December is for Stockings, Sledding, and Babies

Of course, as soon as I found out that I was pregnant with a boy, I started looking at which stocking I wanted to start making for him. I looked through the Bucilla catalogue and also at the stockings we already had because I wanted them all to be a little different but to fit together. We didn't have any green stockings, how can that be - green is the ultimate Christmas color! So I decided on a little boy's green stocking and started working. And of course, I stopped working and picked it up again and set it down again for the better part of a year. The best thing about this stocking is that it is a vintage design that Bucilla was re-releasing. So it wasn't nearly as complicated as making June's (I've still got a little PTSD from embroidering and stuffing all the individual tree branches on that one!) In the end, it came together a lot quicker than the others.

Ta Da! I love it so much!

 Here it is with the other ones. We only had four train cars for stocking holders and Target discontinued making this one. I looked on eBay and found it but it was $$ and someone else snatched it up before I could even think about spending money on it. In the end, I hung Lar's loop around Mary's head in this little Nativity. Here's hoping to next year! I'm probably just going to have to start from scratch for everyone.

Rebecca's work does a fun tree-lighting every year and this year we finally made it. It was SO MUCH FUN!! I'm so glad we made the effort. It just made everything a little more magical. The girls got to do pony rides, make hot cocoa, and go sledding on snow that they brought in! There was actually way more to do, but that's all we got around to.

And now, Lars' cuteness must be documented! I was shopping in Walmart in December and they had these amazing Christmas diapers. I thought in my mind, "These are so cute! I wish June was still in diapers so I could use them." Then I thought, "What are you, crazy?! Lars is in diapers, you idiot,  grab some!" So I did. They had these little elf ones and then a pair of red Santa bottoms.

Lars loves to play the piano whenever I am teaching. It's not usually very helpful. One day Jacob came to his lesson wearing fleece Christmas pj's so I had to get a photo of the two boys with their Christmas jammies on.

I was annoyed at waiting at the dr's office for a well-check when I looked over and my good friend Lidia was there! She's one of the moms I meet at the park! She was bringing her foster baby in for a check-up. He's just a little younger than Lars. So we had a good talk and almost forgot that we were there waiting over an hour and a half!

December is for Dragon Dancers and Playdates

Willa, forgetting how much she hated staying late after school last year, begged and begged to do Dragon Dancers again. I think a lot of the problem last year was boredom because she would be after school almost two hours and I don't know how much of her time was spent working on her actual dance. I emailed the dance teacher before and explained my concerns and she said they were going to do things a little differently to hopefully avoid some of that this go around. So... Willa did it and complained a little, but overall she liked it. It was Wednesdays until 5 p.m. Ryan had to come home early on Wednesdays anyway for Scouts, so he would swing by and pick Willa up. Score! Anything to avoid a drive, for me. (On Tuesdays when I teach piano, Willa gets a ride home with Gunnar because he happens to be my first student. So for three months I didn't have any pick-ups on Tuesday or Wednesday afternoons, double score!)

This year they did Charlotte's Web and Willa will tell you that she really wanted to be a Web Weaver, but she got put with the rats and was a very cute rat, if I do say so myself. I think this is the only photo I have, but so cute. I love the top hat (she hated it!).

June and I have been going to the park in our old neighborhood with some of our old friends and it has been very soothing for the soul. I miss these ladies and little girls a lot. No fear, we decided that once these cute kids start Kindergarten that we are going to do a monthly lunch group together so we can still see each other. Since Las Vegas is pretty restaurant heavy, hopefully we will get to try some fun places and not resort to McDonalds every time, ha ha!

Emi, Lyla, Annie, June

 June also got invited to a Build a Bear birthday party in December too. The girls were all so cute. And yay, one more stuffed animal for their room, eek.

St. George and Thanksgiving

 My parents bought a house in St. George! My dad is still working and they aren't moving...yet, but for now it's a nice southern base for them. It's a nice single-story with a beautiful view. We drove up the Wednesday before Thanksgiving to take a look and play. It's so fun having them less than two hours away! Expect lots more adventures up there for us.

