Christmas 2012

Christmas morning dawned early.  Very early, considering I didn't actually get into bed until nearly 5:00 AM.  Every year I promise myself I won't wait to wrap presents until the night before Christmas, and every year that's exactly what I do...
The boys all slept in Brigham's room, and they followed instructions and did not start singing until 7:30.  Now that WAS some enthusiastic singing, so I KNOW they have it in them.  :-)

The biggest surprise this year was a hot tub.  Ben found a smallish (four seater) hot tub on Craigslist a few weeks ago, and hid it pretty well in the car port, and somehow managed to lug it up onto the patio by the pool by himself, without giving him self a hernia or a slipped disk, a miracle if you ask me!
We told the boys that we are starting a new Christmas tradition-- if it is over 50 degrees on Christmas morning, before they can open any presents, they have to go outside and jump into the pool.  They had spied a suspicious-looking addition to our backyard poolscape during our Christmas morning parade through the house, and so weren't too reluctant to don their swimming suits and head outdoors.  Sure enough, they all jumped into the pool!  The hot tub must have felt awfully nice after jumping into that 50 degree water.  Brrrr!

The rest of the morning was spent opening presents, eating food, and laying around on the couch.  It was heavenly.
We had fewer presents this year than most years, but I think everyone was happy with what they got.  The boys all got airsoft gear-- SWAT jackets and face masks, as well as books, plus some archery gear for Joseph, a new suit for Brigham, some hexbugs and a new webkinz for Mosey.  The other big surprise wasn't actually here-- we are getting two new kittens.  But not until Sunday because we are dog-sitting for our friends' dog, who is c.r.a.z.y., and bringing in a couple of little kittens while he is here would not be smart.
In the afternoon we made our Christmas braided bread, played in the hot tub, had an airsoft battle, and read.

Brigham loves the hot tub.

Mosey all decked out and ready for battle.

Joseph showing Brigham how to work his new multi-tool that Mosey and Joseph got for him.

Brigham the bread-maker.
In the evening was our Shepherd's dinner, of which I managed not to get a single picture.  The food was good (Ben and the boys cooked the meat over our firepit in the backyard), I played through my entire violin Christmas songbook, and shortly thereafter everyone went to bed.  It was a good day.

Christmas Eve 2012

Christmas Eve morning was spent cleaning up the house, putting away laundry, and other festive things.
At 11:30 we went to the mall to see The Hobbit.  There was only one other person in the theater!  I guess movie-watching isn't a popular Christmas Eve activity.
Afterward I had a bit more shopping to do by myself, and Ben took the boys to do a bit more shopping by themselves, after which we met up at the new HEB for our Shepherds Dinner shopping.
We ate salad and sushi for dinner (light eating to try and balance out all the holiday junk).
In the evening we did our usual Christmas Eve program.  The boys know most of the Christmas hymns in the hymnbook now, and I attempted to have each of them play the accompaniment on a couple of them while the rest of us sang.  However, this part of our program was decidedly underwhelming.  I do not have enthusiastic singers...  I don't know why every year I keep trying to recreate that part of my childhood.  It only makes me sad.  I got so much joy out of singing with my family growing up, and I really wish I could impart that on my own children.  The main problem I think is that I am married to someone who claims not to like Christmas music, which I find flabbergasting.  That's like not liking flowers or the smell of baking bread or sleeping in on a cold morning.  What isn't to like???  Ben comes from a nice family--how can Christmases in his childhood home have been so dysfunctional that he forever carries negative associations with Christmas music?  Or even if he does, he's now spent more Christmases apart from his childhood home than he did in it, and really he needs to move on.  :-)
ANYWAY, maybe next year.
Our Christmas pageant was sweet, though, and our Christmas Eve dance party was as entertaining as ever.  Brigham and Mosey dressed up in their soldier costumes for our usual "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers" by Harry Connick Jr., which Ben likes I think because it actually carries no reference whatsoever to Christmas. :-)
Here are some pictures:

And a segment from our dance party:

Merry Christmas!

I'm here!

