November has come and gone so quickly. Here we sit on the 27th and headed straight into the Christmas Season. We had mild weather month. The boys were still off track at the beginning of the month, so since the weather was nice Dane hung our Christmas lights.! It almost killed him not to be able to turn them on until after Thanksgiving! Dane also helped Grandpa Wilson with his Christmas lights and he helped Grandma put up the tree. He could hardly wait to get all are decorations out and put up. (He must be a bit like his mother—she likes the Christmas stuff out right after Thanksgiving, too.)
Toren turned 7 on the 3rd. We had a little birthday party for him at home. And we went swimming as a family with a few extra friends. He still has most of his birthday money. He bought some Magnetix and spent a few dollars at the dollar store. He cannot figure out what he would like to spend the rest of it on. And Santa is a little dumbfounded this year, as well. We found out he is too young for Jr. Jazz this year, so the next sport for him will be soccer again in the spring.
Sorina is still wearing the Dora Princess dress (which is really a nightgown) and Snow White slippers. Occasionally, and with great effort, we are able to wrest it from her body and wash it. Mom will take her many places in the Dora Princess dress and slippers, but she draws the line at going to church. Mom already gets strange looks at stores and many people stop to tell Sorina how cute she looks which Sorina
soaks up and preens quite nicely for her audience. Sorina plays great all by herself in her room. She has started to have friends over and we’ve found out how bossy she is. Everyone who plays with Sorina must want to be a princess, or so she tells them.
Parent/Teacher conferences went well. Dane graduated from speech class and his team fifth grade teachers just think he is the greatest. Everybody loves Dane. He’s only a little ornery at home. Brigitta still has most of her teachers in her back pocket. They all like her as well. Toren is doing well, too, his teacher has a lot of boys this year and she loves them. Toren’s teacher uses the light system. Everyone starts out on green and then yellow for small infractions and red can be a note home or a phone call. Mom asks Toren everyday if his color has changed from green. He’s had few yellows and a red. He’s always quick to explain. Last week, he got in the van, and in a rush told mom that he didn’t hit that kid and that Cecillio looks just like him (meaning Toren) from behind and the kids that tattled were wrong
and his teacher wouldn’t listen. Mom, who volunteers in class, knows that Cecillio is a bit shorter than Toren and has black hair. Hmm. isn’t there a song about being “framed”? Toren is our first child to “test the rules a bit” at school.
Brigitta had her Young Women in Excellence dinner a couple of weeks ago. It was fun to learn what they were working on and see some of their projects. They had a weakest link theme in which they decided that they could never vote anyone the weakest link. They (the girls) all needed each other and would help one another. School is keeping Brigitta pretty busy. She is also doing Science Power up that the University of Utah Medical School again this year. She did find time to go to Harry Potter this month and she thinks it’s the best movie yet!
We had a very nice time in Nephi this year for Thanksgiving. The weather was gorgeous. The boys were able to shoot their arrows and bb guns. We seemed a bit small, just 23 of us. Somehow, though, we seemed to take up all the room at the tables. I don’t know how we do it with everyone there.
We spent some time getting yard work done and doing little Christmas shopping this past holiday
weekend. On Saturday we had our first snow and it was beautiful. We attended the 2nd annual
Nativity Showcase (nativities from around the world are displayed) at the Kaysville Tabernacle
with Grandma Nonie. It was snowing beautifully as we left, so we stopped to watch the little Kaysville Light Parade and then drove through the Christmas lights in the Layton Park. The snow just made it so fun.
We are preparing to head to Disneyland this week with Kimberly’s family, with about 22 of us. Her parent’s gifts this year include a hotel stay and 2-day tickets to Disneyland. We did this about eight years ago over Christmas and had a lot of fun, and there were only 2 grandkids then, now there are 10. We decided it would be nicer to go when it was a lot less crowded. The week after Thanksgiving is supposed to be fairly quiet.
We wish you all a wonderful Holiday Season. We love you very much and feel so blessed to be a part of such a wonderful family. (I was typing with Sorina on my lap.)
Oh, how I thought I was prepared for Christmas this year. I had Sorina shopped and wrapped in October. The rest of the kids were all pretty much pre-planned, not done, but knowing what I was getting. Easy, piece of cake, really.! Our tree was up the Friday after Thanksgiving.! We had a nice snowstorm and nativity and light sighting drive. Everything was on track for a nice and relaxing holiday. (Sigh.) Well, it’s now December 9th. Most of my Christmas Village people are headless. I’m missing a few Santas and Snowmen ($1 Store purchases, mostly) from my collection. Three of the four new ornaments that were bought for this year were broken before they made it to the tree. I honestly do not know what happened to the tree, it’s looking pretty sad. A partial string of lights on the house has gone out. My Christmas cards are not done. Sorina has opened three of her presents to date. One on her own, under my not so watchful eye. Two with a cousin under Dad’s supervision. The good thing is that she likes the presents, and will hopefully still like them in a few weeks when she gets to open them again.
Ho! Ho! Ho! Merry Christmas!
Shawn, Kimberly, Brigitta, Dane, Toren and Sorina
This is for November!
Okay, I feel bad for not getting this in sooner.! I really do. We were so good for a few months and then, well, who knows, we were not so good. October was good month.! Dane finished up football and soccer ended for all three older kids. We thought we would have more time to get “some thing” done. And here it is November and we still have lots of “somethings” to get done. Dane and Toren were off track for a couple of weeks in October. Sorina was happy to have the boys home to play with. The weather held and it did not seem like October.
Halloween was the highlight of the month for Sorina. She loves Halloween and candy. She was Minnie Mouse for trick-or-treating at Mom’s work and she was a Dora Princess on Halloween. Both times complete with high heel Snow White Princess slippers. We were blessed that Halloween was so warm that she could dress so lightly. Dane was Harry Potter, Toren was Policeman and Brigitta was a Fairy. Brigitta and her Dad made the skirt for her costume together. We worked on redoing our parking strip hill. It turned into a bigger project than we planned. However, it looks great and we are excited to see how the 200+ bulbs and plants turn out in the spring. We also moved a wild nectarine tree that had grown on the north side of our house to another part of the yard. We hope that it survives the move. We figure the kids must have discarded a seed. It’s nice to see the life cycle of nature in action.
The storm drain system is almost finished in our neighborhood, so you can actually drive right to our house without taking the scenic route. The plus side of all the construction was all the construction equipment we got to see up close.
That, folks is October in a small nutshell.
No comments:
Post a Comment