Christmas Concert

We went to the elementary school yesterday for Sport's Christmas concert. Their band is small and just learning, but they try so hard and with only a few trumpets it's easy to pick out Sport in the mix.

The concert was different this year because the school is being recarpeted. Yeah, I know, why couldn't they just do it over Christmas break? Probably because that would have made sense! So they couldn't have the concert in the gym like they normally would because it is filled with huge rolls of new carpet.

We were all crammed into the cafeteria, including the band because there was no stage. It was a little crazy! Sport did a great job. He played with the beginning and the advanced band and he also was part of a trumpet ensemble.

On the way out we headed for the front lobby but got all the way there and had to turn around and retrace our steps back through the media center, up the second hallway and finally trip through the workers and scraps of carpet before we could get out the front door.

It was kind of like being at home...

Guest Blog: Christmas Letter 2013 by Bossy

It has been a definite year of change.  We have had the blessing of traveling to Texas multiple times this year.  We were prompted to go over Spring Break to meet Gamer's daughter for the first time and visit his mom.  We were so glad we did because in late June she became very ill.  Gamer was able to fly out and be with her before she passed and our entire family (including Bean Dip!) was able to fly out to her funeral.  We filed for custody of Gamer's oldest, Fajita, shortly thereafter and Gamer and I turned around and drove there and back over 5 days to go to court and pick her up.  In October Fajita was baptized and the next day at her confirmation a boundary change in our ward was announced!

Fajita jumped straight into the family and activities.  She is involved in Girl Scouts and is always one of the most helpful girls at the meetings. She made (and with my help smuggled) some copies of the Festival of Trees ornaments for her room tree.  She loves volleyball and all sports.  She is in the Nutcracker with her aunts and uncles and brother as well as teen ballet.  She loves family history.  She is working on her Young Women's medallion and recently taught me to crochet (I know Grandma would be proud.)  She is learning to love school and reading, something she never has before. She encouraged us to get a cat, a male named Tiger who gets along great with our boxer Sadie.

Bean Dip finished his Webelos award and earned his Arrow of Light.  He was just a couple of requirements away from finishing his engineer pin to earn all the pins possible. He is in 6th grade and doing better at school. He is in karate two nights a week. He is much happier and is beginning to love church. He has a strong testimony and we are prayerful his mother will allow him to be baptized.
 

Taco had a year of "firsts." He was baptized in January and played his first year of football. They made it to the semifinals and demoralized the undefeated team, but still lost.  The undefeated team went on to lose the final game. He is also in the ballet (first dance class) and learning to play the clarinet in band.

Burrito is in the Spanish dual immersion class this year and loves it.  He was cast in the school musical and should steal the show this week. He is learning so much.  He will play basketball for the first time this year too.  He is a rockstar (literally he has a killer mohawk) at church and always knows the answers.

Prior to Gamer accepting baptism we both accepted calls as Webelos leaders for our ward. Gamer is so excited to work with the youth! Gamer has had multiple job changes this year that have enabled him to take care of all our trips to Texas. The flexible jobs were a huge blessing, but he is glad to be working a normal 8 to 5 job.  He is working in a warehouse that delivers caskets all across the country.  Just today he is driving all over Utah to deliver stock to funeral homes in small towns for the holidays.  He is one English and two math classes away from his Associates degree.  And he has decided he wants to become an elementary teacher. The dual immersion program is growing and I think he will be perfect for it.  He still has his two fish tanks and loves to maintain them.

And I still work at DCFS.  It has been a difficult caseload this year and I have had some very strong learning experiences.  Prior to the ward boundary change I was serving as a family history consultant and women's sports director.  Between Fajita's and Gamer's lines we have over 100 temple ready names. Now I am happy to serve with Gamer

Sorry, guys, best pic I could find. Maybe Bossy will put some up from her Facebook page.

, although I hope they call a women's sports director soon.  I want to play basketball!  I am so grateful for my strong testimony and faith to guide my life. We have really noticed a difference and an outpouring of blessings as we have strive to do better.

Love,
Bossy

Christmas Letter 2013

You know I have this tradition of writing a letter about our doings that I tuck into each one of my Christmas cards. It's really just my opportunity to brag about the kids and their awesomeness to all of my family and friends.So I thought I would share it with you again this year. Hope you enjoy it (or at least suffer all the way through it...)

We need a new picture!

December 2, 2013

Can you believe it is already December? This year has just flown by with so many changes in our family!

Bossy and Gamer have a new daughter. She is 14 years old and she has lived with various relatives in Texas before finally joining their family this summer. Gamer didn’t know she was his until recently, but she seems to fit right in and she has taken up dance and volleyball like my girls. She was baptized in October and now Gamer is planning to be baptized on December 14. If you are close by, please come! The boys are all doing well, but I will leave their activities for Bossy to share with you.

Gym Rat was promoted to Sr. Lender this year. He is in his last semester of school and will finish up with his BS in Business Management from Western Governors University in February. In his spare time he works out and makes amazing chocolate chip cookies. He also has a little Chi Weenie dog (I probably spelled that wrong) named Franco that is Baby Doll’s best little furry friend.

Drama Queen is teaching at Juab High School. She took over the Drama Dept. this year and just finished up a successful run of Princess Ida that she rewrote in her spare time. She is an amazing teacher and her students love her! She also loves being the “Sugar Mama” when she comes home and she takes each of the kids shopping and spoils them something awful.

Teach is on a mission in Ft. Worth, Texas. She is right about the halfway mark. She has been a Sister Leader Trainer since her second transfer and she loves being a missionary! So far they have had about 4 baptisms, but much of their work is reactivating less active members.

