Christmas Family Home Evening

Yesterday evening we had a Christmas Family Home Evening with the Pew side of the family. We weren't sure we were all going to make it because of the storm, but thankfully everyone was still able to come. It started around 3:00 p.m. with sledding on the hill by Tim's house. This was the first time my kids have been sledding. It was still snowing hard, unfortunately. It would have been more fun without the snow hitting us in the face. But they still had a great time! Santa decided to deliver two sleds he had acquired for our family a few days early.

Jumble getting ready to go.

Jet and Atom sharing a cousin's sled.

Minnie and cousin Emily brave the elements. Minnie never did get brave enough to sled down this sizeable hill. I was a little nervous to try it myself. We'll have to find a less daunting hill for her to experience sledding on soon.

Jet was shivering but he still didn't want to stop.

Atom was also shivering but thought it was great fun!

Rachelle had hot chocolate waiting for everyone back at her house so that was perfect!!

We had a potluck dinner and a short lesson and game and the kids all participated in the Pew family Christmas tradition of paintbrush cookies. Here are some of the kids painting their cooking prior to baking them:

Taren and Gwen.

Emily, Jumble, and Minnie.

Jet, Cristian, Izak, Giovanni, and Taran.

Diego, Micah, Danilo, and Atom. (Did I get the twins right?!)

Me rolling out the dough.

I think everyone had a great time. We missed all of our family who don't live nearby. Wish you could have been with us last night! Thanks to Erika for planning it and to Tim and Rachelle for hosting it.

Whether We Were Dreaming of it or Not...

This is the view down our street this morning.

And here is our house.

Another shot of our house.

We are definitely going to have a white Christmas this year! In addition to the six inches we got last week, yesterday we got at least another 8 inches. It snowed all day. And the forecast is predicting more snow on Christmas afternoon. Jumble and I spent at least an hour shoveling and snowblowing yesterday. It would have taken a lot longer than that without the snowblower! We were out there while it was still coming down because if we had waited for it to stop, we would have had an even bigger job. I don't think the snowblower handles much more than six inches at a time. I went shopping in the morning--it was a crazy time--the roads were horrible at that point. But I survived. One good thing about the cold--I went to three different stores and even though I purchased milk at the first stop, I didn't have to take it home. It sat in my trunk for almost two hours without any worry that it would get too warm in there. Two hours in a trunk in Arizona would have meant cottage cheese (maybe not quite cottage cheese in December, but I definitely couldn't have left it in the trunk that long without it going sour.)

Although I am not a person that loves snow, I have always admitted it is very pretty--photos and paintings are just fine with me, though. I don't feel the need to experience it in person. However, if we just didn't have to go anywhere and could stay warm and cozy in our houses, I wouldn't mind it at all.

One white Christmas of my youth that I remember was when I was about thirteen years old. When we went to bed on Christmas Eve, it was cold but there was no snow on the ground. We woke up in the morning to at least a foot of snow blanketing everything and there were still huge lacy flakes floating down. That felt pretty magical. My grandparents and aunt had come from Arizona to visit that year and were staying at my uncle's house, who lived around the block from us at the time. So a few hours later, we ventured out to walk around the block to visit them. The sun had come out and everything sparkled and there were no ugly tire tracks or anything in the street since it was Christmas morning so everyone was at home with their families. Pristine white snow as far as the eye could see. It was very quiet and peaceful. The snow was incredibly deep--we couln't even tell where the sidewalk ended and the street began, until we would accidentally step off the edge and sink 3 inches deeper than we were expecting. That was a fun Christmas.

Concerts

Last week was concert week:

On Tuesday was Minnie's intermediate band concert. They played some pieces by themselves and some with the beginning band. She has been meeting after school every Tuesday and Thursday since September. Both bands sounded great--especially considering how most of them just started an instrument a few short months ago. They take this band thing seriously in American Fork! It's fun to see the beginnings of AF High School's 2011-2014 marching and concert bands.


Minnie concentrates while playing her flute. (She's the one with the long blonde hair, black blouse, and red & black skirt.)

