'Twas the Night Before Christmas...

May visions of sugarplums dance in your heads. Merry Christmas!

Would You Rather

Lando: I'd rather have my head cut off than have my legs cut off, because if you didn't have legs, you couldn't move around.

Rob: If your head was cut off, you couldn't eat anything, though. So would you rather not be able to move around or not be able to eat?

Lando: Actually, I'd want to be able to eat, so I'd want to have my legs cut off, even if I couldn't move around.

Hillcrest Festival of Trees

Every year at the elementary school, each grade decorates a tree for a Festival of Trees in the library. The year the first grade did a Santa-themed tree...

This is the ornament Brynlee made...

And the third grade did a cowboy-themed tree...

Here is Ashlee's ornament...

Piano Recital 2009

Ashlee took piano lessons for two years, starting when she was four. Her teacher moved away, and two years went by with no lessons or practicing. This past summer, both Ashlee and Brynlee were interested in piano, so I started teaching them a little, mainly to see if the interest would stick before we put them in regular lessons again. By the end of the summer, Ashlee had gone through most of her old material and was about back to where she had been previously. Brynlee had a few basics down, but most importantly, they were interested enough to commit to lessons from a real teacher.

Kirsten and I both had lessons growing up, but definitely not enough to know how to teach it. Hopefully our kids will take after our moms, who have both played the organ and piano in church for decades. While I have played the piano off and on in church for 20 years myself, in addition to playing the organ for about a year and a half awhile back, our lovely choir director Kirsten knows very well not to ask me to stand in at the last minute during choir practice if the regular accompanist has something come up.

Brynlee, playing Russian Sailor Dance and Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer (you can hear T at the beginning and then he gives a little growl at the end!)



Ashlee, playing O Little Town of Bethlehem and Jingle Bell Rock

Pip and Daisy

by Ashlee Barton

Once there was a greedy mouse named Pip. Pip is a small grey mouse. He is very mischievous.

Pip's mom is a reddish chestnut-brown color. She is a very kind (yet sometimes strict) mouse.

Pip's mom's friend has a daughter named Daisy. Daisy is an adorable furry white mouse. Her mom is a light creamy brown color.

One day Pip's mom invited Daisy and her mom for supper.

"That sounds great!" said Daisy's mom, "What time is it at?"

"6:00," said Pip's mom, "After supper the kids can play for awhile."

At 6:00 Daisy and her mom went over to Pip's house. "I'm hungry," wailed Pip," When's dinner?"

"In a little bit," his mom said.

Awhile later dinner was ready. The mice sat down at the table. "Oops!" said Pip's mom, "I forgot the potatoes!"

"I'll help you get them," said Daisy's mom.

As the mothers left Pip was thinking, "Maybe," he thought, "Yes!"

Daisy was waiting patiently, then Pip said, "The soup's too hot. Go and wait outside. When the soup cools I'll get you."

"Okay," said Daisy, and with that she went outside.

"Yes!" said Pip, "Now I'll eat Daisy's food." He ate her carrots and corn. When Daisy came back Pip said, "The soup is cold now. Go outside and I'll warm it up."

"Okay," Daisy replied. Then she went outside. Of course Pip ate her soup and all of her almonds and Pip's favorite, CHEESE!

When everyone came back Daisy gasped, "My food!"

"PIP!" his mother cried, "Why did you eat Daisy's food?"

"I was hungry," said Pip.

"You're in big trouble young man!" said his mom. And of course Daisy buried her small face in her mom's fur.

"It's all right, baby, "Daisy's mom said stroking her daughter's fur, "You're all right."

"As for you," said Pip's mom, "Go to your room."

"Okay," said Pip, and he went straight to bed.

THE END.

Latest Sewing Project

*Spoiler alert to Tim and Heather: The following contains a portion of your Christmas present so if you would like to be surprised, stop here :)

A few years ago Rob's mom made quilted quiet books for my kids. There is a jungle themed one, a color one, one with different modes of transporation, a Christmas story one and a touchy-feely one. I've been wanting to make one and decided to make a color one for my brother's family, who we buy for Christmas this year. Each page is basically like a quilt block and then you sew them all together to make a book. A fun project...the hardest part was finding fabric for the center of each page.

