Here's Zane on Christmas Eve, performing his part he had in his Preschool program and my favorite - Chubby Snowman!
So the Friday before Christmas, we had the chance to go up to East High School and get a tour of the school, where they filmed High School Musical, from a good friend, Ceciley Hallman, who is a Senior there. The kids thought it was so cool, and so did their mother! Thanks Ceciley!
Lindsay and Zane sitting on the bleachers in the gym trying to Get Their Heads in the Game! HAHAHAHAHA! I'm funny!
A blurry pic of Gavin with gym behind him. They were having Basketball practice so we couldn't really do much in there.
Here they are standing in front of Sharpay's locker (second one from the right). Of course in the movies, it was painted pink.
This is Miss Darbus' classroom. The masks above were really used in 2nd movie (maybe the 1st too). They decided to leave them up. So next time you watch the song "What Time is It?" look for the masks in the background of the classroom and this is where my kids are standing!
So since it's been a very busy couple of weeks, I thought I would recap what we've been up to (minus Christmas. I'll post Christmas day in a few days).
On December 19th, Lindsay and Zane had a Preschool Christmas program. It was so cute and they both had to memorize a line from 'Twas the Night before Christmas!
Cambree, Lindsay and Lila all ready to tap dance
Chris, me, Lindsay and Charlee after the recital. I help Chris teach on Tuesdays and help Charlee on Wednesdays. Can you tell we're exhausted?
Here we are taking family pictures in our Sunday Christmas outfits
Our little princess
What a stud!
That's our baby!
On December 15th, Dan and I went to The Grand American Hotel for his work party. It was a lot fun to go out on a hot date for FREE! They had a buffet with very delicious food. Too bad I got full too fast. But of course saved room for dessert. For the entertainment, they had The Dueling Pianos. They were so fun to watch and listen to. Wish I could play the piano like them.
In trying to keep with tradition, we took the kids up to Temple Square to see the lights. We decided to take Trax because the kids had never riden it before. The first 10 minutes there was great! But then Gavin decided he wanted to walk around instead of sit on my lap. Before we knew it, he was arching his back, screaming. We tried to feed him a snack and give him his binky and stand up with him. But nothing was good enough. I feel bad for the people who had to listen to it! We also picked the night, when there was a concert at the Conference Center so there was a million people downtown and it was about 18 degrees outside. We met up with Karen, Christian, Nathan, Jenny, Carter and mom and dad Skousen. The kids were very good at Temple Square and there was no whining until the end when we had to wait 15 minutes for the next Trax train to come. After being on the train for a few minutes, they announced that there was a disabled train at 7700 South. So we had to get off at 7700 So. and get on a bus. Well, Lindsay and I got seperated from Dan and the boys during that process. I was at the back of one of the buses saving Dan some seats, then I spotted him getting on the bus just as they were closing the doors. But he couldn't get back to me because there were people sitting in the aisles. So he stood with Gavin on his back and Zane at his feet. The bus took us to 9000 South so we could get back on Trax but it took forever because of an accident. Finally, we reunited and squished onto a 2 car Trax train that took us to our destination 10000 South. The kids were so tired and cold. It was quite an adventure!
In years past, Santa has come to our neighborhood on a firetruck, driving down every street, passing out candy canes. Because our neighborhood is getting so big now (homes are still being built), this year, Santa stopped at one of the neighborhood parks and had the kids come to him. It was still kind of early on Saturday morning and we had just barely gotten dressed for the day. But it was still kinda fun.
Ten years ago on December 1st, 1997, my sister Karen and I met Melissa Straw, through her cousin (who is our friend) Heather Andersen. Who would have thought that we would become such good friends and roommates a couple months later. After Dan and I got married, my other sister, Jenny, was roommates with her. Now we're married and have kids, but that doesn't change much. We still act like we're 20 years old! For our 10 year Anniversary, we went out to dinner and stayed the night in a hotel room. We stayed up late reading our journals from back in the day, talking, laughing and peeing our pants (literally). For those of you who don't know, I come from a family of several sisters who don't have a lot of control over our bladders when we laugh. Then we meet Melissa Straw who has the same problem. Friends in heaven? Hmmmmmm? Anyways, below are some pics from that night and a video clip of me and my sister Jenny doing what we do best!
Melissa brought a little bubbly and glasses for a toast. She was very disappointed when she realized she only had 2 goblets instead of 4.
Jenny and Melissa
Karen and I
Don't ask. It was late and my name is Heather. 
Ok, so I need to set the stage. We decided to take a picture of Jenny and I jumping on the bed, but Melissa wanted to video us jumping first. We started jumping and on my second jump, my head hit the cottage cheese ceiling (which crumbled down onto me) and when I landed I stepped on a water bottle, squishing it. Jenny just started laughing and peeing immediately. Don't judge us, we're still nice people! |
What a great way to begin the month of December - with a snow storm! And a fun one it was! Last Saturday (December 1st) we got about 5 inches of snow dumped on us and the kids were so excited. So we took them to the park across the street to go sledding, where there is the perfect hill for them. It's just long enough to tickle their tummies, but short enough for them to walk back up the hill by themselves. They had a blast and the snow looked so pretty. Gavin was so mad at me when I brought him back inside. He kept trying to open the front door to go back out.
Thanks to our fabulous neighbors for letting us use their snow blower, Dan spent quite some time cleaning our LONG driveway off. Thanks Carl & Mindy!
Gavin wanted to go back outside so badly, that he found the bathroom stool, carried it into Lindsay and Zane's room, put it on Zane's bed and climbed up to watch daddy shovel snow. He seriously did this on his own!
Then Zane wanted a turn.
Mommy and Lindsay
Daddy, Zane and Gavin. Look at those rosey cheeks!Last week, some of our good friends, Joe and Amy, asked if I could come up to the clock shop that Joe's family owns and help out. Once a year, they have the Steinbach's come from Germany, to sign their Nutcrackers. Christian Steinbach passed away in February, so his daughter, Karla came to sign them this time. They needed help unpacking the Nutcrackers, handing them to Karla, then after she signed them, we would re-package them. It was a lot of fun meeting Joe's family and hearing Karla speak German (sprechen zie deutsch anyone?). As many of you know, my grandparents are from Germany. I don't speak it very good AT ALL (my family will attest to that), but I LOVE to make up my own German. Deutschland uber alles in der Welt! I didn't make that up though! It just sounds cool. Here's some of my favorite Nutcrackers that I saw in the process of re-packing.....
"Crack nuts, I will!"
"Luke, I am your Nutcracker!"
"N-U-T-C-R-A-C-K-E-R-S"
"You wee lass. I wear a kilt when I crack nuts!"
Amy and I re-packing the Nutcrackers
Me and Karla Steinbach
Lindsay asked for a baby doll.
Family togetherness. Gavin's giving Santa the evil eye!
"Ho, ho, ho THIS, Santa!"