Thursday was Jumble's Wind Ensemble Concert. It is fun to go to concerts to hear your child play. It is even better to go when you know that you will be truly entertained and amazed. Jumble's concert was fabulous--you wouldn't believe these kids were in Jr. High. Her concert included the Advanced Jazz Band and the Symphonic Band (8th graders) as well as her group (which is mostly 9th graders.) All of the groups did a fantastic job. One of the pieces Jumble's group performed was an arrangement set to the words of "T'was the Night Before Christmas." They had someone narrate as they played. It was a really great piece. For example, when the narrator talked about "visions of sugar plums danced in their head," the band played an excerpt from the "Sugar Plum Fairy" in the Nutcracker Suite. When he talked about Santa and his sleigh on the roof, the band played an excerpt of "Up on the Housetop." When he talked about St. Nicolas appearing, the band played an excerpt of "Jolly Old St. Nicolas." They also did sound effects for Santa rising up the chimney and etc. It was very cute and enjoyable.

I couldn't get as close of a shot of Jumble, but she is close to the center of the photo.

Friday, Niles and I attended the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert. It was wonderful! We thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it. I found the recitation of Longfellow's Christmas with the number "I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day" to be especially moving. I also really enjoyed their arrangement of Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring and the two pieces from the Hallelujah Chorus. Another great number was...oh well, I will end up listing the whole program here! It was all fabulous--so were the decorations and the ballet and the orchestra. I love the sound of an orchestra with a choir. It is the best! We attended the same night as President Monson and it was also the night they taped the performance to be rebroadcast on PBS next year. So if you catch the show next year on Christmas Eve on PBS (and you should, because it is well worth watching!!), you can hear Niles and I clapping with the audience!

This morning, Jet had his Christmas school program. Jet did a great job! He was smiling and singing and did all the actions right. He also said his part loud and clear. He got to do it three times because he had the first speaking part of the whole show and they started over twice because of microphone difficulties. I am going to see about getting him into the A.F. Children's Choir. He seems to really like singing and performing.

Good thing his ears were holding his hat on! It was too big for his little head and I kept wishing he would push it back so I could get a photo with his eyes visible.

This is after the show--I pushed his hat back so I could see his whole face.

Something I Didn't Think to Consider...

When you have lived in Arizona for 11 years, and you decide to wait to go Christmas shopping, you forget to consider things like you might get up on the morning of your shopping day, look outside and see this:

About five inches of snow and it's still coming down! (These photos were taken after I tried out the recently purchased snowblower--definitely worth the investment.) Ugh! This is still a learning curve for me--ask Atom about it. He had to walk from the car to the school (not a short walk) for Jet's school program this morning without an umbrella or the hood on his coat--which unzips and was in the coat closet at home. I'm just not used to factoring the weather into my decision-making process, especially when it involves precipitation--a virtual unknown in our former place of residence. All you had to think about there was having sunscreen and sunglasses handy. Next year I'm doing my Christmas shopping in July!

Arizona Vacation: We Had a Great Time Until...

Niles and I did something this weekend that we have never done since we have had children--we went away for the weekend--just the two of us. O.K.--so we did go to Arizona together last May--to finish packing and loading all our belongings. And then to drive in a caravan of two Rider trucks back to Utah--but that doesn't count!

This past weekend, Nile's firm was having their company Christmas party. Since he works for a firm with offices in Tempe and Tuscon Arizona, as well as the Salt Lake City office, the company party was in Arizona. And they paid for us to fly down and have dinner and spend the night at a resort in Sedona. We were O.K. with that!

We almost didn't get to go at all, since Atom came down with the stomach flu very early Thursday morning and then that afternoon started crying and clutching his ear. I took him to the doctor and sure enough, he had an ear infection! Poor little guy--you shouldn't have the stomach flu and an ear infection at the same time. Minnie also stayed home with a headache, sore throat, and congestion that day, too, but seemed to be improving as the day went on. I did 2 million loads of laundry (bedding, pillows, etc.) trying to make sure everything was sanitary and the germs were as contained as possible. Every time I touched Atom or anything he touched, I washed my hands thoroughly. By the end of the day, I had a rash on my hands from so much washing. We decided if everyone that was sick was significantly better and everyone that was well was still well in the morning, then we would still leave Friday morning as planned.


