December - beginning

I always look forward to putting up the Christmas tree, except for the lights part.  It takes me about 2 hours to string the 700-800 lights on.  Maybe one day we will get a pre-lit tree.  The rest of the decorating is pretty quick with 6 very eager children to help.  Camille is great at going around after the kids decorate and rearranging some of the ornaments that are too close together. 

  Carter, Johnathan, Bradley, Parker & Tanner helping decorate.

 Byron was out of town when we decorated.  He missed out on all of the fun:).

 Enjoying our tree after it was finally decorated.

When we got our land turtle, Fuego, about 2 years ago, we were told from the owner what they did to take care of her.  We purchased a nice cage and enjoyed feeding her romaine lettuce and kale.  In November we decided to sale her so we could make more room in our family room downstairs.  I put her up on KSL classifieds and had a lady come by to get her.  Upon her arriving, she informed us that Fuego was in fact a Western Painted Water Turtle.  She put Fuego into our tank with the red-eared slider turtles.  She immediately began to swim around and then found the rock to stay on.  She seemed so much happier.  We felt like the worst pet owners in the world.  So now we have 3 water turtles that live happily together.  It was fun to watch our red-eared sliders adapt to a new turtle in the cage.  They stayed clear of Fuego for a while and still are a little hesitant to get too close.  She will not go very deep in the water - keeping her shell above water most of the time, but will hang out on the rock basking or in the water with a plant below her so she doesn't have to swim.  It is so much easier having them all in one spot and feeding them all the same thing.  Fuego loves dried crickets and will almost attack the jar if Byron gets it too close to her face.  We know she is really sick, so we shall see how long she stays with us. 

I had fun repainting our basement family room.  Byron and I went and got some book shelves from IKEA.  I have been wanting a wall of bookshelves for some time, but there was always the turtle tank against that wall.  We ended up moving it to another wall and I finally got my shelves.  I am so happy how it turned out.  The fun green on the walls livens up the place and the books are now all in one spot through out our house.  It was fun to see the kids pick up books to read that they didn't realize we had.  I also love buying new books as we have a place for them to go.  A couple of months later I turned our toy room into an exercise room - pictures to come soon.  It is fun to make changes after living in my home for almost 9 years.

Byron is over the Deacons in our ward.  Since there are so many of them, they were split into two quorums.  Byron works with one of them along with Tanner.  He spoils these boys with treats and had a fun pizza party at the beginning of December.  They all had fun making their own personalized pizza.  We had planned for them to eat a lot, but apparently one pizza is enough- we had a lot of left overs.

 Michael, Austin Hinckley, Kobe Mickelson

 Kobe Mickelson, Tanner, Austin Clark & Rhett Jacobs

Boys enjoying their food along with Brother Whitehead.

Camille is always looking for something new to make.  She decided to make a lemon meringue pie.  I enjoyed watching her through each process.  She has way more patience with cooking than I do.  I want to make food that is quick and easy - this pie was definitely not that.  It did taste amazing, though.

Camille had her Bravo Choir concert and did an awesome job.  She sang a short solo for one of her songs.  Her teacher, Ms. Nudd is amazing and does so much for these students.  Camille loves having her as a teacher and loves being in choir.

Tanner had his beginning band concert the day Byron & I left for Hawaii.  I felt really bad we missed it.  I heard he did awesome - thank goodness for camcorders.  Tanner loves playing the trumpet and has really excelled quickly.  We have since bought his trumpet, so hopefully he will stick with it for many more years.  The hardest part is finding a place for practice - there are times a sound proof room would be nice:).

Carter & Parker had their 3rd grade gingerbread activity at school.  It was fun to come and help them.  They were very creative with their houses and did an awesome job.  They sure had fun eating parts of the houses a couple of weeks later.

 Carter, Tricia & Parker - love these two!!!