Josie Preschool program

There's my pretty girl! Just before we left for preschool

They sang we wish you a merry Christmas, Jingle Bells and a few others.

Showing me her cute reindeer hat

The program was really cute. She had been showing me a few actions that they had been practicing and she did them great. We Wish You A Merry Christmas was her favorite of course.

Christmas Festivities

Santa came to the ward party!!! Josie got a jump on the other kids in the ward. She had been playing in the hall and noticed that he was in his room waiting to be announced so she came and got me and told me she wanted to go talk with him. We were the first in line! She had no problem getting on his lap, and ou know what she asked for?? A cake. Um...a cake? I have no idea. I think the being first in line and not watching the other kids asking for something caught her off guard. At least now I don't have to run to the store and get a toy. Now I just have to make a cake. Conor didn't care so much...he is on the verge of not believing and Lincoln could care less. I did have him sit on his lap though. Ho Ho Ho. I will note though that when we went to leave we were all walking to the car and Conor was no where to be found, I finally went back in to look for him, and you know where I found him? On Santa's lap, and my camera was in the car. I think my friend snapped one, we will see.

Josie and Santa

Lincoln and Santa

Conor and Josie in front of the Frosty tree

Josie and Conor posing in front of the sleight ride they wanted to win

Kevin came home a little early from work the other day so we piled in the car and drove downtown to enjoy the Christmas tree auction at the Davenport hotel. They decorate 12 trees beautifully and set up a raffle to auction off the trees. Each tree has other prizes associated with it. Wouldn't it be great if we won? Keep your fingers crossed. Always fun to get a little Christmas spirit

One more Christmas fun...Aren't those ornaments so dang cute??? I love them. My neighbor had these last year and I had been coveting them, so I asked him about them this year and he told me where he got them. YEA!!! Kevin went and got the last batch at this dive called Spokane Discount...one was broken but he fixed it. So happy. Since we were getting all festive outside he bought a string of snowflake lights, threw a few lights on a small tree by the porch and broke out the door garland. I am thinking we are pretty festive. More then usual that is for sure. Maybe next year we will go for the whole house, baby steps.

Recital

Conor performed in his first recital. He played; I Saw Three Ships. The theme was Christmas around the world and he was thrilled to be able to play this song since it is a favorite at our house. He practiced and practiced and when it came time to perform he was awesome. Seriously. I asked him if he was nervous and he looked at me funny and said um...No. Nerves were not an issue for him. He enjoyed listening to all the other students and can't wait till the next recital. Way to go Conor!

Sister Barnes and Conor

Conor playing his piece on that BEAUTIFUL piano. His teacher rented a music hall for the recital.

Annual gingerbread houses

It is time once again for the annual Willard/Kellogg gingerbread house decorating. We wised up this year and abandoned the kit purchased house that ends up being torture for the adults and absolutely no fun for the kids. This year was GREAT!! We finally remembered that it is for the children and so we made it fun for the children. Novel idea I know. We gave each child a pre hot-glued and assembled graham cracker house and we gave them each a frosting squirter and dishes of candy and said go at it. So great to see their happy faces and the fun ideas and variety that ended up on their houses. Josie and Taj even managed to decorate with out any help, which was so nice. This will definitely be part of the tradition from now on. What a great way to start our December.

Conor's masterpiece

Josie's masterpiece

The family (minus Lincoln)...see all the smiles

Still smiling-oh and these two were happy we had lots of left over candy.

11 Years

Happy 11th Anniversary to us. Our anniversary always sneaks up on me for some reason. I guess it is because it is usually on Thanksgiving or lost in that weekend. Good thing we aren't the type to really hang our hat on a celebration. We at least got to spend the whole day together, which is nice. Granted there were episodes of children crying and whining and fighting, since we were in the car for a few hours, but that is the beauty of volume on the radio. Kevin brought home all these roses the day before and took me off guard a bit. Josie actually walked in with a bunch and she says...Mom I don't know what these are for but aren't they Paretty??? She carried then around for a few minutes. I explained it was for our anniversary and so later when Conor asked what they were for, she said; "Mom and Dad are getting married!!" Her facial expression and voice intonations were so cute and excited. It all started because 2 people fell in love.

Thanksgiving Weekend

We spent Thanksgiving this year with Grandma and Grandpa Kellogg. We decided to make it a one day round trip affair, so we spent a good 4 hours in the car but it really is easier then hauling all our stuff to spend the night. We had a small gathering, but it was nice to spend time with them and eat our delicious thanksgiving feast. We had a long weekend to prepare for the crazy month of December. Kevin and Conor went skiing and the rest of us started hauling out the Christmas decorations.

Conor and Josie decorating the tree

Conor and Lincoln "rocking" on the rocking horse. Conor scoots Lincoln around on the horse between the upstairs bedrooms. It can be a wild ride but Lincoln loves it and laughs and laughs. He has learned to hang on.

This is what Kevin wishes he could do all weekend. He loves college football. He records the games so he can fast forward through all the junk. He spent a good chunk of his day trying to figure out why one of the strands on our prelit tree wasn't working. He finally ended up pulling it off and restringing it. Thank you Kevin. The rest of his day was spent at the temple with his Young Men.

