December Catch-up

Some stuff from December that I forgot to post:

We got the idea off of a friends blog to wrap all of our Christmas stories this year.  It went really well and I believe will be a new Wallace family tradition.  You number the books and the kids get to open one every night as a countdown to Christmas.  An easy, cheap advent calendar!  Someone I told about this thought that I went out and bought 25 new Chrismas stories, to which I said, “Heavens No!” Just wrap up all of your old ones.  The kids loved it!

Making Christmas cookies (a giant disaster- but fun!)

 

The first snowfall of the year here in P-rice.  (and apparently the last……)

The house we are renting here has an incredibly long driveway.  We spent hours trying to shovel it, highly unsuccessfully.  A kind neighbor came over afterwards and blew it all away with his snowblower in about 5 minutes.  We REALLY need to invest in one.

Noodle lost two more teeth this month, leaving him with the classic “all I want for Christmas is my two front teeth” smile!

 

Kenni was a winner at the elementary school’s annual “Christmas hat parade”. I was informed about this event the night before the parade around 8:30 (of course)- so the only thing we could think of on such short notice was to glue fake Christmas presents all over her lovely hat.  Apparently it was a hit because she came home with a prize.

 

And last but not least we had the annual Lewis family Christmas party at my mom’s house the weekend before Christmas.  The Lewis’ are my cousins on my mom’s side of the family, and after Grandma Lewis passed away, we weren’t sure if we would ever get to see those cousins anymore, so I am so grateful to my parents for continuing to hold this humongous event.  The big man himself always makes an appearance, and my kids look forward to it all year.

Smurfy was my favorite.  It took a long time for them to call his name, but when he finally heard it, he leapt up and started dancing around like he had just been chosen for the Price is Right!

Baby J was NOT a fan.  Luckily I got this photo before she began wailing.

Ha Ha!  Yes, after 12 years with our family, our dog Molly got her first opportunity to sit on Santa’s lap.  Since we were staying with my parents for the weekend, she happened to be there with us and I thought it would be funny to put her on Santa’s lap.  Luckily, Santa didn’t seem to mind. Awwww…….

A Play to remember

Well, the big weekend finally came.  Kenni’s play.  It seems like a million years ago (back in September) that she auditioned, and has been practicing away ever since.  The play, “Thumbelina”, was put on by the Castle Valley Acting Company, and written by their director, Caitlin Iverson, and I must say, for such a tiny budget, she did a great job.  Kenni thought this was the most fun thing she has ever participated in, and I’m sure more acting is in her future.

We were  so lucky to have some friends and family who wanted to come down and see the big show.  (I was a little worried because it was actually NOT a big show- major low budget and small-scale production, but everyone was so nice & said what a good job Kenni did)

Friday night Grandma Lesli came and brought the kids cousins Bella, Ben & Evie to see the show.

Saturday night Kenni’s friends Taylor, Haylie and Aly came with their mom’s, Liz & Michelle.  This really meant a lot to Kenni.  She was so excited to have so much support!

Isn’t this the sweetest?  The girls made cards for Kenni.  They are one in a million friends!

Here are a few more pics from the play:

After the show Saturday night, we went out for ice cream to celebrate Haylie’s birthday. It was the week earlier and Kenni didn’t get to see her on her actual day.

(Don’t mind Kenni’s racoon eyes.  She has not yet perfected the art of wearing makeup.)

Since Hay-bug, Tay-tay, and Ali all have December birthdays, we had presents for all three. We let them all open them so that the girls could have a proper matching-pj’s slumber party.  Like, oh my gosh!

It was a really fun (really exhausting!) weekend from beginning to end.  Thank you to everyone who supported us, it really meant a lot!!!

Christmas Town, USA

Last weekend we braved the cold (I mean COLD!) to go experience the Christmas Light Parade & Firework show in Helper, UT.  Helper is a really unique little town that is just a few miles north of Price.  You have probably passed it on your way to Lake Powell or Moab and just don’t realize it. 

Anyway- they do a bunch of fun Christmas festivities (they even call themselves the Christmas Town of Utah), and I decided that we should go check it out.  My only problem: Seth was here:

Off on a Mountain Biking adventure in St. George with around 18 or so of his closest friends. (Bunch of little boys acting like men…)

So, I put on a brave face, spent about 1 hour finding boots, hats, gloves, long underwear, coats, blankets, and hot cocoa for my FIVE kids and myself, and loaded up the car for some holiday fun.

Oh boy……. here we go.  It was an adventure, to say the least.  The low temperature for this particular evening was slated to be around nine.  Yes, nine. But we found an excellent parking spot in a historic train yard where we could stay close to the car, thank goodness.

So the kids ran around for awhile and then realized they were frozen solid & headed back to the car to climb into their blankies and watch the parade from the tailgate.  It was actually a great parade.  Baby J loved all the lights and she “oohed” and “ahhed”.  They threw out a ton of candy which was hilarious because it was pretty much all frozen, and would shatter into 1,000 pieces upon hitting the pavement, but of course the kids still scooped it up!

A very cold marching band. brrrr……

This guy was handing out all the free coke one could drink.  Hallelujah!  A Christmas miracle!

This float was a hair disturbing- although quite “Price-ish”. (It displayed many animal heads.  I think they were supposed to be festive; like woodland creatures?  But one couldn’t help but notice that they lacked bodies……)

Gotta get a picture of the Forest Service truck & Smokey the bear :)

Awwww- the man himself!  Santa was in Helper! Who woulda thunk it?