Front cover all colorful...

Red and Orange...

Yellow and Green...

Blue and Purple...

And Black/White on the back page...


Now time to get started on Christmas Eve jammies and Neil's Batman cape...

Let the Festivities Begin

We're going to step back a bit into November and start the festivities with Thanksgiving. We hosted Thanksgiving dinner this year with all the Barton side of the family in attendance. There were 23 people total and we had a wonderful time eating, visiting, playing at the park, playing Ticket to Ride...and eating some more!

I'm usually one that waits until December 1st to break out the Christmas decorations but this year, with the 1st falling on a Monday (and I work Monday evenings), I decided I would break tradition and we decorated on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. The kids always get so excited to find "their" ornaments and put them on the tree. Each year I buy them a new ornament to add to their collection and I put the year on it so they know what year they got each one.

On Thursday Landon had his preschool Christmas program. The kids sang songs about numbers, shapes and colors, recited Christmas poems about the different symbols of the season, and showed off their "Jack Be Nimble" skills.

(the #9 song)

(To my Kovacs siblings...any of you remember this song?: "This is a song about colors (colors). You see them all around. There is red on the stop sign, green on the trees, blue in the sky and sea. Red stand up, blue stand up...ah, the memories :)

Jack be nimble, Jack be quick, Jack jump over the candlestick...oops couldn't get the video to upload!

Landon loves preschool again* and his teacher had this to say about him in an email after the program...

"Landon did so well. He knows every word to everything! I've been so pleased with his "recovery" from whatever was going on. He is smart and fun and I love him!"

*Note to readers: The next section is mainly for journaling purposes for me but feel free to read on or skip to the next part...

When Mrs. Lee became concerned about something being "not right" with Landon, she mentioned to me when I picked Landon up one day that she needed to talk to me. She had previously told me about some issues that happened (another child taking a toy from Landon which upset him and another child hitting him when they were outside playing). The next day I told Landon he needed to eat lunch so he could get ready for school. That was the first time Landon told me he didn't want to go to school. I decided I needed to call Mrs. Lee to see what was going on. She could tell Landon would get anxious when it was time for "free play" time and then it got to the point where he would wouldn't play during free time and just wanted to sit on the couch and some days he would cry. I had talked to Landon before to see what was bothering him but really couldn't get anything out of him. Kathie and I discussed different solutions and she said she has really been praying to know what to do for him. How grateful I am to have such a wonderful teacher who is so willing to help each child individually and is close enough to the spirit to pray and know what to do. After my conversation with her, I talked more with Landon about playing with the other kids and how fun preschool is. We focused on the positive things and he decided he was going to be happy at school that day. When I went to pick him up, Mrs. Lee had a good report for the day. She told me she got an idea to start "free time" by partnering the kids up for play buddies. For the first 10-15 minutes of free time, they had to play only with their partner and then they could do whatever they wanted. That integrated Landon into the group again and he has done well ever since. As I have said before, we LOVE Mrs. Lee!

Later on Thursday was Parent Observation Night at Ashlee's ballet class. Rob was able to go since I had to go into work that night. I've been the last two years since her class had been earlier in the day so it was nice for Rob to be able to go this year and see what she is learning and how much she has progressed.

This past Saturday was a busy one and of course, a huge snow storm decided to hit Cache Valley, making driving around town not so pleasant. We started the morning with a ward breakfast and a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus.

Later in the day was the Sugar Plum Tea Party performance. Ashlee's class danced to "The Waltz of the Snowflakes" from the Nutcracker. I was very impressed with how much Ashlee has improved...such a graceful dancer (definitely did not get those genes from me!) Here is the video clip from the performance. Ashlee is the second one from the left in the front row....

