Gingerbread Houses

I made my first real gingerbread house this week.

After spending an entire fun day with my girlfriends decorating one myself, the rest of the family really wanted to make some too.
So we bought the "pre-assembled houses" at Costco for them and spent our Saturday morning making festive gingerbread houses.

Lucy was very particular about lining up colors together.
She and McKay kept at their houses longer than anyone else.

Sadie went with bright colors all over and a cute pattern on the roof with mini candy canes.

McKay's coconut rooftop and his shiny walkway were awesome.

Zach got in on it for a while but left early to play in a concert and never came back to finish it.

Dad had the best roof.
Unfortunately the frosting wouldn't harden fast enough and it slipped
out of place a little by the time he was finished.

He also surprisingly lost interest after the roof.

Here is our finished Christmas gingerbread village.
We had such a fun time making it!

Show Time!

This time of year is always busy I know but yesterday was crazy busy!

We had three separate performances all in one evening.
Sadie and Lucy had their end of year gym/Cheer/Dance recital, Sadie had a drama performance and Zach had a guitar performance.

Sadie has spent 4 hours a day on Mondays and Wednesdays at Whitney's gym all Fall. She loves it and can't get enough of it!
Because she is so involved there she was in FOUR of the seven performances for the evening. The girl did probably 30 bank-handsprings, 3 back tucks plus aerials and front tucks in between and did this for three different performances. By the final performance she was huffing and puffing, but she was a trooper.

I loved watching my girls perform together.

Here's Sadie is in her dance performance. She is so graceful!

Sadie's All-Stars cheer squad did their routine they will be competing with this season.
Their squad ranges in age from 6 to 12 and they are really good!
The girls are most excited to compete at Nationals at Disneyland in February.


Here she is during a tumbling pass. Look at that air!


Lucy performed with her gymnastics class.
She recently learned a round off back-handspring. She was very nervous to hit it in her performance but she did so great. She had straight arms and everything!
MY favorite part about watching Lucy was her smile. She kept it the entire performance.
She absolutely LOVED being out there!

What a sweet smile!

After the girls were done I ran Sadie up to her Drama performance. Luckily they had performed for the school earlier in the day so Abe and I were able to catch that performance.
After dropping Sadie off the rest of the family drove down to Dixon Middle School to watch Zach and his friend Ben Maughan perform at The Ohana Festival. This is a celebration of diverse cultures for the Holidays for the families of Dixon.
The boys performed three of their original songs.
"Life Like a King", "New World' and "Shine On".
They were part of a program of cultural performances including a Native dance of Fiji and some Hawaiian dances.
We decided Zach and Ben were representing the White boy band culture!

Braces for Sadie

Today was a BIG day for Sadie...
she got her BRACES on!

We started out the day with a before picture
to remember her cute teeth the way they were.

When we arrived at the orthodontist
she was super excited.

One of the hygienists took us back to get her all set up
with x-rays, pictures and preping her teeth.

She had to put a mouth stretcher in to keep her teeth dry.

Sadie HATED it and HATES that I took this picture
while Dr. Trapnell put her brackets in place.:-)

It was a BIG choice deciding on which color bands to put on.
FINAL DECISION...
ORANGE on top
and PINK on the bottom.
I think it was a good choice!

We had the funniest conversation at lunch after wards.
She said
"I'm going to have to learn to eat all over again".
I said "I'm sorry, I'm sure you'll get the hang of it quickly".
She said
"that's ok it's kind of fun.
I haven't had to do this since I was a baby"

I love it! just look at this grin.
What a cutie! Love 'em bugs...can't wait to see how they turn out.

Redrock

We visited St. George recently as a family (thanks to an offer by Monte Magleby) and had a fun weekend playing...we golfed, swam, watched movies, the girl's had pedicures and we all enjoyed the warmer weather together.

One afternoon we spent a couple of hours CLIMBING around the rocks and exploring the caves at Pioneer Park.
I loved the beautiful REDROCK at sunset.

The Opening Act

Zach and his friend Ben performed as the OPENING ACT for Ty Turley -Trejo's annual concert "Night of Piano Love" Saturday.
Ty, a BYU music student, heard about them through his brother Bjorn, who is a friend of ours. Ty came out last week to "audition" them and after hearing a couple of their songs asked them to perform at his concert at the Tahitian Noni Auditorium Saturday night.

These two boys have been writing original songs together the past several months and really are quite gifted. They have about 10 songs completed and are working on a couple more.
Ben is a talented pianist and musician and Zach loves to write lyrics , melodies and sing so together they are quite a team!

LULLABY ROAD

FOR THAT GIRL

The reaction to their performance was FANTASTIC. All who heard them were very kind and complimentary after the concert. They were invited by one man to come to his recording studio and one girl even told them she wanted them to sing at her wedding:)

Snow Day

Thanks to the Magleby's we enjoyed a couple of days
at Sundance after Christmas.

A highlight of the trip was sledding outside the cabin.
The kids were crazy zipping down the hill and off the jumps...practically clearing the street below a few times.

Here's the little line of kids hiking back up the hill.

Hans making sure the run was smooth and fast!The action shots...
After a day in the snow
the parents deserved a night out at the Foundry Grill

Christmas Eve Traditions

Our Christmas Eve is full of traditions.
First off the kids always get new P.J.'s when they wake up in the morning.
This year we did robes instead.
The search for "The Pickle" is a favorite for the kids. Abe hides the pickle ornament somewhere on the tree and the kids search for it. Whoever finds it gets to open the special Pickle present. This year it was a decided tie as the ornament fell to the ground when Zach moved a bell on the tree and the three oldest all saw it at the same time. Sadie picked it up and claimed victory while Zach protested that he had won. Then we make yummy CREPES for breakfast.
Lucy loves to help Dad get out all the ingredients and blend them up.

Then in the afternoon we head up to my mom's house for our
Christmas dinner. My brother, Rolf reads a Christmas story to Lucy, Elsa and Liesel.Then we play Christmas carols on the bells and have a talent show where each child chooses a talent to show off.
This year we had a dance, a drawing, a recitation of "The Night Before Christmas", a homemade gun made from PVC pipe and a typing demonstration...some interesting choices:)Acting out the NATIVITY gets more chaotic each year as we add new little actors.

This year we had no baby so the role of baby Jesus had to be played by a doll.
Sadie was Mary as she has been since birth and Olle was Joseph as usual. Leif and McKay carried the roles of Shepard and wisemen and the little girls were angels.
Zach carried three roles, Shepard, wiseman and Donkey.At the end of the evening we head to our nephew Finn's spot at the cemetary and sing Christmas Carols and light luminaries.
Then we head home for hot chocolate and sweet dreams!