On the Second Day of Christmas My True Love Gave to Me...

TwO DaNcErS dancing.

Grace hip-hopped her way through Jingle Bell Rock.

And Sophie jazzed it up in Frosty the Snowman. Here she is warming up at home. Wow. Nice action shot.
Thanks for the fun Christmas Dance Concert girls.

Twirly Skirts and Hermit Crabs

Well, it happened. Our six-year-old Sophie is now SEVEN.

She celebrated with a hermit crab named HERMAN and...

an exceptionally twirly TWIRLY skirt.

What more do you need in life?

Grace's Christmas Concert Impressed Even the Most Discerning Music Critic...

Grace, with her distinguished collegues, at her Christmas Concert. When interviewed she stated that her favorite piece was called, "No Title." But it begins, "Hang the candles, flames aglowing there upon the highest bough." Music to our ears.This film was taken from quite a ways away. But Grace is in the bottom row, third from the right.

Lucy G. White, the noted music critic was so impressed, even she was induced to urgent applause.

Grace's Theory on Coal in the Stocking...

Grace was waxing philosphical to Sophie about who gets coal in their stocking and I just had to catch a little of it on tape.

Saturday Night GLITTER

Well, with Adam at the BYU volleyball game with Spence and Grace, I got to spend some quality glitter time with Sophie. Lucy was in bed...and we thought, WHAT can we do? Of course...get out THE GLITTER.

Actually, glitter makes everything better. Just ask Libarachi. So...here are our masterpieces:

Before fabulousness.

After fabulousness.

Sophie made up this whole story about how the other un-glittered birds were very sad AND lonely AND jealous AND saying not very nice things about one another.

Huh?

Okay. It's her story. So we had to put a few birds in "time-out" while they awaited their glittering.

And now...every bird is happy with their new sparkly self.


But really? Aren't they cute? Almost all ready for the Christmas tree.



And then we got in a little reading. So...this is how it feels to have one child!

Sophie just knows Grace and Spence will be very jealous when they come home from the game and find out about all the fun we had. Perhaps we should just sprinkle a little glitter on them and all will be well.

xoxo

Thanksgiving keeps on GIVING

Of course it's fitting with it being Thanksgiving to reflect on all the blessings at the White House. We are TRULY grateful for all of them. Especially for our freedom (our thoughts are not far from Nick in Qatar...), our God, and our family. What more do you need in life?The day after Thanksgiving, we had a great day finding a Christmas tree. We drove up Ogden Canyon and found this great little, remnicient of the good old days, family tree lot, where they grew the most beautiful trees.
These sisters sure do love each other. Grace can't keep her hands off of little Lu, but I guess we all have a Lucy obsession.
We spent four days with Grandma and Grandpa, and even though we both live in Utah...it felt like such a nice vacation for us to spend it an hour away from our home...playing games, watching movies, eating great food, and getting ready for Christmas.
We got to spend a great day with Adam's family. We roasted marshmellows and made gooey smores in the backyard. Uncle Josh, Aunt Alison and Noah are enjoying the fun.
We're so grateful that Grandpa Joe is with us. He's such a fighter and we're grateful for everyday that we get to spend with him.
We also enjoyed the Discovery Museum with Adam's family.
Jared and Analia came up from California. Here are the "new" babies, Lucy, Shaunalia, and Brody.
Lucy found a new love. The bike!
Aunt Shari and Grandma Davis had Thanksgiving at our house. The cousins loved putting on a Thanksgiving Readers Theatre.
Grandma in the kitchen. The food was delicious and we had WAY TOO MUCH.
Lucy with all the pretty girls. We loved having Grandma Davis there. She's so fun and never misses a beat...jumped right in when we all discussed the Twilight movie. And she's going to Jerusalem a think this week. Nothing stops Grandma. She's always up for anything.
This Sophie loved turkey. She couldn't tear her eyes off it while Grandpa carved it for dinner. I would say, that was her favorite part of Thanksgiving.

Super Sad Face

Ahhh. This is how I feel today. See the crying baby? That's me. Boo-hoo. Just did a very bad thing today. Like...opened the mail. Who knew that I would find 3 chapters of my novel sent very kindly back to me from Mr. Agent Man, who said, "Uhm. No thank you."

