Madeline's Christmas Sing a Long & Christmas Party

Today Madeline had a Christmas Sing a Long for the whole school of Gearld Wright Elementary. Madeline's kindergarten class was first and they sang "Santa Claus is coming to town" and a silly Christmas song. Madeline was in the center and front row. Her friend Cailey is to the left of Madeline.

Afterwards, I volunteered in Madeline's classroom while they did their homework for the day and also while they had their Christmas party from 10:30-12:00. They did BINGO and Pictionary and frosted sugar cookies. Madeline was very artistic with her cookie and colored it with all 4 colors - pink, blue, yellow and green.

For Show and tell (Sharing time) Madeline shared that our cat likes to climb our Christmas tree and it made everyone laugh.

Getting tagged....

I have been late in posting this, but I got tagged by my cousin Lisa. So I'm supposed to write 6 things about myself...and then tag 6 other people's blogs. This is going to be hard since I don't usually write about myself.

1. I'm happy for the holiday season! Jared and I decided to get ready for Christmas early this year and we have been ready for some time now. We got all our Christmas shopping done. I've never been the one to have my Christmas shopping done early. Usually I go up to Christmas Eve and do last minute shopping, so it is kind of nice just being able to relax and enjoy the holidays with the kids. Also I got my Christmas cards out early and goodies to the neighbors. What am I going to do for these next few days before Christmas?

2. I have to have 10 cavities filled before Christmas. I went in on the 14th and had 6 cavities filled and am going in on the 21st and having 4 more cavities filled. I've never had so many in my whole life. I've just gone to a new dentist that is closer and I don't like the new dentist as much as my old one. My old dentist is more gentle and isn't as money hungry as most dentists and I've been going to him since I was a child. So I just might go back to my old dentist, even though he is a farther drive away. Maybe I should cut back on the sweets...Bad time of year for that though.

3. I am a terrible housekeeper. Just like Lisa mentioned in her blog. I think I am the same way. I put things off and procrastinate. I put off cleaning our house sometimes and get tired of the same old cleaning jobs over and over. The same things need to be cleaned and then they get dirty again. Usually no one notices the work that is done around the house. I wish there were awards given out for cleaning the house.

4. I love volunteering in Madeline's kindergarten class. I babysit for my neighbor on Tuesdays and volunteer at Madeline's class on Wednesdays. It is fun to watch her interact with others. Madeline does a really good job at schoolwork. Her best friend at school is Cailey and they both do everything together. I get to see her do show and tell on Wednesdays and it is funny to see what kind of things she wants to show everyone. Usually it is her stuffed animals.

5. I love freebies and digital scrapbooking. It is fun to search on the internet for cute things. I am a ribbon/bow person so I try to find lots of those types of freebies. I've been doing this 12 days of Christmas freebie quickpage thing on the internet at: http://weedsandwildflowersdesign.typepad.com/the_meadow/ They have such cute quickpages each day and it is fun because they have a Christmas question each day that you can answer to be entered into a drawing for more free stuff.

6. I was inspired by Lisa and her new blog header to make a blog header for my page also, so although it isn't as good as hers: http://izatts.blogspot.com/ I tried to make mine look festive and like the holidays.

I don't know 6 people who blog. So I guess I will tag the ones I know: Karri, Summer, and Joni.

Snowman

Here's Ethan with a snowman he helped build after the last snowstorm.

BYU Utah football game

We went to the BYU/Utah football game yesterday while our neighbors watched our kids. It was packed and there were people on our row who weren't supposed to be there, we were squished. We sat behind 2 ute fans and a ute family that stood up most the game. Happily BYU won 17 - 10 and we were able to celebrate. yay! Collie's still open!

Visit with Santa

This morning, we went to this:

Santa's Arrival - Friday, November 23rd at 9am - Families are invited to the hour-long Santa's Arrival parade, presented by ChamberWest, in the west parking lot of Valley Fair Mall at 9am. Following the parade join the fun inside at Santa's Winter Lodge for FREE milk & cookies provided by Costco, while supplies last. The first 100 families visiting Santa in his Winter Lodge for photos will receive a FREE holiday music CD courtesy of Santa Plus Photography.

We missed most of the parade, but we did get to see Santa and get milk and cookies. We got to take a picture of all the cousins on the Katz side. We had fun!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had a small gathering for Thanksgiving at our house this year. We celebrated with Jared's side of the family. Jared's mom and brother's family came to visit us last minute. Our plans fell through earlier with going out to Iowa to visit Jared's parents and so Jared's mom decided to come out and visit us and then Jared's brother, Aaron's family of 4, decided to come out also. We were planning on having a small Thanksgiving and go out to eat, but instead we got to make Thanksgiving dinner here at our house. I had to prepare a turkey for the first time this year and I was a bit nervous, but it all turned out good since we had so much help to put everything together! Jared's sister's family is supposed to show up tonight.

HaLLoWeeN

I'm late in posting this, but for Halloween, I volunteered in Madeline's kindergarten class. They had a costume parade and then games and activities in the classroom and cupcakes and ice cream afterwards. I brought Ethan to Madeline's class too and he was able to join in on all the games and fun. He was so proud that he got to go to kindergarten for one day.

Madeline was tinkerbell and Ethan was batman this year for Halloween. We took them trick or treating from 6:00-8:00. By that time Ethan was about to drop. I had to carry him for about 1/2 hour at the end. Jared was at home handing out candy. Madeline was still wanting to trick or treat but her trick or treat bag was full. So we stopped when she couldn't hold anymore. We got to go around trick or treating with the bishop's wife's kids and Madeline's friend Cailey which she was very excited about. One of the kids was dressed like Harry Potter and Ethan was very interested in him, wanting to talk to him. He thought he was the actual Harry Potter, having seen the first movie with us. Ethan was asking to go trick or treating the next evening and the next, but I told him it was only one day a year that we could go. He'll be ready for next year.