November happenings around our house

Josie discovered Nutella. She looks sad here, but she adores this new treat. The first day we had it she had a piece of bread with chocolate on it for every meal, and guess what I let her. Some battles are not worth fighting.
Lincoln has started really moving. He has taken to exploring the pantry and he cruises a lot. He likes this little walker, but our house just isn't big enough, because he just gets a good go at it and bonks into something and he can't figure out how to turn it around. Just today he started standing up in the middle of the room with out something to hang on to. Another funny Lincoln moment is when he cries and screams for his turn on the I-pad, it cracks me up . He loves it when we all pay attention to him at once, such as looking at him during dinner, and he will really ham it up. He use to do these little screams because we all laughed and now he has taken to playing peek a boo with everyone. He is still my most mellow, easy going baby by far.
We had our 1st good snow storm. As soon as it started snowing Conor ran out and started building a snowman. Josie took much longer to get out due to her never ending aversion to clothing, but she finally made it out and they had lots of fun together. Good thing they went out when they did, because by morning most of it was gone. With the first snow storm of course I managed to get "stuck" in my van. Grrrr. I was able to back down the hill I was trying to get up, but because of this we finally broke down and bought some studded snow tires. Expensive little buggers, but cheaper then a new car. We keep telling ourselves this as we dump money into it. When will it ever stop??
Opening day at 49 beckoned Kevin and Conor. They had a great day, lots of fresh powder. Due to my traitor knee I had to stay home. Boo hoo. A little ironic that I stay home when I am the one who decided we needed to get the family skiing again. Blast. The picture below is of my lonely boots left behind.
Speaking of my knee. There may be hope in my future. Since the hardware has come out, I have been seeing improvements daily. As of earlier this week I can finally go down the stairs good leg first and not hang on to the bannister. This is a big feat-still hurts and I have to force myself to do it, but I am doing it. I can walk pretty smoothly, not much of a limp and I am starting to see my quad start to reform and on good days I can see all the little hills and valley of my knee (no swelling.) My patellar tendon is not cooperating, but all in time, I guess each surgery they had to actually cut that tendon- so ouch!

Primary Program

Last Sunday was our Primary program. I am the primary chorister in our ward and I just have to say that my little primary children sang their hearts out for me and I couldn't be prouder!!! It is always so cool to hear the last practice run through and be thinking..."heaven help us." Then the day of the program comes around and low and behold...Heaven did help us, and the program turns out absolutely beautiful! The children always come through and all the hard work shines through. I received so many compliments on how well the kids knew the songs and that they could hear them and understand them. It just warms my heart. This year we sang some really pretty songs that even brought tears to a few eyes. The overall favorite was Praise to the Man and the Books in the Book of Mormon. A few times I had to ask the kids to sing softer...crazy I know. Music is such a wonderful facilitator of the spirit and I love helping the kids feel the spirit through song.

I am blessed to have this calling...I know these kids will years down the road sing the Books in the Book of Mormon song in their heads when they are looking up a scripture and maybe sometimes they will think of Sister Kellogg and the crazy things she does or did to make them sing.

Conor and Josie of course performed fabulous! They both had their parts memorized and Conor even had a large part and he did great. Conor is also one of my best singers. He sings so loud sometimes I can't hear the rest of the kids, better this way then not. One time in primary I had threatened the kids that if they didn't behave they would have to come up and sing a solo. Well one boy pushed the limit and I brought him up to the mike and he was terrified. I asked if anyone wanted to help him and Conor volunteered and came up and sang like a champ...all the leaders were raising their eyebrows at the gusto. Time to sing Christmas songs!

Halloween- and more knee drama.

I am not a huge fan of Halloween...my poor kids I know. I mostly hate the costume portion. The rest I don't mind at all. Generally the costumes at our house are either borrowed, stolen or reused from years past. I really hate spending money on a flimsy piece of material that: A. Will be covered by a coat, B. Not worn at all, or C. Torn and not properly worn. Oh and don't get me started on the props and shoes you need to "finish" it off. That said...here are my sadly dressed children trying to be...

Scarecrow Lincoln-such a good sport. He did not like the hat, but quickly realized he could not beat the parents so he kept it on the entire night rather then continue the tug a war.
Skeleton Conor-I caved and spent $14 dollars on this outfit, but he was a very HAPPY skeleton. Believe it or not I do try to make my kids happy sometimes (They don't think so.)

Princess Josie-recognize this from last year? Her choosing I promise. We were just happy she actually put something on resembling a costume.

Josie's preschool class- Josie is back row 2nd from left

Not sure what she is dressed up as? Me either...again, just happy she even left the house fully clothed. Don't you love the lovely grey thick tights with the heels bunching up under the white sandal straps...my favorite part though is the bright blue Hawaii shirt. But of course her smile shows me she doesn't care, which actually makes me want to take a lesson from her and say "you go girl!" Who cares what other people think. She was the cutest craziest dressed princess there.

Taj, Josie and Bree

There are no pictures of a lovely flapper girl and her mobster boyfriend because we didn't get to wear our costumes. I even made the effort to borrow some great costumes for Kevin and me to attend a fun adults only Halloween party. Sadly, we missed it due to an unplanned 2nd surgery on my knee. Yes, another surgery. I went in for surgery at 5:00 Friday night to get the hardware removed from my knee. There went another bazillion dollars- for what you ask? A huge set back in recovery for me right now, but hopefully better in the long run. I am back to no driving and a knee brace, so I won't bend bast 90 degrees. Believe me, no bending beyond 30 is going on here. The decision was made because my recovery was being impeded by those blasted pins that were so close to the surface. You could even see the wire on a good day of no swelling. I don't know what if looks like now as I am still bandaged up, but I hope beyond hope that I will be on the ski slopes soon. Prayers for a full range of motion and speedy recovery right about know would be much appreciated. 2 months of inactivity can be so discouraging.