Sigh.

Super big bummer.

But, alas. In that same pile of mail sat a little yellow envelope...with a medal. Just for me. I guess I won 3rd place in my age group during the triathalon! If you're reading between the lines my age group is "old lady" group. But, who knew? 3rd place. I think I'm going to wear my medal all day long (Lucy likes to chew on it). Maybe I'll even sleep with it. I think I might send it to Mr. Agent Man. Can't he see he passed up on a winner? (Okay...an almost winner.)

Sigh.

Okay. Bye.

Turkey Tri! We did it...

We did it! Kim and I finished our triathalon in St. George. Whew! It was fun and we have lots of stories to tell...so maybe we'll tell you!

Happy Halloween!

We took these wild ones to their Halloween Parade at school.

The whole Halloween crew.

Count Gracula.

Bucaneer Bones

I don't want to be a Ladybug...

Just one little bite...

Our beautiful Kimono Princess

1st Annual Girls Halloween Party

Well, we did it. We survived the First Annual Grace and Sophie Halloween Party! Whew! Here she is our Kimono Princess...isn't she lovely? I spent quite some time making these little party favors...but they turned out so cute, so it was worth it. Watch out Lucy...Countess Gracula. So we had around 22 kids at our house...and me, the only adult. Here's an example of the ensuing chaos.

Cornbellys

The family adventures at the pumpkin patch...it was too bright. So, this is the best photo I could get of everyone.



We had a great time, although the corn maze freaked the girls out. They DID NOT like walking around in the corn (imagine a lot of crying and whining)...so we had to take the short cut (aka: weaving our way through stalks of corn and getting whipped in the face) to find the exit.

A Story by Grace: Scaredy Cat (And she typed it too!)

Once there were two black cats named Steve and Nellie. One day Nellie was walking down the sidewalk when.... "Boo!" a ghost said. "Meow"! screamed Nellie.But it was a fake ghost. When Steve found out what happened he laughed at Nellie.He laughed so hard cat cream came out of his nose.Nellie was embaressed.So she ran away from Steve.She was out walking when....."meow!" A scary pumpkin apeared.It was a jack-o-latern.Steve found it out.He laughed so hard and this time milk came out of his nose. One day Steve was walking down the street when .......he he he he he he!"Meow! A whitch"!screamed Steve.Then he relized it was fake. Steve learned his lesson.And he and Nellie lived together forever in a happy life.[Can you guess what the lesson was?]

Worms and Eyeballs

This is one of our favorite meals that we eat even when it isn't Halloween.



Here's how you make it:
Meatballs: 1lb of ground chicken (or turkey).
3 green onions sliced
1 chopped red/orange pepper
1 tsp ginger
2 tsp garlic
2 T hoisin sauce (in the Asian food section)
salt and pepper

Mix together and form into little balls. Cook on baking sheet (cover with foil for easy clean-up) and bake for 12 min at 400 degrees.

Stir Fry Veggies:
Scallions
Peppers
Snow Peas
Zuchinni
Shredded Carrots
Bean Sprouts
1/2 cup of soy sauce



Cook in 1 T of butter.
Cook 2 handfulls of pasta (buccatini if you have it---makes it more wormy).

Add all ingredients with @ 1 C of soy sauce. Enjoy!




I know these meatballs don't look perfectly round, in fact they look a little like cookies. But, I don't love to handle the meat(gross), so I use a spoon---kind of like cookies. Except they're meat cookies, which doesn't sound very good...but they are delicious. Yum. The chicken is the best.


Tamari soy sauce is the best and because this recipe uses so much soy...I would use only this brand. I've tried it with other brands, but it didn't taste as good.

A Ghosty FHE

We made these cute little ghosties for family home evening. They were super simple.




Here's how:

1. Melt one bag of white chocolate chips over a double boiler.
2. Add 1 1/2 tbls of veg oil and stir until smooth.
3. Then with a spoon of chocolate make the head, arms and then the tail on wax paper.
4. Stick in a lollipop stick, (kind of roll it around in the chocolate to make sure it stays) and then add dark choc chips for eyes.
5. Stick the wax paper on a cookie sheet in the fridge for about 7 min. And voila! A perfectly spooky treat.

Enjoy!
xoxo
Jen