The Nutcracker

This year I took Emma to a performance of The Nutcracker done by her ballet teacher and students. She could have been in it, but we couldn't make the Saturday practice commitment. So, we went to the performance. It was only Act II, but Emma was very excited to see her ballet teacher dance as the Sugar Plum Fairy. She was beautiful! I forgot my camera that day, so I have no pictures, but we had a fun time.
On the 22nd, me, Sarah, Stevi and Sher went to see the Moscow Ballet performance of the Nutcracker. I found a good deal on tickets, but we all decided it would be worth it to spend more money on tickets and not sit in the "hillbilly" section! The actual ballet was amazing, but the overall experience was not quite as nice! The seats we had weren't too bad, but after all the lights went down and the show started (10 minutes late mind you) there was one light left on right in my peripheral. It must have been an emergency light because it stayed on through the entire show. It was really annoying! But more annoying than that were the people that kept streaming into the theater late. There were some on our row and several in the row in front of us. There were actually people that came an hour late! They got there 10 minutes before intermission. Why did the ushers even let them in??! I also thought it was very interesting and somewhat inappropriate that the theater was selling concessions. Some people that walked in late in the row in front of us all had giant tubs of popcorn and huge glasses of beer. I'm sorry, is this a ballet or a baseball game? To add the to baseball game feel, the man drinking the beer started whooping and hollering at the dancers when they would do something impressive. So, as you can tell, I was a little annoyed by the atmosphere and plan on writing the theater about some of my complaints. But, like I said, the ballet itself was beautiful. I will never tire of seeing the Nutcracker. Next year I will take Emma to the Ballet Arizona performance, just like my mom did when I was little.

Sarah and me

Sher and Stevi

Bonkers

December 18th marked the day of the annual Bonkers party at the Trafzer's. It is always such a fun Christmas party and this year was no different. The food was delicious, the gifts were plentiful and the white elephant gifts were the best yet! The kids got small gifts from grandma and grandpa and watched lots of movies while the adults had all the fun! :) It was also fun to Skype with Andrea. We miss her at Bonkers! We are already planning and looking forward to next year!

Emma and Derrick by Grandma's tree

Waiting to eat all the delicious goodies!

A small Lego set

A Rapunzel doll

PEZ

Derrick's Preschool Christmas Program

Last Thursday Derrick had his preschool Christmas program. He was so cute! When we got to his school and he realized all the other parents would be watching too he started in on his shy game and was near tears. But Miss Amber passed out the jingle bells and he went and stood by his friend and sang and danced perfectly! It was fun to watch. I am so mad at my computer/video camera right now because I can't figure out why the sound and the video won't match up when I download it to the computer. It is so frustrating! Hopefully I will get it to work someday! Derrick isn't much of a performer, but I was really happy he got up there and sang. And I was glad that Jon was home that day and could go see it with me.









Last Thursday Derrick had his preschool Christmas program. He was so cute! When we got to his school and he realized all the other parents would be watching too he started in on his shy game and was near tears. But Miss Amber passed out the jingle bells and he went and stood by his friend and sang and danced perfectly! It was fun to watch. I am so mad at my computer/video camera right now because I can't figure out why the sound and the video won't match up when I download it to the computer. It is so frustrating! Hopefully I will get it to work someday! Derrick isn't much of a performer, but I was really happy he got up there and sang. And I was glad that Jon was home that day and could go see it with me.

Spokane

A couple weekends ago I went with my mom and my sister, Jeni to Spokane, Washington to see my other sister, Debi and my brother, Jami. Well, the real reason I went was to see my adorable new niece, Claire! She was born October 25th and I couldn't wait to get up to see her. She is such a doll! I just snuggled her all weekend! It was freezing up there and everyone kept telling us we brought warm weather with us. But 30's is not warm! We went shopping, out to eat, took a carriage ride through downtown and went to Coeur d'Alene to see Christmas lights and eat the biggest ice cream sundae ever! It was a really fun trip to visit with my family. I miss them a lot! Hopefully we will be seeing them again in April for a trip to California!

Me, Jeni and mom at the airport

Snow, snow, snow

A carriage ride through downtown

Me and my niece Madi

Madi and Claire

The reason for the trip...the cutest, baby Claire!

Me and all my siblings posing for a sleigh picture

The biggest ice cream sundae

Our last morning there at the Train restaraunt

Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving was nice this year. We invited Jon's mom, step-dad, his brother, Ron and his wife, Sarah over to have dinner with us. Jon smoked a turkey, which is my favorite way to enjoy turkey! And this year was probably his best turkey ever! It was delicious! The kids and I watched the parade while dinner was being made. I'm so lucky I don't have to cook...ever! :) I'm am blessed with a wonderful husband who does that for me. But this year I truly am grateful for everything in my life. I feel like we have been so blessed and I am loving and appreciating the little joys in life. Derrick recently learned to ride his bike without training wheels and it almost made me cry! I feel blessed when Emma draws me pictures and when she reads a book to me. I feel blessed every time I look at my husband and think of all that he does for me and our family. I love them all very much and I definitely have more than enough to be thankful for this year!

