As mentioned in my post yesterday, London had a dance recital this weekend. She is in a ballet class, as well as a musical theater class. The director of the studio thinks that she’s great and asked if she would sing a solo in the recital. She sang Tomorrow from Annie. Thankfully, a friend of hers had an Annie costume that she loaned us. That girl stole the show and I’m not just saying that because I’m her mother. The audience really loved her, and for good reason. She’s good. You can see the video here. I wish I would have recorded her in an earlier show because her choreography was much better (which she came up with on her own). But all in all, I think she was fabulous and I couldn’t be more proud.
Excited that Taylor didn’t have to work last Monday night, we told the kids that we could finally get our Christmas tree. But that was before we looked at the weather. Unfortunately, it rained all day. By the time we were able to go out to get the tree, the rain had stopped so we figured we could at least get the tree home and under our dry car-port until we could bring it in the house and decorate it the next day. When we got to Lowe’s, it started pouring. We sat in the car with our one umbrella discussing our options. We ultimately decided that we did not want to brave the rain for the tree. Okay, the kids had nothing to do with that decision. We convinced them that it was okay, though, by telling them that we would go look at Christmas lights instead. They obliged and we ended up having a really fun evening. The next day we went back to Lowe’s and picked out our perfect tree.
We told the kids they could choose the tree they wanted. They chose a small tree that sat alone in the corner of the lot.
I was surprised with their decision, but they were both on board and really wanted it. Perfect. It was inexpensive and it was exactly what they wanted. Once we got it home and set it up, we realized that it was also the perfect tree for our house. It just fits.
We had a fun time decorating and then having a dance party with Neil Diamond. That’s right. I love Christmas.
P.S. Taylor made me a play list in Spotify called Christmas Music Only Kiersten Likes. I’ll bet you can’t guess what’s in it.
It has been a busy weekend but we were able to squish in a few minutes of play time at The New Children’s Museum (we just happened to be downtown with an hour to spare). I love these photos I was able to capture of the kids there. More on our busy weekend later. For now, enjoy the cuteness.
If you weren’t up running Swallow with me at 6 this morning (and let’s face it, you weren’t), you missed out on the most beautiful sunrise. The fog had settled down in The Box and there were some clouds in the sky, which made for some lovely colors just over the mountains. We could see layers and layers of mountains. What a view! I thought about running inside to grab my camera, but who wants to run while toting that along (even though it is really small)? Not me. It was sure worth getting up for. And FYI, I did NOT eat this yummy pumpkin dessert for breakfast. How could you even suggest such a thing?!
We don’t have many Christmas decorations. At least not compared to most people. We do, however have more Christmas decorations than any other holiday. Most of those decorations are nativities. Every year the kids get a new one. This year we got a number of new ones, my favorite coming from my Grandma Henrie. She is a knitter. A couple years ago she started a huge project, making a nativity set for each of her grandchildren. She spent a lot of time on it and they turned out fabulous! It’s something I’ll treasure forever. She also wrote a letter to all of us about the project. Her hope is that as we get this out every year, that we will remember how much we are loved by my Grandma and our Heavenly Father. Of course I will always remember my Grandma every time I open the box with that special nativity in it, but she also wanted to add a part of my Grandpa, who died when I was a little girl. When they were married, he gave her a string of beads. Each Mary from the nativity sets she made is wearing part of that necklace.
When we got out our Christmas decorations right after Thanksgiving, this new nativity wasn’t in the box with the rest of the Christmas decorations so I forgot to get it out until today. London set it up. I told her that she could put it wherever she wanted. She chose the floor below the piano bench. I love the way she sets up the nativities, with everybody gathered around the baby Jesus, looking toward him. Isn’t that how it should be? Isn’t that how we should be? I love this tradition. In fact, on Saturday when I told Ashton we were going to see Santa, he didn’t even know who he was! I was kind of shocked, but glad that he has more of a grasp on the true meaning of Christmas than a lot of people. But even with that, Santa does visit our home, so we had to put the stockings up too!
Hopefully we’ll be able to get our tree tomorrow and finally finish with our Christmas decorating.
I frequently empty my camera of its contents and load the photos onto my computer. Usually there are around 20 photos to be sorted through. Lately, however, Ashton has turned into quite the photographer. He snatches my camera any chance he gets and takes dozens of pictures. Today when I went to empty my camera, there were 222 photos. It’s only been 4 days. Most of them aren’t worth keeping, but sometimes I’ll get some fun surprises. I taught him how to take pictures without his fingers in front of the lens. It makes all the difference! And for your viewing pleasure, here are some photos Ashton has taken.
Ashton's favorite food: Pooh Snacks
One of his favorite toys: the bus. He also loves taking pictures of his feet.
I'm pretty sure this one was taken by London
I think this was taken by London too, but it's a better one of my new hair!
Taylor called me today from work and informed me that I’m now married to a tenured college professor! I know I’ve mentioned before what a blessing this job has been. It’s overwhelming to think about how blessed we were to be able to get it in the first place and now it will hopefully be very long term. Anyway, with the tenure process comes evaluations. I always enjoy reading his evaluations. They are always quite good. In fact, the scores from the faculty observations were perfect. The student evaluations were not perfect, but they were very, very high. And just because they are enjoyable, here are some of the things Taylor’s students said about him:
Taylor is the best teacher on campus. He is super friendly and approachable . . . Like I already said, Taylor’s the best hands down.
Taylor is super awesome, cool dude!
He is by far one of the best teachers I’ve ever had in all my years of schooling.
Taylor Smith is the man.
I think Taylors taste in music is questionable. Seriously who likes Radiohead?
He is by far one of my favorite teachers I have ever had. I will not forget his impact.
He is a major reason I chose to continue my education in music.
It was Sunday morning. We slid into church just as sacrament meeting was beginning. Ashton was in a bad mood, as usual. We grabbed a pew and sat down. Of course, Ashton then took off down the aisle towards the front of the chapel. He rounded the corner at the front, at which point I stopped chasing him and went the opposite direction. I knew he wasn’t going up onto the stand and I wasn’t going to further embarrass myself by chasing him across the front of the chapel. I started towards the back, ready to go down the other aisle. Thankfully somebody grabbed him as he was darting towards the back. This is only a small example of a typical way Ashton likes to act. This morning he woke up at 5 and climbed into bed next to me. Usually I can get him to go back to sleep. Not today. He was throwing a screaming fit, complete with kicking and hitting by 6:30. That lasted an hour. The day didn’t get better from there. He was tired and cranky. All. Day. He, of course, didn’t nap. Why would he do that? Tired 2-year-olds don’t need naps. I welcomed the break when Taylor arrived home just before 4 and I was able to take London to her piano lesson, sit on the couch, and read. The only downfall was I had to come home a half hour later to a boy who still wasn’t any happier.
This morning as I was jumping in the shower, I asked London to get dressed while I was taking a shower. Not only did she get herself dressed, she also got Ashton dressed! I think it’s time I taught that girl how to change diapers! That was the highlight of my day. I was so proud of her and her initiative.
Now it’s 7:38. Ashton has been asleep for at least a half hour (HALLELUJAH!) and I haven’t heard from London for a little while. I guess it’s time I tackled cleaning my house which, incidentally, I spent ALL DAY cleaning on Saturday. How is it that I’m never caught up? And oh the laundry. Sigh . . .
