.

Random Fall

We attended a fundraiser of sorts for the older elementary school.  They had silent auctions and booths where individuals could sell their crafts or hobbies.  I bought some hair bows for the girls that they are modeling in this picture.  They say "big sister" and "little sister".  I also let the girls bid on these Thanksgiving pictures that the elementary kids painted.  They paid 20 cents each for them.  We also ate lots of food, bought treats at the bake sale, and I bid on some jewelry and won.

 Here we are eating lunch with Merilee for her birthday.  I packed all 4 of us a lunch and we ate together.  Kind of a pain in the neck but it made Merilee feel special.

 And here is a sunset we had the other day.  It is really pretty to see the sun set behind the mountains.  We have been a little overcast so it made some pretty colors in the clouds.  This is the view out our front yard.

Hiking with Daddy

Daddy likes to take Holland hiking on the days when I help out in Cara's class.  They just drive down the rode until they find a good spot and get out and climb.

This is what our desert looks like.  In the picture below you can barely see Holland down there.  If I were with him, I would not have let him get this far away from me.  Daddy is more risky.

 It was very helpful to have them all go hiking because I got really sick before Halloween until Mid November with some kind of virus.  They found come caves and brought me back some cool crystals.

Renaissance Fair

California City hosts an annual Renaissance Fair each fall and it was well advertised so we were excited to check it out.  I helped the girls dress up.  This little ship was built by this boy and his dad.  They set up and have a little comedy act where people give donations.  It was pretty cute.

 This was a much bigger pirate ship.  I didn't get a picture of the whole thing for some reason.  The kids climbed all around while the pirates asked them question in their pirate drawl.  The kids ignored him because they couldn't understand what he was saying.  They had booths with crafts, jewelry, weapons, textiles, etc.  They also had a pretty good stage presentation of King Henry and Queen Katherine of Aragon.  At the end they challenged the kids to enter the coloring contest for a chance to win a mystery prize.  Merilee was the first to start coloring and other kids came and left and she was still coloring.  She was finally the last at the table when she finished.  The time spent paid off because out of the whole weekend fair, she won the girls' prize for best picture!  The prize was a ticket to Disneyland.  All weekend she asked me if the Fair had called about her picture yet and was so disappointed when I had said no.  And then she came home from school and I told her that they called and wanted her to go pick up her prize.  She was so proud of herself!

Fire Truck, Hey!

Cara's second Kindergarten field trip was to the city fire station.  They learned all kinds of "fire" songs and our favorite was a song that the chorus was "Fire Truck, Hey!" (title of post).  On Fridays they have music time in the cafeteria and Holland loves it when they sing this song.

 Holland is a HUGE fan of fire trucks so since Justin didn't have to work that day we all met the class at the fire station so Holland could have a tour as well.

 Here they are waiting in line to sit in the fire truck and have their picture taken.

 The fireman came out in all his gear.  At one point he had the kids get in really close to him and he was talking through his mask.  Then all of a sudden he pulled out his mouthpiece and sprayed them with the oxygen.  It hissed and blew air which made them all jump back.  Holland had been in the group and was so scared he jumped and started to cry.  It was actually really funny!

This is the class picture and the kids were supposed to be raising their hands for the "hey!" part in the song.  It looks like Cara is tickling her armpit or something;)

G.Q.

I was able to go to a popular consignment sale this fall in Lancaster where I picked up several pairs of pants for Holland, a pair of shoes for Merilee, and this cute suit.  It was by far the best deal I found at $2 for the shirt, tie, vest, and pants!!  It is hard to tell but the pattern in the tie and vest are footballs.  The pattern is very subtle so it doesn't scream sports!  He looks so handsome in it and was happy to pose for pictures.

 He thinks he is putting on his best smile when his eyes are just squints and his hand is on his hip.  He gets his posing from his sisters.

The suit was in perfect condition and maybe only worn once!

Apples to Apples

 Cara's first Kindergarten field trip was to an apple orchard in Tehachapi.  She was so excited to get to ride the bus.  She has been asking when she gets to ride the yellow school bus ever since Merilee started school and the day had finally come!

 I went around with this group of kids from her class.  Isayah, Nathaniel, Cara, and Kaitlyn.  They were allowed to pick 5 apples so it didn't take very long for these eager kids to meet their quota.

Here is Cara, Avianna, and Makayla...probably my favorite girls in her class.  Avianna actually moved from Oklahoma 2 years ago.  Makayla is so smart and sweet.  She is quiet and always follows directions.  I told Cara I wanted her to be friends with these girls after the first day of school.  Cara looks kind of little here...she must be slouching over;)

 

The 2nd and 3rd grades have awards assemblies every month (at separate times) to recognize students who are meeting and exceeding goals.  This was their first assembly and these are the kids who got perfect or near perfect (only missing 1/2 a day) attendance.  The other awards were academic achievement, citizenship, and most improved.  I wasn't able to attend the second assembly but Merilee got another attendance award.  She is in the top of her class and is one of six in her class of 31 that actually reads at least at their grade level.  Her teacher loves having her in her class and says she is very mature for her age.  Merilee has a good head on her shoulders and tries to always do her best.