Bobby's Travels

The Elf on the Shelf made a guest appearance at our house this Christmas season!  We had so much fun wondering where he would end up and what mischief he would create.  We named him Bobby and this is the proof of his escapades!  He started by welcoming us to hot chocolate in Santa mugs the first morning...

then he decided to take a ride on the ceiling fan in the kitchen the next!

Then he decided to get into the Christmas spirit by reading the story of Christ's birth...

Then he thought he would just hang around with the Christmas bells that wake the kids up on Christmas morning.

The next night there was an eclipse, 

and Bobby watched it from his hiding spot on the piano.

He hung out with the kid's nativities,

but we were all really surprised when he toilet papered the Christmas tree!  Can you spot him?

Yep - he caused a little mischief that night!

He must have run down the battery on my itouch - it was dead and the kids had to go a whole day without playing on it! 

A little more mischief the next morning when we found he had a little fun with the copy machine - he had made several copies of his face and even his cute little toosh!

He hund out on the door bell one morning...

Read books in Leighton's room the next...

And then thought hanging out in Garrett's room would increase his animal magnetism!

The next morning we found out he had had a snowball/marshmallow fight with a lego man.  B.E. (Bobby Elf)

He took another ride on a ceiling fan - this time in the family room...

Wrote a daring message for McKenna on her bathroom mirror.

Then decided that Weeble Wobbles shouldn't have all the fun!

Addison found him watching her sleep...

McKenna found he was practicing his princess wave...

And last but not least - Leighton found him in Kimber's room ready for the big day!

It really ended up being alot of fun to see where Bobby would show up - even Leighton would wake up asking for Bobby and toddling off around the house to find him.  Wonder if he will show up next year!

Dance Recital

 December is such a busy month and smack dab in the middle of it on the 19th Addison had a dance recital and oh did she shine!  She was just adorable and so cute!  My camera - thanks to Leighton is broken again - Santa brought me a new one - but not before the dance recital.  All the pics are with my phone so a little fuzzy. 

Chickenpox!

Kimber caught the chickenpox!  She was immunized and her outbreak really wasn't too terrible and it cleared up within just a couple of days.  She was the 7th or 8th in her class to get it.  Only 5th graders came down with it and at last count I think there were about 10 or 11 total out of her grade.  It's really interesting just for the fact that no other grades had an outbreak.  Maybe a bad year for the vaccine?  Or just good luck for Kimber - I hear that if you get the chickenpox after the vaccine your chance of shingles goes down!  Hopefully so after watching mom go through it this summer!  Another bonus is that they were all gone by the time Christmas rolled around!

Mmmmm, Yum!

Leighton helped me make a little jelly for Christmas presents this year.  I think she enjoyed skimming the foam the most!

Thanksgiving Feast!

I love Thanksgiving!  It truly is one of my favorite holidays!  This year both Jeff and I were on call for the hospital and unable to go out of town to be with family.  We also worried that if we invited family to our place that there might be a chance that we could both be called in.  We opted for the going solo Thanksgiving this year.  Just a quiet holiday at home.  Thanks to a couple of good friends, we did things a little different this year.  As it turns out - I did get called in to help deliver a couple of babies.  One on Monday, and then again on Wednesday.  I was truly grateful to get them both here before the holiday.  I had an idea ready for the kids to work on while I was busy on Wednesday.  They put it together and it turned out great!  This is what it looked like:

  The next idea was to have a thanksgiving feast without dishes.  I had asked McKenna earlier in the week what she thought - fancy with china or the sans dishes idea.  She opted for the dishless idea so that is what we surprised everyone with on Thanksgiving!  I took butcher paper and drew the plates on the table.  Then gave everyone a set of chopsticks.  Lots of fun and laughs!  Unfortunately for us, Jeff got called in on an emergency just as we sat down to eat.  Fortunately for him, by the time he got home we had it all cleaned up and he got to use a dish and utensils! 

 It was an easy and great idea.  We just cleared the food off the table and threw everything else all away!  Easiest Thanksgiving I have ever cleaned up!

Later that night we took another friend's daughter's Facebook picture and used it to make our own Thanksgiving turkeys and pilgrims hats.  We really had a great Thanksgiving on our own.  Although we really missed getting together with our families - we made some terrific memories just for our own!  Now on to Christmas! 

School Days

 Kimber's class held an assembly on all fifty states for the elementary.  Her state is Nebraska.  Her interesting fact is that Nebraska has the only roller skating museum in the United States.

 The entire 5th grade of Panguitch Elementary.

 Garrett's and Jimmy's science project was called "Plug That In".  They ran electricity through a pickle to make it glow.  They did a pretty great job - it was all theirs!  This mom didn't step in at all!

With McKenna's science project "Find a Penny, Clean It Up" she tried to find which household solution would clean up a penny the best.  She ended up finding out that ketchup worked best!

Oh How We Love This Little Girl!

Halloween

 It seems that our pumpkin carving seems to grow each year!  I really won't complain - especially since it will only be one more year until we start carving less pumpkins again.  At least Addison, Garrett and Kimber all carved their own.  McKenna was at state volleyball and Jeff must have been at the hospital because he wasn't home for the blessed event either.  This kids and I all managed this on our own.  I was just grateful my dad wasn't around to inspect the insides of my pumpkins - I am afraid I probably didn't clean them out to his high standards.  It was fun anyways!  And I think they all turned out terrific!

Addison has the Egyptian pose down pat!  She was a pro!

 Garrett raided his dad's Filipino mission garb for this get up.

 Kimber - always her dad's girl went as a cowgirl.

 Once again - the blessed Elementary parade around town - well - actually around the block.  It was a great year for it - warmer than usual and oh so fun!

Our little Tiger - Leighton!  I just borrowed this year from a friend.  I really don't want to buy new outfits for trick or treating anymore - they just rummage through the box.  Alas when Leighton popped into our family I had already donated our smaller outfits to friends.  Thanks to Mitzi - she saved the day.  Little Tiger was called a cute boy all night - but that was ok - she was warm and she actually kept her hood up (so unlike her)!

It was a great Halloween - McKenna was even home from state volleyball by then - she was too busy and in and out the door before I could ever get a photo of her - and it didn't snow until the next day!  A great excuse to stay in and munch down all the candy!