Christmas 2009

What a FANTASTIC year we have had.  We have thoroughly enjoyed this holiday season.  I LOVE the ages of my kids right now.  Everything is soo magical to them.  We just had soo much fun preparing for Christmas!  Carlie wanted to help Santa out this year by creating her own "list" to keep track of everyone's behavior:

But as you can see....Max was the ONLY one getting any tally marks on the "Annoying" chart--Tatum did get ONE "Naughty."  So we had to come up with a more fair judge and that is how I came across "The Elf on the Shelf."  

I had never heard of him before this year but my sister-in-law, Stephanie, and I found the Elf at the mall and we each brought one home to help us out this year--and for every year from here on out.  The kids LOVED the elf right away and they named him "Buddy" just like on one of their favorite Christmas movies--"Elf."  And every day "Buddy" would be somewhere new.  It became a fun game to be the first to find him every morning.  And every night "Buddy" would return to the North Pole to report back to Santa on the kids' behavior.  So this new experiment has now become a new family tradition!  The kids can't wait to see "Buddy" again next year!  

Grandma Donna came up on Christmas Eve.  We opened our traditional Christmas Eve PJs and then we were off to do some cookie ditching and Christmas light seeing!  I wasn't planning on cookie ditching this year but the kids just had to!  It is hilarious to watch them do it!  They pick the houses, ring the bell, and run like mad!  Max wanted in on the fun this year except when he ran, he yelled!  We tried to explain to him that he couldn't yell because that could give us away.  We had a good laugh this year!  We found some amazingly decorated neighborhoods this year.  We had a great time.  Here are the kids in their PJs:

On Christmas morning, the kids were knocking on our door at 6:30 a.m.  We were all up and at 'em and opening gifts by 7.  Carlie got lots of clothes, a new softball bat, and a digital camera.  Ethan got his Ninetendo DS this year along with some games for it--and clothes too!  Max got his "Rocky the Robot Truck" which he soo desperately wanted!  Nothing else mattered to him.  Tatum got some more puzzles, clothes, and fun toys.  All the kids got socks and underwear from our most thoughtful dogs--Bubba and Minnie:)  My sister also got all of them cowboy boots so they would have them to work on the farms back home in Deming, NM.  So all in all it was a fantastic Christmas!  We had a huge lunch and then went off to a park to enjoy the beautiful weather and try out some of our new gifts.  It was a perfect day for the Meeker Family!

This is Max at the park.  We call

him our "Luchador" (Mexican wrestler)

He was scaring the other kids away!

Packer Preschool Christmas Program '09

Since all of my kids have gone to Chris Packer's preschool, we have been to lots of her programs and we LOVE LOVE LOVE them.  Chris Packer does such a great job with these kids.  Carlie, Ethan, and Max have all enjoyed their time in her school.  So here is Max in his Christmas program that took place on Friday, December 18th.  He is such a performer--kinda like his big sis!  We are soo proud of this boy!!!  Here he is!!!

"Boogie Woogie Santa Claus"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9kGQTavgVW8&layer_token=ef1e16b3324e0eda

"Is This Not a Christmas Tree?"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEFs1kzDEMY&layer_token=ed2c845238dea663

"I'll Be a Little Angel"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5JvpYPUUl7Q&layer_token=8af43ce8f1e9b40d

The Most Wonderful TIme of the Year!!!

Hannah Brundage, Annie Hall, Brooklyn Varvel, Tatum Jones, Sydney Del Fosse,

Carlie Meeker, and Zoe Gustafson

It really is the most wonderful time of year--not to mention, one of the busiest as well!  So here we are at Carlie's music theater performance that took place on Tuesday, December 15th.  We were able to hook up with several girls in our ward involved in this activity so Carlie had a great time with great friends.  We were actually quite pleased with this performance.  We were amazed at the amount of music these kids knew (9 numbers!)--and the costume didn't cost us an arm and a leg (we've been involved in dance recitals for 2 years now)!  So here is Carlie in her element--she has NO problem performing in front of crowds!

