Christmas Eve Traditions

For Christmas Eve dinner this year, I decided to make Argentine Cuisine!

Empanadas, pan, ensalada and turron de chocolate....yum yum!

don't they look delicious?

After dinner we always play Christmas bingo.Then we tell the Christmas story.

the many faces of serious bingo players

I told Aaron to smile.  I think I told Craig too, but he didn't get the message!

 We have a tradition of hanging the Christmas stockings around the room.  Shenna wasn't feeling really well, so she laid on the couch.

 Samuel hung his stocking on Grandma's TV stand.

Enoch chose the computer cabinet. 

Kiera chose the stairs.

 Even Grandma hung up her stocking by her puzzle table.

All in all, Christmas eve was a success. 

Christmas Concerts Galore

This week has been full of the Christmas spirit as we have listened to about every Christmas song and arrangement imagined.  The high school choir had their Christmas concert (along with the middle school choirs) on Monday night, The middle school had their band and orchestra Christmas concert on Tuesday night, and the high school had their band and orchestra concert Wednesday night. PHEW!

 Can you play "I SPY" and find Shenna in the alto section?  This is the best picture I could get from the seats we were in.

 Daryl took my camera and captured this shot of Kiera from the front row.  She is first chair french horn and very competitive about it.



Enoch managed to crack a smile for the camera.  Sometimes these concerts can be a wee bit lengthy to sit still through. 

Birthday Celebration

Aaron surprised me for my birthday by taking me away for a good rest overnight.  Lynae came over and stayed with mom and the kids. 

 This is the house we stayed at....very nice!

The girls surprised me with a cute birthday cake that they made themselves. They had just finished it when I got home.

All in all, the birthday was a nice surprise for me.

Soccer Season Never Ends.....

It's true.  Soccer never ends when you play with a club like the one Enoch is in. During winter Enoch's team gets to practice indoors at the local university.  He is still having fun!

You are what you Eat!?!

This morning during breakfast, Enoch was eating his cereal when he said,

"Mom, something feels funny on my tooth." 

 I glanced over, and had to do a double-take. I said back to him,

 "Enoch, there IS no tooth there!" 

Somehow in the process of eating, his tooth came out and he must have swallowed it! 

I had no idea his front tooth was that loose!

I guess we'll be writing a letter to the tooth fairy later.

Kiera Wins the Prize!

At Kiera's school the students get awarded "pride tickets" for various things. 

Generally teachers hand them out randomly for good behavior etc. 

At the end of each term they have a drawing.

Kiera must be pretty lucky because her name was drawn out for one of the grand prizes.

A new Kindle!

I think everyone -including me- is jealous of her good fortune.

Time used wisely

How did I spend the Wednesday before Thanksgiving??  Bottling 25 quarts of applesauce. Apples courtesy of Kris, my sister-in-law. 

Shenna and Kiera cut up all the apples and Samuel and Enoch helped with putting them through the Victorio Strainer ( I love that thing!)

Don't they look wonderful?!!?



The Favorites win the Cup!

Enoch is an avid follower of many soccer leagues, including the one right here at home.  Sunday night, LA Galaxy would take on the Houston Dynamo for the MLS Championship. 

In Layman's terms, this is the superbowl of soccer.  However, it certainly isn't broadcast like a superbowl.  My poor soccer fan was reduced to watching it online.

He was set for the occasion with his Beckham jersey on, the fauxhawk and some popcorn.



I was thrilled when the Galaxy scored a goal in the 72nd minute (thank you Landon Donovan!) and overjoyed when Houston couldn't answer with one of their own. That way the game didn't go into overtime and penalty kicks to determine the winner.

It was nice to have the game over before 9:30 pm 

Enoch, of course, enjoyed every minute of the game, even if his sister made him use headphones!

Yeah for L.A.!!



LA Galaxy - the new MLS Champions 2011.



All That Jazz!

I've been trying for two days to get a video uploaded to the blog, and I have finally given up.

You will just have to see pictures...which aren't half as much fun when you are talking about band.

Ever since sixth grade, Shenna has wanted to be in the high school jazz band. The flute, however, isn't a main jazz band instrument (if they need one, usually a saxophone player will play it).

This past year, Shenna decided to learn to play the saxophone so that she could audition for the jazz band. After practicing countless hours for about four months, she auditioned and made it in to this elite group of musicians. She gets to play the bari sax and she loves it!

She doesn't really like the early morning practices, and I know she isn't fond of wearing a tie, but she truly does love being in the jazz band with all her friends.

She also doesn't like having her picture taken, but she has to put up with that too!

Haunters on Halloween

We had quite a variety of "haunters" at our house this year.

I was able to catch them all in action before the trick-or-treating began.

Shenna transformed into a"hot box dancer" from the play Guys and Dolls.
Kiera designed and painted her costume. She enjoyed running around the neighborhood as a
life-size paperdoll.

As long as face paint and a gun were involved, Samuel really didn't care what he was. He claims to be a Jawa from Star Wars. The tennis shoes kind of give him away though.

I told Enoch that his costume choice just looked like his regular self. Maybe if we had painted on some tattoos, the fact that he is portraying David Beckham would have been more obvious. However, he did show off some impressive juggling skills for the camera.

Even River got in the act. The kids say he was Superman, but personally, I think he is secretly thinking he is "UNDERDOG!"

Summary of the night: AWESOME!

Total haul brought in: Enough to make even the biggest chocoholic in the house a little uncomfortable.

Conclusion: we are kind of glad the night is over. Now we just have to recover.

