Happy Holidays 2011

Here is our 2011 Christmas card. Thanks to my friend Devon for designing the card for us. I wrote our update letter AFTER Christmas so most people didn't get it, but I figure better late than never! Here it is....

John keeps very busy at working for National Benefits Services. In his free time he enjoys following all BYU sports, coaching soccer, and he’s taken up reading which was quite a surprise to all of us! He is teaching Primary for the 1st time in his life and he thoroughly enjoys that!

I teach preschool from our home and enjoy being involved at our new elementary school that opened this fall. I am finding that raising 2 little boys is very different than raising 2 little girls, but I am grateful to get to have both experiences.

Kelsie (9) is in 4th grade. She is a talented piano player, sings with the school choir, and likes to bake, scrapbook, and hang out with friends.

Emily (7) is in 1st grade. She loves playing soccer, going to gymnastics, and dancing. She is reading on her own now and loves everything about school!

Carter (3) started preschool and loves everything about it. He knows all his letters and is constantly asking us how to spell words. He gives his teacher (Ms. Andrea) a run for her money, but that wasn’t a surprise! He loves cars, trucks, and playing ball with his dad. He proudly tells everyone that he wants to be a firefighter when he grows up!

Matson (1) is the star of the family. He is a cuddly little guy who loves to give kisses and hugs to ANYONE he sees (literally). He sure makes us feel loved and we all adore him. He loves animals (especially dogs) and books. Matson is toddling around and his favorite new word is “basketball”. He points and says “ball” every time he sees the BYU logo. We couldn’t be more proud!

We are grateful for our family and friends and wish you much happiness in this New Year!

Love,

John, Andrea, Kelsie, Emily, Carter, and Matson

The Week Before Christmas...Caroling and More!

Every year we watch Mr. Krueggers Christmas and my girls want to go caroling. This year I decided it was time to finally fulfill their great Christmas wish! I invited three families to join us for caroling for FHE. I had never been caroling before and we had such a good time. There is nothing better than singing carols with dear friends to put you in the Christmas spirit. I'm so glad my girls wanted to do this and we finally made it happen! One of my adorable neighbor girls even left her mitten on our Christmas tree so we could have the whole "Mr. Kruegger" experience! That was a highlight for me. Thanks to everyone for making it so fun! Hopefully it will become a tradition!
Here's the kids ready to go caroling. It was freezing but I didn't hear anyone complaining about the cold. They were having too much fun. We had 21 kids between our 4 families and we only had a couple of casualties. Carter ended up with a black eye when I accidently hit him in the eye with the zoom lens on my camera and little Keira ended up with frostbitten fingers (even with gloves on). :( But not too bad when you consider we took 21 kids out in subzero temperatures!

I usually don't do preschool once school is out but I decided too this year since it was so early. Plus, when I mentioned it to Kelsie and Emily they were SO excited to come and help at preschool! How cute is that to see them sitting at circle with the preschoolers?!?

It was so nice to have them there! They were each in charge of a craft to do with a group of kids. It was so helpful and they had a great time. And the preschoolers LOVED meeting them! I wish they could come to preschool every day! They were so helpful!

Making gingerbread houses at Grandma and Grandpa's House...one of our favorite traditions!

Kelsie's Service Project and Her OWN Hallway!

The last day before Christmas break we went to the sing in. It was adorable, but a mad house, and we got NO pictures. After that was Kelsie's class service project. Kelsie's 4th grade class gave up their class Christmas party to do a service project. The kids brought in new and gently used baby supplies to donate to young mom's who don't have anything. Kelsie finished up her final donation the night before the "party". She cut and tied a really cute fleece blanket.

We ended up with TONS of donations. It was really neat! I wanted all the kids to feel ownership of this project so we divided them into groups and let them each choose items and create a gift basket for a mom and baby. There were tons of parents who came to help and we had a fun time wrapping things up and creating cute baskets.

Here's my group with our basket. The kids had a great time and I thought it was so neat to see them give up the games and treats to do something nice for someone else at Christmas time. AT the end, a mom shared a really nice story and we had cookies and it was neat to see all their happy smiles as we loaded boxes and boxes of items up to donate! I'm so grateful I got to be a part of this and I think it ended up well. There were a couple parents who didn't like the way I organized it, I could tell. This bothered me a lot but it was a good learning experience for me. Sometimes your role is just to show up and be a happy helper and you don't need to give your 2 cents on how it could be better, if you are not the one in charge. I need to remember that too. All in all, it went really well. The kids had a great time and felt the Christmas spirit as they gave to others, and that is what I cared about the most!

