Days 27 through 31

Day 27: No picture of today, so I'm posting this picture of Chance, after Ashley braided his hair the other day. We're missing Ashley because she went to her grandmother's house last night. We were supposed to get her back tonight, but sh'e staying an extra day due to a snow storm. What a bummer.

Day 28: Allyson came over today. We did some scrapbooking, played Creationary and Hand and Foot, and she hung out and watched Carriers (a very creepy movie).

Day 29: We celebrated Dad Cooper's 75th birthday tonight at Jeff & Sue's house. It was fun to see all the family.

Day 30: Nathan got a haircut today. He looks so good with it cut short. I was letting it grow out because long hair is "in" right now. Unfortunately, it didn't look very good on him because his hair is so straight. You'd have to carry a comb and a water bottle all the time. Anyway, he looks great now.

Day 31: I finished crocheting Molly this sweater today. I love how it came out. She looks so cute in it.

On Christmas Break

We've been having a really fun Christmas break. Nathan is loving it that he doesn't have to go to school. He's been playing with his new Christmas toys, especially his train set, and watching movies. That is his favorite thing, to watch movies and play at the same time. He's been in heaven.

We went to the movies on Saturday night. Nathan and I saw Yogi Bear, and Ashley and Dan saw True Grit. They liked it. Yogi was cute, perfect for Nathan's age. He laughed and laughed and laughed. As we were leaving the theatre he said, "Mom, call me Yogi." and he was talking in that deep Yogi voice the whole way home. I was worried we were going to have to listen to that for days on end, but luckily, he didn't even mention it the next morning or since. Phew!

I started crocheting Molly a little dog sweater today. It took me a while to figure out how to do this certain stitch, but I understand it now. I have a few rows done now. I think it's going to be really cute.

Dan bought me an itouch for Christmas, so I've been having fun playing around with it. I've added some apps and put some CD's on there. Fun! Now I just need to figure out how to use the camera and all that.

Nathan's favorite gift was his Zip, Zoom and Logging Adventure train set. We've set it up every day, and he spends hours playing with it. He also got quite a few trains that he's been wanting, so he's been one happy boy.

Days 23 through 26

Day 23: Ashley came today! We were all so excited to see her!

Day 24: After opening presents at home we went down to Mom & Dad's and had a party with the Mom, Dad, Gram and the girls (Mike and Hilda are in St. Thomas).

Day 25: On Christmas day, we went down to Mom & Dad's again. All of his brothers and his sister and their spouses were down there. It was really fun visiting with all of them. They are always joking around and laughing.

Day 26: Cambryn was all dressed up in her Christmas outfit in church today. I just had to take a picture of her.

Days 19 through 22

Day 19: Today was our Christmas program at church. The Primary children sang "Christmas Bells Are Ringing", I played "The First Noel" on my violin, and I sang "Away in a Manger" with Mom, Emily, and DeeDee. I also played the piano for a few of the hymns. The bishopric spoke in between each musical number. Jackie did an awesome job putting the program together. After church, Emmy came over and we watched Despicable Me. I love that movie!

Day 20: Nothing exciting today. For Family Home Evening we drove up to Eris Sessions' house to see her Christmas village all set up. Unfortunately, she wasn't home, so Nathan and I watched Despicable Me again while Dan exercised.

Day 21: We finally got some snow! I was hoping for no school today, but no luck. It wasn't enough to call of school. Anyway, Nathan was excited to play in it, so he headed outside as soon as we came home from school.

Day 22: Nathan had his class Christmas party today at school. They exchanged presents, had lots of yummy snacks and then had a sing-along with the rest of the 1st grade classes. I went down to help since I didn't have any children in my room. My students were having parties in their classrooms, too.

My digital scrapbook pages

Days 17 and 18

Day 17: I finally got my Christmas cards done this week! Yay! We went to our ward Christmas party tonight, but I didn't take any pictures. I'm relieved that it's Friday, and I'm looking forward to having the weekend off.

Day 18: Nathan and I went down to Mom & Dad's tonight to make sugar cookies with Mom, Gram and Emily. We had a good time, although my mom bought the little containers of frosting that you have to "spray" out, kind of like whipped cream containers. They were really difficult to control, so most of our decorating looked horrible. We had fun anyway.

