Holiday Time!

Yay for the holidays! We've had a few fun things happen in the last couple weeks, so...lets get started.

Kimberlee has a friend named Sydney who takes a gymnastics class, and they were having "Bring a Friend" week - Sydney wanted to bring Kimberlee. Kimmee had no idea where we were going, but she thought the little leotard they let her borrow was really cool, and she kept telling Keira we were going to "chapsticks." The first thing they did was warm-ups - lots of jumping and "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" - and then they moved to the very back of the room for some exercises. They each had little carpets they would sit on and carry to their next station. Kimberlee got up to do one of the exercises and before she sat back down her teacher happened to glance at her carpet - Kimmee had had an accident! She was devastated - not because of the accident, not because she had to miss a little of the class, but because she couldn't wear the leotard anymore! Thankfully she had worn some little yoga pants and a shirt there, so she was able to still do the rest of the class. Anyway, she had fun, and was pretty good at all the exercises, but I decided she can wait a couple years before we put her in anything like that.

The day before Thanksgiving we got our first real snow! Kimberlee was so excited and wanted to go play in it right away. So I bundled them up and we headed out. Kimberlee has a snow suit from last year, but her boots are way too small, and Keira doesn't have snow pants, but she got the boots. I thought they'd both freeze and wouldn't last very long. I should have known better after Kimberlee fell in love with snow last year in McCall, Idaho. I was the first one to call it quits! I took Keira with me since she seemed to think the road was the safest place for her to play - she wasn't too happy about coming in. But Kimberlee stayed outside for probably 20 more minutes after we came in. Good thing we went out right away because the snow was gone by that afternoon - we're supposed to get more on Thursday, so maybe we'll get more pictures.

Thanksgiving was great. We spent it with our neighbors, the Carsons. All she wanted me to bring was appetizers and cranberry sauce - I got off pretty easy this year! We had a good dinner and then the kids watched the old Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph movies while we played Cranium. I'm thankful for good neighbors! We will certainly miss them when we move this next year.

I'm also thankful for Ed! We were really lucky this week. Ed has been flying like crazy, and we really haven't seen a lot of him lately. But somehow he got Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday off, so we got him all weekend! I can't remember the last time that happened. We took full advantage of it by being really lazy together. It was wonderful. On Friday I did put him to work a little and we got out the Christmas decorations and put up the tree. Kimberlee thought that was the best thing ever (she put on all the ornaments), and I've been very surprised that both girls have left everything alone. We still haven't even had to tell Keira not to touch things. I got out my Christmas piano music and our Christmas CDs, and it really feels like the holiday season is upon us.

On Sunday we got a call at 5:00 in the morning for me to go watch the Carson kids while Jody went to have her baby. They called her mother-in-law too to come relieve me so I could go to church (she had to drive in from Pennsylvania) since I was playing a duet during Sacrament meeting, and then I teach primary. Mary got there just in time for me to run home, jump in the shower, get dressed and run out the door to the church. Jody had a baby girl and they named her Eliza Jane.

Now Ed is back at work, Kimberlee is in school, and we have a couple more weeks of busy-ness before we head to Utah for the wedding. We're excited to see everyone, and especially meet Jordan and Meriel. We love you all! Leave comments!
Love, MaryAnn