The Dog Walker is attending jr. college full time on scholarship and he is preparing to begin his church service mission soon. He recently finished the temple prep classes and will start mission prep again after Christmas. He is still Dog-Walking and is currently watching two little dogs for a couple of weeks while their owners are out of town. He is working hard to get his amazing holiday display set up in the front yard and finish up school at the same time.

Princess is a junior this year and she is still a straight A student. She is working on becoming a New Century scholar and she took a full load of college classes this summer. She started her first real job as a Jr. Jazz official and she just sold her first real order of cake pops for a shower this weekend. She is an amazing dancer performing in the Nutcracker this week as the Lead Mirliton and member of the Snow Corps.

Prima Donna is a sophomore and she is also a straight A student. She took classes with Princess this summer and is well on her way to becoming a New Century scholar. She just finished up her first play as part of the cast of Footloose and she plays the Bass Clarinet in the Symphonic Band. She is also performing in the Nutcracker this week as Madam Ginger. She and Princess are both active on the Youth City Council.

Crafty is a 7th grader and she is also a straight A student. (I love this trend!) She plays the clarinet in the Concert Band and she just cleaned up at Reflections, winning an award in each of the 7 categories. She is also dancing in the Nutcracker this week in the Waltz of the Flowers. She is one quilt binding away from finishing her Silver Award for Girl Scouts. She, Princess, and Prima Donna are also members of the Library Student Advisory Board.

Sport is a 5th grader and he loves all things sports! He played the center for his football team. They had a great season but lost in the semi finals. He is excited to start basketball this week. He is also dancing in the Nutcracker, but he will be upset with me for telling you that since it doesn’t fit his studly image very well. He is a Webelos Scout, he plays the trumpet and he gets great grades at school. We are very proud of him!

Scout is in the 2nd grade and she loves dancing and sports. She played flag football with Curly and Burrrito and Dog Walker and Princess coached their team, but now she is moving on to basketball and I will be coaching her again this year. She is a buffoon in the Nutcracker and a Brownie Girl Scout. She loves reading and she gets great grades in school.

Curly loves kindergarten, dance, and basketball, not necessarily in that order. He is in two ballet classes and a tap class. I think he would dance every day of the week if we would let him. He is too young to be in the Nutcracker this year, but maybe next year. He has his first basketball game on Saturday and he can hardly wait! He also took top honors this week with the fastest car in any class at our Pinewood Derby!

Baby Doll is also dancing. She loves tap and ballet. Curly is in both classes with her, so that makes it easy. She loves nursery, especially her teacher (me!), although she will be going to primary starting in January. She loves to help Mom and she and I share our day after we drop Curly off for kindergarten. She loves scouts, both boy and girl and she won 3rd place open class at the Pinewood Derby with her pink princess car.

As you probably already guessed, my sweetie is still the Cubmaster. He is coming up on 3 years now and the pressure to come up with new ideas is incredible. He works hard and takes good care of all of us. I won’t mention that he hit the big five oh in August, but you would never know. He can still act just like a 9-year-old boy at pack meeting!

I stay busy with all the craziness of being a mom. I’m still trying to write a post every day on my blog at www.twelvemakesadozen.blogspot.com. I actually have an ad company so I even make a few bucks at it every month and I do mean only a few. I sell a little Tupperware once in a while. Most months I only do a party or two, but I service quite a few people and it lets my buy what I want for the kids at a discounted price. (They are actually my best customers!) I’m on the board for the ballet and they have me writing grant proposals. I have to defend one tomorrow before the entire city council which is a little intimidating but I guess I’ll get along all right. I’m still coaching, both kids and adults. We just finished up the volleyball season and basketball will start soon. I have had the calling as Stake Sports Director for the women for 7 years now and I still love being part of that program. I work out at Curves 4 days a week and they have asked me to start a blog for them in January. It will be much easier than my blog since I only have to post a couple of times a week. My girl scouts have been making a tree for the Festival of Trees and we just set it up today. That has been a huge undertaking, but oh so rewarding to be part of such a huge service project! I try to stay busy and productive. Dog Walker’s homework (and everyone else’s) takes up tons of each and every day of my life, but at least I’m learning new things.

We hope you all have a joyous holiday season and a wonderful Christmas full of love and family.
I know we will.

Done!

We did it! The tree is assembled and all set up at the Festival of Trees. Last night it was pretty dicey if I would even finish the tree skirt. Crafty and I were sewing the patches on until about 9:00 and I hadn't even begun to assemble it yet. It turned out really cute, but it was nearly 3:30 AM when I sewed the last of the rick-rack to the outside edge.

Bossy came over about 1:30 this afternoon and we took the tree to the expo center. I hate to confess that she rode in the back of my big van and held the tree to keep it from tipping over while I drove. Baby Doll was very stressed about the fact that she was not wearing a seat belt, so we made sure to have a long prayer for safety before we left.

We arrived without mishap and soon had the tree inside. It was hard to keep Baby Doll from wandering off. There were so many cute trees! Just across the aisle from ours was a Barbie and a Princess. And she wanted to touch everything...I was wishing we had figured out how to find a babysitter.

It didn't take us long to set things up since the girls had decorated and wired the tree on Friday. Bossy spent most of her time straightening branches and checking wires. I tied ribbons to the boxes of cookies and arranged everything under the tree.

When we were finally finished and checked out, we started down the rows to leave the expo center. That is the first time Baby Doll started to cry. "What's wrong?" I asked, somewhat out of patience with her. "We are leaving the tree!" she sobbed. 'Of course we are! That was the plan." She continued to sniffle and sob for the next 10 minutes. I really don't think she quite understood what it was all about. And you know what?

I have to confess that I was a little sad to leave that tree too.

I wonder how many people just go in there and buy back their own trees?