Scripture Challenge 2008

I have decided to try something new this following year. I love to scrapbook, but hardly ever scrapbook about me. I am going to try a scripture challenge scrapbook. Each week there is supposed to be a new challenge, that we are to study on and then scrapbook somehow. I have never tried an 8X8 album, but think that I am going to try to do this in an 8X8 album. Now I have to go looking for an album. I hope I am able to stay on top of this and don't get to far behind.

Christmas 2007

It is hard to believe but after several weeks of preparation and anticipation it is all over. At least this year we were able to spread Christmas out over 3 days instead of trying to cram as much as possible into one day. We went to my Mom's on Sunday the 23rd, and then Santa came to our house while we were at church on the
24th, and finally the evening of the 25th we went to Kurt's sister's house for Christmas.
I don't know for sure, but belief in Santa may be over or almost over. This was something that happened while we were opening presents last night.
Kristen really wanted the dress, sweater, turtleneck and skirt that she saw at the Disney store last month, I told her no because it cost way to much. I was able to order the entire thing off of Disney shopping with a couple of codes. Only paid about 50 dollars for all 5 pieces. Anyway as she is opening the box that had the everything in it except for the dress, she is saying a Minnie sweater, another Minnie sweater, A Minnie skirt and then all of the sudden, you got the outfit I wanted so bad. Thanks Mom and Dad. We looked at her and asked her why she was thanking us. She said that some presents were from Santa and some were from us. We reminded her that the present had the Santa wrapping paper on it. To which she looked at us and said, I think that you are Santa. I guess the end of an era has arrived in our house. I will admit I feel a little sad knowing that there is no one who believes anymore.

I won't admit to being Santa, but I have a feeling we will no longer be able to pull off the Santa thing. I guess it is just another sign that my family is growing up and the little kids are gone.

5th program

Sunday evening was Kristen's Christmas Program at church. It was a very nice program and well organized. Kristen was so excited to finally have a speaking part and not to be singing Away in a Manager anymore. As she explained, I really like that song, but I am getting bigger and it is time the younger kids sing it and I move on. Sometimes she is to old for her age. She had the first part in the entire program, but quickly ended up with a second part when the girl behind her didn't show up. It was cute, she had her line memorized, but the next line had a difficult word in it and when she read that word there was a question in her voice like did I say that right? Everyone thought that was very cute. The picture with Kristen and David is the only picture I have from the night. I know that there are many parents who take pictures and some that videotape the program, but I just can't bring myself to take pictures inside the sancutary during a service. Must be my old fashioned religious upbringing.

For those of you so inclined to pray, please pray for little David. He is a sweet little boy who has gone through much. Without going into much detail he lives with his grandparents but has been at a special home for the past year and a half trying to help him learn to cope with his life. One thing that they said about him was that he doesn't know how to be a child. Lets just say that he has seen many things that a young boy shouldn't know about let alone see or experience. Prayers to help this little boy overcome his early childhood and also prayers to help the grandparents know how to help him would all be good.

Kristen has liked David since they met. He had just come home on Saturday from his second stay at the home, so wasn't able to be at any rehearsals. Kristen took him under her wing and sat with him and showed his when to go up and down etc. I thought it was a little bossy, but everyone else told me how cute it was that she helped him. The little boy has problems understanding that anyone wants to be his friend. I am so proud of Kristen and how she really seems to care for him.

Christmas 1

We had Christmas at my Mom's house today. The first picture is Kurt holding my niece Grace. She is 11 months old. The second is a picture of the 4 girls. The two middle girls were acting goofy. Notice how nice the 3 younger girls look all dressed up. Since Sarah has become a teen getting her to dress nicely is becoming a constant struggle. I think I might throw away all of her old clothes. She has such nice clothes but you NEVER see her wear them. The next two pictures are of the two girls Kristen and Sarah opening up a present from Grandma. Three of the girls have pierced ears and I am sure that Grace will not be far behind, so my mom gave all three the same pair of really nice dressy earring. Kristen kept exclaiming that is just the pair of earrings I have been wanting. Silly girl. If she really loves something, she will exclaim that is just what I have been wanting even if she has never seen the item before. The last picture was of Sarah and Kristen getting dressed up to attend the Christmas program at Grace Lutheran Church. Notice we were able to get Sarah into a little bit nicer clothes but they are still over a year old. I can't get Kristen out of a dress and we can't get Sarah into a dress. There really needs to be a happy medium between the two.
We gave Grace a huge stuffed Pooh teddy bear and Kristen was really surprised and shocked. I think she wished that she was getting it. Pooh is Kristen most absolute favorite character in the world. She has loved Pooh since she was 6 weeks old and Grandma gave her a stuffed Pooh for Christmas. When we went to Disney, we couldn't get her away from Pooh and actually have a picture of Kurt trying to pull her away and Kristen hanging on for dear life with Pooh holding her.
All in all it was a nice afternoon, Kristen was thrilled to be getting more grown up toys. She is so happy (most of the time) to be growing up and moving into a new age level.

Christmas Spectacular

The pictures are from the annual Dance show for December. The studio used to do "The Nutcracker" when Sarah was little, then when Kristen got old enough to dance the only boy at the studio graduated. They have not done "The Nutcraker" since, but instead have done a take off from the Radio City Rockettes with their Christmas Spectacular. It is a cute show that involves tap, jazz, ballet, and a live nativity at the end. I was talking with some of the parents I know with kids in the preschool classes. They were complaining about how little their kids were on stage compared to the older ones. That is when it dawned on me. I used to be that parent who wished I was able to see my child dance more, now I have realized that my child is the one that is doing most of the dancing. Sarah was probably in about 3/4 of the show. Kristen still doesn't have a lot of dances, but she is in more than just a 2 minute song. I have also come to realize that the reason the little kids (babies as they are called at dance) don't have longer parts is because it is harder for them to learn the part they have and because they still don't know many steps and need to work up gradually. To those parents who were complaining about the lack of stage time for their children, I want to say; Just wait, before you know it they will be the older dancers who have all of the roles. It seemed like just yesterday that Sarah was in the baby classes and now she is in the Advanced level and Kristen is in Junior III for both of her classes. Before I know it she will be in the Intermediate level.
I was surprised tonight to see just how far my girls have come in dancing. Sarah as always looked good on stage, but tonight she was smiling like she was having a good time and looked so grown up. Just another reminder that she is growing up and is no longer my little girl. Kristen also did much better this year. Other years she has looked like she didn't know the routine, but this year she had it down. I also noticed that during her tap dances, she has learned to do many steps and can actually tap now more than just a couple of beginning steps.

It is nice to see signs that your children are growing up, but it is also a little scary. Sarah only has 4 more Christmas shows before she graduates and leaves. So little time, so much more to teach. What happened to my little girl.

Kurt At work

 
 
 
 
Finally some pictures of Kurt working that are actually decent. You can see what is happening in the picture and the lighting is okay. Gym pictures are so hard to take.

We are 1/2 way there.

Tonight was Kristen's school program. This was program 3 out of the 6 programs that we need to attend this month. Kristen did a nice job and so loved wearing her new dress with pantyhose instead of tights. My kids are getting older every day. Whittier divides their program into 3 parts K-1; 2-3; and 4-5. Each grade sings a couple of songs and then the younger grade comes back out and joins the older group for final song "We Wish You a Merry Christmas". It was a nice program and Teddy even made an appearance during the middle section. Teddy is the Therapy dog for Whittier. The third grade class say a dog version of "The 12 days of Christmas" and the 12th day was a Teddy. Since it was also Teddy's 6th birthday we then sang "Happy Birthday" to him.