Samuel is Eleven!

Eleven years have gone by so fast!

I made a motocross cake for the celebration....I wanted to put a go-cart on it, but I couldn't find one anywhere. The four-wheeler had to do.
His main gift was a brand new mountain bike. I can't believe how tall he is getting.

At his last pack meeting, he was awarded the last two activity badges to complete all twenty. His webelos leader presented him with the "all twenty" patch for completing them all.

Afterwards, he crossed over the "bridge" and met his new scout leader, Eric Freeze. Samuel is really looking forward to being in the 11-year old scout troop!

We are so proud of Samuel for all his hard work in cub scouts!

Picture ID makes it official!

Guess what came in the mail today?

She was more excited than she is letting on. No more temporary license!

Happy Birthday Mom!

My mom celebrated her 86th birthday yesterday. What fun to have her here with us on her special day!

She had numerous phone calls throughout the day from family and friends. Later in the evening her family that lives close all visited. She recieved lots of chocolate and had a chocolate cake to celebrate! I think she had fun. We sure do love her!

Spotlight on Samuel

Samuel has been up to a lot lately. Most importantly, he recieved his Arrow of Light this week at pack meeting. He has been working really hard trying to finish everything up. The last was memorizing the scout oath and law.

I ended up putting a poster of the law behind the toilet in the bathroom. Think. What other place do we have a boy's undivided attention about six times a day? The strategy worked, and he had it memorized and passed off to his scout leader with days to spare!

I also decided to spotlight Samuel and his love of babies. This boy really can't remember any babies in our house since he was only 2 when Enoch was born. Maybe because of that, he tends to show up whenever there is a baby visiting. The most recent baby? his new little cousin, Berdie Lynae Winkler.

He loves to hold them, but doesn't like to ask, so I finally just handed her over to him and never got her back. He held her the rest of the time until her parents wanted to go home. Even Shenna mentioned that she thought he'd make a good daddy someday.

Sweet Sixteen!

It seems like a long time coming to her, but to Aaron and me, it seems impossible that Shenna turned 16 on Sunday.

I decorated her cake with musical notes and she was happy with it. I think she thought it was nice to just relax here at home for her birthday.

A lot of her aunts, uncles and cousins (including Uncle David and Aunt Lynae pictured below) stopped in to wish her a happy birthday. She didn't stay around the whole evening though. Remember that it was her 16th birthday? Well she had her first date that night....lucky girl!

Grandma's Here!

We've added one person to our family. Grandma Hansen has come to stay with us for four months. The kids have been looking forward to this for a very long time, and finally Grandma moved in on Labor Day.

I think she has realized that our household is definitely different than Lynae's or Maralee's. Not better, but different. Hopefully the higher noise level doesn't bother her too much. We always seem to be in a noisy flurry of activity around here.

I think we are all adjusting pretty well. She is the first one the kids greet now when they come home from school. Everyone loves to help take care of her. Sam in particular is always asking her if she needs anything, and he takes her wherever she wants to go.

She even has gone on some of our activities with us. Enoch had a soccer game and she decided to go watch. Enoch loved having his grandma there to support him.

After the game, we stopped in at Lynae's so Grandma could hold her new great-grandson. Grant just slept in her arms. Aren't they cute together?

We love having her here with us and wouldn't trade this time with her for anything!!

Annual Back-To-School Pics

School came upon us before we could even blink, it seems. This year, Shenna starts high school and Kiera moved over to the middle school. Here are our first day pics!

Shenna holding up those ten fingers!

Kiera starting 8th grade at a new school. We had gone around and found her classes, so she knew where to go a few days earlier. No worries!

Seriously???? Samuel is in the 5th grade? 'Tis true. Only one more year in elementary!

Enoch indicating that he is in the 3rd grade....and not wearing a soccer jersey to school on the first day!

Kiera and the Skirt

Kiera made this skirt and entered it in our county fair. She won a blue ribbon.
Good Job!

Marching anyone???

Ahhh, the annual parade in town...can it get much better? Sitting in the scorching heat for an hour waiting for the parade to start after finding a parking space a mile away. At least we found a spot close to where we usually sit - People were actually saving spaces along the parade route three days before. My comment to that? What do they think it is....the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade? PLEASE. Truly I think people here need to get out more..

The parade lasted around an hour and 20 minutes. Three actual floats went by. Lots of horses. Followed by pooper scoopers (thanks FFA). Tons of Tractors. Random politicians and civic groups in cool cars. Local high school sports teams A miriad of princesses and queens, riding horses, in cars, on semi trailers. Unfortunately, no glass carriages to be seen.
We can't forget the cheerleaders. Or the the little dancing girls marching down the street. (speaking of which, the little girls marched, yet our high school drill team didn' t even make an appearance this year. Huh???) The gymnasts showing off their moves were cool. The list could go on and on.
The boys favorite part? All the candy being thrown. My favorite part? The one and only awesome high school marching band!
Luckily, gone is the era of very hot uniforms for the street marching Now just a polo and pants or shorts will do.


Both girls did a great job, and as long as they keep marching, I'll keep going to see the parade!

Whitaker Reunion 2011

We had a great time with some of the Whitaker clan over the weekend at a "not so local" pool. The kids swam for about 4 hours and still didn't want to get out of the pool.

As you can see, it had some awesome slides.

I can never tell who has more fun; Aaron or the kids.

Pyper actually let me take a picture of her with her daddy. She's so cool, she has to wear shades. All the cousins had fun together.