Christmas 2014

December started off with our ward Christmas in Nauvoo party.

 

I was in charge of the little play that took place after the dinner.  Here’s the desk we used and the program I wrote up.  The play featured Joseph Smith’s experiences during Christmastime in Nauvoo.  Ben was the narrator and several families from our ward participated.  I couldn’t take pictures of us in costume because I was in the play too.

Emma had another ballet recital.  Around that same week of the recital I put her back in gymnastics since it’s raining and cold now and I wanted her to have a chance to run around and climb things. She says she prefers gymnastics to ballet because she doesn’t have to wear tights.  But she said she wants to go on stage and do another recital, so I said she can do gymnastics for now and then I’ll put her in ballet around the time they start learning the routine for the next recital.  I don’t want to put her in more than two activities, so she may have to choose between the two when swimming comes around.

One of the highlights this Christmas was going to the festival of the Nativities.  There were about 800 crèches on display.  Emma’s favorite was the Peanuts nativity, and mine was one that had animals with crowns on their heads.

This is Emma and me in Snowflake Lane at the Festival of the Nativities.

And this is our annual Nativity photo.

Ben and Emma put up lights together.

This is one of my favorite gifts this year: a cross-stitch of the California poppy for Ben’s mother.

Emma and I made bookmarks for her teachers.

We made FHE in a Jar kits for the people we home and visit teach.

We opened up presents from Ben’s family before taking off for San Antonio .

The Seattle airport is always entertaining, but it was especially so this time. 

In San Antonio, I met my new nice.

My sister returned home from her mission.

Geocaching in San Antonio is a lot different from caching in Seattle.  There are fewer trees.  Emma and I entertained each other by taking turns hiding a candy cane among the rocks and finding it.

We took a boat tour on the River Walk.

We had a fun time hanging out with cousins and family.

When we got home, Emma was able to finish her Advent Calendar from the Friend Magazine and she found a Lego set under the tree. 

On New Year’s Day, Emma and I had fun building a prison for her Lady Bug.  I hope everyone had a great Christmas!

October/November 2014

 

Emma was one of the at least 30 Elsa’s I saw this year for Halloween.

We picked a pumpkin in the pouring rain.

 

This is one of Emma’s favorite places in Michael’s: the fake flower section.  She pretends that she is Alice from Alice and Wonderland and walking among the gigantic flowers.

Emma asked me to cover her head with bows for crazy hair day at preschool.

Emma gave her first Family Home Evening lesson.  We realized that she would enjoy FHE a lot more if she were giving the lesson rather than being taught at.

She’s making progress on reading and writing, and we started doing a little math.

A friend gave this costume as a hand-me-down and Emma loves it.

Ben’s Honda Civic broke down so he bought himself another car that we have been saving money for.

Thanksgiving morning we went geocaching.  If you look carefully, there is a plastic pig hanging from the tree on the left.  It was hanging by a string that was attached to a fishing pole behind the tree.  I climbed the log on the right to get the geocache in the bird house.

We had a simple Thanksgiving this year and had a fun time writing out things we are thankful for on our paper pumpkin.

Ben’s New Book, Preschool, Misc.

 

The big happening in the last few months is Ben’s book Writing High-Performance .Net Code has taken off.  This is his second book but his first self-published book.  Self-publication is the way to go.  It is getting excellent reviews on Amazon, and he was interviewed on .Net Rocks and This Week on Channel 9, Episode on August 8, 2014.

Preschool has started!  Emma enjoys going and I love the time I have at home to do things like this, write a blog and reflect for a moment.  I’m reading, studying, and writing more.  The house is cleaner.  And I’m able to run errands quickly.  Preschool is very expensive but I consider it part of the cost of living here in Washington.  Everyone sends their children to preschool here and so we don’t have a lot of kids in the neighborhood for Emma to play with or to do a co-op with.

I’ve started teaching Emma reading and writing and math at home.  And we’re studying Spanish together.

As for what I’m reading, I finished The Brothers Karamazov and I’ve taken up a compilation of journals from Mormon pioneers at Winter Quarters.  This is a good book to read for me right now.  These journal entries are teaching me how to handle trials with grace and faith.

We finished up the summer by going to the zoo and meeting with Brooke and James’ family to go to the Seattle Center.  Emma finished her swimming class and I tried my hand at drawing.  As you can see, I stink at drawing, but I’m sure I can learn.

Our Symphony season has started again.  It’s our set date night every month.