A visit with Santa

Today Kevin invited Ashley and Elhan to come to his work to see Santa. Ashley looks forward to this each year. We actually hear about it all year every time we pass Kevin's work. I am so glad we had this one last opportunity for Ashley to visit Santa at Kevin's work. Next year she will be in school and won't be able to go. It is going to be a sad day for Ashley when she realizes it.

Honor Chior Concert

At the beginning of the school year Allison tried out to be in the honor choir. She was so excited when she made it. They practice every Tuesday and Thursday after school. This was a big commitment for Allison because of some other engagements. For several weeks when practices first started she would go from school to choir practice, to activity day's, then eat dinner in the car on the way to soccer practice. On those Tuesdays she would not get home until after 7:30. I was worried that it was too much but she pulled it off and made it through. Since soccer is over it has been easier these last couple of months. I am impressed by her ambition. She is a good kid and does a great job at juggling her schedule.

Tonight we had the opportunity to attend the Honor Choirs Christmas concert. They did an amazing job and you could tell how hard they have worked.
Way to go Allison. Keep going after what you want. You are amazing.

Ashley's Dance Recital

Ashley has been taking dance since school started and she has loved every minute of it. Of coarse it doesn't hurt that her best friend Elhan is in the class with her. Today at the end of class all the parents were invited to come and see what the girls have been working on. Ashley was so excited for her little performance. Since it was just a short 5 minute performance, I was the only one that made it. I recorded it though so that we could watch it as a family. Ashley didn't mind at all and did such a great job. I am so glad that she has been able to take this class with Elhan. Miss Stephanie is a wonderful teacher and is so great with the girls. I can't wait to see what she is going to continue to learn next year.

Our unplanned day with the Ewings

Today we had one of the strangest most fun days. It started I guess on Friday night when I was discussing with Dawn when to get Madison back from her house. During the conversation we figured out that Allison and Capri both had friends skating in a recital at the same time. Allison had mentioned that she wanted to go see her friend from school but I wasn't sure how I was going to make it work. Well since Capri was going to be there too we thought why not have them go together. Dawn mentioned that she needed to do some shopping at the outlet malls and invited me to come along with her. Kevin was finishing up a big project at work and needed to be home all day so I thought why not it will be fun. They returned Madison home for a Young Women activity and then picked the rest of us up for what we thought was just for the afternoon but turned into so much more.
Allison was very excited that she got Capri all to herself and she also got to see her friend skate. I knew that she would want pictures so I brought my camera along for her.
Once we dropped Capri and Allison off we shopped for a little bit before we ran over to pick up one of Jacob's friends to take to a movie with Jacob. Jacob picked probably the farthest away movie theater that he could find. We went from one end of Boise to the other. All along we were having a great time in the car with Ashley. She is growing up so fast. After dropping the boys off at the movie it was about time to pick the girls back up on the other side of the town. Since it was getting late we stopped and picked up some dinner because we knew that is what Allison and Capri were going to do when the competition was over.
I called Kevin to let him know so he could Madison and him dinner. They loved the idea and decided to use Madison free meal at Tucanos. Since they were going out to dinner there was no rush for us to get home so we went out and looked at Christmas lights. We really didn't have any specific ones to look at and ended up in Meridian just driving around when when we came across this.
That is one big rain deer. I could not believe it. We then moved on to one of our families favorite lights to see. A house that the lights are set to music.
It was a good night to go so we stayed a while to watch it. The girls got kind of crazy in the back seat.

What do you expect from Ashley. She has now been in this car for several hours. It is just amazing how they have everything synced. Since it was close to the time that the boys movie was getting out we just stayed with the Ewing's and ask Kevin to pick us up at there house on his way home. While we were looking at lights Capri kept on mentioning a house in the foothills that she likes to see. We weren't that close to it until we picked up the boys so we figures why not. This house had his whole front yard lit up with several different characters.
He had a portion fenced off so you could walk through it. The kids really liked that we didn't just drive by but got out of the car and walked through it.

