Papa Frank's 65th Birthday!

So my dad turned 65 on December 20th!!! Man...he sure is old!!! (But that makes me old too:) So the kids and I (Chris stayed home this trip to work) drove down to NM after church (our church Christmas Program--Sunday, Dec. 19th). We wanted to go to the most obnoxious place we could think of for the celebration. So we went to Texas Roadhouse in Las Cruces--much to my Dad's dismay:) But he was a good sport. He sat on the saddle and everything! I even brought the obnoxious family birthday crown that has been handed down to lucky me:) Thanks dad! We had a great time and I STILL think you should have used one of these pictures for your Christmas card:)



We stayed from Sunday until Wednesday. We had lots of fun with our family. This is just a cute picture I took of Lori (a.k.a. "Lolo"--LONG time family friend), my dear sweet Grandma and the youngest Knoop--Devoney (Travis' 2nd daughter). I just love this dear sweet lady (even when she mixes up her lip liner with her eye brow liner:)

Girl you're AMAZING!!!

Carlie, Carlie, Carlie....beautiful, talented, amazing girl. December was a big month for her! She won her classroom spelling bee and as the champion she went on to the school spelling bee. She came in second place at the big spelling bee!!! YEA CARLIE!!! The word that she missed was "MALLEABLE." I personally don't even know what that means and I had to look at the list to make sure I spelled it right! The list of words that they needed to know was unbelievable!!! While I would be quizzing her, I'd hold the spelling list in one hand with our laptop close by so that I could look up meanings and pronunciations! Words like: tangential, onus, zigzagadness, vanadium, oligarchy...SERIOUSLY?!?! A 5th grader should know this?!?! Well, the girl who took 1st the school spelling bee was also a 5th grader. So they beat out all the 6th graders in the school! Way to go 5th graders!!!

Carlie's first Band Concert!
Oh, she is soooo much like me it's kinda scary!!! I started teaching Carlie how to play flute this summer. She has done amazingly well. She got to skip beginning band and was in the advanced band this year as the only 5th grader. She had a big flute solo in the concert too! Not bad for 6 months of playing flute:) She was AMAZING. I couldn't be more proud of her! LOVE you tons Carlie Mae!

Piano Recital time!!!

Yes! It was a marathon of piano recitals again for us on Saturday, December 4, 2010. Sooo proud of all my kids--my own and my students!!!

Here's Max in his first piano recital!!! He was sooo excited for this. Anytime Max gets to be the center of attention, he loves it. He practiced hard for this recital--he especially liked the "speech" part:) He forgot to let people clap in between his 2 songs! Such a ham!


Here's Ethan the ol' pro:


Carlie...she was amazing like always but here is our duet for the recital. (She did play her solo--I Saw 3 Ships--just not in this particular recital:)

Where to start?!?!

Okay...so I'm WAY behind to say the least! I thought making soldered charms for a few boutiques would be fun--they were but the Christmas orders have just about killed me!!! My poor fingers are all cut up from playing with glass (and I'm playing piano in church tomorrow:) ALL GOOD! I'm now officially caught up with orders and now it's back to real life! Soo much has happened this month. So here I go!
Family Pics 2010: (Sarah always does a great job:)

Thanksgiving in NM

We spent Thanksgiving in Deming this year. Nothing too flashy or spectacular. Just good times with family and hanging out. As we were playing at our favorite park in Deming, I noticed something that I had never noticed before. The kids had THE BEST time running around in all the fallen leaves. They were making piles, jumping in and covering themselves up in leaves. So I was thinking....hmmm....why don't the kids do this in Chandler? Because we leave in an area of neat-freaks!!! I had to laugh because any time there are leaves on the ground, there's a landscaper close by with his blower! So, it was kinda fun to hang out where leaves are allowed to fall--and stay--on the ground.

Just for a good laugh!

So a friend of mine posted this on her blog a little over a year ago and it just cracks me up!!! I actually had to give a talk in sacrament meeting yesterday about Gratitude and I actually used a portion of this in it! I was a little nervous about quoting something I saw on You Tube, but I think it went over well:)

Max is THE MAN!!!

Our little Maxwell never ceases to amaze us! He is a FANTASTIC student at school and his teacher just adores him. I'm always a little nervous when talking to any teacher of Max because he says some of the darndest things sometimes (what I call Max-isms). For instance, one of the FIRST questions Mrs. Lombardi (his current Kindergarten teacher) asked me at parent-teacher conference was, "What is a 'Dead Bed?'" If you need a reminder of what the "Dead Bed" is then click here:) So yes, I can see how that would sound very odd coming from one of your students. But I'm glad she let me explain.

But anyways, Max just received a HUGE award from school. He was the only one chosen from his entire class to have "Donuts with the Dean." He got to miss class to go an do this too! My other kids have gotten principal awards but this is totally new to us. Max got to have donuts with the head hauncho!!! Way to go Max! (Oh my gosh!!! He actually JUST smiled for this picture:)


He was soo excited for this!!! He kept saying, "This is THE BEST weekend EVER!!! I get to go trick-or-treating on Saturday AND Sunday AND I get to have donuts with the dean on Monday!" We are soo proud of you Maxwell!!! Keep up the great work!