There is this amazing park right down the road from the new house!

Decorating gingerbread cookies

Ryan's family all came into town for Thanksgiving and it was so much fun to have everyone together. With our house, Rebecca, and Dan and Melinda's place, there was lots of room. Shannon and Graham rented a house nearby with a fun pool.

Boy cousins and matching hair with Elias!

Slate, Scarlett, and June jumping on the bed

Most impressive about the entire great weekend was that Graham wanted to cook Thanksgiving dinner! He planned, he prepped, he admitted that there may have been a spreadsheet involved, ha ha. He asked me to make rolls but other than that he did it all. It was amazing! So delicious! And on top of the turkey he made the most delicious prime rib!! Ryan took the girls over to play and swim while Lars napped and I finished up on the rolls. I tell you, it was a pretty nice feeling to pack the rolls in the car, turn around and look at my clean kitchen, and then go eat an amazing meal knowing I was coming back to a clean house.

Second most impressive thing was that we got a good family photo. This is one of the outtakes, but I still think it's pretty good! We went back and forth about whether or not to get a photographer. In the end, we just decided to use Dan's nice camera. We posed everyone and left a spot for Shannon and Graham to hop into as they dashed in from the kitchen and it turned out nice! I love in this one how June is looking at Scarlett and they are holding hands. I'm so glad they have each other!

The O'Kelley family did most of the heavy lifting this Thanksgiving and we all appreciated it so much. I didn't get many photos, but that's because we were all just enjoying being together.

Classroom Doors and Halloween

 Here are the two Fall doors I did, obviously not in chronological order. The Halloween door says "What's brewing in 1st Grade?" and the kids' names are on the bubbles. The Thanksgiving door says "Gobble + Gobble = Gobble Gobble" the kids names are on the leaves and they have written one thing they are thankful for. I had so much fun doing the doors! Another room mom and I planned out the December door, but our schedules didn't match up so she went in on her own to put it up. It turned out super cute. And the best part is that I got a print-out from the school of my volunteer hours this week and I've already got 35! (30 hours is what is required.)

Funny unrelated photo of Lars wearing this sweet little knit outfit from my aunt Debbie. It was so sweet and adorable and the pants would come up high over his fat belly, old man style.

 For Halloween there was really no other discussion other than that Lars would be Elvis. He was so perfect for it and I even found a little mini microphone on Amazon! Willa and June changed several times with each party that they went to. Halloween night was a ballerina fairy princess and Princess Aurora....I think.

 

This summer I found myself with six piano students. The older kids were all learning a Star Wars song, so I thought it would be fun if we planned a costumed Star Wars piano recital around Halloween. It was so fun! The kids were really excited about their pieces and most of them dressed up. A friend in the ward even used some connections to find me a Princess Leia costume!

 One of my students had just gotten this new gorgeous grand piano so his mom volunteered their house for the recital. It was AMAZING. The dad is a PI attorney with his own firm and in the mom's words "He's done VERY well." ha ha. We're so glad that they shared their beautiful home with the rest of us plebeians!

And one last hilarious photo of Lars as Elvis. The look on his face is perfect, even though the photo is blurry. And I just love the tight little jumpsuit over his fat belly. Very realistic!

Fall Fun

The Children's Museum had the most adorable Japan exhibit in its traveling section. My favorite was the sushi shop. There was also a tree where you could write wishes and a Hello Kitty section. Some of the exhibits are geared towards older kids, but this one was perfect for June's age. We went a few times with ward friends.

 

Rebecca went to Hawaii with Shannon and her family. She brought Ryan and Lars these matching Hawaiian shirts. Father-Son stylin' at its best!

 Cute little happy Lars!

