Noah's Basketball Team

Noah tried out and made the 6th grade basketball team. Noah and his friend Jayce are the only 5th graders on the team. This week they had their first home game, yeah! The month of December all their games were away and since we live in Page that means traveling 1-2 hours for each game. Jonah and Scott only missed one away game, they went to Kayenta 3 times, Shonto, Navajo Mountain, and Tuba City. Everyone except Hannah went to Noah's game in Cameron, we ate at the restaurant after the game, it has the best Navajo tacos and fry bread we have ever had! We drove home in a blizzard. Scott has stories of his coaches almost going off the road in snow. Noah is following his dad's footsteps. We like taking Noah home in our suburban because the coach doesn't always have seat belts for everyone! Everything runs on rez time and his schedule changes at least twice a week but he has had fun and we love watching him play. Noah has scored a basket in every game and wants to keep up his streak.

We Love Chocolate!

Hannah had her birthday party on Jan. 9. We had a chocolate party. Hannah made her own invitations that had different pics of chocolate. We had chocolate pizza for dinner (and pepperoni). The girls then made chocolate dipped pretzels, with dark, milk and white chocolate. They got very creative with the sprinkles and coloring. We let each girl pick someone they wanted to take their treats to and we put them in cute bags, the girls made note cards. We then drove around dropping off the treats. When we got home it was 9:30 and we started our chocolate fountain. The girls ate 9 lbs of strawberries in one night! We also dipped cinnamon hearts, pound cake, bananas, and marshmallows. In the morning we made double chocolate waffles for breakfast. Hannah has fun friends and it was a blast.

Merry Christmas!

Esther got a hairstyling apron from Grandma Hardy, so she went right to work on Hannah's hair.



Noah had wrapped the present he bought for Jonah in 6 different boxes one inside the other-the outside box was enormous! Jonah had to keep tearing off paper to get to the next box and this pic shows Jonah finally getting to his present.


We had a wonderful Christmas! Christmas Eve day we always make and decorate gingerbread cookies to leave for Santa. Our friends the Mallavias came over to help. Christmas Eve night we have our big ham dinner and our friends the Skaggs came over. Then the kids performed the nativity. Esther was Mary, Jonah was Joseph, Ezra a donkey, Noah a shepherd, and Hannah and Laura were angels. We love this tradition. Hannah, Noah, and Jonah played Christmas songs on the piano and we sang along. Christmas morning it is our tradition that Santa puts a sheet up covering the front room where he brought presents. The kids all slept in Noah's room. They woke up at 7 and have to come upstairs to wake us up. I go down to the kitchen and make orange julius for everyone and we drink it up in our bedroom. Then we have family prayer before the kids line up on the stairs for a Christmas morning picture. Then Scott opens the curtain and the kids can see what Santa brought. After an hour or two of Santa gifts, we eat breakfast which of course is hootenanny pancakes. Then we open our presents. We are so blessed to have healthy kids and a good job. We love this time of year.

Esther's Preschool Christmas Program

Scott and I went to Esther's preschool program the last week of school. Esther loves to sing. She knew every song and sang very loudly. There are only 4 kids in her class and she loves to singing more than the others. This picture shows Esther doing the actions of a song about a little elf sitting on her nose. Miss Jill had told the kids to touch their nose and look at it. I never knew Esther could cross her eyes until I heard her sing this song. It was adorable. I was teary eyed because we will never go to another preschool program for our children. I really don't want Esther to grow up.

Christmas Traditions

Every December I bake all month long. This is my favorite
time of year! We make fudge, toffee, cinnamon rolls,
sugar cookies, spritz cookies, and the best of all poppy
seed bread. The last day of school we have friends
over to decorate sugar cookies and on Christmas Eve
we decorated Gingerbread cookies with our friends the
Mallavias. When we have all our treats ready we go
Christmas caroling. This year my parents were here
and they came with us. It is fun sharing with others
and bringing the Christmas spirit through singing.
We buy a real Christmas tree and decorate it. This
year Esther got to put the star on top.

Hannah's Nutcraker and Birthday!

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Hannah was a rat, Russian dancer and in the party scene of this year's Nutcracker. My parents came to Page for the weekend to watch her perform. I can't believe how far Hannah has come as a dancer. She is amazing and so fun to watch. I can't believe she is 13! Hannah is a wonderful young lady and I am blessed to be her mother. We love Hannah so much. She is a great example and help in our home.

SNOW!

We had three snowstorms in Page last week!
We had school canceled one day and then two other
days school started 1 1/2 hours later than it usually
does. We have sleds that we take when we go to
visit Scott's family in Salt Lake. The kids were sledding
down our neighbors desert yard that has a small hill.
Esther has no fear. The snowday I took the kids and
some of their friends to the golf course where we went
sledding by the 11th hole. Some of their friend brought
sleds and everyone shared. Hannah's friend Marisa gave
rides down the steep hill to Esther and her little friend
Ali. There aren't too many hills in Page so there
were a few other kids at the golf course but plenty of
room. When we got home the kids warmed up for
an hour then went back outside to our neighbors hill.