San Diego

The weekend before Thanksgiving we took a family vacation to San Diego. The main purpose of the trip was to take Emma and Derrick to Legoland. We had coupon for them to get in free that expired at the end of the year. I was starting to worry because the weather called for rain everyday we were there. But thank goodness, Friday was just cloudy. We had a few sprinkles while we were at Legoland, but nothing too bad. The kids had a fun time at the park, but I don't think I would ever pay full price to take them back. We were done in about 5 hours, and for an amusement park, that's pretty fast. There was hardly anyone there, so we pretty much just walked right on to any ride we wanted. Seeing all the cities built out of legos was impressive and the kids liked the 4D Bob the Builder show. They also really liked the huge wooden play structure in the middle of the park. There were slides and ropes and tunnels. They played in there for quite awhile. Derrick also loved making his own lego race car and racing on the track to see how fast it could go. It was a fun day and I'm glad we experienced it!
The 2nd day the rain really started to come down hard. We had plans to go to the USS Midway which is the aircraft carrier right in downtown San Diego. They were having a family day and a Toys for Tots drive. So, we took our toys and got in for free. Derrick loved seeing the jets! Emma was just tall enough to go in the flight simulator with Jon. I could hear her screaming the whole time, but she said she had fun! The kids loved getting free goody bags from all the different vendors and of course, they loved the bounce house!
After the USS Midway we went back to the hotel to change because the kids pants were wet up to their knees. Then we went to the Model Train Museum in Balboa Park. This was heaven for Derrick. He loved watching all the trains go around the huge tracks. Emma even enjoyed herself, despite her complaining that we were only do boy things! :) We thought about going to another museum, but decided to go to Coronado and get some ice cream and see the hotel. And the kids were really exited to go over the big bridge! After Coronado we shopped at Seaport Village until the rain came again, and we called it a day.
On Sunday we drove to the beach in La Jolla that has all the seals on it. But it was so cold and rainy we stayed for about 5 minutes and decided just to head home.
Jon's part on the trip was to pick the places to eat. Being a Food Network junkie he had all sorts of ideas of where he wanted to go. Most of them were pretty good. I think he was most happy with his swordfish sandwich, which I wouldn't even touch! :)
The one downside to our trip was our hotel. I booked it on priceline and got a great deal for the Holiday Inn right downtown across from the cruise port. But being right downtown we were right next to the train tracks. All we heard all night was the loud and obnoxious train whistle. It blew it's whistle at every intersection and shook our entire hotel! The 2nd night we bought some earplugs and it helped, but you could still hear it. The kids actually slept right through it, thank goodness because cranky parents AND cranky kids are no way to spend a vacation! :)
We had a fun trip even though the rain and the train tried to ruin it. I am hoping we will be going back in April with the Clark Family. That will be a really great trip and we are looking forward to it!

Halloween

Halloween felt crazy this year! Derrick had his preschool party on Thursday, Emma had her school party on Friday and then Friday night we went to my mom and dad's ward Trunk or Treat. Then Saturday night was our ward Trunk or Treat. We haven't even got to the actual date of Halloween yet! So, on Sunday (Halloween) we stayed home and passed out candy. The kids didn't seem to mind too much. They enjoyed giving out the candy and seeing what other kids were dressed up as. Ron and Sarah came over and had dinner with us and told us all about their honeymoon. It was a nice quiet evening. This year Emma was a "cute" skeleton and Derrick was Frankenstein. I was SO done doing hair and makeup by the 3rd day of doing it! It's a lot of work to get kids ready in their costumes! Derrick's costume was fun to put together. He really like it! I think I've had more fun with his costumes over the years than I have with Emma's! I guess I better start thinking about next year! Happy Halloween!

Derrick watching tv waiting to go to school

Frankie goes to preschool!

Emma and Alli

I love Emma's face...digging the guts out of a pumpkin

Making a bat

The kids with their cousins

Emma and Derrick with Grandma and Grandpa Clark

Derrick at the Pumpkin Patch

A couple weeks ago Derrick had his first field trip in preschool. They went to Vertuccio Farms to the pumpkin patch. It was a perfect overcast day and Derrick had a lot of fun. There were a lot of animals for the kids to see, a barrel train ride, pedal cars, a hay maze and some other fun activities. I'm glad I got to go with him. I think his favorite part was the hay maze. The kids were playing hide and seek in there for a long time. I couldn't get Derrick out. Maybe I just need to set up a hay maze in our backyard! :)