Merry Christmas!

(click on the picture and it will blow it up bigger for you to see)

Prince Frog

Abby's 2nd Grade teacher loves to have the kids perform plays.
Abby was chosed to be in one called The Prince Frog.

She was Lilly Paddington, a girl who goes out looking to catch a pet frog.

After being told it is nearly implossible to catch a frog by her friends and brother, she wanders out to the pond and meets a strange man sitting on a bench.

His name was Prince Albert Van Hoppinger.

After Lilly reaches in her backpack for a treat and pulls out a hershey kiss, the Prince promises Lilly that if she gives him the kiss then she will for sure catch a frog.

Lilly gives it a try and sure enough the Prince turns into a frog and hops right into her jar.

When she gets home and her brother asks how in the world she caught one, she says,

"Oh, that was easy, I gave a prince a kiss and he turned into a frog."

The class had a contest to see who would be in charge of the background. Everyone drew a picture of what they thought it should be and then they voted on the one they liked best. Abby and another boy's drawing were chosen and they worked together on the background.It turned out great!

Here's a picture of Abby with some of her friends before the play started.

Here is the cast in her play.

Abby and her pet frog, the forger Prince Albert Van Hoppinger

I wish I could get the video on here, but it's too big of a file and the software to help that won't load on my computer...the computer's fault not the software's. Need to get that fixed pronto!

She did a great job and it was so fun to watch.

Mall Sing

Our elementary school has an early morning choir program and my girls have been participating in it the last few years. This was Paige's first year and she loves it. It helps that her best friends are doing it too! Every year they take a bus down to the mall to sing for the shoppers. This is the first year I went to see it. It was fun. Paige and friends

Abby

Ashley

Vangie Jones, one of my very best friends!

a group shot

And the conductor, Heidi Needles (also a friend of mine)

They did a great job. This was only half the choir, the other half had sung just before. The next night was their school performance for the parents. I'll try to post some video of that one later.

Great singing Girls!

Taylor Fun!

It's so fun to have so many families from California (where I grew up) now living here in Utah. One of our favorite families, the Taylors, has a get together every Christmas. It's so fun to get the old gang back together for a night of fun, treats and catching up. Here we are trying to get a picture in front of the Trolley that will take us around the lights at Thanksgiving Point.

My Mom and Dad (in the trolley)

There were so many of us this year that the Taylor's had also reserved a "hayride" for anyone wanting to brave the cold. The best part was, it wasn't very cold! In fact, most of us opted for the horse drawn ride! It was so fun to be out and close to all the lights. August even managed to wake up some and find a smile while we rode through.

My brother Doug and his sweet Allie

We spent the next hour or more inside the cafe drinking hot cocoa and munching on gigantic cookies and catching up with old friends. Thanks so much Taylors for such a fun night together!

The reindeer were still there when we were leaving so we stopped by to say goodnight.

I love this picutre. Paige was soo soooo soooo tired by now that she couldn't even muster a smile for the last couple pictures. Glad we got her home soon afterwards.

When we first got there earlier that evening there was a guy and his son out carving this huge chunk of ice. By the time we left, this is what they had created. So amazing. It was so beautiful!

Merry Christmas.

Ward Christmas Party

We had our ward Christmas party Mexican style a couple weeks ago. It was so fun as always. We ate yummy tacos/burritos. I also used my new camera for the first time. It was so fun to play with. I need to learn a few things, but I thought the pictures turned out pretty good for the first try!

The Primary put on a live nativity for us all to enjoy. It was so fun to watch. Paige is in the middle, between the donkey and another sheep. How cute!

Ashley was an angel
So was Abby



After the nativity they strung up a couple pinatas for the kids to break. They were all so sooo excited. The pinatas came down in just a couple wacks, but the kids didn't seem to mind.

They enjoyed finding the goodies and games inside.

Here's Larkin helping with cleanup. They eventually pushed a table over and he stood on that.

I had no idea this was going on until a friend tapped me on the shoulder and told me to turn around. It was pretty funny to watch. Way to go Larkin!