The month of December was a blur!! I don't even know
how to go about writing about it with out just going day
by day or week by week I guess...so here we go...
Keep in mind both Jon and I have regular classes and the
girls have dance 3 days a week.
Dec. 1 - I have an OB appt. Doing well. I've lost another
pound. Grand total so far -26. Baby is doing great. Nice
strong heartbeat and growing just fine. Evey's last Jazz
rehearsal before performances.
Dec. 3 - Regular Dance class for Paris. Evey records
"Could I Hold the Baby" It was a really cool experience.
They set up all the equipment to fit her and then had her
do a "test" run. Once they had all the volumes and
everything equalized they told her this was the real thing.
She went through the song twice, then they had her go
back and do just a few measures here and there where
either her voice wobbled a little or she took a breath or
made a noise that was picked up. Then we got to go into
the control room and watch as they took bits and pieces
from each recording, even the "test," and make it sound
beautiful. Brian said that he usually has a hard time
working with children( that sounds bad Brian is seriously
the nicest guy in the world, but sometimes kids are hard
to work with , ya know!), but Evey was so easy and did
what they asked. They also said that her voice is right
on pitch and didn't need any computer help or enhancement.
He said most people need a little bit of help, and that is why
recording artists sound so good on their CDs but not so great
live. So when you hear the recording it is Evey's true voice.
It was just such an awesome experience. Sad I didn't bring my
big cam and the point and shoot stinks!! So pictures stink,
I put one of Evey singing in the video and one of her and
Brian in the post below. Thank you to Brian Jensen for giving
her such a great opportunity. Brian's website
is musicforworship.net He has lots of great music. Check him out.
After we got home from the studio, we rush to get Evey ready
to perform with JDC at a retirement home. They did really well,
this was the first we got to see this dance they had been
practicing. Then I had Stake choir rehearsal.
Dec 4 - Evey gets to skip school to go touring local elementary
schools with all the big dance companies to put on Christmas
Dance Assemblies.
Dec 5 - Steak Choir rehearsal. Photo shoot for the Burton
Family. They are total rock stars!! It was so fun to shoot their
family!! And, Photo shoot for the Boshard Family, they were
also really fun! They needed no coaching what-so-ever and
came out beautiful!! It was freezing too, and their kids were
great! I'm in the process of creating a new blog strictly for
my photography, so I'll post these families on that soon.
Dec 6 - First Snow! Hurray! I decided to take a picture of the
birds we love to feed. Utah doesn't have very colorful birds,
but they are cute and we get a TON. There are a few huge flocks
that come around sometimes. They all move as a single unit and
I swear there are over 300 birds. They'll all land in the yard
and when they take off all at once you can FEEL it, it's pretty cool.
We also have added a resident hawk this year. It is funny
to see the little birds suddenly disappear and then a few seconds
later the hawk is out on the fence. Oh, the poor bids have to
disappear too for a neighbors cat who likes to come sit on the top of the
fence and watch them. We noticed him in our honeysuckles
(that are growing on the fence in large supply) he'd sit all proud
in them and then crouch really low, but we could still see his
eyes and ears. Sometimes we let Orion out, he can smell the cat
and goes to the fence right under him, but he can't find it. The
cat keeps a close eye on him and doesn't even flinch if a bird flies
right in front of his face. Our kitty on the other hand would rather
sit comfy and warm in the house and is content to watch the birds
from the window!
Look it's Lex! I haven't said much about the poor kid. He has just gotten
toted around every where and had to watch his sisters do every thing.
His time will come!!
Dec 7 - I start cramming for 2 end of term exams and an oral
presentation for this week.
Dec 8 - I give my Oral presentation for Psych. Evey has her
first Choir concert. She is so cute she knew all of the songs and
even had a little solo with 2 of her friends. It was funny too
because they sang 2 songs that Jon and I had sung in Mads so
many years ago. I have video of the whole thing, but chose to
only upload a part of this song for all those WP choir kids out there.