This Fall we went pinenut picking in Mt. Charleston. I've been wanting to do it for a long time and it was surprisingly easy to find and do. We just drove up, pulled off the road, and found some pinion pine trees. It was amazingly sticky. Thankfully a friend had warned me. I took some rubber kitchen gloves and a blanket. A lot of pine cones had already fallen to the ground and had started opening. Ryan also picked and knocked some cones down from the tree. The cones from the tree were more green and absolutely covered in a thick sap. But when we opened them, they were full of untouched nuts. There were also pine nuts all over the ground in some places. So while I worked prying the nuts out of the sticky shells, the girls and Ryan took little baggies around and picked up loose ones from the ground. 

The girls had a lot of fun, surprisingly! We probably picked 1-2 pounds of nuts. I think you're only allowed to take a pound. I thought that was all we had, but once we got home it was a bit more. I read to put the pine nuts in water and all of them that floated to the top were "bad". It was quite a lot, probably a third of what we had gathered. But sure enough, when I cracked some of the bad ones open just to check, they were all dried out inside and inedible. From my reading, it seemed like that amount of bad ones was normal. I roasted the others in the oven with a little oil and salt. Then I bagged and froze a bunch and kept a bunch out of eating. Delicious!

Willa turns 7, gets head lice

 Willa turned seven in October, I can hardly believe it! I feel like every time I look at her she seems older and older. She had a fun day at school. I wasn't able to be there, I can't remember why - but I think mainly because I couldn't bring in June and Lars. But her teacher took some pictures and sent them to me. This fun school day was on Friday.

Her birthday fell on Saturday and she was so excited to do the party on the actual day. The new My Little Pony movie had just come out, so we decided to invite some friends to go see the movie with us. I was going to write that it was a "My Little Pony" party, but Willa was adamant that she wanted a Mermaid or Lego party, but since we were going to a Ponies movie, that fact kind of got missed.

I thought it would be a super fun treat to take her to get a beautiful blowout at the salon the morning of her birthday. That way her hair would be glossy and wavy for the party and everything would just be perfect. She was super excited started out! They washed her and got her all set.

 So fun and cute!!!

It was such a great idea until the worker left for a moment and came back with her supervisor. The supervisor started looking through Willa's hair and suddenly it dawned on me. I was like, "Does she have LICE?!!!" And sure enough, nits, nits everywhere. I'm sorry if anyone is grossed out by this. I was and am still super grossed out!! But I also want to be real about our life. So of course they couldn't finish the blowout, I had them check June's and my hair. June was clean but they said there was a few nits on my head!!! Barf, barf, double barf!!!

We drove straight to CVS and bought the stuff they recommended and then headed home to treat our hair. We actually treated everyone's hair except for Lars. The salon said once we did the shampoo and combed, then we could still hold her birthday and she wouldn't be contagious. I thought long and hard about what to do. It was heartbreaking having to make her leave the salon and not knowing whether she could still have her party. In the end, I texted all the parents and told them what had happened. Everyone was super nice and about half the kids still came (3 out of 6).

The party was much more low-key than we had been planning but I was just so exhausted and on edge. Luckily, the salon was like at 8 or 9 a.m. and the party wasn't until the afternoon, so we had time to comb out the hair and clean the house, but just barely. I felt so overwhelmed and helpless thinking about bagging up all the pillows and stuffed animals, washing all the linens, steaming the couches! Ryan helped but I should also mention that our car desperately needed new brakes and he had all the stuff to change those out that day too. In fact, he attempted a more tricky repair that was pretty difficult, so we were stressed and busy the whole day.

We decorated a little the night before - (pre-lice)

 Ryan made this cute Rarity for "Pin the tail on the pony"

 Willa got a candle in her waffles.

 Our party crew. Robin, Bridgett, and Alisse - a friend from school.

 My neighbor Christine made this really cute Rarity pony cake!

 At the movie theater, not a great photo but it's documented.

Finally, that night after the girls were in bed and everything was cleaned out, I finally had time for Ryan to comb out my hair. My hair wasn't too bad, but mentally it was horrible not knowing and freaking out. So disgusting.

