Jonathan turns 9!

Jonathan had been looking forward to his birthday for a long time.  He was so excited, and he even knew exactly what he was going to get.  He was partly right.

He went to a birthday party for a friend a couple of weeks before.  He had so much fun that I decided we should do a friend party for him.  I've never really done friend parties, but if I were to do it for anyone, it would be Jonathan.  I was kind of stressed out about it, more than I was about Christmas.  I didn't take any pictures, but it went well and I'm so glad we did it.  He had a lot of fun. 

His birthday was on FHE so we had the whole evening.  We were even able to Skype with my parents so they could watch him open their present.

 I found this cool fort construction kit at Shopko.

He just knew that he would get Lego Endor for his birthday.  He had been looking forward to it for so long.  I was just going to get him Endor, but one of his friends gave him Bespin(the green one) for his birthday so I decided to give him Yavin 4(the brown one) too so he could have all three.  He loved them.

Then we sang Happy Birthday and blew out candles.

He saw the 9 candle at the store and really wanted to use it.  Makes blowing it out a lot easier.

Then we got to work building a fort frame.

 Of course we had to build the rocket frame first.

 It was kind of a tight fit, as you can see.

They still loved it though.  We tried the igloo fort next, much more roomy.

We didn't have to time to go to the Planetarium that day, but we went Wednesday while Nathaniel was at YM.  I think that worked out the best.  They had lots of fun and I was able to do a little last minute shopping there too.

Happy Birthday, Jonathan!

Getting Ready for Christmas

I love December 1st.  It's the day I decorate for Christmas.  This year, it fell on a Saturday so it was a perfect day for all of us to decorate.  I use the word "all" very loosely, it was mostly me.  But Jaaromy helped with some of the outside stuff.  We normally put up the tree on the following Family Night or weekend, which ever happens first.  But Jaaromy didn't like the idea of putting up our tree again.  I think it's a very pretty tree, but I'll admit, it's kind of a lot of work.  So, we decided to buy a prelit tree.  They were kind of expensive, but we found the perfect one at the third store we tried.

It's a little taller, but it's also a little wider.  We had to move the couch over even farther and there isn't much room left.  I'm happy with it, and it was definitely easier to put up.  So, we now have a 7 foot unlit tree that we don't need, if you know anyone.

I had plans for a photo shoot for Christmas pictures, but it fell through.  So I decided, somewhat at the spur of the moment, to take pictures of the kids myself.

 Brigham was pretty cooperative, thankfully.

 Like I said, it was spur of the moment.  I might have had them change clothes if I had thought about it.

 Jaaromy was asleep on the couch when I took this.  He snorted a little in his sleep and made Nathaniel smile.  Thanks Dad!

 It's not easy getting a good picture of the boys together, but we make it work.

Since it's a little easier to get us to hold still, I was able to use a longer exposure for us.  I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Brigham was nice enough to hold perfectly still for this longer exposure.  Seriously, I didn't think he would do it.

I had a lot of fun playing with my camera and the Christmas lighting.

These are some of my favorites.

Merry Christmas!

So Many Christmas Programs

I figure now is a good time to get started on the Christmas posts.  With another week before school is back in, I'll have plenty of time, right?

The first program of the season was Nathaniel's first concert with the Granite Junior Youth Symphony.  I'm excited for him to be able to play with them.

He did a great job!  It was the best group he's ever played with.

A week later he performed with the Kennedy Concert Orchestra.  He's only one of two 7th graders in it.  Although more will join next semester.  They did great too.  And can I just say, Nathaniel's two little brothers did a great job sitting quietly at both concerts.

A week later was Jonathan's program.

 He was trying to find me and was getting a little concerned when he couldn't.

His friend Nathan pointed me out to him.  He was so excited to see me, he kept smiling at me throughout his songs.  He sang the songs too, he did such a good job.  They even sung a song with the lights off using flashlights.

The next day was Brigham's.  I'm so glad it wasn't at the same time as Jonathan's.

 All the special needs classes sang a song with some help from 6th graders.  Brigham is the one in the back covering his ears.  He just doesn't like the gym.  It was still fun though.

After the program we went back to his classroom for a Christmas Party.

 Even though he doesn't look it, he was having a great time eating popcorn.

 Santa even visited Brigham's classroom.  He had a stocking full of toys and candy for each of the kids in the class.  I had to tear Brigham away from his popcorn so he could see him.

I love his teacher and all the aides, they are so wonderful.

Bring on Christmas!

I finally did it!

In case you didn't catch my Facebook post, I finally cut my hair.  Once I started sitting on it I knew it was time for it to go.  The only hard part really was making the phone call.  I hate making phone calls, which is pretty much why my hair was so long in the first place.  Typically, I would grow it for about two years and then cut it.  Well, two years turned into four and a half and as a result, my hair was longer than it had ever been in my life.

I had been itching to cut my hair for quite some time and I knew I was close to making that phone call, so I tried to be creative with my hair in it's last days.

There are definitely perks to having long hair.

But, as I said, I was accidentally sitting on it.  I'm willing to put up with some of the work that comes from long hair, but apparently, that is my limit.  So, I made the phone call.  My friend from Jr. High does hair and I was happy to have the excuse to visit with her for a while.

She did a great job, I think.  Just the way I like it, and it's not too short either.  It feels great.  So bouncy!

It kind of surprised me how much hair she cut off.  It was heavy too.  Although to be fair, it was wet.  But still.

I even mailed it off to Lock of Love in a timely manner.  My last pony tail never made it to the mailbox, sadly.  I don't mind growing it out to donate.  Fast growing hair is a blessing and I'm happy to share it.

Bouncing Off the Walls

Brigham's class went on a field trip to Bouncing Off the Walls a few weeks ago and his teacher asked me if I would like to come.  So I did.  When I got to his class I saw him at the top of the climbing mountain.  As soon as he saw me he covered his ears and wouldn't look at me.  He warmed up eventually and as we were getting on the bus together he kept smiling at me.  I think he was excited that I was coming with him on a bus ride.

I think he was in heaven.  He started out in the bounce house.  He quickly got tired of that though and went to the slide.

So fast!  He loved it and went down several times.

Next was a type of obstacle course.

 First a hole to climb through.

 Then a tunnel.

Then a climbing wall.

Then a slide.

Another smaller hole.  Then a forest of air-filled cylinders.

Then out another hole at the end.

He went through this many many times.  I had to go with him too because the foot holds on the climbing wall were really worn out and it was hard for him to keep his feet on them.  By the 15th time through or so he figured out how to do it without my help.  Thankfully.

We took a break from the obstacle course and went down the slide together a few times.  That was pretty fun.  I learned to always slide down on the right side.  I slid on the left side and ended up on the edge and skinned my elbow.  It's okay though, it's for the children.

There was also a basketball/football field.

He loved to run across it.  When he figured out he was supposed to put the ball in the basket, that's all he wanted to do and any kid who wasn't careful with their ball would find it snatched away by Brigham and put in the basket.

All the kids had fun, but I think Brigham enjoyed it the most.  He didn't even want to stop for snacks.

 We were also the last ones out.

 We had so much fun.  I'm so glad I could share this with him.

And I think this is my new favorite picture.