Being together!-----------------------------------------
Enchilada SauceMaking enchilada sauce is a new tradition in our family that was started 2 years ago. My wonderful friend Cindy L. introduced this yummy recipe to me. She has some of the greatest recipes!! Her family has lived in Arizona for several generations and enchiladas at Christmas time is part of their family's tradition. They all get together on the first Saturday in December for an enchilada dinner and her mom is in charge of the sauce. This sauce is amazing!! Cindy has come over and helped me make it the past two years and this year I graduated and was on my own. I did it!! I made 8 large quart jars and put 6 in my freezer. The picture above is all of the ingredients waiting to go in the pot. Then you cook your pork, put them in corn tortillas and smother it in sauce. Yummy!!
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We love Campbell's Dance Studio. It is such a great dance studio and the girls are learning a lot. One of the things that I love most is that I don't have to pay for costumes and tickets for their Christmas Dance Recital. Yahoo! They reuse little costumes every year and they do the recital in one of the big dance rooms.
Picture #1 Emma Grace and her friend Laine Norton doing their tap dance. Emma Grace is fortunate enough to get to go to dance each week with Laine, one of her best friends.
Picture #2 Emma Grace doing her ballet dance. How cute are those leggin's? Her ballet teacher is so adorable and a great teacher. She made up some really cute choreography.
Picture #3 Charlie has fun wherever we go but put him in a room that already has an audience AND a water fountain and he is set.
Picture #4 Brenna rocked out in her tap dance. She's awesome! She really enjoys tap dance.
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Triple Threat (in class) PerformanceBrenna has been involved with "singing, dancing, acting" classes called Triple Threat since February of 2007 and has absolutely LOVED it. She enjoys going every week and when it comes time for a performance, she just can't wait. The night that Ms. Beckie taught them how to cry was hilarious. She came home just amazed that Ms. Beckie could do that. We have since had the opportunity to watch Brenna while we know she is using the techniques she learned that night. Her in-class performance was fun. They set it up as a "theatre in the round". All of the kids had a chance to be in a skit as well as direct a skit.
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Fun at Preschool!Eliza has just loved being in Preschool this year! It helps that she has the most wonderful and loving Preschool teacher ever. In December they do all kinds of fun Christmas activities and then top it off with a little program for the parents. The program is called "The Gingerbread Caper". It's all about the gingerbread man and is so dang cute!! The top picture is Eliza with her sweet teacher, Ms. Kerri. The other picture above is Eliza with two of her preschool buddies during their program. The little girl on the left is her good friend Brooke. And the little boy on the right is Michael. He is the one who tells Eliza that he loves her and that she is his girlfriend. Every day when we arrive at Preschool, Michael is waiting for Eliza at the door and is yelling "Eliza is here. Eliza is here". No wonder she loves going to preschool...she has her own cheering section.
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Great Primary Teachers!
We live in such a wonderful ward and all of our children are always so blessed to have great teachers. This past year Jim and Kim Robinson were Emma Grace's teachers. They are always so prepared and do such wonderful activities with the children. Each week they give them "homework". Sometimes the homework is something like "do something nice for a brother or sister" or "ask your parents about some gospel principle". So cute! Emma Grace is always telling us stories that they told in class. For Valentine's, they sent Emma Grace a card. And as you can see in this picture they came to our house to give Emma Grace a Christmas present. They sang "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" for us.
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A Christmas Carol
We are so lucky to have the Hale Center Theatre so close to our home. It's a theatre in the round and there isn't a bad seat in the house. There also has never been a bad performance. Everything that we go to is great!! Todd and I took Brenna and Emma Grace to see "A Christmas Carol". Nothing gets you more in the Christmas spirit than to see this wonderful play. At the end, all of the performers line up outside and sing Christmas carols while snow(bubbles) falls from above you as you exit the theatre. Oh my...it's so wonderful!!
I got the tickets 5 months in advance for "A Christmas Carol". They sell out fast! Other people like this little tradition as much as we do.
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Reindeer Run
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Sharing Christmas Treats!
Another favorite Christmas tradition takes its toll on our waist line. Throughout the entire month of December our doorbell rings and their is someone from our ward bringing us some yummy Christmas treat. Oh my...this year everyone really out did themselves. Everything was so good! For the past several years we have taken Peppermint Truffles to everyone. This year Eliza and I started by crushing 17 boxes of peppermint candy canes. I went through 14 boxes of semi-sweet chocolate and still should have made more. My mom made the cute little cards to put on the top of the box. Cute huh! She did a great job! Thanks for doing that mom!
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Nutcracker
Since the beginning of October, Brenna has been giving up a couple of hours every Saturday morning to rehearse for the Nutcracker. We were so thrilled for her to be a part of this Christmas tradition. She was a "Ginger Kid". She dance with about 15 other girls and they did a wonderful job!! Brenna is becoming quite a performer.
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Gingerbread HouseOne of our favorite traditions that we do at the very beginning of December is building a Gingerbread house. Todd always puts the main part of the house together and then we all get to decorate. This year we decorated like the one on the box. It kept things a little more simple for the three year old who likes to take over. She had her bowl of candy and put it where it showed in the picture!
There have been a couple of years that we have struggled a bit with the icing and not had so much success with the roof. One particular year when Brenna was 3 years old the roof was not cooperating. When she said her night time prayer, she asked Heavenly Father if He would please fix the roof on the Gingerbread house. Todd and I went back downstairs and got out the glue gun!
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Putting up the Christmas tree!
Todd and the girls went and picked out a beautiful Douglas Fir. Todd put the lights on the tree Saturday night and we decorated it Sunday after church. The lights on the Christmas tree are mesmorizing. There is nothing better than sitting around the tree at night just looking at the Christmas lights and reading Christmas books. We keep our collection of Christmas books near the tree so they are ready every night for cuddling and reading.
Okay...go ahead and make a comment telling me I've gone crazy!! No really....if you have a baby who has a diaper rash you have to try this. A couple of nights ago Charlie had some redness in his "rolls" and then when I wiped him there was a tiny bit of blood. So I thought to myself, "well which do I use...baby powder or desitin". I decided to call a friend who has 10 children and her youngest is a baby right now. I asked her for some advice about it and she told me to try a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. She told me that Charlie's problem would be gone by morning. I was eager to put it to the test. I'm not kidding you...it was better in the morning. His bum was swimming in olive oil all night but it worked and he was a happier camper the next morning.