Nile's work group had a "team building activity" planned for Friday afternoon. That means we went to the Desert Botanical Gardens. We went to the zoo countless times while we lived in Arizona, but somehow never made it to the botanical gardens--which is about 1/2 mile up the road from the zoo. So it was fun to finally go see the botanical gardens. They have a special exhibit right now--this guy who makes blown glass sculptures that are pretty amazing. They had some of his pieces scattered throughout the gardens.

Had to pose with a Saguaro!

This is made of glass--not a real plant! The weather was perfect--clear, sunny, warm but not too hot.

After the botanical garden, we were able to squeeze in a visit with Joe & Amy. It sure was fun to see them again! We were planning to visit Fred & Marjie too but ran out of time. We thought we could maybe catch them later in the visit but that didn't work out, unfortunately.

We had called a friend in Peoria to see if we could visit out there for a little while and found out that our former ward's Family Christmas Dinner was that evening. What luck! So we were able to go out there and see a ton of our old friends all in one place. I took my camera in but I was so busy talking to friends that I forgot to take photos of any of them.

Then we headed off to Bruce & Gay's house--they had graciously agreed to put us up for the night. We had fun visiting with Gay, Matt, and Starla that evening and then visited some more with Bruce, Gay, and Starla the following morning. It was Starla's birthday and we had a delicious waffle breakfast with them. It was so great to see all of them again!

Around noon we headed off to Jeff & Jodi's house to meet them for lunch. Again, we had another happy surprise when we called them and discovered that Grandma Crane had already arrived for her Christmas visit!! So we were able to spend some unexpected time with her as well as Jeff & Jodi. We had a delicious lunch with them at a place called Crackers.

Jeff and Jodi at lunch on the outdoor patio.

Grandma and Niles. Only in Arizona can you eat outside in shirt-sleeves on December 6th! Our only complaint about this visit is that it was too short. After lunch we headed to Sedona.

We arrived in the late afternoon, as you can tell from the following photos. Our room overlooked the golf course--which we really couldn't see because of this beautiful tree planted just outside our balcony:

A little of the golf course that we could see.

Our room--I love the lighting of the setting sun.

That evening we had a very nice dinner with everyone in the company. They had dancing but most of it was fast dancing and the music was too loud. We did dance most of the slow dances--I am just not a dancer and don't feel comfortable getting up in front of a bunch of total strangers! My only other complaint was that the dining room was so cold!! Most of the women were in spaghetti strap dresses--I don't understand how they weren't all freezing--I wore my jacket most of the night and I was still cold! We stayed until we felt like it wasn't rude to leave--there wasn't much going on after dinner except for drinking and fast dancing so that part was rather boring for us. I wouldn't have minding talking to people to get to know them better, but the music was really too loud for conversation. I wish I had thought to take my camera to get some photos of the pretty decorations and some of Nile's co-workers.

All in all, we had a terrific time and were so glad we were able to go. Everything was going perfectly until--the stomach flu hit Niles fast and hard about 1:00 a.m. on Sunday. The poor guy was totally miserable for the next four hours before he finally was able to go back to sleep. I was lying awake worrying about him and feeling helpless since there wasn't much I could do for him and worrying about if I was going to get sick sometime on the way home the next day. Ugh! Not a pleasant time for either of us. We were going to attend sacrament meeting in Sedona Sunday morning but that was definitely out. We slept in as late as we could and thankfully Niles was well enough to travel. I wasn't sure he was going to make it when he was looking white as a sheet and ready to pass out just from the effort of showering and getting dressed. But somehow he did it, thankfully. So these are some photos we snapped from the car on our way out of town:

We just weren't up to stopping for photos. I decided that I better not eat anything in case I was about to get sick, which turned out to be a wise decision. We sipped on ginger ale and sprite. I didn't feel very well but wasn't sure if it was illness coming on or just the lack of sleep the night before. I had a slight headache and pain in my stomach. By the time we got to the rental car place, I had the chills but still no nausea so we just kept going, hoping for the best. I noticed that the food from the airport restaurants didn't smell even slightly appealing, despite having not eaten all day. But thankfully it wasn't until after we landed in Salt Lake City and we were off the plane that the nausea finally hit me. And I didn't get anywhere near as sick as Niles so I really can't complain.