Girls Night Out to the Nutcracker

This is the third year I've taken Ashlee to see the Nutcracker. She gets a free ticket since she takes ballet from the Cache Valley School of Ballet. This year she was so excited because her teacher was the Sugar Plum Fairy. It was cute to watch her clap when she came on stage. She loved it! Her Primary teacher played the violin in the orchestra so that was neat as well. This year Brynlee also wanted to go. I was talking to my friend, Katie, and she was going to take her daughter, Alivia, who is one of Brynlee's friends so we all went together. It was fun to have a little girls night out and the girls loved it!

The Grand Opening of "Ashlee's Wonders"

Ashlee is an official business owner! In her class at school, the students earn money for various things...turning in homework on time, being in the group that gets the most points that day, etc. Alot of classes do this type of thing and then have a class store where they can buy different things. Ashlee's teacher has taken it a step further and they can purchase a business license for $200. They become business owners and decide what goods or services to sell. They can make the items or buy them (one girl even sold her Halloween candy that she didn't want) or sell a service such as cleaning desks. Only a few students have bought business licenses so far. Today was the first day that the students could buy from those who had their own store.

Ashlee chose to sell hairbows. She helped me make "Hillcrest Husky" hairbows and then set a price for them. At first she had them set at $5 for a bow and $3 for a clip but then I realized how much money the kids all have (they get $5 a day just for turning in homework) and also realized that the teacher sells things in her store for $30-$90! I convinced her to raise her prices to $25 and $15 (I think we'll even up it next time!) I went in to her class to observe how things went and get pictures of her "Grand Opening." Everyone was saying how cute they were! One boy even bought one for his sister! We only got 9 bows made so I also let her sell some cards that I had leftover from a card swap group I used to be in. Her items sold like hotcakes! She made $305! She only had one card leftover. She had a constant group surrounding her desk. Girls were even asking her afterwards if she was going to have more to sell at the next class store. What an awesome learning experience! She is already planning what to sell at the next class store!

A SuperHero Halloween

Halloween is over...whew, now I can relax! After my kids all changed their minds about what they wanted to be for Halloween, I started "mad-sewing" the week before Halloween to get their Super Hero costumes done. I love to sew and don't do it as often as I used to or would like to but really, who has time to sit and do something you enjoy...right? :)

We started the Halloween celebration on Friday with a costume parade at the elementary school...

(an action shot of Supergirl...she walking by too fast!)

The girls were suprised when they walked by and saw their Grandpa Kovacs there! He had been in Tooele during the week for work and was supposed to go back home to Arizona on Friday but he ended up needing to stay until this next Wednesday. He called Friday afternoon and said he was on his way north for a visit and ended up making it just in time to go to see the girls at school.

Friday night we carved pumpkins...

And challenged Grandpa to a game of Rush Hour...

(The kids were just itchin' to help Grandpa out and tell him which car to move next!)

Ashlee carved her pumpkin this year all by herself! Usually I end up carving all of them so it was fun for her to do her own and she was very proud of the end result!

Landon aka Batman had to have a bat on his, courtesy of mom...

Brynlee chose a howling wolf (and helped dad in the carving process by pushing out the carved pieces as they were done)...

Ready for the trick or treaters to see our works of art...

On Saturday we had our friends, the Longhursts, over for a fun, pre-trick or treating dinner of mummies, fingers, eyeballs, and green slime with worms!

(The Barton and Longhurst kids)

Then it was time for the trick or treating madness to begin. We met at one of Brynlee's friend's houses and then they were off....literally running from house to house. I ended up staying behind with the boys and some of their friends and their moms who were at a slightly slower pace!

( All the cute girls!)

(and the cool boys)

After the boys had enough (translation: Landon wanted to go back home so he could get started on his candy), I dropped them off at home and continued the candy collecting with Ashlee and a few others (Brynlee and her group of friends with a few other moms were long gone at this point!) When I got back, Rob was outside hiding from the trick or treaters to scare them as they came to the door. Hmmmm, so the boys were where, you ask? I wondered the same thing and opened the door to find the boys helping themselves to as much candy as possible!