Jacob loves that I am always taking pictures. It is was starting to get late and Allison was getting restless having to sit next to the boys in the back of the van so we headed back to the Ewing's house to wait to for Kevin and Madison. While we waited for them to come we sat down to play a game.
Ashley and I were partners but she soon lost interest and started drawing. She wanted to know how to write a star so Miss Dawn taught her and she was an expert before the end of the night.
And if you notice I won the game. We had a great day driving all over Boise with Miss Dawn. I am glad we went along on this little adventure.

We now have a teenager

Madison turned 13 today. Wow a teenager. When did this happen? I remember the day that she was born and it hard to believe that it has been 13 years. She is such an amazing daughter. I am so blessed to have her as my daughter. Today was an unusual day so I switched up a few of the things we usually do. Madison had basketball practice and we felt like she really needed to go so we had to move her dinner to tomorrow. I still wanted it to be a special day so I surprised her at school with pizza and cupcakes.
When she got home from school I ask her if it was a good surprise or embarrassing. She told me that all of her friends thought I was a cool mom. They wished that their mom would do the same. I guess it was a good surprise.
For dinner since we couldn't go out, I ask her what she would like. She picked her favorite Olive Garden food at home. I am so glad that we found these recipes. Everyone loves this meal. After dinner Madison headed off to basketball practice and we prepared for the next part of her birthday. We wrapped presents and got her cake ready.


Madison had a great day. I love making her birthday special and showing her what a special part of our family she is. Madison is also very understanding about her presents. I wanted to surprise her with a quilt for her bed. I ran out of time and didn't get the whole thing finished.
She loved it and hopefully it will be finished very soon.

Christmas Tree

As long as I can remember we have put our Christmas tree up the Sunday after Thanksgiving. Last week we were having a few behavior issues so we did not put the tree up. The girls have ask every day this week and Kevin even ask once if we were going to put a tree up this year. After the drama from last week with the girls and then the drama that we have had in years past with the lights, I really wasn't looking forward to doing it. Today I finally broke down and we put our tree up. We had such a lovely Sunday. I am so glad that we waited and did it when were all able to enjoy it. We came home from church and jumped right in. The dreaded task of making sure the lights worked was the first task. At first it looked like we were going to be out of luck but we all worked together and the lights are working. It was a pleasant task. We added the ornaments and then we had dinner before we headed off to church to listen to the First Presidencies Christmas Devotional. Today was a wonderful day.

Thanksgiving weekend

For Thanksgiving we headed to Nana and Grandpa's house. Most of the cousins were there and the kids had a great time with them. Allison has been working hard on her Activity Day goals so she helped out with the younger kids. She did an amazing job of keeping them busy so we could all help out in the kitchen. Madison was a great help in the kitchen. She helped with the cooking and setting the table. A few years ago we made the place cards and then this year Madison added the turkey napkin holders. She made them all by herself. We had a great dinner with great company. I love spending time in Twin with family. These are the Thanksgivings that I dreamed of as a kid. When I was little we always lived too far away from family so there was no extended family at our Thanksgivings. I am grateful that my kids are able to have these big Thanksgivings. They just treasure the family time.

Before the weekend was over we took the girls roller skating. Ashley had went for the first time while visiting earlier in the month so we thought we should take her again to practice. She has no fear. Nana said she was so worried that she was going to break something the first time she went. She would fall and hop right up and go again. Nana was not kidding Ashley just keeps on going and going. Falling did not slow her down at all.
Madison and Allison are old pros at it so they spent most of their time helping out Owen. It was Owens first time and they were great teachers for him. Once Owen felt comfortable on his own they ventured out on their own.
Everyone had a great time skating and can't wait till the next time.

We had such a great weekend. The girls had a great time playing with their cousins and were sad to leave them. We cherish the time we get to see everyone.