Well, by the time the night was over, I had only lost my temper 12 times (yelling at the kids for running in the road, breaking up fights when they would steal candy from each other, etc.), so I considered it a success!  We stopped at a gas station for more hot cocoa before driving to the park to see the fireworks, which were great. What a fun Christmas tradition!

I have been feeling a little sad lately about all the fun holiday parties and events I am missing out on back home.  I especially wanted to be able to attend Lisa Fairbanks & Melissa Quigley’s ornament exchange parties, as I look forward to them every year.  But the dates haven’t worked out and of course there is the fact that I live in Price now.  Anyway- its nice to know there are other memories to be made, and new things to try out with my family. Maybe they will look back and say “Mom- remember that awesome Christmas parade we went to? That was really great.  Thanks Mom!” 

A mom can dream, right?

So Much to be Thankful for……

This year we had our Thanksgiving dinner at my Mom & Dad’s house with the Harward side of the family.  I love getting together with my extended family from that side.  They are so much fun to be around and we always have a great time.  These last few years my Grandma & Grandpa have started to show their age, and this year we are finally starting to feel like our days with them are limited.  It was so special to be with them and I am thankful to my Aunt Geri & Aunt Patti for taking care of them and taking the time to bring them all the way to Layton when it is clearly a big job.  I took the time to sit and talk with each of them and although my aunt’s joke that Grandpa is just miserable to be around these days (he’s gotten to be quite cantankerous in his old age…..), he and I had a delightful chat.  He is just as kind and funny to me as when I was a little girl.  So yes, as Josh Groban says……. We certainly do “have so much to be Thankful for”.  Hope you & yours had a great Thanksgiving as well!

My Mom & Dad in the kitchen- where else?

Isn’t she the cutest????

 

Some of my best good cousins.

 

And, somehow I got put in charge of taking pictures of some of my sibling’s families.  Here are a few:

 

Kenni’s Prize

My little Kenni-lou entered an essay contest at school earlier this year.  The theme was “What I Love about Price”.  We were notified last week that she was one of the winners from her school and that she would need to appear before the Price city council to read her essay with the winners from other schools.  Well, first- when I heard what the theme was I couldn’t stop laughing- at the irony, you see.  But when I read her essay I was proud of her.  She is really giving this place a fair shake, and she definitely has a future in advertising- perhaps even in the travel industry.

So, we got the fam all dooded up and went to the Price city council meeting.  Boy was that boring.  Especially for my 18 month old.  But it was fun to hear the winners read their essays.  Afterwards they were each presented with a cd player as their prize for winning, and they had an opportunity to get their picture taken with the Mayor.  Big stuff. 

We took the family out to eat at Wingers afterwards to celebrate.  It was the dining experience from hell. It reminded me why I don’t take my kids to restaurants. But I can look back now and say it was fun (even though it wasn’t……)

For the sake of my own posterity, here is the essay:

Things to do in Price

Just recently, I moved to Price.  I don’t know very much about Price yet, but I do know it is a great place, has wonderful scenery and has amazing places to visit.

One place that’s great to visit is the Dino Mine Park.  It has a toddler area, a place to picnic, a skate park nearby, and of course there is the main park.  There are also bathrooms.

If it’s in the middle of summer, or late winter, there is always one great place in Price to go.  The Desert Wave Pool, a big pool that any age can go in.  It has a grass area, picnic tables and waves every 10 minutes.  You can also get food there.

A great place to learn about history and dinosaurs is the Price Dinosaur Museum of Natural History.  They have a mammoth that was found while workers were building a dam in the mountains.  There are also Indian artifacts.  On the other side of the museum there are dinosaurs and a kid’s area.  Also in the dinosaur section there are some live animals including an alligator and lizards.  There’s also a visitor center in the front.

So, if you’re looking for a fun deserty place to come and stay at you might want to think about coming to Price.  So come on over to Price and ride the waves at the pool, walk with dinosaurs at the museum, and have the time of your life at the Dino Mine Park!

 

Congratulations Kenni! We think you are awesome!

A Daddy Weekend

So, while I was busy hosting my super-fun girls retreat and breaking dawn party, the kids & the spouse were ordered away for 24-48 hours.  Seth decided he would take the kids down to Moab since it is so close by.  He spends a lot of time there, but hasn’t taken the kids exploring in that area much, so he was excited to show them around.  They brought home a boat-load of photos, so I could be sure to experience everything right along.  As you can see from the photos, they had a great time, (and as only a mother can see in photos- this was definitely a Dad’s trip.  No hair combing, rarely matching clothes, dirty faces, etc.)  But, to his credit- they had the best time, a trip done the way only a Daddy can do it!

Awwww, sleeping at a hotel.  Sometimes to a kid, that’s the best part of the trip, right?

Kenni got to cross “Dead Horse Point'” off of her State Parks list, and Seth even let her go do the Junior ranger program.  She was in heaven! (She’s a little obsessed with this map she has of all of the State parks in Utah and getting “stamps” on her State Park Passport)

Apparently the kids think it is really really sunny here.  Clearly it is not.  They must have their Daddy’s eyes.

Why, oh why?  This poor boy.  One of the many things you only do on a Dad’s trip.

 

And last but not least, I leave you with a brief home-movie.  Seth was getting a kick out of baby J climbing up the rocks as they hiked.  She would not allow Seth to carry her, she wanted to do it all by herself!  What a cutie.  And really- what a great Daddy.  Thank you Seth!!!