"I Got Rhythm"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RCe51gMMAfc&layer_token=67bfb7b1678df529

"Straighten Up and Fly Right"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu6OGAPsL4o&layer_token=3a05d85d8a79577e

"Don't Get Around Much Anymore"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLXudaVTexM&layer_token=c318731fd9bcc619

"De-Lovely"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aIH44q0AP0&layer_token=bd286130c7346a6b

"Almost Like Being in Love"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C9_lk3X5Tc&layer_token=ceea4efa0ba028ba

"Orange Colored Sky"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JowBoBqEC2Y&layer_token=7f8ca812d3c7defb

"Santa Bring My Baby Back to Me"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqweUwxwDFY&layer_token=7090e276e8e4ddc4

"The Most Wonderful Time of the Year"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fe0hwSB7-gk&layer_token=99f4b643c3895ad7

"When Christmas Comes to Town"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKE8fTGwk8k&layer_token=82719a92a96ea954

Crazy Weekend #2!

When will the craziness end?!?!  We had another really busy, but very enjoyable weekend.  On Friday night, Chris was in NY so my mother-in-law came up to watch Max and Tatum so that I could take Carlie and Ethan to see Jon Schmidt in concert!!!  Jon Schmidt is an AMAZING pianist and performer (LDS as well).  His concert sold out the Gilbert High School auditorium.  He wowed me with his amazing talent and he entertained the kids with his sense of humor and his "magic tricks!"  He ended the whole show with a back flip off the stage!  The show was 3 hours long but we were entertained the entire time.  Can't wait to go again next year!  So here we are at the concert:
Truth be known....this "short" softball season hung on a little longer than I thought it should have!  The ending date on the registration form was November 21 but here we are on December 12th finishing it all up--FINALLY!  Nevertheless I was super proud of Carlie.  She really kicked butt this season!  She was named the "All-Star Shortstop" of the team.  She and Morgan Mann had some awesome teamwork going on.  So out of the 12 teams in Chandler, the "Thunder Hawks" finished 3rd.  That's pretty darn good!  And I am WAY excited to be done with baseball and softball for a short time!  Here's Carlie with her medal and her silly team!

Christmas Party at Disneyland!!!

Okay, so I wasn't already exhausted enough from the marathon of recitals!  Let's throw Disneyland in there too!!!  Actually, I've been extremely excited about this trip for several weeks now.  My hubby's boss, Joel, decided that instead of having the normal work Christmas party that he would fly everyone out to Disneyland for the day.  Chris and I chose not to tell the kids but to surprise them the morning of.  So...Joel's wife went a little crazy and bought each family a whole "Disney Survival Kit" complete with matching shirts, jackets, umbrellas/panchos (rain was in the forecast--we knew beforehand), and lots of other great Disney stuff.  So we woke our kids up at 5 a.m. on Monday, December 7th, they had NO idea what was going on.  We showed them their clothes they would be wearing for the day and then made them guess where we were going.  Well, it didn't take them long to wake up after that!!!

So here we are at the airport in all our matching Disney gear--it was funny how many people asked, "Are you guys going to Disneyland today?"  "Wow!  How did you guess!" is what we said in response!  

This is Tatum being a good girl on the plane watching her favorite movie of all time--Beverly Hills Chihuahua--on dad's Itouch!  Soo stinkin' cute!

So I've decided that it's always a trade-off with Disneyland.  You either have nice weather and a ton of people or bad weather and the whole park to yourself.  This trip we had the bad weather option.  So we were cold and wet all day but we got to ride soo many rides that we hardly noticed!  The first super exciting thing of the day was seeing Darth Vader and his Storm Troopers!!!

Next in the line up were some Jedi!

And finally Darth Mal

(Tatum was having NONE of that--I don't blame her!)

Max couldn't stop talking about him the rest of the day--I think I know what next year's Halloween costume is going to be!!!

I've never been to Disneyland at Christmastime and so it was soo great to see all the beautiful sights like snow on the castle and the ginormous Christmas tree--we got to count down the tree lighting! 