Meanwhile, we had found out that Minnie had been struck by the flu early Sunday morning as well. We felt so bad for her and also sorry that Nile's sister, Michelle had to deal with one of our sick children. We are praying she is spared and doesn't get sick from being exposed. She did an excellent job taking care of our children all weekend. We owe her big-time!

Overall, we are still glad we went and mostly had a great time--it just didn't end on the best note and we sincerely hope that everyone we visited with didn't catch our bug. The small part of me that rebels against the unfairness in life wonders why we aren't allowed to have one weekend away in sixteen years of marriage without the stomach flu ruining it but I guess it is O.K. since if most of the people on this planet could know the details of our life, they would feel it quite unfair that we have so many more blessings than they do. We are definitely on the favorable side of life on this planet and have so much to be thankful for. And the romance in our marriage has always thrived and is in no way dependent on romantic weekend getaways. Another thing that we are extremely grateful for!

Thanksgiving Gatherings

We enjoyed having Thanksgiving dinner with the Cranes. We all went to the movies first--the kids went to see Madagascar 2 with Nana and Grandad while Niles went with me to preview Twilight to see it it was O.K. for our girls to go see it.



They always set such a pretty table! (Jet contemplates digging into his food!)


The Pews decided to get together for dessert and visiting on the Saturday following Thanksgiving. Unfortunately, we were minus my Dad, Rachelle & Gwen due to stomach flu and all of Shellie's clan due to car trouble. So it turned out to be a rather small gathering, but still fun. And it was great to have Erin and Anna visiting from Idaho! We really missed everyone who couldn't come, though.

Izak and Erin.

Tim, Micah, and Zane. (Tim missed most of the evening--he was cleaning out his van since the stomach flu hit Gwen on the drive over to our house!)

Jet, Minnie, and cousin Emily enjoy pie and other desserts.

Retro Wednesday: Happy Thanksgiving!

This is Minnie at her Thanksgiving Program in 2nd grade.

This program was Atom's first excursion to the school--he was less than two weeks old!

This is all the kids with Nana (Atom is the blanket bundle she's holding.) She came right after Atom was born and cooked us an early Thanksgiving dinner (as well as filling my freezer with cooked seasoned hamburger and chicken for easy dinners!) She could only come for a weekend because she was in law school (and she probably shouldn't have even done that.)

So this Monday I went to Jet's second-grade Thanksgiving Program. (He is the one with the "E" on his chest.) I took Atom with me. He is a bit bigger now! The program was really cute. The kids read some Thanksgiving poems together and then each had a part in telling the story of the first Thanksgiving. Each child drew a picture of what their part was talking about and they had the pictures up on a screen behind them when they said their part. They also sang a few Thanksgiving songs. Jet did most excellent--saying his part loud and clear. He was the cutest one there and I am NOT biased! :)

This is a close-up of his costume showing his fine Indian symbol artwork. He made this Sunday night when I remembered he was supposed to have a costume for the program the next morning! In Arizona we were spoiled--they made their costumes at school. In Utah they expect the parents to be more involved (not a bad thing, but annoying when you forget about it.) I managed to coax our video camera into working so I got the whole thing on tape but I have no clue how to get things from a video tape onto my computer so you'll just have to be content with still photos.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

I Love My Basement!

I just have to say that I love my basement. My kids are free to get out every game we own and spread every piece all over the floor without me feeling like I am going to lose my mind. Anyone that knows me well, knows that clutter and chaos cause my mental well-being to deteriorate rapidly. (But only when it's at my own house.) When confronted with it, I have to bite my tongue to keep from screaming (sometimes I don't succeed.) My kids have always been required to help me pick up the house every night before going to bed because I CANNOT start a new day surrounded by clutter. You won't find dirty dishes in my sink in the mornings. My day will just not go right if I have to start it off with dishes from the night before. My friends laugh at me because they know that I have to be intimately involved when my kids clean up their toys. We have to make sure every piece is located and put back where it goes. I know how many Star Wars action figures and ships Jet owns--we started getting them for him when he was two, and now he has the astounding number of 59 little action figures and 36 little ships! And I know that right now, two of the action figures are missing and two of the little blue lightsabers are also missing. See what I mean? I need serious help!! Somehow I have survived the last 14+ years of parenting without a basement and without being carted off in a straight jacket. My children are fully aware of my issues. They may not like how often we have to clean up around here, but they do like that they aren't missing pieces to their games when they get them out to play. So how does the basement help? For the first time in my life, I have a place that my kids can make a big mess and often I don't make them clean it all up for several days! We are all happier this way. I just stay upstairs and block the basement family room and play room out of my mind. They are free from cleaning up every night (except for having to take things that have wandered upstairs back down.) I can sleep at night with a huge mess in the basement. And my kids are free to be kids--they have a space to play that isn't right in the middle of my living space.

