Karaoke Night!

So I have a great friend from school named Andrea.  It is funny how we met.  I remember her being the 1st grade homeroom mom and our kids our now in 6th grade.  Time flys.  Anyway, she is the best and invited my family over for dinner and karaoke over Christmas break.  I still can't believe she fed my WHOLE extended family that was visiting.  She wanted to meet my family.  It was a fun night!  THANKS ANDREA!

Uncle Luke and Aunt Leslie love to karaoke.  Aunt Chrissy did tried karaoke for the first time.  She was pretty good.  The kids loved it.
And YES, even Travis likes to karaoke. 

Surprise!

Went to the movies on Travis' birthday and ran into some friends who recently moved away! I love the Lee family and it was good to see "M" and "N"! We even went to see the same movie. Crazy but true!

Grand Canyon Trip - December 20, 2010

Do you see that layer of thick clouds hanging over the Grand Canyon? Well, that was about all we saw when we first arrived at the Grand Canyon after an early morning drive.
FOG
Fog everywhere.
So, we got on the blue route bus and warmed up while we waited for the fog to rise.
We stopped at EVERY gift shop. You would think that they are all the same, but no they are not. My brother Luke likes to shop. Who knew? RHM tried on a few hats. (Can you tell I made him take this picture? He did NOT want to.)

Then we were lucky and found some snow for the boys!
Snowball, err, I mean, Iceball FIGHT!By the time we road on the bus to the visiter's center, the fog had lifted and we finally saw the GRAND CANYON and all it's GLORY!

You can even see the bottom and the Colorado River.

The clouds were still there, but the fog was gone and that made all the difference.
IT WAS AMAZING!
I forgot how beautiful the Canyon is. This was my first trip to the GC in the winter months. Lovely.

This was Luke and Leslie's first trip to the GC ever! SO EXCITING! We were running from look out point to look out point taking a ton of pictures. The terrain around the GC changes so much as you walk around the edge, but even more when you hike down into it. It really made me look forward to hiking the Canyon again this upcoming spring with Amber. Honestly, it brought a joy to my insides.
me and my sis
Agent J (don't lean too far, boy)
This picture doesn't do it justice, but the hiking path down was MUDDY! VERY, EXTREMELY, THICK MUD.
The mud didn't stop Agent J and he hiked down a little ways. YUCK!
It was cold. Leslie, Luke, and Mom.
Agent J and me.
Chrissy, Agent J, and Leslie. This is RIGHT BEFORE the fog rolled back in which was about 3 hours later.
Looking at the Canyon, how can anyone deny that there is a God? We have a loving Heavenly Father who made this earth for each of us to be tested and tried throughout our lives. I am grateful to have moments where I truly appreciate all Heavenly Father has given me,
including my boys sleeping on the way home laying on Aunt Chrissy. It was a fun filled, busy road trip of a day!

I volunteer too much (not a complaint, at least not from me)

Earlier in December, I was helping the spelling bee set up. I should clarify that I have nothing to do with the spelling bee and my kids were not in the spelling bee. I was just helping. I was supposed to be "helping" with the sound equipment, but that turned into a joke and I called in the expert, Mike, who saved the day - again. After spending 1 hour in the morning messing with the equipment and realizing that I was wasting mine and everyone's time, I made the call to Mike and took Sweetie to preschool late. I came back to the school, even though I had a ton to stuff to do at home to prepare for my family coming into town the next week. I took a bunch of pictures of the set up sound equipment and hope to develop the pictures to put with the cords to assist future "helpers" like me who really know nothing about the sound equipment. I don't mind avoiding housework 99% of the time, but it was on this day that I realized,

I volunteer too much.

Judges
(Notice the adorable beehive the Spanish teacher made for the event! She did a great job.)

I love to help at the school, but there are days, evenings and some weeks that my husband (and even my mom in St. Louis) say that I am doing too much (Honestly, how can my mom tell from so far away?). I often will blow off the comments and concerns, because I feel a HUGE REWARD in my gut when I help. Most people won't let me "help", but the school and I have a relationship and THEY LOVE it when I am involved with an event (at least I get that feeling).

I would like to tell you that I volunteer to make the school a better place or that I do it for the students, but honestly I LOVE IT. Isn't that just horrible to admit? Watching the set up, the teachers and volunteers come together for a common cause makes me feel like part of an amazing TEAM. There is no "i" in TEAM and I am reminded of that statement and how selfish this post may sound to you the reader. I think I am okay with that because I know that the school would go on without me, but I am glad to be part of this school. Volunteers really do make a difference and our school has an ARMY of volunteers.

Christmas time at preschool with Miss Debi

We made her a wreath that she can use year round.
Isn't it cute? I got the idea from SugarDoodle.net on facebook and she shared this link here. I get more ideas from SugarDoodle and I LOVE IT!
See how I hotglued the crayons to 2 different hoops.
I love my little Sweetie and I love that she loves preschool.
Miss Debi loved the gift so much that she took down the class clock and hung up the crayon wreath right away. I am so glad she loved it!

Pulling teeth as a piano teacher

It is small moments like this that amazes me. Such trust is shown by this simple act. My sweet, yet whiny little piano student let me pull her lose tooth. She didn't LET me, she ASKED me to do it. I was surprised. She is the youngest in her family and I have to be careful how I correct her during a piano lesson. She is sensitive, yet during this moment she was brave and let me pull this tooth, easily. She didn't flinch and had a big smile at the end as she spit out the blood. Funny girl.

Friday December 17 - CLASS PARTY!

My mom and sister helped me decorate the room at 7 a.m. with Patricia the excellent homeroom mom who did the food (Culver's chicken strips and mac n' cheese - YUM!). The party didn't start 'til 11 a.m. and then my sister and brother came to help. THEY WERE GREAT! Family is so awesome.

So, this year I went outside the box and did a Gingerbread theme party. My normal bag of tricks is doing a plain old "Winter" party with snowflakes. It was nice to do something different.
NEVER AGAIN.
It was too much work. My Mom, sister, sister-in-law, and I were up 'til 11:30 p.m. after the Winter Concert hotgluing these house together. CRAZY AMOUNT OF WORK.
Although the kids loved it!
Earlier in the week they made placemats to help with the mess.
Even the Dads got into it.
Everyone seemed to have a great time.
If you notice the candy mints hanging from the ceiling, these decorations were gifts for the parents from each child. The saying on the mint says:

I think you're sweet as candy.
Your love always makes me smile.
Please keep these hands to remind you
of when I was a sweet little child.

The idea came from Oriental Trading Company and each child cut out a pair of their hands and glued each to the outside candy wrapper.

Lots of parents came to the party and helped. It was a great craft for helpers. SO GLAD they came.
Opening the class gift - small refrig. Somehow I decided to delegate my homeroom mom duties and asked another parent to buy and wrap the gift. The gift was great, but the wrapping was birthday paper. Oh well. At least I didn't have to worry about it, but I must confess that it is moments like these that make me micro-manage when I do delegate. (Deep down, I wonder if the present was wrapped in Christmas paper, if I still would complain. I wonder if anything really is good enough.) I think I am a secret perfectionist.

me and Miss C

She is the best. We had an extra "graham cracker" ginger bread house in the classroom and Miss C loved making her own house out of the candy. She really helped out at the party a lot and that was SO NICE! I really love being her homeroom mom!