Flippin' Sweet Pictures

Nate drew these pictures the other day and they seemed so Napoleon Dynamite. We thought we'd share his artwork.

Sweet Countdown

The kids enjoyed continuing our Christmas tradition of counting done the days til Christmas with advent calendars. Each of the kids had their own calendar and looked forward to opening door number 24 the day before Christmas. The girls opened their doors to enjoy the sweet surprise inside - chocolate candy. The boys on the other hand were not as lucky. They opened door 24 and found it empty, both calendars - empty. What are the chances?

So maybe California isn't that cold

Denise liked this picture that her sister took (it reminded her of Luke's leaf picture) so she decided to add it to the blog.

I guess we, here in California, need to stop complaining about the cold. From the pictures we see from Denise's sister it is looking pretty frigid in Utah. You all need to gather around a warm fire and get those toes toasty.

Rock On!

After we visited the train we went to our Bishop's house to spend the rest of the evening up there. The highlight of the evening was rockin' out with Guitar Hero. Our family, the Smith's and the Bishop's family had a great time pretending to be rock stars. It was hilarious to watch people playing the game. If you are looking for a fun game - this is it!

Derek taking on the Bishop. Although Derek was good he was no match for our hard rocking Bishop. Bishop Chamberlin ripped it up on his guitar.

Denise loves this picture of Derek and Luke. Check out the look of concentration. Don't mess with these two when they have a guitar in their hand. Luke, future rock star?

The Lollipop Express

We spent Monday night together as a family (minus Megan who was at a party) visiting the backyard of a couple from church. They have a train set up in their backyard and they invite people to come visit during the holiday season. One of the train compartments carries lollipops for the kids so every child leaves with a little treat.

It was a pretty cold night - cold for us Californians, anyway. We were not dressed very well for the weather and froze a bit but other then that we had a great time. Denise is going to always have to live in a warm climate or learn to wear closed toed shoes - flip flops are painful when the weather is 45 degrees or below.

Smile!

Christmas came early for Megan. On Monday she went to the orthodontist and her braces came off. She was so excited she could hardly contain herself. She has had them on for three years and is happy to finally have them off.Once they came off she couldn't quit smiling or rubbing her teeth with her tongue. Anyone who has had braces removed remembers that feeling of running your tongue over smooth teeth once all the metal is gone. Her retainers are in and she is grinning from ear to ear.

Christmas with auntie Jill and Uncle Jeff

We spent Sunday afternoon with Denise's family in San Clemente for an extended family Christmas. We enjoyed a nice afternoon with everyone. The kids got to open their gifts from Jeff and Jill and they were thrilled with what the received.

Megan got a digital scrapbooking program for her new laptop. Megan has been saving all her babysitting money since she has started babysitting and a few weeks ago finally had enough to buy her own laptop computer. She is still waiting for it to be delivered and is getting anxious especially now that she has the scrapbook program for it.

Emily got ChatNow, think cell phone/walkie talkie. She loves it and is talking on it constantly with her siblings.

Nathan got an iPod shuffle which he is thrilled about. He really wanted to get songs on it so Derek stayed up late Sunday to make sure there was music downloaded on it for when Nate woke up. He walks around the house singing Jack Johnson.

Luke got a Cars PS2 game and a cool steering wheel controller. He is excited. He loves playing Play Station with the big kids and I think getting a PS game made him feel pretty special and like one of the big kids.

We are grateful to have family close and that we were able to spend time together celebrating the holiday.

I've tried to add pictures to this post 3 times but it's not working - I'll try again later.

Emily's Christmas Concert

Emily had her Christmas concert at school on Friday and Derek, Denise, Megan and Luke were able to be there - Nate was in school. The choir sang some really great songs and had fun choreography to go with it. Emily did great! The pictures we took of her on the stage didn't come out - we were too far away but we managed to get a shot of her, Dad, and Luke right after the performance.

Luke's chance to sing

Luke had been feeling bad that he wasn't part of our church musical program but today he got his chance to sing at his school Christmas concert. All the kindergarten classes joined together for a musical extravaganza. Here are some pictures from the concert but I am also going to try and get some video up of his musical debut.

So Sweet!

Tonight for Family Night we made gingerbread houses. Denise found great gingerbread house kits at Costco. We didn't have to make gingerbread or frosting and we didn't have to buy a ton of bags of candy - it all came in the kit.

We made quite the mess with our creations but that is the price one pays for creativity. We did have to clean up before some gingerbread houses were complete but we still think they came out pretty "sweet". Luke managed to get the most candy on his house and in his belly. I would not be surprised if he woke up at some point tonight with a tummy ache.