Days 12 through 16

Day 12: Today was the Record Family Christmas party at the Silver Spur. It was really fun to visit with everyone, and the food was great, too! We have a lot of good cooks in our family. Here is my dad with his brothers, sister and mom.
Day 13: The reason for the season. I love this little clay figure of Jesus. I just got a new Nativity set, and this is the little figure of Jesus. It is so cute. The whole Nativity set fits in a little box. It looks like a gift, but when you open it, it becomes a whole Nativity set.

Day 14: I love our stockings. My sister-in-law Lil made them for us when we got married. When we had Nathan she made him one, too, so his would match the rest of the family's.

Day 15: Gram got a little kitten today! My mom picked him out and brought him home to surprise Gram. They'd been wanting a kitten because both Gram's cat and my mom's cat had recently disappeared. Anyway, Gram named him Max. He's so cute and cuddly. Nathan loves playing with him because he is so animated.

Day 16: Today is Megan's birthday. She's 12! She had a middle school chorus concert tonight so we drove down to see it. It was a great concert, and it was fun to see her, especially since it was her birthday. As you can see, Dan was embarrased when I was taking the picture. He gets embarrased easily, especially when I'm taking pictures with lots of people around, plus I made him scootch down so I could actually see him in the picture. This is his, "There, are you happy? Now take the picture!" face. Tee hee!

Good reader

While I was reading to Nathan tonight he said, "Mom, you're sounding like a real reader!" I chuckled to myself, and said, "Thank you. Why do you say that?" He explained that I was going "high" when I was supposed to, and "low" when I was supposed to (I think he was talking about expression in general) and when I saw an excitement mark, I sounded excited. It just cracked me up to hear him use teacher language. I can tell that Mrs. Cummings or Miss Felt have been talking about "what good readers do."

Days 7 through 11

Day seven: I took Nathan to Auburn where he had to do a literacy lesson "behind the glass" at Washburn School. Afterwards, we went to the mall to see Santa. It was so fun to watch him interact with Santa. He was confident but just a little bit shy. You could tell that he completely believes in him. The Santa at the Auburn Mall is so great with him. He asked Nathan if he is going to leave cookies and milk for him, and a carrot for his reindeer. Of course, Nathan said yes. It was so cute.
Day eight: I didn't take this picture on day 8, but this is one of the decorations I have up. Miriam Thompson found these porcelain Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls for me at a yard sale a couple years ago. I love them!

Day nine: Megan came for the weekend. Here she is, pretending to eat one of the ice cream erasers she got in the advent calendar I set up for her and Nathan.

Day ten: Megan broke her toe this week (she slipped down some stairs, and her toe got caught)! It hasn't slowed her down one bit though. She was still flipping around, doing all of her usual stunts.

Day eleven: We celebrated Megan's birthday tonight! She's turning twelve on Thursday. We gave her a new bedspread, a gymnastics blanket and a Ripley's Believe It or Not book. She also got some homemade fudge from Great Grammie and some perfume, lotions and chapsticks from my mom and dad.

Day six

Day six: Tonight we had a Christmas Family Home Evening. We started by getting out our nativity set, and then we did a Christmas activiy from the friend. Each day in December there is a question about the Christmas story and a scripture to read that will answer that question. The scripture references are written on ornamens that you tape or glue onto the tree. It was a really nice Family Home Evening. We actually read 6 days' worth, since it's December 6th.

December Daily

I've started a new project this month. I'm taking at least one picture each day this month. Then I'll compile them into a book or layout. I thought I'd put them on here, too.

Day one: Nathan started his Lego Advent Calendar. He had been counting down the days for weeks! The first day was this cute snowman.

Day two: Nathan's teacher had just finished reading them Charlotte's Web, so we watched the movie tonight. Here he is enjoying a freeze pop during the movie.

Day three: Nathan found this adorable Smurf hat while we were shopping at Walmart tonight. We cut off the braids (which looked way too girlish) and posed for some pics!

Day four: I made these adorable Christmas shoes for Cambryn tonight. I also made her a matching skirt. I love them!

Day five: We celebrated Jared's 6th birthday tonight. I love his sweet little smile in this picture!