December - Part 1

Thomas started December by going on a cold winter camp out in an abandoned train tunnel.  I love that his leaders send the mommas pictures!  

Kaley turned 14!!!  I can hardly believe that this girl is 14!  She is really the best!  Here's a few things about Kaley:

* She is a great student and loves school - except the homework part, that stresses her out!

* She babysits every weekend - sometimes more than twice in a weekend!  She has her regulars that will call or text on Monday for a Friday/Saturday job.  She is super responsible, and loves kids.

* She is quite the pianist!  Just today, Kaley and I played a hard duet in Sacrament Meeting!  Oh Come All Ye Faithful.  It was seriously a dream come true of mine!  She is a hard practicer and can really play almost anything she sets her mind to now.  She loves music - playing it, singing it, listening to it.  

* She is a good chef - she helps make dinner at least once a week.  She really loves to bake though - girl after her momma's heart!

* Kaley loves YW and achieved her goal of getting her medallion before the end of the year.  

* Kaley and her BFF, Hannah do everything together.  When they are not together, they are face timing or talking on the phone.  

* Kaley is super organized.  She loves to have things in order - which is so surprising if you could see her bathroom closet stuff!  ;) 

* Kaley is a cold-body and loves to be warm. Sitting in the sun, cuddled up in a blanket, or sitting on her heating pad that she got for Christmas - she loves it all!

* Kaley has the longest hair!  She loves to do her hair - curly with her wand, up in a new bun do, or straight with a tiny braid.  She will still sometimes ask me to braid it.  

Recess these days are chilly!  The kids call me "the Pink Ninja!"  I do what I gotta do to stay warm!

I took Kaley out to lunch to Culver's for her birthday lunch!

Activity Days Girls went to see the Festival of Lights - my friend is a leader and I was texting her the day of, and she was worried they wouldn't have enough leaders to drive because some of the regular leaders couldn't go.  I volunteered to hang out with this giant group of girlies!  Oh they are so fun!

Just my favorite 2nd Grade class!  

Putnam Family Christmas party!  We ate dinner at Chili's downtown, and then went to see the lights on Temple Square.  Then we went to Grammie's house for December birthday celebration.

Decorating our gingerbread house!

Jace and Soph entertain us constantly with the weird things they dress up as!

Snowing at the school = inside recess day - a blessing and a curse. 

Court of Honor for T - he earned 11 merit badges and a couple rank advancements.  We are close to earning that Eagle!

Thomas' Christmas Orchestra Concert.  He "pulled a few strings" to get to sit by his friend Dillon.

Jace participated by ringing some jingle bells - then was immediately sorry he did!  There were a lot of people at the concert!  He didn't turn around the whole time!  See his camp beanie?

Basketball season has started!  We spend every Saturday 8 am to anywhere between 4-10 pm at the gyms watching, playing and coaching basketball!  

I snapped this picture to remember who volunteered to play the chimes for the Sacrament meeting program.  I sure love my calling in Primary!

Another one bites the dust.  I wonder how many vacuums one can go through in a lifetime?  We sure use ours!

Ah, piano lessons.  A cute student of mine brought this note to me with a Christmas gift.  At least he's honest!  Ha!

Kaley had her Christmas Choir Concert.  Oh I love hearing her sing!  Such a fun time for her!  She was so nervous this time because her choir director asked her to sing the high note by herself in one of the songs!  I was so proud! 

BFF Hannah came to support! Love these two girlies!

I sang in the Nebo Holiday Choir and Orchestra again this year.  I helped pass out the corsages to the ladies.  

Mom and Dad came to see!  Oh, I just love singing in a choir - it's really amazing to be part of something that is so wonderful AND that is singing about the Savior!  It really puts me in the Christmas spirit!

I put on a Christmas Party for the twins' class.  I checked out a few teenagers to come help! 

They'll do anything for a Sip'n!

Soph had a super rough week that last week of school!  She had a fever Monday morning, so no school for her.  Then Tuesday, still a fever and a little higher.  Wednesday, fever even higher and a trip to the Dr. We found out that Soph had Influenza A AND B.  Poor girl!  She just didn't stand a chance!  We got her on some tamiflu type meds, and she was on the mend!  She still wasn't good enough to go to her class party that Friday, but by Saturday she was MUCH better!  We just hung out all week, taking baths, watching movies, taking naps, and I sanitized the whole house multiple times! We were just hopeful that she would be all the way better by Christmas Eve, and that no one else would get it!  We were mostly out of the woods, until Jace woke up Sunday and said he couldn't swallow.  Ugh - another trip to the Dr, told us that Jace had Strep.  We got him on antibiotics quick and he was good to go for Christmas Eve!  Man!  

Josh had a hankering for some Oreo truffles one night - this was before we got in the hot tub - lest you think that we hang out in our swimsuits!  

I think Josh was just missing all the junk treats I make for neighbor gifts.  I opted to take a break from neighbor gifts and Christmas cards this year!  It was a nice time to slow down, and I really needed the break!