Here are our masterpieces (going from oldest to youngest child, left to right)
Denise decided to move the houses to the front room so they could be displayed. All of them made the move successfully except Megan's. Her house stood for a few minutes before collapsing into a giant gingerbread pile. We all got a good laugh from it - even Megan. Maybe tomorrow we will try to rebuild.

Just hanging out

Denise & Luke hung out today while the rest of the family was at rehearsals for our church Christmas program...Sing Noel. They went to the mall to do some Christmas clothes shopping. Luke walked the whole mall and never complained. He hates to shop so Denise was relieved that he was so good. Before they left the mall they spent a bit of time hanging out in the children's play area.
After the mall they stopped by the church to see how rehearsals were going. When the left the church to go home Denise decided to teach Luke the fine art of vandalism and they drew a lipstick heart on Derek's car.
Tonight was Sing Noel. Derek, Megan, Emily and Nathan all participated and they all did a great job. Luke wanted to be a part of it too but is still too young. Denise told him that he could be her date to Sing Noel. Everytime she said it to him he would giggle and tell her he was not her date. Maybe she should be offended by that.

"Leaf" it to us

We have a ton of leaves in the front yard. The kids couldn't resist playing in them after school today. We took a lot of pictures but Denise loved this one because of the kids faces.

Now the big job...raking all the leaves up tomorrow. Kids, go get the rake!

Speaking of leaves...

Our tree out front has the most beautiful colors on it.

Wanna buy a leaf?

So Luke has a new obsession - leaves. Our neighbor down the street has a tree that is dropping big leaves. Luke goes and picks up the fallen leaves everyday and brings them home. He sets up a shop and waits for people to come and buy the leaves from him. He even gathered a big bundle of the leaves to give to Denise's dad for his birthday. I love that he is so interested in something as simple as a leaf that I just had to document it.

Birthday Celebration

Denise's family came over for Sunday dinner to celebrate Grandpa Wood's birthday. The kids got right to work after church designing birthday signs that they placed on the front door and in the family room. We enjoyed mexican food for dinner and then had cake and opened presents. Grandpa got a gift certificate to a rib place from Brett and Lauren (we missed having them here for the celebration)
Ryan and Katie got Grandpa some video tapes and the biggest remote control we have ever seen. It goes great with our gift.
Happy birthday Grandpa. Thanks for sharing your special day with us.

It's beginning to SMELL a lot like Christmas

Derek, Emily, Nathan and Luke went to the local high school to pick up our Christmas tree last Saturday.I think one of Derek's least favorite things to do is set up the Christmas tree because he "claims" that Denise is too picky about how straight the tree has to be. Does it need to go to the left? No, no a little to the right. Well, maybe an 1/8 of an inch to the left. At least he has a good sense of humor about it.
We love our tree - Derek picked out a really nice one. We love sitting on the sofa watching TV and smelling the pine scent of the tree. It really does make it feel more like Christmas.

Are you ready for some football?

The kids got really excited for the USC/UCLA game this year. The night before the game Derek and Denise went out to the movies. When they got home they found that family room had been decorated in preparation for the game the next day.

Emily, Nathan and Luke all rooted for USC (with no coaching from Mom, although Derek thinks otherwise) Megan I think took pity on her dad and went with UCLA - I don't think she wanted Derek to be the only UCLA fan in the house. There was an abundance of USC signs around the house but Megan made sure to get a few UCLA signs up for her dad.

The sound of music

We have piano music in our house again. Denise didn't realize how much she missed it. The girls haven't had piano lessons for a few months because their piano teacher has been working on her doctorate in music at USC so she needed to take some time off to devote to school. Well, piano lessons started up again last week and it has been nice to hear the girls play more regularly. We are grateful to have beautiful music in our home.

It's decorated!

We got the the front room tree decorated. We think it looks really nice, especially when you are looking in the front window from outside.

Oh Christmas Tree

The kids were eager to put up our tree this year so Denise let them have at it. Denise doesn't love this job - the branches make her fingers feel raw so she was more then happy to let the kids do it.

Just for Aunt Ann

Fun and Games

The kids wanted to make a funny turkey to take to Grammy's house for Thanksgiving. We took paper bags and filled them with popcorn to make our faux turkey. We took it with us to Grammy's and "carved" it to reveal the surprise inside. It was a hit! We also had fun creating tasty rice crispy turkeys that Aunt Gail brought over. Everyone got their choice of candies and free reign to create their turkey however they wanted. What a fun, yummy treat!
We rounded out the evening by playing different games with Apples to Apples being the most popular.