Getting ready for Christmas

Mom and Dad surprised the children one Friday evening and came home from their weekly grocery shopping date with a Christmas tree! We decorated it together and everyone has loved having it in the home. Doesn't Sylvi look festive?

We opted for a small tree this year due to Dallin's penchant for grabbing, pulling, and climbing. He loves looking at the lights and relocating ornaments that are within his reach.

April and her visiting teaching partner, Liz, made some holiday cookies

to share with the sisters we visit each month.

Since we've been decorating a tree with service ornaments in Primary the past month, we decided to give our Primary children some "helping hands" gloves for a gift. One of April's counselors wrote a poem to go along with the gloves.

Christ’s helping hands made burdens light.
By serving others, He chose the right.
The Savior’s hands helped blind men see.
They calmed the storms on Galilee.
His hands were clasped in humble prayer
When He plead for us with tender care.

So to show Him love with all my might,
I can help others who are in my sight.
My own two hands can also serve,
And these two gloves help to preserve
The warmth and love my hands supply
When I serve others by and by.
~Lacey Dahlgren

Our washing machine broke while doing the last load prior to our trip to SLC. With advice from a neighbor who repairs appliances, Kevin was happy to be able to fix the pump problem. The rest of the family was happy too.

Not pictured: loaves of pumpkin bread and finished cookie plates that we shared with neighbors and friends.

Megan's Lucky Week

The time finally arrived! One of the main incentives for Megan wanting to take her online courses this semester was the opportunity to earn a netbook computer. All she had to do was write a detailed evaluation of her classes, and voila--a computer arrived at her house the following day!

She loves it! Now she can compose stories whenever she likes

and not have to wait to use the family desktop computer.

And to those of our readers who may have Nike shoes that happen to wear out prematurely (in Megan's case having the shoelace rip through the eyelet), all you need to do is send in the defective shoes with an explanation of the problem and they will send you a voucher for your shoe value (regardless of whether or not you got them originally on sale). Check out the policy here. Megan received her brand new shoes in the mail, but they weren't quite as exciting as her computer...

Kevin's B-day

Kevin celebrated his birthday with his family in Logan.

He ate yummy waffles for breakfast, savored lunch with his wife at Tandoori Oven (where else?), opened some fun presents, and indulged in his favorite applesauce cake. We also made a peppermint ice cream pie to add variation.

Next year we will get to decorate with black balloons and streamers when he'll be officially over the hill!
Yuki is excited.

Early December Activities

Homeschool Co-op Group International Day

Our family participated in another co-op activity. The children chose to learn about Japan and make a poster of some interesting facts. They wore their Japanese t-shirts and gave a short oral report as part of it.

Everyone brought food to share. It was tasty! We took some steamed rice, furikake, and wasabi crackers to represent Japan. The wasabi crackers were not very popular! That's o.k. because we can send them with Dad to snack on in Ephraim.

Both Ian and Megan performed in a Christmas recital on USU campus. Here they are with their talented teacher, Brooke Hirst. Ian played a lovely arrangement of "O Come All Ye Faithful." Megan played the 3rd movement from Kabalevsky's Piano Concerto #3. This was her first concerto, and she's worked extremely hard learning and memorizing it the past few months.

Dallin Adventures

Adventures in Climbing

April FINALLY finished painting our living room (a project that began in 2008). During that couple of days, Dallin thought it would be fun to climb the BIG ladder that she used. One step was as high as he could go. He was so proud of his accomplishment that we took his picture.

Good thing he had constant supervision during his climb! Otherwise, we wouldn't have been around to capture evidence of the fall. Rest assured, he did not get hurt--no bumps or bruises. He let out this one shriek, and then was fine...and wanted to climb up again. So we put the ladder away.

Adventures in Sleeping

Even though we have the toddler bed next to ours, Dallin still prefers to sleep snuggled up next to mom. Sometimes Comet keeps him warm too.

Adventures in Dinnertime Entertainment

Dallin doesn't bother to eat much food these days. He throws most of it on the floor. His main job at dinnertime is to provide nightly entertainment for the rest of us while we eat our food. Here is his show from the other night (the snaps on his overalls had popped open, so he had lots of clothing to work with). He loves having an audience!

Thanksgiving 2009

We enjoyed a delicious dinner at our place this year again with Grandma Tsukamoto, the Wallis family, and our Sri Lankan friends Gaya and Prasad (still don't know how to spell or pronounce their last name).

Erin was busy making games for the event. She and Melody played "Pin the Tail Feathers on the Turkey." We also had a small jar filled with popcorn kernels for a guessing game--Doug Wallis won that contest, only ~100 kernels shy of the actual number (1313).

Part of the group--the children were off playing.

Arthur posing with "the girls!" Apparently he's quite the ladies' man.
Good thing he'll be leaving for a mission soon.

We talked and played some games and had a great time together.
Thanks everyone!