Christmas happenings

Christmas is almost here and so we are running this way and that going all but crazy.  The kids had their last day of school today, I did Friday.  I was able to help Abby make gingerbread (graham cracker) houses on Monday morning, in her Kindergarten class.  They were so cute.

 

Hailey and Alyssa had their concert for choir (Alyssa) and band (Hailey) last Wednesday.  They both did a wonderful job and well we need to work on our music a little more, hopefully time for that will happen soon. 

 

Macey just stays at home brightening up everything and everyone around her.  It seems so hard to believe that I was dying from her terrible two's just a few months ago.  I litterally had a countdown of how many days til she turned 4.  Now she's sweet, smiles a lot and is a very happy little girl. 
Sunday I had fun taking some pictures of her with one of the balls off of the tree that she continues to look at and wish she could touch. 

Gymnastics

We have had a crazy last three weeks!
Abby and Alyssa are both in gymnastics through the city and they go from 5-7 pm three days a week.
Alyssa is really getting good at her flips and bends.  She can even do a cartwheel of of the higher balance beam.  It is fun to watch them.    Abby has never done gymnastics before and she is learning well.  I think she liked it so much because her friend Katie Evans is in the class with her and the two of them love to play together.

I was able to get lots of grading done during these classes and I was able to work on and finish multiple scarves that were made for holiday gifts.  I don't have that much time to spare and so thankfully they ended tonight! Here are the girls on their bars and stuff.

We did learn the last few days though that Abby's teacher is from Manassa CO and went to Sanford High school.   My friend Marty (Katie's mom) and I were talking about my home town when she noticed the instructer had a 'Sanford Cheer' t-shirt on.  She wondered how many Sanford's there were.  I didn't know her, but I did go to school with her uncle and I knew of her mom.  Small world isn't it?

Santa Claus is coming to town

When you go to see Santa at the Mall, there's a problem.  It's all become so commercialized that you can't see Santa unless you buy pictures.  Well that's great if your kids are all fixed up like dolls and all you are going to do is see Santa, but me when I finally get to the mall I have shopping to do and my kids get drug around into 10 stores and are so upset about it all that no one looks like a doll.  I prefer to go to the mall alone or only have 1-2 children accompanying me.  Lucky where we are we have the shops that the Riverwoods.  They decorate all the trees's beautifully, have Santa Clause, hot chocolate, and free horse/carriage rides. 

Taking my children here, they are happy.  They are excited with the Christmas atmosphere all around.  The carolers in the central area perform wonderfully, the heat lamps around kept them warm and the lines are not long, keeping happy children and hence a happy mom/dad.

Alyssa is truely excited

Hailey informed up before we went that she was not going to set on Santa's lap, but when her sister's had all did it, she did to.  10 years old is not to old to set on Santa's lap.

 

 

This is the first year Macey would set on Santa without screaming, my baby's getting older!

 

 

Abby has always loved Santa and she was definately the most excited about seeing him and letting him know that she wants more polly pockets and barbie dolls.

 

Here are the horses.  Just after we got out of the wagon, the girls thought they should pet them.

 

John and Macey walking up the path

 

Then, my mom and Emily came to visit the next weekend and so we made the trip again.  This time John opted to stay home and Macey wasn't feeling the best so she stayed with him.

 

Here is Abby, Emily and Santa:

 

And Alyssa with Santa:

Meeting Friends

It was so wonderful to meet up with my dear friends Debbie and Dawn for lunch today. Dawn has been a good friend for over 10 years and still lives in Kalaheo HI. Debbie just moved back to Utah from Kalaheo but was one of my closest friends our first few years there. She did so much for us and I was so happy to see her looking so good and well just see her again.
I love you both!!!!

Thanksgiving in Colorado

We had a wonderful week in Colorado!  This year we decided that we would travel to Colorado for Thanksgiving because it had be 6 or 7 years since our last Thanksgiving there.  It was a Giles year, but the last two year had been spent with John's family. 
It started out great, my mom and me did lots of cooking and my girls had lots of fun playing around.  Poor John, all day Wednesday we spent cooking and he didn't have much to do.    He did end up playing around lots with his girls though and he always enjoys spending time with them.

Here is a few pictures of prep before Thanksgiving dinner:

it's good to get the men doing some work!

 

 

Here is the girls, waiting to eat :)

 

After Thanksgiving dinner and cleanup we played a few games and just hung out at my parents home.  Later that evening we went to wal-mart for the black Friday sales.  One thing in the San Luis Valley their isn't a big choice of stores to shop in and for me that's good.  Less running around, less sales and less money spent because I didn't see something that I just had to have at that price.  We did end up going to JC Penney's on Friday and found some great deals but that was the extent of our shopping. 