I kept thinking about a recent conference talk that was about social media and only showing the positive parts of our life. I considered posting a picture of Willa's birthday cake with the lice comb next to it and saying "Happy Birthday Willa!" on Instagram or Facebook. I thought better of it, however, and just decided to keep this embarrassing, disgusting, horrifying, grotesque incident all to ourselves (and this blog). I know lice isn't supposed to be a big deal, but I just felt so out of control. How had I not noticed this before? How could you not noticed bugs in your hair? I felt powerless to really know if we beat it. I combed out the girls' and my hair frequently over the next few weeks. About two weeks after I found a few new eggs in Willa's hair. So I must have missed one egg in the original treatment, it takes about a week to hatch, then another week before it can lay more eggs.... I retreated her and kept combing. Finally, we were rid of it.

My neighbor admitted that her daughter had lice about a month before Willa, but she hadn't told us about it at the time. The girls play together a lot and I'm fairly certain this is where Willa got it from. Though... I suppose Willa could have given it to the girl too. The gross thing is that the nits had grown out an inch or so in Willa's hair so you know that she had had it for a while. The other thing I realized is that lice is not so super contagious in Las Vegas. I think because of the hot and dry climate. It seemed very contagious in Houston, because it was so humid. But Willa and June had been sharing towels, combs, brushes, headbands, you name it - and June didn't have any. So I don't think it spreads very well here, but you just have to be careful to get every single tiny last egg when you are going through the hair. Still, I think you should be responsible and 'fess up to other parents if your child gets it. I contacted Willa's teacher at school and her class had to do a lice check and had a letter sent home. I was also really careful to clean all her jackets, her backpack, and the carseats in the car. The lice will only be on the head, but anywhere that a loose hair with a nit attached is fair game. But again, that brings me to why I don't think it really spreads that well in Vegas - because once the hair is unattached from the head, the climate just isn't right and the eggs probably don't hatch.

It ended up not being the greatest birthday in the entire world, but it is certainly one we will remember. And just typing this makes me want to go comb through my hair with a nit comb again!

Piano Teams

Willa was old enough and advanced enough to do Piano Teams this year. Piano Teams are a big part of the teaching method that her teacher follows. It can mean duets or trios, but most of the time it means five pianos and ten hands. So basically, five kids each on a separate piano playing all together. So. Much. Fun. My favorite memories of music growing up was group lessons and playing along with other friends, so I'm just so excited that Willa is getting a little bit of a similar experience.

It was A LOT of work. They started working on their song during the summer. Then, when school started we started having group lessons together. That meant either the teacher scheduled an additional hour into her teaching schedule when we were all available, or she used the kids' private lesson times and we all met during those times. Either way, it was a lot. Several of the kids had taken a rule out of my playbook and asked for morning lessons. So three mornings a week for an hour before school, they practiced. Then they also practiced Friday afternoon for an hour. Did I mention yet that it was a lot? I think we were all so exhausted and ready to be done! Cheryl, their teacher, is truly a saint for putting it all together. They are all so young that it was ground zero when they started. I mean, they had to play, they had to count rests, they had to listen for the other parts to come in. Ensemble playing is complicated! But she pulled it out of them.

They don't compete, but they were adjudicated on it at UNLV. The organization wants the kids to have fun and really likes them to dress up for their pieces. The kids were playing Yankee Doodle Noodle by Jeff Shumway (who is a big piano name at BYU). I happened to have these old 4th of July skirts and we pulled everything else together. Willa had to squeeze into a 2T sized skirt and Madeleine into the 4T, but we put some leggings under and it worked just fine. I think they looked so adorable! Willa was the youngest by about a year and a half and you could tell she just loved being with these older kids. At practices, if the teacher had to do something she was just hanging onto every word and action that the older kids were doing. Thankfully they're all good kids!

This first clip is just 30 seconds of the performance. I was in the back holding a sleeping Lars and recording with my phone in the other hand - so I'm lucky to get the video quality that I did. I cut this sample so you could see my favorite part, which is when they do a page turn at the same time and yell "Yankee Doodle flipped his noodle!"

 This second is the full video for anyone who wants to watch it.