christmas morning

christmas morning was exciting.
highlight: max opened his stocking and pulled out an old fashioned bottle of cream soda. he held it up and with a very concerned look on his face said, "is this the bad kind, or the good kind?"

fueeef!!! santa did not slip him a beer in his christmas stocking!

christmas eve

our family tradition= homemade gifts exchanged on christmas eve.

this year sadie made kai a sock penguin. he LOVES penguins and he loved this one a lot!

abe made sadie a t-shirt with the nick-name given to her by her friends.

i helped kai make max a marble run made out of pvc pipes. it turned out awesome!
max had abe's name...it was tricky finding something max could make, but we came up with a mix of songs from their favorite show, phineas and ferb. abe thought it was great, especially the drawing by max on the cd.


the exchange....














making cookies for santa

christmas eve dinner
kai came home from school with a handmade snowflake made from popscicle sticks. i loved it so much we decided to make them for our christmas eve dinner decorations. the kids painted and glued and we hung them all around. it was simple and lovely!
i was so excited when i found these gross candies in the store. my grandma always had these and dried apricots in fancy candy dishes. it is a fun memory.



the purple glasses were my grandma haws' and i found the other glasses at a thrift store. what a find! i love them and they were perfect for our little dinner together. we listened to music, had a fantastic dinner, and opened presents. couldn't have been better.

piano recital

my friend, dianne taught abe piano lessons for a few months. he really picked up on it quickly. he liked it and she was a great teacher. he had his first piano recital right before christmas. right after her five students played, she talked about how every one of the kids were very busy but they practice a little everyday and how great things came out of small and simple things.
i really like that thought. we have been busy lately, even so that i didn't know the names of the songs abe was going to play...how sad is that! abe would squeeze practicing in a few minutes a day before school or bed, and he did a great job. small and simple things over time equal greatness. it's my new thought for 2011....thanks abe and dianne!

fourteen years

dave and i celebrated our fourteenth anniversary on the 17th.

we met when we were fourteen, and now we have been married for fourteen years...and we have four, not fourteen, kids. phueeef! he left me a really nice note (because he knows i like those) up on the computer screen with my present on the desk. something about being together for fourteen infinities, and even max knows that still is just infinity, but i'll take it! we celebrated amidst the chaos. the kids had a nutcracker performance, so we went to dinner at brix (sort of a tradition since we've lived here), then attended our own children's performance. i surprised dave and had one of the college girls from our ward stay the night, so after the performance we took the kids home, got them settled and then i swept him away for the night. we escaped to little america and even though we had to be home at nine thirty in the morning for the babysitter, a breakfast with friends and then the kids' matinee performance, it was good to get away, just the two of us! our friend is the general manager at little america and he hooked us up with an awesome room complete with chocolate covered strawberries. anyway, i love being married to dave. i love that he tells me he loves me and that i'm beautiful everyday. i love that he wants to make my eyes smile. i love that he loves me even on my worst days! most of all, i have always just loved him. so, bring on fourteen infinities!

nutcracker 2010

sadie, abe and kai were all in the nutcracker this year. they performed at NAU on the 16th, 17th and two shows on the 18th. it was a modern version, not very traditional, and so fun! sadie was a party teen (she looked beautiful) and a street jazz performer, which was a hip hop, suppose to look tough, dance. it was awesome! abe was fritz and did such a great job pestering the party girls and breaking the nutcracker, and kai was absolutely darling! they made him fritz's younger brother, erich, since abe and he look so much alike. he danced with clara in the opening scene and had a few parts where he was the center of attention. this has consumed a lot of our time this last month, but so worth it. it was such a positive experience. we will miss it next year.

last soccer practice

abe had his last soccer practice (we are starting to have a lot of lasts here in flagstaff). it was a great practice. i was noticing what a beautiful place it is here. we will miss it. at the end of practice they had a little going away party for abe. we had cookies, donuts and hot chocolate. abe had his team autograph his shirt and the coach said some nice things about abe. when we were walking to the car, i think it really hit abe and he tried to hold it in, but started crying. one of the boys came over and was so cute. told him he knew how it felt to move. soon they were laughing, but it made me want to cry myself. i think it has been sort of blessing that we have been so busy lately. we haven't had time to dwell on how sad it will be to leave. i am really grateful that abe has been on this team. it's been a really good thing.

last soccer tournament

abe played in his last soccer tournament in phoenix. it felt nice to get out of the cold for a day. i can't believe we won't make that drive anymore. it has been such a big part of our lives the last few years.

last choir concert

sadie had her last choir concert. yeah!!!! she has a beautiful voice, but hasn't loved choir. she keeps telling me at her next school, she wants to take foods. i agree. their practice records for choir have been a killer. when she sings in the shower, we count it!

economic fair

abe had an economic fair at school. he had to come up with a business plan, then advertise, then see what kind of a profit he could make. the most money made last year was $80. abe really wanted to beat that. his business was called "super games". dave helped him make a ski ball game and it was hit! he made $218. max and i worked in his booth handing out prizes, but we told him we would work for food and he could pay us in tootsie rolls.

funnies

*recently, sadie went to her first middle school dance...crazy! she came home and said people would TEXT "do you want to dance?" so silly. just walk five feet and talk! i bet they text each other while they are dancing too.

*we were leaving for soccer practice and i told abe to get a water bottle. he said he didn't need one, so i mentioned how important it was to be hydrated. he said, "if i get thirsty, i will just open my mouth and get moisture out of the air."

*max and kai were talking about something (didn't catch what it was) and they were trying to out do each other. where this competitiveness comes from, i'm not sure:) anyway, max said he could do it for infinity. kai replied he could do it for three infinities. max thought for a second, then said, "kai, three infinities is still just infinity."

*i had the christmas tree up with lights on it. i left the boxes for the elegant tree, the box for the crafty tree, and the kid's homemade ornaments all next to it and i went to bed. the next morning, when i woke up, it looked like somebody sneezed! the tree was decorated with everything! even a bubble wrap tree skirt. dave saw it first and told me i couldn't touch it and i haven't. it is awesome. i love it. sadie on the other hand, said, "i have to look at that for a whole month?"

thanksgiving

we spent thanksgiving in utah with the tullis side. kai did not want turkey, so dave made him his very own hen. with his hen and his seven layered jello, he was one happy kid! it was really fun to be with dave's family. everyone was there except our sister-in-law, holly. i can't remember the last time we did dinner with everyone at dave's house. my goal was to taste the dinner. sometimes i eat, but i'm so involved feeding everyone else that i realize i didn't even taste it. i can attest that the turkey was fantastic!

the next day, the kids helped grandpa haws set up his santa collection and his village. this is a tradition they look forward to.



before heading back to flagstaff, we stopped at the aquarium. kai is in a huge panguin phase so we thought we would check out some real panguins. it was a great way to end our quick trip. i love hanging out as a family...and the panguins were cool too.