Yes, I'm back.
A bunch of stuff happened last week to prevent my posting, number one being that my computer was attacked by a virus and I had to reload my operating system.  What a pain.  Thank goodness for Carbonite-- I didn't lose anything!
Also, I was madly trying to finish Christmas card making and mailing, Christmas shopping, Christmas baking, and school with the boys, so I didn't sleep much last week.  :-)
Add to that the fact that I was in a bit of a funk last week, and you get internet silence.
Doesn't it sometimes seem like bad things happen in threes?
I was really distressed by the Connecticut shooting.  I don't think I've ever cried so much for people I don't know.  I listened to Obama's speech in which he read out the names of all those sweet little kids and I totally lost it.  I know I'm not alone in my reaction.
And then our neighbor died.  I still don't know what happened.  This is our neighbor across the street-- the wonderful man who came over and gave the boys little treat bags with candy and a dollar because he and his wife were going to be out of town on Halloween.  He had come over to talk with me a number of times, and we saw him often out in the yard.  He wanted Brigham to come and play chess with him.  We had visited with him only a few days before when we were out putting up Christmas lights.  Then on Thursday we noticed an ambulance and police cars in front of their house.  I watched from our front windows for a while before going out to see if I could find out what was going on.  The paramedics wouldn't tell me anything except that it was a very tragic situation, and that "she" (presumably our neighbor's wife) would need our love and support.  What could have happened to necessitate several policemen to be going in and out of the house for a few hours?  The paramedics said, "You can see the police are here, but they won't be leaving with anyone."  What could it be?  Suicide?  I can't imagine that nice man would have done that.  So I don't know what happened but I'm very sad about it.  He was a very nice man with a nice family and it is horrible when things like this happen just before a holiday.  Any time, of course, but it seems particularly cruel to happen just before Christmas or Thanksgiving, when things are supposed to be happy.
The third sad thing was that my friend had a miscarriage.  She is pretty philosophical about it, which is good.  But I was really hoping things would work out for her.  Something about the fact that I can't have any more kids when I really wish I could makes me even  more excited about other people's babies, I guess.  Exactly the opposite reaction than before I had children, isn't that weird?
But, this is a new week, and other people's sadnesses shouldn't prevent me from being happy for my own family, right?
Life is good.  It is often cruel and sad and difficult, but it is also good.

12/14/2012

No heart to post much about today, not after hearing the news about all those little children killed in Connecticut.  I saw the headlines when I was checking my email on my phone, sitting at the school table with my boys.  I immediately started crying.  There have been other school shootings, of course.  I lived in Denver at the time of the Columbine massacre, and I remember how totally shocking that event was, and how frightening.  I was horrified and angry and such sorrow for the families who lost children and friends.  But this one hit me like a punch in the gut.  I literally felt like I could not catch my breath.  My mind was rebelling at the words my eyes were seeing.   I have children now, which I'm sure partially explains why this hit me so hard.  I sat there at the school table, with tears falling as I vainly tried to hold it together.  I had to explain to my boys why I was crying, finally, and I could hardly believe I was really uttering those words.
Columbine was a true horror, but this felt more like real evil to me.  Probably because the murderer was an adult, and the children were so, so young, and there couldn't possibly have been any circumstance whatsoever that could have justified such an act in anyone's mind, no matter how twisted.  It is unfathomable to me that someone could do something so unspeakably evil.
I managed to go through the motions for the rest of the day and evening, but I could not stop thinking about those little kids-- just babies-- with their lives ended so senselessly, and all those families who are now enduring the worst pain a human can feel.  There is nothing on earth more painful to a parent than the loss of a child, and surely there is nothing more painful for a child than the loss of a parent.
The depth of my anger and hatred of that man goes beyond words.  May his eternal punishment also go beyond words.

12/12/12

1.  I meant to mark the moment of 12:12:12 on 12/12/12, but somehow got distracted doing math with Brigham and missed it.  Darn it!  Another 12:12:12 on 12/12/12 will not happen for a hundred years!
Well, anyway, it is still a cool date.

2.  I was too grumpy today, especially tonight after we got home from piano lessons.  I got up at 5:15, and had been going absolutely non-stop since that minute, and after we got home from piano lessons at 5:45, groceries had to be put away, school assignments had to be checked, the kitchen had to be cleaned, dinner had to be started, cello practicing had to be supervised, and I had really just had it.  My poor boys.  My no-yelling resolution was a total failure tonight...  Well, tomorrow is another day.