Just before the concert
Dec 11 - At the beginning of the year I met with Evey's
teacher to find out if she needed any help on things throughout
the year like treats and stuff. I vowed to only be class mom for
each kid's Kindergarten year, because it really is a hard job.
Well, When Evey was in Kindergarten I was Prego with Paris
and now here I am at Paris' Kindergarten and I'm Prego
again! But I did it then and I'm doin' it now! Anyway, my point
was that I'm not Evey's class mom but still let the teacher know
I could help out if she needed it.
She wondered if anyone played the piano. I reluctantly told
her I could if there was no one else on earth to play. Well, she
calls me at the beginning of Dec and asks if I can play for their
4th grade Christmas program. Stupidly, I agree! So...I go to
the school to Practice with the 4th grade.
Jon was working, but because I signed up (don't ask me why) to
bring a salad, and because I conned Mom into going with me,
we went. The kids got to see Santa and play with friends so it
was worth it!
Dec 13 - I sing in a quartet in Church. It went well. I had to
apologize to my ever patient friends for not being able to
practice with them as much as they would have liked. That
evening is the Annual Stake Christmas concert. I absolutely
love fall and starting practice for this concert. The director,
Mike Austin, is a charismatic, crazy man (he won't take
offence, he'd appreciate the complement) And if you know
me, you know we'd get along just great!! And I love singing
and I love Christmas music, so this is just so fun to be a part
of. I even got Jon to go a couple times. But, after working
late on Friday nights he didn't like getting up at 7 am to
practice. So, he didn't perform, even though he could have!!
Rotten! So, Mike asked me to sing a solo for this concert.
It is a beautiful song, I definitely did not feel qualified for
the part, but he seemed to have faith in me, so I agreed.
It went really well. CD to come later for those interested.
Dec 14 - Evey gets to skip school again for the 4th grade ski
trip. She had a ton of fun! I go to practice with the 4th grade
every afternoon this week. Both Jon and I cram for finals this
week. The owner of the girls dance studio calls me every now
and then to help her with photoshop or final cut, so I go to help
for a couple hours. I take my Psych. final. Ugh! We start the 12 Days
of Christmas for our super sweet neighbors (pics later in the post)
Evey skips her Ballet and Jazz in class Christmas Performances
because she is worn out! I don't blame her!
Dec 15 - Somehow Paris teacher caught wind I play the piano
and asked if I could play for the Kindergarten Christmas
program. How she found out I'll never know, I didn't tell her.
Again, Stupidly I agreed. I had not thought this week through
when I did though. So I have to start practicing with both the
morning and afternoon kindergartens, and 4th grade. I had an
OB appt. (there getting closer together now) No weight change.
Baby still doing great. But they tell me I need to have another
ultrasound because they didn't get good enough pictures of a
few things at the 20 week one. Whatever, I'm not worried, maybe
they'll get a better picture of her this time. Evey skips JDC
(regular dance) for a ballroom dance performance tonight. She has
been going to after school ballroom, drama, and cooking.
Apparently she takes after me and loves to do EVERYTHING.
Anyway, She has loved being in ballroom, of course, it's dancing,
but I think she will keep with it. She did really, really good! The
Provo High Ballroom team came to perform. They were really good
too! Evey had skipped the last two after school drama practices so
she didn't get to perform in that (they did their play in between dances)
But she was totally okay with it, she just had a little part, and I think
that is not so much her thing anyway. I have pics of this but they didn't
turn out so good because of the angle we were sitting and they had the
tall kids in the front a lot. Boo!
Dec 16 - Study, study, study. Practice, practice, practice. Edit
pictures of the photo shoots from back a week ago??? Ahhhh!!
4th grade program is today. They had it set up so nice. Evey's
teacher Mrs. Terry goes all out for everything, I swear she
spends so much of her own money on everything, but it's just
fabulous!! She put together a cute little slide show of pictures
the kids brought in from past Christmases and the kids sang
this beautiful song while it was playing. It was really special.