Super Craft Saturday

Yesterday was Super Craft Saturday at our church. We made a ton of cute things. Here are some pictures of what we did. My mom came to it also and she made the pumpkins, glass name frame and a tile picture. I also did a tile picture, but it isn't finished yet.

Halloween Party

Life is full of choices. Some are inconsequential and others have major life repercusions. On Saturday October 20th, we chose to go to a Halloween party instead of going to a BYU football game (for which we already had tickets) or our annual ward soup & pie night. We went on our chosen path, one of many that stood before us because it was a reunion of sorts.

We were invited to Brad and JanaLynn Young's house. We knew the said Youngs from our abode in Virginia. They traditionally threw Halloween parties in Virginia when we were living there, but this year they moved to Utah along with the Lords and the Stavasts, all of whom were Virginians along with us in the same ward. We left Virginia behind in the summer of 2005 to move to our new home in Utah. It turns out that we were trendsetters of sorts, as all of these other families also left Virginia over the next two years.

We were supposed to arrive at 5:00 but due to adverse weather and watching the first half of the BYU game, we arrived after 6:00. We found out that everyone arrived late, so we were in good company. Jared and I were dressed as a 50's couple. Jared was a greaser and I had a poodle skirt. Madeline was tinkerbell and Ethan was batman.

The house was all decked out in Halloween decorations and we started out with dinner. Then the kids bobbed for apples, then played pin the nose on the pumpkin and then decorated Halloween pictures.

The girls went on a tour of the Young's home, which was by the way BEAUTIFUL and looked like it came from a Better Home and Garden magazine. Then after that we left to come home. We left planning on more get togethers in the future...

Kennecott Utah Copper Mine

Today we went for FHE to visit the Kennecott Copper Mine for the first time. Here's pictures of the mine. To read more about the Kennecott visitor's center click here.

Frightmares!

We went to

for date night on Friday night, the 28th of September and 12th of October and during the day with our kids on Saturday, the 13th. Jared and I went to the 3 haunted houses - HAUNTED HOLLYWOOD, FUN HOUSE OF FEAR, and HAL O. WEEN HIGH, a walk-thru PSYCHO DAVE'S JUNKYARD, and a hypnotist show and the kids went to the fun SPOOK-A-BOO WALK-THRU on Saturday and got a bag of candy and frisbee. We had a season passport this year to Lagoon and were able to go throughout the summer to the amusement park and also it included Frightmares. We've had tons of family fun time there this year.

-- Ratatouille --

For FHE on Monday night, we went as a family to see Ratatouille. The kids loved it. We went to Leatherby's for ice cream after as well. Leatherbys is the best ice cream place in Utah I think. They have huge servings and it is homemade and delicious.

Today, Wednesday the 10th, Jared decided to find the recipe for Ratatouille and emailed it to me and said we should make it for dinner. So we tried it and it was pretty good. Here's a picture of it.




Here's the recipe if anyone is adventurous and wants to try it.

Recipe for a simple ratatouille:

Ingredients:
1 medium sized onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium or large eggplant,
diced 1 can stewed tomatoes
2 medium zucchini diced into large chunks
add herbs as desired (try basil)
olive oil (enough to sauté onion/garlic)
salt and pepper to taste

Directions: Sauté the onion and garlic until tender Add eggplant and tomatoes, bring to simmer
Simmer, covered for 15 minutes Add zucchini Simmer for 10-15 more minutes until vegetables are suitably soft Remove from heat Stir in the herbs, season to taste Serve over: Rice, Egg, noodles, Pasta, Boiled, cubed potatoes

Scrapbooking Madeline's first day of Kindergarten

Here's a scrapbook layout I did for Madeline's first day of Kindergarten.

Utah State Fair

We went to the Utah State Fair on Sept. 15, 2007 and had a lot of fun. Here's a picture of the kids at the Little Hands on the Farm. This is where they were able to pretend like they were on a farm picking corn, eggs, apples, vegetables, wool, ride a tractor, milk a pretend cow, and earn money for their work and buy something from a grocery store at the end. Madeline chose cheetos and Ethan chose chocolate milk. We also took them to see sheep, goats, pigeons, rabbits, cattle, and swine. We took them also to fish there, but no one caught anything. It was complete with dippin' dots and cotton candy.


Madeline and Ethan posing for a picture.


Ethan and Madeline feeding ponies.

Madeline's first week at Kindergarten

Madeline started kindergarten on the morning of September 5, 2007. She had a hard time going in at first - she started crying, but when we came back she was all smiles and was ready for the next day of kindergarten. She went Wednesday - Friday and she learned the letters A, B, and C - how to write them and how to write her name. Her homework was to read 10 minutes a day also. It will take a little bit of getting used to for her mommy though. I'm going to volunteer once a week at her kindergarten class and swap with another mom babysitting. See more pics.

Labor Day Trip to Antelope Island

Jared and the kids went for their first time on a drive to Antelope Island. That day, the Island had a pioneer event where the kids made their own candles, and rings. Madeline dropped her candle in the dirt and Jared put more wax on top making the souvenir complete with dirt from Antelope Island. Ethan's candle was perfect. We went and had a picnic dinner and then got our swimsuits to go in the Great Salt Lake. It is true about being able to float. You don't even have to try and you float. Just be careful if you dunk and water gets in your eyes - it stings!!!! We had to walk out onto the beach a ways because the water level has receded several hundred feet and then it slopes ever-so-gently. It doesn't get deep for several hundred more feet into the lake. We ended the night with a trip to Dairy Queen for a blizzard.