3.  It is Christmas card season, and we've gotten several so far.  I have yet to even take the pictures for our card, and I'm getting a little nervous.  :-)  I know exactly what we're going to do, but I need a wide-angle lens, so I have to either find one to borrow or go downtown and rent one, which I really won't have time to do till at least Friday or Saturday, which makes the whole Christmas card timeline extremely tight.  Plus, I wanted to cut the boys' hair first, but I think that's just going to have to go by the wayside.

4.  Speaking of Christmas cards, we got one today from a high school friend of Ben's.  We are in touch only via Christmas cards, and it is fun to get her card every year, and watch their family grow.  :-)  Last year their 6th had just been born, and this year they're about to have TWINS in February.  Eight kids!  And I got the biggest pang of envy.  Every once in a while I'll come across someone that has the life I thought I would have, and I'm always taken aback by my emotions.  And then I feel horrible, because I must be so ungrateful to be envious of someone when I know full well how blessed I am.  But still.  I sure would love to have a houseful of kids and be looking forward to a new start with another baby or two.

12/11/12

1.  Busy Tuesday.  It wasn't a great day for me, teaching-wise.  I managed somehow to elicit the most undesirable reactions in my kids sometimes.  There is a woman whose blog I follow, although I have never met her.  I admire her tremendously, and if I had the chance to exchange my personality for hers, I think I'd do it.  I kept asking myself this morning, "How would Michelle handle this?"  And I think I failed at every turn...  :-(  I need her to come and coach me in my life.

2.  Another sad thing-- Mosey's airsoft gun broke today.  Stupid cheap made-in-china plastic junk.  It wasn't an expensive gun, but it did get decent reviews on Amazon.  I felt so bad.  I took the whole thing apart, found the part that broke, and determined it was not fixable.  Poor Mosey!  This was the gun he used all his jewels to get, the one that he waited for days and days to get, checking the tracking every two hours.  The one he has had in his hands almost nonstop for the past 6 days.  It makes me so mad.  Why bother making stuff that is just crap?  It broke where one of the high-tension springs was mounted inside of the gun, and it wasn't because of any misuse on Mosey's part.  I'm torn now.  Do I let him learn how life is hard sometimes, and that things break and life isn't fair?  Do I buy him a new one?  Do I let him go half-and-half on one?  I guess you get what you pay for, so it's probably worth getting something more expensive for him next time, which means it will be even more difficult for him to save up for.  Christmas is coming, I suppose...  The other problem is that more expensive (and hopefully higher quality) guns have a higher fps (shooting speed), which Mosey actually does not want.  I am just sick of cheaply made stuff that breaks. 

3.  I officially banned all computer games on weekdays, except before breakfast.  If they want to play, they have to get up early.  I don't let them play a lot, but it was annoying me a lot that Tanki or Poptropica was their first go-to when they had free time, and too much of my energy was being spent policing the time on the computer.  Amazingly, I really didn't get much resistance.  Mosey immediately picked out a book to read, and when Brigham and I got back from violin, Mosey and Joseph were out in the forest making a fort.  Joseph found an awesome opossum scull (like that rhyme?).  Which at least confirmed that I made the right call once today.

4.  This afternoon Brigham had a make-up lesson at Blackerby Violin shop, and afterward we rented a full-size violin for him.  They brought out a couple of them for him to try, and he played on them both for a while in the store before deciding on one of them.  Brigham was so excited!  He came home and immediately wanted to show his brothers.  Then Mosey decided he wanted to get out his old violin and see what he could remember.  He told me, "I think maybe I want to play another instrument, part time."  He actually remembered a fair bit of violin!  And then he got out the guitar that neither Ben nor I can play very well, and spent 20  minutes or so tuning it and playing around.  Yep, this is why we won't have any computer games after school.  :-)

12/10/2012

1.  We had friends come over for dinner and FHE.  They are a musical family, and Melissa has an amazing singing voice and is a great violinist.  I suffer from inferiority and envy when I'm with her.  :-)  I really envy people with great singing voices, it is a gift I really wish I had.  I can carry a tune, and I'm a great music-reader, but I do not have a solo voice.  Anyway, we ate dinner and then sang/played around the piano for a while before their little kids had to go home to bed.