Sadly I didn't get to watch it or how Evey did because I was
playing the piano. But, I didn't embarrass myself so I'm pretty
proud. Jon did try to record the program, but I haven't even
watched it because I'm afraid to hear me play.
Evey is third from the left on the bottom row. We're not sure why she's not dressed very well,
I think we were in a super hurry this morning!
Dec 17 - Today is the Kindergarten Program.
Paris is too dang cute. She loved singing these
songs and was so excited to wear "reindeer ears"
They made arrangements with the 4th grade and
got to use their awesome decorations too.
Apparently these are the only two grades that actually
have a special Christmas performance. I again didn't get
to see how Paris did, and Jon has it recorded, but I haven't
watched it, for the same reasons. Then Paris had her in -class
Christmas performance in Ballet. She is getting pretty
good too, she was one of two girls who really knew what
they were doing. I took video but didn't have a great angle,
thanks to being late, so I won't post it.
It's my mommy's birthday. We unfortunately don't
get to see her, because of our schedule and she has her
company Christmas party anyway, but Jon and Kurt and
Abby took her to see the midnight showing of Avatar.
I decided I wouldn't last 'til 10 pm, let alone 3am!!!
She was loving posing for pictures! She specially requested to wear a christmas dress and have
her hair curled!
Dec 18 - The school has an all grade sing-a-long, and
since I was the pianist for the programs I get to be
there and play for both Kindergarten and 4th grade.
Jon and I take the rest of our finals. But, I
didn't finish until midnight because I had a few
homework assignments to turn in and a take home
final to finish typing up. A huge sigh of relief at
midnight!!! Girls are out of school, we're out of school,
now to focus on Christmas!
Dec 19 - Had a planned Photo shoot, but they cancel
because their kids are sick. Phew! This is the first Saturday
in a lot of weeks there is no 7 am stake choir practice,
so I got to sleep in a little bit!! But, not too much, we
have a lot of shopping to get done. Even though we
have a lot done, there's always something more to get,
right!?! Like Christmas dresses. I would loved to have
sewn them this year, like I have in the past, but, well I
think you can guess why that didn't get done. We tried
to shop for some dresses and something for Lex, but I
was way too picky. We found one for Evey, but poor
Paris and Lex wore things they already had. I guess I
need to make Christmas outfits when I have the sewing
machine out for Halloween!
Dec 20 - No Pictures in Christmas clothes because we're
running late. But the girls had beautiful hair and Lex was
very handsome!! All the kids are suppose to sing prelude in
church with the primary, but we're running late and just miss it.
CRAP! I sing in the choir for the Christmas program.
Mom asked Evey to sing a song for her lesson in her ward,
so after our meetings, I take Evey over and play the piano
for her to sing. She sang beautifully, of course! I have to
mention though that she only saw the music for the first
time at like 8pm the night before. She is quite amazing.
Dec 21 - Ultrasound. The tech lady tells me that the
notes say I was supposed to have a follow up ultrasound
4 weeks after the first one, but nobody told me. Oops on
their part. The baby is really too big for them to see what
they needed, she did find one thing that they couldn't see
before, I don't remember what it was, but she checked
everything all over again and said everything looked good.
Baby is hiding her head deep down in my pelvis, so she didn't
get a good picture. Un-photogenic baby, uhh ohh!
But she did say that she's still pretty sure she's a she. She said
that based on the length of the femur the baby isn't due until
Feb 4. But, she's the first tech to realize that I'm small and
my kids are small and so she didn't officially change the date.
Thank goodness!!
Dec 22 - Shop, Shop ,Shop
Dec 23 - Shop, Shop, Shop, Shopping all the day!
oh, what fun it is to shop, yes I shopped the day away!
