Christmas Day

I loved having Christmas Day on a Sunday! 

 The girls enjoyed showing off their new Christmas dresses!

 Logan and Anne

 Lance and Danielle

The boys and their wives! 

Logan and Lance played their violins for our ward

Christmas program - it was lovely! 

That really made Christmas for me! 

Christmas Eve

Everyone in the family was able to be here for Christmas Eve! 

It was so great to have everyone together! 

Lance and Danielle enjoyed prezzies from Noelle and Kao! 

 Logan and Anne are showing off cozy 

slippers from Lance and Danielle!

 Noelle got some historical costuming books from Melia, 

and Kao loved his leg lamp from the Kelley boys! 

(Think Christmas Story movie...)

 The Kelleys lined up in age order - 

notice that age and height order are no longer the same....

 Their Christmas gift from Logan and Anne
 was too long to fit in the photo!

 Logan and Anne had worked hard on the gift-

and took a long time to wrap it as well! 

 It was a team effort to unwrap it! 

It was an awesome Kelley family teepee! 

Here are the kids in new pajamas enjoying their new teepee!

 We heard they slept in it that night! 

What a fun Christmas Eve! 

Michael's Class

Lance and Danielle came to help me out at school.

(Check school blog for more photos of that.)

I asked Michael's teacher if Lance could go in to

his classroom to read them a story.

Michael was surprised and super excited when

Lance came in to read 

"Dinosaur's Night Before Christmas"!

Thanksgiving

We celebrated Thanksgiving at Noelle and Kao's home.

We had way too much fun to remember to take photos -

but here are a few........

Grandkids in the Teepee

I took my new teepee to Noelle's for Thanksgiving.

The Grandkids must have loved it because we didn't see them much -

they only came out for food and potty breaks!

Teepee Project

Every year at this time, my third grade class studies the Ute Indians. 

Last year, a girl in my class said she had a teepee we could borrow. 

The kids had a blast with it. 

They especially loved playing their Indian flutes in it. 

This year I decided to make one. 

We improved on the borrowed one as it was blue with white PVC pipe.

We went with canvas and painted the PVC pipe brown.

Logan and Anne painted the carefully chosen symbols.

 The crossed arrows stand for friendship.

The bear claws are because the Utes worshiped the Bear. 

 The moons are because we study the moon in 3rd grade.

At the top are Eagle feathers which stand for chief. 

The hummingbird on the left is because that is my symbol -

I love hummingbirds!
The symbol on the right stands for the sun. 

The grand-kids are coming over tonight.
I am excited to see if they like it! 

Veteran's Day

Excuse my proud mom moment......

My two handsome sons, Lance and Logan. 

Logan recently graduated from the Defense Language Institute

 in Monterey, California where he learned Arabic.

Lance is currently at the Defense Language Institute

 in Monterey studying Korean.

Lance's brother and army buddies are a great support to him -

 even though it may look otherwise in this photo!

Although not a veteran, Melia spent almost a year in Iraq

 as a government contractor supporting the troops.

She is a computer forensics specialist. 

Can you spot the civilian? 

School Halloween Parade

I caught sight of Michael as he paraded past my portable!

One of the perks of having a grandson at my school!

Getting Ready for a Princess Party!

Noelle and Melia made tutus for all the guests to wear! 

They had fun decorating in Aislinn's favorite color - PINK! 

Every princess needs a crown! 

A pink wand is a must! 

Aislinn loves to twirl in her princess dress! 

She definitely looks like a princess! 

Guests Arrive

AS the guests arrived, they picked out a tutu to wear, 

and got their nails painted in princessy colors! 

Princess photo shoots!

Brooklyn brought a tea set for Aislinn,
 so they practiced with it for the real tea party! 

Tea Party

The tea party was full of pink deliciousness! 

The cupcake cake was adorable! 

Aislinn loved blowing out the candles! 

Dancing and Playing

The girls danced to "princess" music! 

Then they played in Aislinn's room princess style! 

Prezzies

Aislinn had a blast opening her princess prezzies! 

The boys joined in on this part.....

Every princess needs multi-colored braids!
It was a little girl's dream birthday party!