2.  I'm writing this on Tuesday night, and I honestly cannot remember anything else of note from yesterday.  :-)

12/09/2012

1.  Church today.  Brigham gave a talk.  He was asked at the last minute, so I didn't feel too bad about stealing from our cub scout lesson this week and have him talk about Christmas symbols.  After church, Mosey's teacher came up to me and told me that Mosey was "rambunctious" in her class.  Uh-oh.  I talked to him on the way home.  Rambunctiousness at church is not ok!

2.  We finished putting up the lights outside this afternoon.  They look good.  Brigham and Joseph came outside to help.  I asked them to pull up some weeds while they were out there, and Brigham found a long, wiggly earthworm.  He gave it to Joseph who then asked me if I'd pay him a dollar to eat it.  "NO!" I said.  That is so disgusting.  Well, Ben heard the exchange and immediately said, "I'll pay you a dollar to eat the worm!"  Well, Joseph balked, but then Brigham started saying *he* would eat the worm, and after a quick trial of putting the worm in his mouth and then spitting it out again, he actually ate it!!!!  EWWW!!  He swallowed it whole at least.  But then Brigham was annoyed because it was HIS worm in the first place, and he wanted a dollar, too.  So he dug around, found another worm, and he ate his, too.  That is so disgusting.  Boys are so gross, aren't they?  But, they each got a dollar, so I hope it was worth it to them.  :-)

3.  Ben and Joseph made dinner while I finished putting the last decorations on our tree and got our Christmas boxes ready to go back up in the attic.  Brigham started making a cake, one of his favorite Sunday-afternoon activities.  Well, after a slight mishap with the blender, the entire bowl of batter fell to the ground, splattering chocolate cake batter far and wide.  Oh my goodness.  It was definitely one of those situations where you just look at it and think, "Huh.  I wonder what I'm supposed to do now?"  It didn't quite rank up there with the epic mess Brigham and Joseph made with the 18-count carton of eggs when they were 2 years old, and probably not even as high as the entire bottle of maple syrup that Joseph dropped to the ground (where of course it shattered), but it was still a pretty dang big mess.  :-)  But he was a good sport and did a good job cleaning up a big part of it, after which I sent him to take a bath (he got covered, too), while I finished it off.  So, no chocolate cake for dinner tonight.  I made cookies-and-cream pudding instead.

12/08/2012

1.  Busy day!!  I took Joseph to archery this morning, then stopped by Walmart to buy airsoft pellets that Mosey had been nagging me about for days.  I sent Joseph in to get them, but when he got to the checkout place they wouldn't let him buy them because he's under 18.  Seriously, he can't even buy the little pellets?  Oh well.  He ran outside and got me and I went in with him to buy them.

2.  Ben took Mosey to his Tae Kwon Do testing.  I called home on our way to Walmart to give him my last minute bits of advice.  He came home, excited, and he didn't get a phone call today, which means he passed.  Good job, Mosey!

3.  Andrew came over for math tutoring, and then had an airsoft battle with my boys.  He doesn't have an airsoft gun of his own, and really wants one.  Later, Mosey came up to me and asked if it would be OK if he bought Andrew an airsoft gun for Christmas.  What a generous boy!  I told him that was probably something Andrew's parents should decide.

4.  In the afternoon the boys and Ben worked in the yard, and I worked inside, doing dishes, sweeping the hundreds of little tiny cedar elm leaves that get tracked in every time someone comes in from outside, and still somehow managing not to get around to folding the clothes that have been sitting in the laundry room for days and days.

5.  In the evening we got our Christmas tree.  I love it and think it's our best tree yet.  At home, we wanted to watch the original "How the Grinch Stole Christmas," but discovered that no one has an instant-play version for any reasonable price, so we watched the beginning of the Jim Carrey version until the boys got bored/thought it was too weird.  So we finished the evening watching "Elf," and decorating the Christmas tree. 

12/07/2012

1.  We went to Main Street Bethlehem in Burnet tonight.  This is the third year we've gone, and by far the easiest since some friends of our went early to stand in line, and so we just showed up, joined them in line, waited about 10 minutes, and in we went!  I love that my boys like doing this.  Ben was able to come, too, since he got back from his trip to San Antonio literally as we were backing out of the driveway.