A Few Random Things

A few weeks ago we were momentarily astonished to see one of our neighbors putting up Christmas lights. It was the day after Halloween. Then we realized why so early--it was a beautiful day and who knows how many more Saturdays we will have cooperative weather for such an activity? Better to put them up early than chance having to put them up with an icy wind blowing and snow falling. We were right--said neighbors haven't actually turned the Christmas lights on yet at night, although I bet that will happen by the end of this week. We just aren't used to thinking ahead so we don't have to put up our lights in a blizzard. Thanks to our neighbors, we realized that we need to think differently now that we are in Utah. So Niles spent a good amount of time on Saturday putting up our Christmas lights. Thankfully the weather is still being pleasant. But I think that was our last chance--it may snow by next Saturday.

While Niles was installing the Christmas lights, I was in the backyard with Jet and Minnie creating a huge pile of leaves! I let them jump in it a few times before we bagged it all--ten bags worth and there are still leaves on the trees yet to fall! I was pleased with Minnie and Jet--they worked hard and were cheerful and made it fun instead of whining and complaining which is easy to do when facing such a monumental pile of leaves. I wish I had taken a photo of them, but we were on a tight time schedule--trying to finish in time to go to Grandpa and Grandma's to watch the big game. Which we are not talking about now because it was so sad. For three quarters we thought we could win. Then we self-destructed. Oh well, we will just have to rely on our memories of the last two years' amazing wins over our ultimate rival to tide us through until next year.

Christmas Music

Now that I have finally recovered from being sick for most of September and October (two nasty viruses and a secondary bacterial infection that I finally got an antibiotic for), my hoarse voice is gone and I can sing again! So a few weeks ago I did what I wanted to do back in September, but couldn't (because of two nasty viruses and a secondary bacterial infection)--I joined the ward choir. I honestly wouldn't even care if we ever performed anything--I just absolutely love inspirational music. It brings peace and joy into my life. Now we are practicing music for Christmas. And I was asked to perform with a quartet for enrichment meeting next week so that is extra practices. And yesterday we repeatedly watched Atom's new Mormon Tabernacle Choir DVD which is of last year's Christmas program with the King Singers. So I am being saturated with Christmas music and I couldn't be happier. I feel some of the rough edges of my emotions being soothed. I could rehearse Christmas music all day--except then I would probably get hoarse again. And yesterday we also saw the e-mail informing us that we are some of the lucky ones to get tickets to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir Christmas Concert! (The tickets are free but so many people want them that you have to submit your names for a random draw.) So life is good. Except that American Fork is having their "Messiah Sing-In" on a day that I will be out of town. Oh well, I'll have to wait until next year for that one. I am grateful for the blessing of music in my life.

The Ups and Downs of Bands of America Grand Nationals

As you all know, Jumble recently attended Bands of America Grand Nationals in Indianapolis, Indiana. She had a great time, over-all. These are some of the ups and downs:

1. Down: waking up at 3:00 a.m. so she could meet at the school by 4:15 a.m. (For me, waking up at 2:00 a.m. and not going back to sleep before the alarm went off at 3:00 a.m.!)

2. Up: Seeing the little town of American Fork, Ut awake, alive, and excited at 4:00 a.m. as 250 students made their way to the high school.

3. Up: Missing two days of school and going on an adventure with good friends!

4. Down: Long, boring plane rides and lay-overs when you are exhausted from getting up at 3:00 a.m.

5. Up: Marching onto the Colt's football field in Lucas Oil Stadium and realizing that you are really at Grand Nationals.

6. Up: Knowing that the entire American Fork High School student body and all of your families are watching your preliminary performance as it is broadcast on every T.V. in the school.