The bad part of our trip came Friday night and Saturday early morning.   First John, then Abby,  then Hailey, then my mom and then me came down with the stomach flu all within 8 hours.  We were all so sick that we didn't do anything.  Thankfully Alyssa was well and so she was able to watch Macey and they played together all day long.  Alyssa fed her, cleaned her up, played with her and was the babysitter 100%.  My dad disappeared so he wouldn't get sick too, thanks dad!  It did only last 24 hours or less and so we were better on Sunday, but not enough to go to church and then drive home as planned.  We just got up and drove, ready to get home and get better. 

Never had this sign looked so good before. 

It was a great vacation though and we did have lots of fun!  Thanks for the wonderful Thanksgiving holiday!

Change in weather

Yesterday I saw Grandma Giles raking and raking out in her yard. It was beautiful weather and so I sent my girls, hailey and Alyssa, over to help. Of coarse that meant Abby, Macey and our neighbor Aubrey also joined in the fun. They did rake a lot and kinda made a mess of it must I made them clean it up to.

 

 

 

Then this was what we woke up to this morning. This is my neighbor across the streets house.
Then tonight John, Kyron and Easton all went to Byu's football game the temp was suppose to be 19 degrees (what's up yesterday was almost 60). Here is Easton with the snow they had on the benches.

Halloween

 

We had so many fun things going on for Halloween this year. We carved some pumpkins with the Woods/Millers families and then we carved more with Grandpa Giles.

Abby wanted to be arial and her she is at the school parade.

Alyssa was a mummy (sorry about these being sideways, blogger glitch they need to fix)

Hailey was a hula dancer (these also were vertical until they came onto blogger)

 

And Macey was a pirate

Here we are together!

Macey has a birthday party!

Yesterday Macey had a 3 year old birthday party with many of her cousins and friends. I usually don't do a party for a 3 year old, but Hailey and Alyssa each wanted to do it for her.

Hailey helped do the game pin the broom (she made an special broom for each child) on the witch and made some yummy spiders to eat. Alyssa did a musical chair game, called the dancing ghosts. Abby helped me make the 'witches brew sticks' or almond bark coated pretzel rods and 'ghosts' or coated nutter butter cookies with little chocolate eyes. The children all seemed to love it. Macey's favorite was the mummy's we ate, or hot dogs with a 'mummy' coating.

Everyone seemed to know Macey and every gift but one included crayons, coloring books, notepads, drawing pads and/or activity books. The neighborhood moms and her Aunts all see her around with some sort of drawing supplies always at hand.

Wednesday is her actual birthday and we will celebrate it as a family then. Can't believe how much she is changing everyday.

Today I am a little sad in some ways. My girls always want us to invite Grandpa and Grandma over for dinner and always want to know why they never come, so I try again. Yet Sunday is the day that works best for us and every Sunday they have college student grandchildren over for dinner. Grandma said one day she won't have them here anymore. Yes I know that but that one day will not come until Macey is a senior in college. That will put them about 92-95 years old. Nice. Johns siblings have their children spaced even enough that there will never be a break unless some choose not to attend BYU. That is one reason I wish we lived in Colorado, once in a while we could have dinner with family members, siblings or parents. That won't happen though. We do go over there about once every month or two. Yet then it's so crowded my children all end up on another table in another room. Then theres to many crying children and those bonds made over dinner never happen.



Here is her new art table!

And such cute new clothes (from meme)

And her favorite art supplies for her new art table/station!

Day out on the town

Today is the beginning of fall break!  We are trying to plan a few fun adventures, since we were unable to fulfill our girls greatest desire of going to Disneyland for the weekend.   Months ago we purchased a season pass to the Utah Hogle Zoo with plans to travel there often, and we have.  This is the about the 5th or 6th time we have went there in the last 6 months.  It is always one of our favorite places to go!

This time the highlight of the day was the tigers!

Frequently when we go there the tigers are all sleeping, though last time this tiger (the one in a lone cage) was crying the entire time we were there.  It was pretty weird!  This time he was up roaming around.  The other cage has 3 tigers and they were the life today.  One of them jumped in the water and played with a big blue ball for us, while the other two roamed.  Yet, in a few minutes two were asleep and the playful tiger was out doing his roaming.

The point is at a zoo, one minute there is lots of see and in another they are just sleeping animals.  It's just luck if you get to see anything exciting!

Unless... its the Polar Bears!  The new Rocky Shores area of the zoo is awesome with their black bears, polar bears, seals and otters.  The Polar Bear (behind my girls) is always active and fun to watch swimming!

Here in the water by Macey, Alyssa, Hailey and Abby  you can see three of the seals swimming in the water.

This baby giraffe is 2 1/2 weeks old and while he wasn't very 'fun' to watch he was fun because of how small and soft he looked.

This is Acara the Orangatan.  She was waving at us and Alyssa took this picture of her.

After we left the zoo we went to Gardner village to see the witches at their annual witch fest.  They have the cutest witches and I really wish I could post their pictures, but it keeps turning my pictures sideways on me so I can't upload any of them.  All together it was a very fun full day.