DECEMBER
It isn't too exciting to write about Christmas when it's almost Easter, but it is what it is so far this year.
We made some fresh, holiday, stove-top potpourri for our neighbors (and kept some for ourselves). It smelled so good. I love Pinterest for quick ideas.
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| We still have one child who loves to dress up, as you will see throughout this post. |
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| Ceci was in the Christmas play at our church Christmas party as a shepherd. |
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| Ceci and her soccer friend, Sofia, at the Christmas party. When Santa asked Ceci what she wanted for Christmas she responded, "If you were really Santa you would already know what I wanted for Christmas." Santa didn't have a response. |
The three grandkids, Philip, Clara and Gustav, came over to make sugar cookies (something they had never done before).
They loved playing with the flour...
These friends spent hours playing card games and physical games in the hallway. It is amazing how well they got along when their ability to communicate was so limited.
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| They swam a lot too. |
Adele started a classical art class. Here is one of her first pieces!
We hosted a Davis family Christmas Family Home Evening where we had dinner, made our traditional Danish ebelskiver and walked around Temple Square to see the lights.
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| All of us crammed in the elevator after doing some caroling. |
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| St. George temple with my mom, my brother Mitch and his family. |
One beautiful day we went to Snow Canyon State Park with our sister-in-law Joann, her boys and a few of her neighbor kids.
I can't get over the beauty of that place. The red and white rock against the blue sky is spectacular.
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| Adele and cousin Tag |
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| The sand dunes are always a favorite spot with lots of rolling and digging and sand in the hair. |
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| I love the gingerbread house my brother and his two sons put together... |
St. George has an amazing, little Children's Museum that Adele and Ceci loved.
We visited Brigham Young's winter home, which was really cool.
We went to my brother's home for Christmas. Christmas is always better with a 5 and 3-year-old!
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| My brother was a great Santa's helper. |
JANUARY
Adele and Ceci decided they wanted to put on a magic show.and invite the neighbors. I wanted to meddle. I told them they might want to wait and plan a little bit, that they might get more guests if they had more advanced notice. Nope. These two had an idea and they were going to make it happen! They made quick invitations, delivered them, and planned their act. They had about 20 in the audience and it was AWESOME! They could take their show on the road. Seriously. (Thank you to Tennie for taking pictures!)
Our neighbors were so fun and jumped in to volunteer when asked.
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| A card trick. Nan is showing the card she's chosen and Ceci will do a trick to guess which one it is. |
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| Ceci got it right! |
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| Our great neighbors |
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| Floor seating for kids in the front |
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| The needle-in-the-balloon-without-it-popping trick... |
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| Oops! It didn't work! |
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| A disappearing act |
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| Cookies for coming! |
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| Add caption |
Tennie got her tonsils and adenoids out. I thought she would have a sore throat for a few days and be back into her normal life. I had no idea the misery of a tonsillectomy! She was out (completely) for three solid weeks, and she was in intense pain the entire time. The narcotics made her vomit violently so she tried to manage the pain through ibuprofen and Tylenol. She earned some gold stars for surviving this.
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| Immediately after the surgery she was quite chipper and talkative. |
Adele turned 13 and I don't have a single picture of her family birthday party that had an Asian flare. She skipped a friend party this year. 13! I'm still trying to process my kids growing up.
She and I went to the mall to get her make-up done.
Adele and Ceci set up a grocery store and played for days. They would take turns dressing up and shopping at the store and working at the store. One of my favorite shoppers was a Mexican cowboy.
Adele, Ceci and I went to the Tracy Aviary which is really a cool place.
Ceci joined a competitive soccer team, and while she was at practice one Friday night Adele, Tennie and I decided to visit Paris. We made crepes and painted all night while listening to favorite French music. It was tres fun!
FEBRUARY
Geoff and Adele went to a Daddy/Daughter Hoedown. Tennie is in an acting class that conflicted and she missed it.
We have birds. Our birds really like to lay eggs and have babies. We didn't know we were getting into the breeding business when getting these pets, but we go through lots of babies.
Sometimes our birds push out the babies they know won't survive and they squirm helplessly on the bottom of the cage. This is difficult to see! Ceci held this one for a long while and put it back in the nest. It didn't survive but Ceci loved nurturing the little life.
Three of that bunch of five survived. We hadn't had time to get rid of the baby that hatched just a couple weeks before so we currently have SIX birds! Tomorrow we'll be back to two.
One afternoon Adele and I toured the capitol. Our state capitol is gorgeous inside and out! We loved every bit of it and can't wait to sit in on legislation while in session.
We went to a local Art Market full of fun, artistic items to admire. We came across a quote we loved:
Tennie's favorite quote for some time was there too:
Right before Valentine's Day we found this adorable desk at Whole Foods where you could type someone a Valentine on an old-fashioned typewriter.
We had our mailboxes up all month and I collected lots of "love" notes.
Adele is a class president at church and has been reaching out to the girls her age that don't come anymore. She and a friend or two from church get together every Sunday afternoon to bake cookies, write notes or do visits to these young women. When the older youth had a dance, she planned a game night for her age group and one of these young women she had been visiting came.
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| Preparing to "heart attack" the doors of young women |
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| Sledding up Little Cottonwood Canyon |
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| We were role playing teaching about Joseph Smith as a missionary during Family Home Evening and Ceci dressed up as an elderly investigator. She is the BEST old lady character around, and our white wigs give her lots of opportunities to practice! |
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| A few young women in our stake put on a multi-stake, Marti Gras dance. Geoff and Ceci stopped by early on and stepped into the photo booth for a quick pic. |
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| Tennie and some friends |
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| Look at Scott Sterling waving right at Adele and Ceci! That is fame by direct eye contact and a wave!!! |
Pretty much the entire month of February one or more people in our family were really sick, sometimes twice. It felt like an entire month of homemade broth and lemon and ginger tea, nourishing soups, washing sheets, airing out the apartment, and administering loads of herbal remedies. Between Tennie's three-week surgery recovery and a month of illness I feel like a full-time nurse!
On we go into March! Here's to healthier months ahead!
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