A Good Year

2011 has been a good year for us.

Henry was declared cancer-free.  The best news a parent can hear.  Yes, I know it was only thyroid cancer (the "best" kind to have) but even thyroid cancer can cause serious complications so the fact that his treatment was successful is worth celebrating.  Other than that, we have been pretty healthy, random stomach flu attacks not withstanding. 

Jay has a good, stable job that he likes and allows him to use his talents and education.  We love where we live and we love our neighbors and friends and ward family.

I love my calling in Primary, although today I'm stressing a bit because tomorrow 83 little people are getting new teachers and it's all on me.  Hopefully no one will cry.  Sunbeams can cry - we expect some transition issues with them since they are only 3 - but I'm hoping everyone else will be OK.  I also love helping out at the kids school.  This is the only year that they will all three be in the same school so I'm maximizing my time there, although helping with three Christmas parties on the same day (one at noon, one at 1 pm and one at 2 pm) left me twitching a bit.

Speaking of school, the kids are doing well.  They all have their strengths and weaknesses but in general are happy and smart and enjoy learning.  They are also enjoying the extra activities that they participate in, from Scouts to basketball to piano to dance. 

My only hope is for another good year in 2012. 

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas from Hyde Park

We had a lovely Christmas here in Hyde Park, Utah.  It was cold but clear(ish). The kids were out of school starting Thursday but Tessa and Henry were felled by the stomach flu so we were quarantined until Saturday.  We spent alot of time watching TV, playing on the Wii and trying hard to get along.   On Christmas Eve everyone was well again so we made cookies for Santa and had a nice day together.

Christmas morning came early, but that's OK.  The kids had a nice Christmas.  We went to church and had a nice sacrament meeting with a lot of music and scriptures about the birth of the Savior and how we can honor His life by emulating His example.   The kids were exhausted Christmas night but rallied on Monday to have a fun Christmas party with the extended Wright family in Ogden.

Here are a few pictures:

We hope you had a wonderful Christmas!

Dancing Queen

Tessa's dance school has a cute little holiday recital for the classes.  The girls show off a couple of dances to family and friends who come and applaud.  It's way more low-key than the big spring recital and a fun way to spend a dark, cold winter's evening.

Here are two of Tessa's dances:

Enjoy and Merry Christmas!

The Bad Guy

I often play the role of the Bad Guy in our family.  Jay does too, but I'm home with the kids more so I'm typically the one who has to reign them in.

Tonight I played bad guy again and boy are they mad at me.  My kids love to watch Are You Smarter Than A Fifth Grader.  It's a fun show and they like to show off how smart they are.  They turned it on tonight and found themselves smack in the middle of "Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders Week".  The audience was full of Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders shaking their pom poms and the contestant was a cheerleader as well.  In uniform, of course.

I don't consider myself a prude or uptight about clothing in general.  My kids watch plenty of sports on TV and and in person and see plenty of cheerleading action.  But really?  I mean, I turn the channel when Victoria's Secret ads come on TV because my 10 and 8 year old sons don't need to see half naked women prancing around and, quite frankly, my 5 year old daughter doesn't need to see that either.  I'm certainly not going to sit and watch a 30 minute game show featuring women in clothing that barely covers what needs to be covered in public.   So after I picked my jaw up off the floor I made them turn the channel.  Their laughter at my reaction changed to outright indignation at the gall of a mother who is censoring their viewing for the evening.  Hopefully they'll be placated by the Charlie Brown Christmas special that comes on later this evening.

Although, as Jay just said, we are a bit curious to see if there are Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders who are smarter than 5th graders.  Hmmmm.   I guess we'll never know.

Tessa the Other Reindeer

Today was Tessa's Kindergarten Christmas program.  These programs are exercises in cuteness, as you can see from the video below - sorry for the quality. 

They seriously sang a dozen songs but the program only lasts about 25 minutes.  Tessa is the reindeer in the middle of the video with the ponytail.   She doesn't seem to love being onstage or in the spotlight, which is funny because she loves dance and her recitals.  Maybe the Summit Elementary stage is just too much for her. 

Here is a picture of her before the program. 

My favorite thing was the matching reindeer tshirts.  I would never think to do something so cute with tshirts.  I guess it's a good thing that I don't teach kindergarten.

The Ugly Truth

This evening after dinner William asked me if I thought I would have any more children.  After hemming and hawing my way through the typical "Well, William, Daddy and I like our family just the way it is.  We think it's just perfect", I took a deep breath and waited.  I figured the response would be something like, "yeah, I wouldn't want another baby sister, anyway."

Not so.  William's response - Yeah, you are getting a little old to have babies.

William's Wild Weekend!

William has had a busy and fun weekend. 

On Thursday, he went to Cub Scouts for the first time.  He is already working on his Bobcat and hopes to get it at his first Pack Meeting after Christmas.  He had a great time! 

Friday, William had his 8th birthday.  He opened his presents from us before school on Friday.

We gave him a coin collecting book, Season 3 of Star Wars - The Clone Wars on DVD, and the new Lego Harry Potter game.  He also recieved birthday money from Grandma on Friday.  That night, we went out to dinner and bowling for his birthday.  I bought two games for all six of us to bowl and, I have to say, one would have been plenty.  We aren't very good and it took forever!  But the kids had fun.

On Saturday, William was baptized.  It was a great day!  We are so proud of him for following Jesus' example and being baptized.  He was really nervous about getting baptized, mainly because he doesn't like getting his face wet!  I have teased Jay for weeks that he needed to get the baptism prayer right so he didn't have to do the whole thing twice.  So what happened?  He did the prayer fine, but forgot to say Amen before he dunked William.  For a split second I worried that William would freak out but he didn't - he trusted his dad and was baptized a second time, this time including the Amen!  Poor kid, but he sure handled it well.  He later told us that it "wasn't as bad" as he thought it would be.  I think he had a lot of people praying for him! 

After his baptism, we had a fun lunch for our family who traveled to be with us on William's special day.  We had his birthday cake and he opened some more presents - he got a fun game, some Lego's and some more birthday money.  Later that day, we went shopping and he was able to buy two big Lego sets - Star Wars and Harry Potter - with the money that he was given and had saved.  He now has quite the collection and is already planning on saving for more!

All in all, he had a great weekend dedicated to all things William.  He is a great kid and we love him so much!