Dads and Donuts

Today was Dads and Donuts day at the elementary school. I don't have any pictures of any Dads or any donuts, though. Aaron went last year but was not able to attend this year so I went in his place.
The school provides milk and donuts and invites a parent to come and read to their kids before school. They even give each kid a brand new book to read from. It is a fun tradition and gets over 500 people.


Caitlyn and Mom Mom and Andrew

Parker even got to come and have a donut.

It was also PJ and stuffed animal day at school. Caitlyn and her best friend coordinated their animals. Notice they both brought dogs.

Circus

We took the kids to the Jordan World Circus this past Wednesday.
The older girls had been to the Barnum and Bailey Ringling Brother Circus when they were little. This circus was smaller and didn't quite compare, but we enjoyed it.
While we waited for it to start the kids got a little bored so I brought out the suckers. Andrew really wanted to ride the elephant. Aside from the outrageous cost the line was long so we passed. He was a little disappointed. You have to have cotton candy when you go to the circus!

Parker did ok for being 3 years old. The performance started late in the evening and he was getting tired. He climbed from Aaron to I and back and forth, but other wise he loved the show.

All of the performers. They did a great job.

The tightrope walkers were incredible. The one on the left even jumped rope while on the rope that was at least 20 feet off the ground without a net underneath.

I loved all of the areal performers. There were many acts with trapeze artists and men and women climbing ropes and cloth. They were graceful and pretty.

There were 2 trained black bears that were cute as could be.

I loved the elephants. They did lots of fun tricks.

Pioneer Day

The difference of living in CA and Utah is apparent in 4th grade. In CA the kids learned California history and made models of missions. In Utah they learn about pioneers. For the end of the unit, on January 19, 2011, they learned some dances and have a day where they dress up and invite the parents the last hour.
Caitlyn got to dance with her teacher in her group. She also danced with boys!

When we were finding her clothes to wear she saw my pioneer dress and asked me to wear it to school. Of course, I was the only parent dressed up. That's what you do to support your kids.

She was excited and it was fun to get to learn a dance with her.

New Years and Family

My sister and her family came out for the New Years holiday. Since they still live in California they were excited to see the snow. We were glad to be able to spend a few days with them. It was an awesome visit! I can't wait to see them again this summer.

This is my little sister, her husband and my husband.

My baby sister, her baby and her husband. They came down from Northern Utah to spend family time with everyone. This baby has the best hair! It is so fine it just kind of poofs all over. I love it. You can't help but smile.

As soon as the kids could get dressed they were out front in the snow. The little ones only lasted a few minutes, but the older kids stayed out for quite awhile.

Then we went sledding at a nearby hill. The rest are random picutres from sledding. Aaron had the great job of fetching everyone and everything from the last part of the hill as it was very slippery.

This was our first time using tubes. Parker grabbed one and jumped on it. Before anyone had any idea was going he was down the hill. He had a blast.

The top of the hill where most of the adults watched from!

My older brother. We had a race just before this picture. I won!

These 3 cousins are all about the same age. There is one more girl cousin the same age. She is not in this picture though. I love that they can all grow up together.

Coming back up the hill to go again.

Christmas

Christmas morning was great! We woke up at about 7:45am at started in the front room with stockings at Santa presents.
Parker was thrilled to get Handy Mandy, transformers and bakugon. He loved all of it!Andrew loved the little robot he got, especially since he asked Santa for a small one.

Caitlyn received several barbie type dolls, lots of earings, candy, art supplies and gum!

Alyssa is officially a pre-teen with more make-up than a drug store.

Mariah has picked up sewing this year and was so excited to get a cutting mat, rotary cutter, material and patterns.

Present time! I didn't take too many pictures of the presents the kids got, but they were very spoiled this year. Each child received a book or book set, a large set of legos and several other toys.

Aaron spent a lot of time helping put together lego sets and unbox toys for the kids. He is such a great dad!

I was happy to get a beautiful necklace, nice flat iron, 5 Glee CD's, and some fun nail polish.

We unwrapped Christmas presents slowly this year and did not finish until 10am. Then we had brunch of cinnamon and orange rolls, hash browns, sausage, bacon and eggs.

Once breakfast was over we got to sit around and be lazy. It was lovely!

My sis-in-law and her family came over at 3pm for finger foods and games. I have come to love our new tradition of a very relaxed , low key Christmas day. Spending time with family is the best thing about Christmas.