Grandma and Grandpa's new house

My parents moved in October, but with our move we haven't had a chance to go see their new place.  They are living in Southern Utah near Zions National Park.  It's a super cute house with lots of space outside to grow fruit trees and gardens, raise chickens and honey bees, and have space for the grandkids to play and have family reunions there.  It was fun to see it and to visit with them. My two older brothers were also there for a couple of days with their families. My kids love playing with their cousins and had a great time.

We drove up the canyon to see some of the views. It was too muddy to hike, but we'll be back another time for that.  The view is beautiful.  There was also some snow to play in. The last day we went in to St. George and visited Brigham Young's winter home and also the St. George temple.  Can't wait to go back!

Christmas Celebration

We tried something new this year. I don't know if it will become a tradition, or just something we tried out this year. But I liked it.  On Christmas Eve, we had a "Jerusalem dinner".  I don't think it was probably that authentic. But I think the idea was there. We sat on the floor and used our hands to eat. We had olives, cheese, grape juice, rosemary bread, and chicken with herbs (fish would have been more authentic, but we're not big fish eaters and I didn't have any on hand anyway). We talked about some of the different symbols and possibilities of the nativity story.  I liked it.

The kids have more fun when they are in charge of the nativity story. I get out my box of fabric and they put some props together and assign parts. I'm usually Mary, being the only girl in the family. But Branden really wanted to be Mary. He made a really cute Mary. Zach wanted to be Joseph. The two of them were very cute taking care of the baby Jesus. Jared and I were shepherds. Craig played the angel.  And Jared and Craig were also wise men.  It's always fun to see the details they remember and how they understand the story.

I was surprised how quickly they went to sleep that night.  And slept til 7 a.m.!  We had church at 9 a.m., so we didn't have a lot of time. We had them look at their gifts from Santa and play with them a bit.  They were all pretty excited. With the expenses of the move plus thins we've bought for the home, we kept Christmas pretty simple this year. It was nice.  We had a yummy breakfast and headed to church.  The program was beautiful. We have a lot of musical talent in our new ward. There were musical numbers of the choir singing, soloists, some songs included a string quartet and a couple of others an oboe.  It was beautiful and was the perfect way to spend Christmas day, really feeling the spirit of the birth of our Savior.

Back at home, we opened our few gifts and spent the day enjoying one another.  I was glad I did most of the dinner preparations on Saturday, so I didn't have to spend much time in the kitchen on Sunday.  It was a gorgeous day - 75 degrees!  If it weren't Sunday, I think we would have headed to the beach!

I made this cloak for Zach to add to his Luke Skywalker costume

Merry, Merry Christmas. Hope you had a wonderful day too.

Our Christmas Season

Moving right at the start of the Christmas season, made this year's season even busier than usual.  Trying to unpack and organize a house while participating in all the fun seasonal activities can be crazy. But we tried to keep a nice balance.

First was decorating our house. It worked out nicely because we haven't bothered to put up any home decor up yet, like pictures and such on the walls, because putting up all of our Christmas decor added enough that the house doesn't feel bare.  Of course, the lights didn't work when we pulled them out to put on the tree.  So we made reindeer hats while we were waiting for Dad to get them working. Then had fun decorating our tree.

I love Christmas baking. I have my favorite treats I make each year and only make them at Christmastime. Then we share plates of treats with friends and teachers. I still wanted to do my baking, but we needed to share those treats. It's too dangerous keeping all of them in the house where I can eat way too many!  So we decided to share them with our friendly new neighbors. I'm glad we did that!  We also decorated a gingerbread house one day.

Within walking distance of our home is a neighborhood of about 4 blocks that all decorate for Christmas. It's called Christmas Card Lane and is known around San Diego. A lot of people come out to see it. Some nights girl scouts are out selling hot cocoa for 50 cents.  A lot of people are out just walking around enjoying the different houses. Each house has a theme. Some are Christmas-themed - Santa or some nativity.  It seems like almost every character you can imagine is represented: Sesame Street, Harry Potter, Star Wars, Berenstain Bears, Garfield, Aladdin, Winnie the Pooh. Tons of them!  It's so fun!!  I loved being out there walking around.

One night we went to the San Diego temple for Family Home Evening.  The lights around the temple were beautiful. The manger scene and Christmas music added such a special spirit.  My kids were running all over the place and it wasn't turning out quite how I'd envisioned the evening. I said something on the way home about trying to remind them of what Christmas is all about, but that they weren't getting it.  They responded saying, "Mom, we know what Christmas is all about. It's about Jesus being born and coming to earth to be our Savior."  Okay, I guess that sums it up and hopefully just being there they will remember the importance of these things.

I went to the ward Relief Society Christmas dinner, and we enjoyed the ward Christmas dinner. We did some fun Christmas crafts one day that I'd gotten off of Pinterest. It's been a fun Christmas season. As always, it seems to go too quickly!  Just 11 months til the next one. :)

Day at the Beach

Our last day of our first semester of homeschooling was December 21st. We finished up, submitting our report, and headed out for some celebrating. What better place to celebrate than at the BEACH?!!  It was a gorgeous day. And I also wanted to take some pictures of the kids hoping I could use one to print for Jesse's new office and give it to him for Christmas.