7. Up: (for us) Getting everyone ready for school and then hurrying over to American Fork High School band room at 8:00 a.m. to watch your daughter and her band perform at Grand Nationals in a packed room filled with other cheering band families. (for Minnie and Jet) Getting to miss the first 45 minutes of school so you can watch your sister's band perform.

8. Up: Out of 92 bands, being one of the 32 that qualified for semi-finals.

9. Up: (for us) Going back to the band room for the the semi-finalist announcements that evening and cheering with all of the other band families.

10. Up: Buying clarinet earrings and a teddy bear with your band name on it.

11. Up: Performing in semi-finals, and coming off the field knowing that your band performed the very best that they could and was darn near perfect!

12. Up: (for us) Back to the band room at 8:15 Saturday morning to watch the semi-finals performance and seeing them give their best performance ever (along with hundreds of other cheering band families.)

13. Up: Having a Bands of America judge tell one of your directors that you are "solidly one of the top 5 bands here and will qualify for finals--without question!"

14. Down: Feeling stunned and devastated by not being one of the twelve bands chosen to advance to finals, despite what the one judge said. (For us) Back to the band room Saturday afternoon and finding out that you don't get to see your daughter's band perform one more time in finals.

15. Up: Watching some "legendary" bands perform in finals and realizing that their shows are not nearly as difficult as your music and drill. Realizing that your band really is as good as the "legends," just doesn't perform in a theatrical style, which evidentally more of the judges prefer.

16. Up: Knowing that your band had the most difficult drill (over 90 sets) and one of the most difficult musical repertoires, and you still managed to do both of those things together and do it almost perfectly.

17. Down: Realizing that some judges are wowed by props and other gimmicks and don't notice difficult music and drill.

18. Up: No one in your band had their instrument lying in the grass while they were doing weird dancing moves at any time during your band's show.

19. Up: Your band's show did not include any weird chanting narration that made it impossible to hear the music you were playing.

20. Down: Having one judge comment that "the band played for too much of the show." Huh?!

21. Up: Finding out that you finished 6th in preliminaries, and 14th in semi-finals and only missed making finals by a fraction of a point.

22. Down: Seeing that your music scores were much lower than other bands who didn't play very much, and what they did play was easier, was played while the bands knelt on one knee rather than while performing difficult drill, and was nearly impossible to hear with the weird fractured narration going on during the show.

23. Up: Being one of only 3 bands that recieved a standing ovation from the entire stadium crowd during the semi-finals performances.

24. Up: Being told by other bands that they couldn't believe you didn't make finals.

25. Up: Having a band director who sets a good example of being a good sport even when things don't go the way you hoped and felt they should have. Having a band director who is dedicated to music that challenges your musicianship and drill that requires many hours to master. Having a band director that ensures that you all come home feeling like winners, despite the disappointment.

26. Up: Meeting and competing with some of the best bands in the country.

27. Up: Coming home and telling your family all about your adventures and having them want to hear about every last detail.

YW in Excellence

Well, I would really like to post a photo of Jumble but I promised not to. It was the only way she would agree to get her photo taken. For YW in Excellence, they encouraged the girls to wear formals. The older girls have their own from attending prom, and the younger girls were able to borrow formals from one of the leaders who has SIX grown daughters. This was Jumble's first time wearing a formal gown and she looked gorgeous! Sorry, you'll have to trust me on this one. Complain to her, not me! Anyway, for her project she has been working on collecting recipes in a recipe box. Besides her project, we were also told to display a few things about her that would allow others to get to know her better. So the above photo is of Jumble's little area on the display table. We took her clarinet and a few photos of her with her bass clarinet in her marching band uniform. We also took a photo of her in the swimming pool in Arizona since swimming and Arizona are also two of her loves in life. We enjoyed sharing this special evening with Jumble and are grateful for the inspired goal-setting program of Personal Progress. We look forward to Jumble earning her Young Womanhood Award. She is getting close to being finished. We are also looking forward to sharing the evening with both of our daughters next fall--Minnie will be starting Personal Progress this coming May.

Two More Days of Birthday

Atom blowing out the candles on his cake that Nana made for him.

Atom playing with one of his gifts from the Pew side of the family--a xylophone.

Two more days of birthday for Atom. Isn't it great to be near family? Atom said to me today, "I have lots of birthdays!"