So all in all we had a FANTASTIC time!  Chris has THE BEST boss in the world!  On the way back to the airport we did stop at a Target to buy slippers for everyone so that we could all have dry feet for the flight home!  So we left our house at 5:30 a.m. and returned home at 11:30 p.m.  I'm still recovering 4 days later!  But soo worth it:)

Christmas Piano Recitals 2009

Saturday, December 5, 2009...60 students and 4 recitals in 4 hours!  Soo fun!  I've been having my recitals in my own home for 2 years now--ever since I got my baby grand!!!  And I LOVE having the recitals here!  It's a lot of work for me because I have to clear out my 2 front rooms of all furniture (except the pianos of course) but it's a really good reason to get those two rooms all cleaned up and re-organized twice a year!!!  No dust bunnies under any of my stuff!!!  (It is amazing how much dust collects in 6 months!)  So of course my own kids had to perform!  Carlie had to run off to her softball tournament this morning as well so she only performed in the first recital--she normally performs in all 4 (that's what you get when your mom is the piano teacher but she is always rewarded quite handsomely:)  So here she is performing "Love Story" by Taylor Swift.  Carlie rocks on this song!  I LOVE hearing her play it--I can't even play it this good!!!  (I recorded this before the actual recital so the background noise and interference is Max & Tatum:)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRF7Rs5Xa4I&layer_token=e4a28ead2b65e50b

Carlie's Christmas song was "He is Born, The Holy Child."  The hand-crossing on this song is brutal and Carlie does it amazingly well!  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BeJyg0kfz0A

And here is my wonderful Ethan.  I was soo proud of him too!!!  He got right up there and played AMAZING!  He has improved soo much this year.  He doesn't love to just sit down and play on the piano but I NEVER have to ask him to practice--he knows that he cannot even ask to play computer until the piano is practiced!  So here he is playing "Indians."  The second song is a duet with Carlie, "Silent Night."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Papnc5ch9T4

Thoroughly exhausting but thoroughly rewarding at the same time!!!

Thanksgiving Road Trip 2009

We had an AMAZING Thanksgiving this year!!!  My little brother, Travis, just moved back to New Mexico from North Carolina earlier this year and so Thanksgiving was at his house!  We had soo much to do the week of Thanksgiving so we decided to leave on Thursday morning at 4 a.m.  That was all fine and dandy until Tatum got carsick from the winding mountain road leading to Globe, AZ.  Sooo....thank goodness Circle Ks are open at 5 a.m. on Thanksgiving!!!  She was completely fine after that (as you can see from the picture below--her car seat was wet from being rinsed out) and the rest of our travel was very uneventful. 

Travis and Stephanie did a fantastic job with the big meal.  Everything was delicious.  I am NOT a sweet potato fan but the way Stephanie made them I went back for seconds!  That night we stayed up late watching movies and talking--not smart because we had plans on shopping bright and early the next morning!  But sleep deprivation did not stop us!  Steph woke me and Patricia (my parent's foreign exchanged student from Slovakia) at 4 a.m. and we were out the door by 4:15!  What a crazy event "Black Friday" is but we made it through--and with lots of good buys.  After shopping, showering, and a small nap we loaded up the car again and headed to Carlsbad, NM.  We got there Friday night so we checked into our hotel and then we all crashed hard and slept well that night!

We stopped at a little rest stop in the

middle of nowhere, NM and there

was this wild turkey wandering around!!!

He somehow got out of Thanksgiving:)

Saturday Nov. 28th:  Carlsbad, NM is an interesting little town.  I've only been there once before.  It is most famous for the Carlsbad Caverns there.  Very similar to the Kartchner Caverns and Colossal Caves in AZ but it's about 10 times bigger!  We walked down 76 floors and then walked another several miles once we got to the bottom.  Tatum fell asleep for the last mile and so Chris and I took turns carrying her--great workout!  I'm still sore from it!  Such an amazing place.  And I got some awesome pics.  

"The Whale's Mouth"

We spent the rest of the day shopping the town bazaar and playing at the park.  Here are some sites of Carlsbad:

  That evening was the main event.  My dad heard of this "Christmas on the Pecos" event held there every year.  We all loaded up on a little boat and went down the Pecos river looking at all the christmas lights of the houses that backed up to the river.  There were some pretty amazing light displays.  It's hard to take good pictures of Christmas lights so I opted for some video instead.  I have posted our favorite house at the bottom:

My Mom & Lolo

Carlie & Patricia

Travis, Stephanie, & Sabey

The kids LOVED it, Tatum slept through it (again)!  Once we were off the boat there was a fireworks show!  Who doesn't love that?!?  We again crashed hard and slept well that night gearing up for our 9 hour drive home on Sunday!  We made it home all in one piece--and Tatum travelled better this time too!