This is the mural in Kelsie's hall. The art classes created it and it turned out SO cute!

Had to get a picture of Kelsie in her hall. Notice the plaque at the top of the picture naming the hallway "Kelsie's Crossing." How cool is that!?! The PTA auctioned off the naming of hallways. I didn't win, but the other "Kelsie" in 4th grade did and her mom named their hallway "Kelsie's Crossing." Pretty cool for my Kelsie, too. :) Everyone asks her about it and she just says, "it's a looonng story!"

Christmas Eve

A shepard, an angel, and a wiseman who insisted on being a king for the nativity. :)

A lamb who was not happy at all about his costume. He decided to sit this year out.

One of the traditions John and I started with our kids was to give them an ornament each year that represents something about them from that year. The kids love these ornaments and look forward to getting them out all year. This year we ended up with a Hannah Montana suitcase (K), a tinkerbell (E), a Little People firetruck (C), and a Christmas puppy (M). They opened their ornaments to add to the tree and headed to bed with visions of sugar plums dancing in their heads! Now we are just waiting.... We have one VERY excited 3 year old that is listening for Santa's sleigh bells and can't figure out what is taking him so long to get here. He's planning to wait up to see Santa and trap him! Merry Christmas, everyone!

What the kids are up to...

Emily started piano lessons! She is so excited she can hardly stand it. She loves to practice and we hope that lasts awhile! She keeps asking when she'll be able to play songs like Kelsie. Emily is fiercely competitive so I have a feeling she won't relent until she feels she's reached that level of mastery.

She is also reading like crazy now. It is so fun! She just reached that point where she can pretty much read any book she picks up and she is always reading. Her favorite thing to read is the picture version of the scriptures which makes me so happy. Note how she squints her eyes and face up as she reads because she's trying so hard to figure out the hard words ( I really don't think it's cause she can't see...hopefully). I know I'll miss that in a couple of months. It's really cute.

Carter loves holidays and especially loves decorating his room for the holidays. He is currently coloring hundreds of Christmas pictures to hang all over his walls. It is a little calmer than the spooky Haunted House that over took his room in October. I love his enthusiam though.

Matson is the sweetest baby ever. Yip. I'm positive he is. He walks up to us and gives us hugs and kisses all through the day. If I come home from running errands he comes to the door to greet me and blows kisses at me and then reaches out his arms while he waits for me to come in and hug him. He melts me....well, really...all of us!

Kelsie learned an entire 5 page piano duet "The Entertainor" in less than 2 weeks. Her teacher and I are both pretty amazed at how quick she mastered the song. It just goes to show how much you can accomplish when you WANT to learn something! She is so excited to play the duet with her best neighbor friend at the recital. She practices it constantly! Fun times!

Carter's Fire Station

I had to show off Carter's latest creation. I saw this idea on one of my favorite education blogs (No Time for Flashcards) and had to make one with my little firefighter! He painted it all by himself. I was imagining it all red but he insisted on painting it like this. It turned out really cool and looks like it's on fire. I guess he knew what he was doing!

Thanksgiving

We spent Thansgiving with my family this year. My grandma Hansen came down from ID and it was really fun to spend the holiday with her. I've only spent 2 or 3 Thanksgivings with my grandma in my life, so it was fun for me. My girls also got to take her and Grandma Peterson to their Grandparents Day at school and they thought that having Great Grandma there was really neat!

Before dinner I helped the kids make turkey placemats.

They turned out super cute!

Carter getting ready for dinner.

After dinner, John broke out his new Bingo set and everyone had fun playing Bingo together.

Grandma and Kelsie playing Bingo. My grandma had more Bingo experience than the rest of us and kept winning!
Matson wanted to bring a pumpkin to the feast, just like the 1st Thanksgiving!

Then, we worked on a little service project. We decorated and filled "snack sacks" for the Food Bank. These sacks will go home with children whose families come to pick up food at the food bank. The kids loved decorating the bags, finding some of their own little toys to put in the bags, and filling them with snacks. Such a fun way to think of others at Thanksgiving. Thanks to my sister for arranging it. My girls loved that they got to help other kids and can't wait to do more.
Matson found his own way to be entertained. He thinks grandpa's empty medicine bottles are the greatest blocks ever! :)One last shot... I love this picture of Matson and Great Grandma. Matson loves Grandma and kept bringing her books to read to him. Of all my kids, he is my baby that warms right up to new people the most. He grins and makes friends with everyone, everywhere we go. At church, he walks around and find new people to visit and share his books with every week. He's a funny kid.