2.  After Main Street Bethlehem, we drove down to Marble Falls to see a light display they have there.  Mosey brought his airsoft rifle (unloaded), and while we forbade him from taking into Bethlehem, he did manage to take it out of the car in Marble Falls without us noticing.  This kid knows how to be inappropriate-- snakes in church and guns at Christmas light displays.  :-)

3.  Not much for #3 tonight-- the rest of the day was pretty run-of-the-mill.

12/06/2012

1.  We had a late morning this morning because of the late night last night!  But, everyone was in a relatively good mood, so no harm done.

2.  Ben had a white elephant gift exchange at his work today.  Ben is a really creative guy.  He's given some pretty great white elephant gifts in the past, but outdid  himself today.  Last weekend when we did family pictures, I snapped some silly pictures of him posing with Mosey's stuffed animal snake.  Ben printed one of them up, put it in a fancy frame, and apparently that was the hit of the white elephant exchange-- the one gift everyone kept trying to trade for.  Ha!!
So of course I have to post the picture!  (That's not the actual frame we used, but I found it online to show the general effect.)
He signed his name at the bottom and I'm sure it is destined to someday be worth a fortune.  :-)

3.  Mosey's new airsoft gun came today!!  He used his first full goblet of jewels to partially pay for this new air rifle.  He ordered it last week, and has been obsessively, and I mean OBSESSIVELY checking the tracking on it ever since.  I'm serious, he has been checking the tracking multiple, multiple times a day for the past week.  We've had untold numbers of conversations about how long it might take the company to get the gun packaged up and shipped out of the warehouse, how long a truck might take to drive from California to Texas, if the delivery truck might take it from Ft. Worth to Austin overnight, or if it would stay in Ft. Worth over night, how long it might take the delivery truck to drive from the warehouse where they pick up their deliveries for the day to our house.  It got to the point where I had to tell him that he wasn't allowed to look at the tracking again, or say another word about it, or I'd take the package as soon as it arrived and lock it in Ben's closet!  :-)  This morning he woke up and went straight to the computer and squealed with joy when he saw it said, "Out for delivery."  He did as much schoolwork as he could out in the front yard this morning, jumping up to look down the street whenever he thought he heard a truck drive by.  So to say he was excited when the package finally came is a bit of an understatement.  :-) 

4.  For our Christmas related activity today we made cookies with our art group.

12/05/2012

1.  I slept in really late today to make up for some really late nights recently.  I knew I had to or else I would be sick.  As a result, not much school got done.  In some other universe my children would be self-motivated enough to do schoolwork even when I'm not around to enforce it.  But not this universe.  :-)

2.  I bought tickets to see The Messiah by the Austin Symphony and Chorus Austin.  I'd love to do this every year.  I mistakenly thought it was at the Long Center, so we drove downtown and ate at Sandy's Hamburgers before heading over to the Long Center, which I discovered to be very dark and suspiciously devoid of people or cars.  But my smart phone came to the rescue and I figured out it was actually at the Riverbend Center (should have realized this from the beginning), and was happy that we decided NOT to stay and get frozen custard at Sandy's because it was 25 minutes away from where we were.  As it turned out, all was well.  We got there in time to pick up our tickets and get inside the auditorium just as the lights were flickering to tell everyone to get to their seats.
We borrowed a copy of the score from the boys' piano teacher, and that was awesome!  I highly recommend doing that.  It was fun to follow along in the music, the boys had a visual reference as to how much of the program was left, and it was way easier to understand the lyrics.  
I think the boys had a good time.  Mosey did ask me a couple of times when it was going to be over, but overall, they were very well behaved for a 2 1/2 hour concert.  I made it a little sweeter for them by letting them buy a package of candy from the gas station on our way down.  I have good boys.  Ben couldn't come because he had to work late, and, truth be told, he does not really like the Messiah.  The music, I mean, not the man.  :-)  

3.  We got home after 11:00 (!!!), so tomorrow morning might be another late morning.  Worth it, though.

12/04/2012

1.  Woke up EARLY, after only a few hours of sleep (3, to be precise) to go to Ben's office for their yearly "wellness check."  Height/weight, blood pressure, blood draw.  Wish I could just have my results from July faxed over to them, but oh well.  On the way home I stopped by Walmart to get some things for scouts.