We had someone give us "12 Days" presents one year
and loved it so much. We have always wanted to do it for
someone. We think about it every year, but decided to just
dive in this year. Our poor other neighbors and friends, we
didn't get our Christmas treats made and delivered. Not that
we weren't thinking about you guys! It just didn't happen
this year, but we love you all a ton!
We planned out our 12 days of gifts and started on the 14th.
A few days got changed here or there because we didn't have
something made or ready in time, but we did get a gift out
everyday. Jon usually took the gift over and rang the doorbell
and ran. Evey had to do it twice when we didn't have something
completely finished, and Jon had to work. But she never got
caught. We found out later that they were so nice, they didn't
try to catch us, even though they really wanted to. So we tried
really hard to keep our identity hidden, but were sure our last
gift would give us away. I'm pretty sure also that they don't
look at our blog, so that's why I'm posting about it. And, because
it was so much fun for the family, we had to document everything.
On the 1st day- we gave a collection of "Crazy Carols" games.
I've collected over the years these different versions of the Christmas
Carols mixed up, like; One game uses opposites; Noisy Day =
Silent Night, or one uses big elaborate words to say the same thing;
Listen, the celestial harbingers produce harmonious melody =
Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, or one is a bunch of pictures, like;
a picture of a knight with holes in his armor = O Holy Night.
On the 2nd day - we gave Stephens hot chocolate in individual
servings.
It was pretty. Unfortunately, it was one of the switchy days
and so we were in a hurry and I didn't get a picture.
On the 4th day - we gave a big basket of fruit. Again in a hurry,
no pic.
On the 5th day - we gave some scrumptious sugar cookies and
cute cutters. We thought it would be fun for them to decorate
them, we tried to do things that the family could enjoy together.
busy family too, and we thought we'd give mom the night off from
cooking.
really fun for everyone in our family to make. Okay so the
ones without the snowflakes are supposed to look like snow
globes, but it's hard to tell in the picture.
On the 8th day - We gave a Christmas ham. HICKORY
HONEY HAM!!! Just kidding, Love Christmas with the
Cranks!!
On the 9th day - We made rice heating/cooling pads. I
heard some where if you add cloves to them they don't
smell so much like rice when you stick them in the
microwave. I hope it works. This was another fun one
for our family, the kids had fun dumping in the rice.
traditions, pipe chimes. This one involved a lot of Jon's
hard work cutting each one to the right size for the right
pitch, then drilling the holes for the string. They are a very
musical family so I think they'll like them. Although, they
are super fun for anyone! Just a quick explanation, each pipe
is cut to a certain pitch and then numbered, then on poster
board you write the corresponding number to the note that
is to be played. Each person has a chime and a stick or spoon
and when it's your pipe's number in the song you give it a
smack. It's really fun and a lot of laughs trying to get everyone
in time together.
I'm not sure how many people call them that, and ours
were super simplified. It's basically a blanket that folds
in and tucks into a sewn-in pocket and makes a pillow.
It's supposed to be a quilt, hence the name Quilt+pillow=Quillow,
but I didn't have time to make a quilt. The pocket also serves as
a nice place to stick your feet so they don't come out the bottom.
Very snuggy!
would have figured us out, although they did come over and
their super sharp daughter did notice our set of chimes in the
same bag that we gave them, oops. We hoped they just
shrugged that one off! Anyway, we are kind of known in the
neighborhood as "Lindsey-buster" meaning we lend out from
our overly abundant movie collection. This particular family
likes to borrow the same series of movie a lot. So we thought,
we'd start their collection, starting with the first movie. Not
that we don't want to lend it to them anymore, but we know
they enjoy these movies and so , why not?! We threw in some
popcorn and a bowl to complete the movie experience.
We really had a lot of fun as a family doing this and it was a
great way to teach our kids about giving. I think we'll make
it a new tradition.
1 Pennies for your thoughts:
You are Crazy!!! AND AMAZING!!! Seriously amazing! You need a break!!! Let me know what I can do to help that happen! :)
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