Principal's Pride: Think Win-Win

Travis earned the Principal's Pride award in Decemeber. These are based on the Seven Habits of Happy Kids, a program that our school has adopted (called "The Leader in Me"). Each month there is a habit for the month on which they focus. Travis' teacher chose him to be the recipient in his class for this award.

Christmas Band Concert

Westley had his band concert on Corey's birthday.  The band is huge this year!  Westley is now in advanced band and gets to do slightly more difficult music.  I've tried to be better about remembering to have him practice.  He does seem to enjoy it.  I hope he chooses to continue with it so he can have a good group of friends like some of my brothers did with band. 

Eliza's Birthday Party

When our kids turn six and eight, we let them have a birthday party, if they so choose.  They can either have that or have a fun family activity, like bowling or miniature golf.  

Eliza chose to have a party.  She invited a few friends from church and the neighborhood and all of the girls in her kindergarten class.  All but two showed up, so we had a LOT of little girls.

I divided the party into two groups.  The first group made jewelry while the second group decorated sugar cookies.  Then we switched.  After that, we had cake and ice cream and then Eliza opened her presents.  At the end, we had a dance party until all the parents came and picked up their kids.  Eliza's party theme was a "pink party".  Everything was pink--the decorations, the treats, the cake, the ice cream.

 All the girls greeting each other at the beginning

 Corey wasn't there, so I put my minions to work helping out.  These boys were stuffing party favor bags for me.  When they were done, they went upstairs.

 More greeting of friends

 pink heart cake

Dance party with remaining guests

Ward Christmas Breakfast

We had our ward Christmas breakfast on December 7th. The kids got to see Santa and the primary did a Christmas nativity. My three older boys were the three wise men. Eliza was in the angel choir and I didn't get any pictures of it. The boys hid behind the choir though, so I didn't get a very good picture of them either. I never take my kids to see Santa anymore because they can see him at the ward breakfast/dinner (depending on the year).

Westley did not sit on Santa's lap this year.  I suppose he is finally too old.  But Caleb still did.

Caleb with Santa

Jonah

Eliza

Travis

Even Annmarie sat on Santa's lap without crying

Six Years Old!

This little cutie turned six years old.  She is such a happy, spunky little girl.  Sometimes it's difficult because she and I have personalities that clash, but we are working on it.  I love her so much anyway.

The tradition in our house for birthdays is that they get to pick all their meals.  Eliza requested cinnamon rolls for breakfast, so I made the dough on Thursday night and then got up early on Friday, her birthday, to make them.  She had "homemade McDonald's" for lunch--freezer chicken nuggets, oven fries, and chocolate milk.  For dinner, we had her favorite, Italian chicken, which is chicken that is flattened, breaded and fried. 

Happy birthday, Eliza!

Big Holiday Fun

We had a get-together, Fellows style. It included good food, lots of talking, and of course, a white elephant gift exchange.

We had all the Fellows side who lived in Utah there.  Hopefully we can have many more of these in the days to come.

Post-Thanksgiving Fun

The day after Thanksgiving we had a get-together with some extended family. We had a soup, rolls, and leftover Thanksgiving dessert night. Some of our family had come out from California for Thanksgiving with some of their family, and we were able to see them too.

Four kids, each from a different family

Enjoying dinner with cousins