2.  Had a decently productive day of school, despite my lack of sleep.  Went to scouts in the afternoon where my great activity idea didn't go quite as well as I had envisioned.  I bought some cheap wreaths and a bunch of small ornaments, and then printed a handout for each boy about the various symbols of Christmas and what they mean.  I bought ornaments for almost all of the symbols, and the idea was that they could attach them to the wreath, and then have something they could put up in their rooms or something to remind them of how all the symbols of Christmas relate to Jesus Christ.  But it turns out little boys don't really like attaching small objects to wreaths using small pieces of wire.  Which I guess I should have anticipated.  One boy wasn't interested in putting anything at all on his wreath, and a couple of others just put a few on, and most of them weren't actually interested in decorating the wreaths beyond the bare minimum.  My friend Megan (who hosts scouts at her house) commented as we were cleaning up and putting the many unused ornaments back into bags that if it had been a group of girls the same age, they would all still be gathered around the table, every ornament would have been used up, and they would not have been mostly rushing through to get back to the real fun of jumping on the trampoline in the back yard...  I'm sure she's right.  Unfortunately, I'm not really the right leader to be in charge of a bunch of highly physical activities that the boys might like more.  :-)
However, on the way home, Mosey said, "That was a really fun activity mom, thank you!"  That made me feel a lot better.  If I'm doing it only for Mosey, it's worth it.
Here is the handout, in case anyone wants to use it for family home evening or something.

 

3.  For our Christmas activity tonight we watched this video:

12/03/2012

1.  Pretty typical Monday with school and Tae Kwon Do.  No orchestra for the rest of the month, though.

2.  We are trying to do at least one special Christmas-related activity every day this month.  My mom sent us an advent calendar with readings for each day, and so that will be part of it.  On Saturday night I read "The Three Wise Persons," a sweet little excerpt from one of the Ramona books.  Sunday it was the church Christmas fireside, and tonight I read another Christmas story from one of our Christmas books-- "Why the Bells Chimed." 

3.  In the evening I spent some time editing a friend's family pictures, and helped out my sister with some photos for her Christmas card.  I know what I'm doing for my card, but can't take the photos until at least this weekend.  I hope it won't be too much of a time crunch for me like it always seems to end up...  But it's worth it.  I have an idea of printing out our previous years' cards in large form and hanging them up as part of our Christmas decorations.  I already printed out the ones from our card 6 years ago and they're hanging in the music room.  I love them and may just leave them up!

12/02/2012

1.  Orchestra concert for the boys.  They sounded great, especially with the challenging pieces and the short number of rehearsals they have had.  No more rehearsals until January! 

2.  Watched the church Christmas fireside tonight.  I love Christmas music.  Mosey huffed and puffed through the whole thing, though, wanting to get back to his computer game...  The best part for me was that I got to snuggle with my boys on the couch.  They'll never be too old for that, will they?

3.  Joseph is afraid of something in his room-- he doesn't want to sleep in there alone.  Not sure what to do about that.  He is sleeping in my bed right now, but has mostly been sleeping in Brigham's room the past several nights.  Maybe I need to put a stop to his X-files habit.  :-)

family letter

Hi Family,
I have been staying up way too late recently, and I'm going to try very hard to get to bed early.  Here are a few things about this week.
We've decided as a family to learn German.  We bought the Rosetta Stone discs, and our plan is to go through all of those, then each of us has to read the whole Book of Mormon in German, and THEN we will go on a trip to Europe!  This will obviously be a multi-year deal, but we're excited.  We all voted on which language to learn.  It came down to Spanish or German, and German won out.  Luckily there were no hard feelings.  As a result, the boys have been on a Rosetta Stone kick!  They've all spent hours on it so far this week.  I'm going to get very behind since I haven't had a chance to try it out yet.  Mosey is especially excited.  He's told me several times how doing Rosetta Stone is more fun than computer games!  That is saying a lot, coming from my computer-game fanatic.