Boys being boys, they couldn't help but get close to the water...really close. As in, get their clothes pretty much all wet.  They sure had a great time though. Well, until they got cold.  We had fun though. And learned that our closest beach is just 15 minutes away. 15 minutes!!  Love that.

Here are some of my favorite photos.

Zach: Man of Imagination

Zach has been cracking us up lately.  He changes clothes at least 5 times a day. But not just because he wants to wear something else.  It's because he wants to BE someone else. And he doesn't use dress-up clothes. He is using his own clothes to create a new costume to be who he wants.

It started at the beginning of the month as we started getting into the Christmas season.  He wanted to be Santa. He put on a red t-shirt, red pajama pants, and his black church belt. As the month went on, he added a red GAP hat to be his Santa hat.  He taped a bunch of white paper together to make his list. And proceeded to write down every person he knows and whether they are good or bad.  Yes, you may have made that list. Let me know if you want to know if you were marked good or bad and I'll let you know. :)

Another character was Luke Skywalker. The one in Return of the Jedi. He put on a long-sleeved dark blue shirt, black pants, and a belt.  He didn't have a green light saber, so he used a toilet paper tube as the handle, then used green construction paper and taped it together to create his own.  That is another thing that has come with his imagining - the extreme use of tape. I was surprised I had any left to wrap presents for Christmas!  Anything he can think he wants to play with, he gets out some paper and tape and is determined he can create it.  And he does a pretty good job!

He has also been Harry Potter, Captain Underpants, Tarzan, and even Princess Leia.  He was looking through a Star Wars book recently and had out - you guessed it - some brown paper and tape. I asked him what he was making and he said he was going to be Princess Leia. I looked at the picture and realized he was making the costume of Princess Leia in Return of the Jedi. You know, the bikini Princess Leia.  I didn't say anything. I was interested to see how this would come out.  A little later he came downstairs in a long-sleeved white shirt, grey pants, and a black belt. He said he was Princess Leia. I asked him what happened to the other costume and he said, "Mom, it's disgusting. She's hardly got anything on." Hahaha. Love it.  He was asking me how to make Princess Leia's hair. So I helped him use some black pantyhose and wrap it on his head. I thought he looked pretty good.

He is so fun to watch his little mind working and creating. Can't wait to see what he comes up with next.

Our Olympic Games

For school, we have been studying Ancient Civilizations and recently studied Ancient Greece. As an activity, we decided to hold our own "Olympic Games". I put Craig and Jared in charge of planning it and implementing it. They did a great job.

They made an Olympic Torch and started the Olympics with a torch run. Craig lined the kids up along the path at the park. And had one start with the torch and run to the next person, pass the torch to them, then run to the next person, and so on til they were all running along together with the torch.

 The events were: Discus (frisbee), Shot Put (throw a baseball), Javelin (throw a stick), Long Jump, a Race, and Scooters. For each event, whoever threw the farthest, jumped the farthest, or ran the fastest got 1 point, the next got 2 points, down to 4 points for the person in last place.  The scooter event was about style, not speed. They were doing jumps and turns with their scooters. I was supposed to be the judge. I gave them all the same number of points for their efforts. :)

We added up the points and had an awards ceremony.  Jared won the gold medal.  They made "medals" out of colorful string and beads.  It was a fun day.

Beautiful Christmas Music

I love The Piano Guys. If you haven't looked at their stuff, you need to check them out on You Tube.  They are amazing musicians and have a lot of fun too (see The Cello Wars, spoof on Star Wars).  A recent Christmas concert included the following song.  I think it is beautiful.  It touches my soul every time I listen to it. I love when Jon Schmidt's daughter sings. So pure and sweet.  And I love the very end...you have to watch it all the way through. The more I watch it, the more I love it, and the more emotional I get.  It has definitely added to my Christmas season.

End-of-Soccer Parties

I didn't get a chance to blog about the end of soccer before we moved. So I'm catching up now.

We had such a fun season watching the three older boys play soccer.  It was a great ending to celebrate with the families at each of their soccer parties.  But now that we have 3 boys playing...is there seriously no other way to end the soccer season than at a pizza place?  We had pizza at one place Thursday night; another pizza place Friday night; and that same pizza place on Saturday afternoon.  We were pizza'ed out by Saturday's and just ordered some breadsticks. 

Anyway, Zach's party was first on Thursday night.  He had such a great coach.  He cared about the kids on his team so much. Zach was very shy at first and wouldn't participate. His coach was so supportive of him and encouraging. He coached the kids really well - they were really learning to play the game pretty well for just being 5 or just having turned 6. They won most of their games.  Zach improved a lot and got over his shyness and loved being a part of the team.  It was exciting to see.  We'll miss being with the same coach next year.

