Fall Volleyball

This year was Marissa's first time playing volleyball.  This is one of my favorite sports, so I had to restrain myself from being that "overexcited parent", embarrassing my daughter and annoying everyone else.  It has been a really fun season.  Her team made it to the semifinals in the playoffs this morning.  They played their hearts out, and really held their own.  We are very proud and glad that she enjoyed it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Camp Invention

Caleb got to participate in an all-day camp this week called Camp Invention.  He brought in recyclable items that might be useful in building things and also a take apart item.  (Something he could disassemble himself and reuse the parts for his group's inventions.)  The teams took on several projects from creating safe underwater garbage traps to constructing a duck chucker that would launch a rubber ducky into a wading pool.  The kids learned about real life problems all over the world and used their imaginations to invent practical solutions.  This camp totally appealed to Caleb's engineering sense.  He had a great time!

 

 

 

 

Llama Walking

Look who's in the February issue of The Phoenix Magazine!

You remember our excursion to Strawberry a few months ago to visit the goat farm?  You can see the blog post here.  So, when we got there the owner asked if we would mind helping her out with something before the tour started.  She needed someone to walk the llamas down to the creek and back, and she would give us free goat cheese fudge.  Well, sure!

Turns out the farm (specifically the llama hike) was being featured in The Phoenix Magazine's annual 52 Weekend Adventures issue.  They had a photographer there from the magazine that just needed some pictures of someone hiking with llamas.  Turns out people pay good money to hike those llamas.  We just had a goofy time and got free fudge out of it!

When Brent dropped the kids off at school today Marissa's teacher was standing out front.  She says, "Funny thing.  I was looking through my issue of Phoenix Magazine this weekend..."  She brought it to school to show the class.  Too funny!  I guess people do read those things.

Oh, and if you look closely behind the llama on the left, you can see my hair.  I am so proud.  Actually, it was kind of a good hair day. Well, until the llama spit at me...

Caleb's ear drum surgery

Ok, I know I am shamefully behind on my blogging, but I will try to catch up if you will bear with me...

This weekend, the big to do was Caleb's surgery.  He has had a perforation in his left ear drum for a few years now.  His doctor felt that when he turned 7 he would be a good candidate for a surgery to correct it.  He has been quite nervous about this as he has heard us talking with the doctors about the different options, including total ear drum reconstruction.  But in the end, he was a very brave little boy.

His teacher sent him home with Sally the Shark to keep him company.  (You might recall that Sammy the Shark is their class "pet" that sometimes goes home with well behaved children for new adventures.  One day he came back with a girlfriend, Sally!)

 

He came out with his last front tooth much looser than it was before.  He finally lost it on Sunday.  That child will not pull out his teeth!  He kind of lets them fall out.  He lost the last one at church and didn't even know it! 

This was on Caleb's hospital gown.  I didn't even notice it until he was in recovery, and it seemed appropriate.

He is doing well now.  He went back to school today and is anticipating lots of questions from his friends!  He never seems to like being in the spotlight, and yet I think secretly he kind of likes the attention.

We continue to pray that it will heal completely with no gaps.  A hole in the ear drum is something he could technically live with, but it would be nice to not worry about water in his ear (he still won't swim) and to regain some of his hearing loss in that ear.  We appreciate all of your prayers for our little tiger!

Christmas 2012

Here are our Christmas highlights:
Our first ever decent batch of oranges from our orange tree.  We have gotten one singular edible orange from that tree in the 11 years since we planted it, and this year we got close to a dozen big beautiful delicious oranges!  So happy!!

Our Christmas Star.  This is something I brought home from a women's event a few years ago and was supposed to pass on as I do a kind deed for someone else.  Well, that never happened, and Marissa found it this year amongst our Christmas decorations and came up with the idea of passing around the family like a hot potato.  Whoever got stuck with it on Christmas day got the short candy cane.  So we had fun the whole month of December doing sneaky "good deeds" for each other and passing along the star.  Guess who got stuck with it on Christmas Day?  Me.

Trying to get pictures of the Broom side cousins.

The Meister side cousins in their traditional Christmas jammies.  Well, technically this year they were cupcakes and ninjas.  But Marissa loves her jammies from Grandma so much she is still squeezing into a set from 3 years ago that she refuses to get rid of "because Grandma gave them to me." {sigh}

And the gingerbread houses.

 

 

 

Some Wii Dance.  I think there may have been videos happening at some point, but this is all you will see of this activity!

Temporary movie theater.

Lots of reading.

 Zoo Lights and face painting.

 

Jotham's Journey.  This is our second year reading through this Advent book.  We love it.
 
Christmas morning popovers.

Homemade gifts:

 

 Katie's first Christmas.

And it wasn't until I was unloading the Christmas tree that I found this surprise.  Caleb apparently made his own ornament to add to the tree.

Overall a very relaxing, full and merry Christmas!  Wouldn't change a thing!

at the beach

We did spend a morning at the beach before going home from our Disney trip.  It was pretty foggy that morning, and there happened to be a sailboat anchored just offshore.  It all looked very Pirates of the Caribbean-ish.   Or maybe that's just because it was the last ride we were on and we still had the song stuck in our heads.

The kids actually got in the water.  It was way too cold for me to do anything but wade.

Clearly there was no lifeguard on duty.  And fortunately Brent didn't look the part this time either.

And who do you suppose makes footprints with only nine toes?