Joseph had another archery tournament yesterday.  Ben took him-- it was just down at UT, so way closer than last time.  He beat his score from last time and had an especially good second half-- would have been in the top three, maybe even won the whole thing if he had scored as well in the first half.  Anyway, he was happy and that's what I care about.

We (I) put up Christmas decorations this week!  I love having Thanksgiving earlier in the month, Christmas lasts so much longer.  I'm still trying to figure out where my decorations will go in this new house.  Now if I can just get Ben to put up lights!  We'll get our Christmas tree next weekend. 

Brigham and Mosey had their first orchestra concert this afternoon.  AYO has several youth orchestras of varying levels, and it was fun to hear how they improve from one orchestra to another.  They both love orchestra, which makes me so happy.  I wish I could find a youth band or something for Joseph to play in.  Ensemble playing is so much more fun than solo practicing. 

Speaking of which, Brigham and I are going to be playing a violin duet for our church Christmas program on the 23rd, so he and I went through a book of Christmas duets that I have to decide what to play.  He's getting to be a very good sight-reader, and playing with him is definitely one of those "pay-off" moments for me as a mom, for all the hours of practicing with him.

The rest of the week was filled with school, music lessons, scout pack meeting, our art group (Christmas origami!), and the first full jewel goblets!  I'm pretty happy about that system so far.

And now, I have to go to bed because I'm falling asleep at the computer.

Love you all!

12/01/12

New month, new commitment to write on my blog.  The last part of November just got away from me.

1.  Joseph had another archery tournament this morning.  He scored higher than his last tournament, which made him happy, and he had an AWESOME second half.  If he had done as well in the first half as he did in the second, he maybe would have won the whole thing.

2.  I tutored one of my friend's boys in math for 45 minutes or so, and then he played with my boys for an hour or so.  This child is not a huge fan of math.  I have a child like that, too!  But he was delightful for me-- that tends to happen when it's not your own kid.  :-)  I introduced him to Times Tales-- the absolute best way for kids to learn their times tales.

3.  We traded family pictures with my friend Krissy's family.  Drove down to Mayfield park only to find it closed for a wedding.  But we found a good spot off the parking lot, so all was well.  The boys did pretty good.  They are old pros at this family picture thing.  Mostly.  :-)  The biggest stress for me is deciding what to wear!  I'm not a stylist.  And I prefer a more traditional look rather than the super bright patterned look that is popular right now.  Or maybe I'm just not confident enough to pull together a look like that. :-)  Anyway, I went to Target last night and bought some sweaters and shirts that coordinated.  Ben wasn't a huge fan of the one I got him, although I thought it looked great on him.

4.  On the way home we got pizza at Little Caesars, then watched 24 while I worked on putting up more Christmas decorations (started a few days ago).  It's fun figuring out where all my decorations will go in this new house!

5.  After, Brigham and I serenaded Ben on our violins to get his advice on what to play for the ward Christmas program.  Brigham is getting really good.  It is so fun to sight-read duets with him.  I asked his teacher on Thursday if he was ready for a 3/4 size violin, and when she checked him on some instruments in the shop, discovered he's just about ready for a full-size violin!  Wow!   Now it's time to pay forward the wonderful instruments my parents bought me while I was growing up, by buying my son one of his own.  He's playing the 1/2 size violin I played growing up.  Maybe he can pass it on to his son or daughter.  :-)  But, he can't have my full-size violin, so we'll be shopping around for one soon.

 6.  Finally, I finally got around to editing the grandparents/grandkids picture I took at our reunion last summer.  Getting 15 children to look halfway normal in one picture is absolutely impossible.  I didn't actually get eye-contact from two of the kids, even in the 10 shots I snapped.  Oh well.  :-) The final product is a conglomeration of several photos.  I love photoshop.

Bottom row left to right: Lincoln (Brigham's), Mosey, Mara and Miles (both Rosalynde's), Elijah (Brigham's), Brigham, and Jack (Rosalynde's).
Top row left to right: Rosalia (Rachel's), Polly (Naomi's), Lucy (Brigham's), Jacob (Rachel's-- being held by my mom), CiCi (Naomi's), Elena (Rosalynde's), Jane (Brigham's-- being held by my dad), and Joseph.
I love all these kids so much!