Jared's party was next on Friday night.  Jared is a skilled little player.  He has a reputation on his team as being the fastest. And he is.  Whenever they run, he is always out front. Some of the parents told me they told their kids to run by Jared whenever they run to help them get faster.  In several games he played some pretty fancy footwork. I didn't know he knew how to do that!  We really liked a lot of the families on the team. And Jared plus 2 other kids really got to working well together by the end of the season.  They were a winning team and only tied or lost 2 games, I think.  His team had really great coaching the first two years. But the coaches weren't available this year and the person they got, well, let's say we're miss the team next year but not the coach. :)  Still a fun season watching Jared.

Jared is in the white top/black shorts kicking the ball. This shot went in!

Last was Craig's team party.  Watching 9/10 year olds play is getting really exciting. Watching young kids is fun. Watching kids Craig's age is exciting. They're really getting the game and pulling off moves.  There is such excitement to the games.  Craig's coach has a great balance of telling the kids when they did something wrong and what they should do, but still be encouraging and positive with them.  Craig was complimented as being the position the coach also plans first, and then plans the rest of the team/game around that.  He plays center half. And he gives 110%.  His coach said he sometimes wondered if there were two Craigs out on the field because he'd see Craig kick the ball, and 2 seconds later, he was on the other side of the field, getting the ball again.  We felt the same way.  We would see him in one place, then the opposing team would have a player dribbling down the field with the ball. All of a sudden, there was Craig, running at full speed and would cut the kid off and take the ball from him. You didn't even see him coming. It was awesome. He was so determined.  It was a great year.

Craig's coach got him a league soccer ball and had all the kids sign it as a good-bye present. They have been together as a team for a few years and it was a sweet gift to give him. I cried.  It's so nice to have your kids be a part of something positive. A great group of kids and parents and coaches.  We really enjoyed this year.  (I only have video from Craig's party, no picture.)

December Nights

My birthday wish was to go to December Nights in Balboa Park. I love having my birthday at the beginning of the month and kicking of the Christmas Season.  And I loved the idea of being out, a part of our new area of San Diego.  They expected 300,000 people for the weekend, so I knew it would be crowded.  I didn't have much expectations, which was good. We parked off-site and took a huge city bus to the park. Riding the bus was exciting for the kids without even getting to the park yet!

December Nights is a weekend where all the museums in Balboa Park are open for free. There are food vendors. Christmas decorations are up. And there are performances going on all weekend, including groups caroling around the park and in the museums.  So festive and so fun.  The kids had burgers; Jesse and I had some Indian food. I think next time though, I'd eat first outside the park. It took awhile to walk to where the food was and lines were kind of long. 

We were able to go inside the Old Globe Theatre there, modeled after the Shakespearean theatre. The set was up for The Grinch Stole Christmas. Every once in awhile "snow" would fall from the ceiling. We couldn't take any pictures though.

We spent our time in The Museum of Man. It has the Modern Mummy that was done recently. We have been studying in school about Ancient Egypt and their mummification process. We learned of some other mummification processes as well as how some bodies were naturally mummified. 

Kids got tired and we headed home.  We'll probably do some things differently next year. But it was fun to be out. We had a good time.  Since then I have also found out that the museums in Balboa Park have free Tuesdays for San Diego residents.  YEAH!  Can't wait to go visit more of the many fabulous museums they have there.

Wild Animal Park

Our third day here, we went to the Wild Animal Park. Our neighbor had free tickets that expired the last day of the month. Despite all of the boxes everywhere, so much unpacking to do, how could we pass it up?  She had two free tickets and two discount tickets. So the four boys and I went. Just as we were approaching the ticket window, a couple offered me another free ticket because they had an extra that expired that day also!  NICE!  So we got 3 free tickets and 2 discounted. Perfect.

It was a gorgeous day. Beautiful and warm. And being the week after Thanksgiving, there was hardly anyone there. We sometimes walked for awhile before we saw anyone else. Just the way I like it!  We had a fabulous day.  The park is amazing. So much wildlife to see.  We fed ducks and goats, saw fruit bats eating their lunch, and elephants trotting out to their hay. 

 

 

We loved the gorillas. Papa gorilla was huge. He reminded us of Kerchak from Tarzan.  And the mama gorilla was so sweet with her little guy, Monroe. He was adorable!! 

The lions were ferociously lazy. They sleep like 20 hours a day!  Look at this guy perched on a Land Rover.  He was snoozing at first but woke up and gave us a nice yaaaawn.

 

And we were able to see a real cheetah run. At full speed. Right in front of us. So amazing.  They have a long stretch of grass dedicated for the cheetah run. First they had a dog trotting down the lane to show us the difference.  Wow, that cat was fast!

We ended the day taking the Africa Tram Safari.  Soooo worth it!  And going on the last safari of the day (4:15 p.m.) was awesome because the sun was setting and so many of the animals were out and active.  It's great seeing them roaming the huge open expanse, more like where they would live in their natural habitat. We saw giraffe running together, male antelope fighting, rhinos, and more. It was beautiful.

After the tram we headed for the exit, but it was clear on the other side of the park. It was dark and got chilly fast and the park was closing. All the lights were coming on around the park and it was so quiet, you could hear a lot of the animals. The kids thought it was pretty neat to be there at night!

We had such a fun time and can't wait to explore more places!