Midway Ice Castle

The kids enjoyed getting together with cousins and venturing out to Midway to see the Ice Castle there. It was a pretty ingenious structure made from sprinklers and lit from within with changing colored lights.

Most thoughtful Christmas Present

 The most thoughtful Christmas present award goes to Paige.

She has been concerned about Ashby's picky-eater-ness and wanted to do something to help him want to eat dinner with his family.

So she made him his very own place mat!  Complete with pictures of some of his favorite things - Ninjago (those are spinning tornadoes under them) and Skylander characters, and a snowflake smiley face.

He loved it! (But that doesn't mean he has started eating dinner).

Letter from Santa Claus

Merry Christmas, Blumers!

Thank you for the wonderful treats you left for my reindeer and me. They will help keep us energized throughout our long journey tonight. And thank you for the wonderful spirit I feel every time I enter your home. I can tell you are a happy family and you love each other very much, even though you sometimes forget and fight or argue. That's why I love Christmas so much - everybody looks for nice things to do for each other, ways to help each other, and presents to make each other happy. I'm sure that if you try really hard you can do what Mr. Scrooge promised to do: Keep Christmas in your heart all year round by treating each other with love and kindness.

I know that Blumer Family has had a very busy year. With school, preschool, Sunday School, soccer, basketball, softball, bike rides, and lots of good, hard work around the house, you are all growing, learning and staying busy doing good things. But I see that 2014 will be an even busier year, because you have a new baby coming in March! How exciting! I look forward to getting to know him, just as I've gotten to know each of you.

Well, I'd better get back to my work. I do love my work! So, Cody, Levi, Ashby, Paige, Tara and Brian, HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!

Love, Santa Claus

Photo shoot

 LEVI

 ASHBY

 PAIGE

 CODY

 We were all wearing white, black and red! Had to try for some group photos.

Our attempt at a family picture before heading to church. Should have known better...

UVMCO concert

In September the kids and I joined Utah Valley Millennial Choir and Orchestra. MCO has choirs in Orange County and Mesa and just started one here. Tasha and Gayla participate in Mesa and told me I should definitely do it.

It was neat to have the kids in choir and learning new things. Ashby and Levi were in the littlest choir and sang "Picture a Christmas" and "Up on the Housetop". Paige learned more songs and her favorites were "When Christmas comes to Town" and "Riu Riu Chiu".
I loved being able to sing at rehearsal each week in a choir of 260. It was pretty amazing. The concert was a great experience as well, especially singing with a full orchestra in Abravanel Hall.

The night of the concert was actually the biggest snow storm of the winter. It was pretty scary driving up to Salt Lake - just me and 5 little kids in the car. But we made it past the dozen crashes and abandoned cars slid off the road.

It was a long concert day and I was nervous about Levi. Especially since he had been having trouble in practices and some of the adult supervisors and expressed concern about his behavior. I wasn't able to keep an eye on him the whole time, but really I think he did great and especially during the performance. Brian said our kids were the best ones up on the stage! Hooray!

Paige took the choir pretty seriously and always wanted to make sure to practice her parts at home - especially the Spanish to Riu Riu Chiu. She had her part down pat. I should have followed her example. It was a lot of work memorizing the words and parts to 15 different songs. I shouldn't have procrastinated so much, but luckily I didn't really mess up.

It was a really great experience and I'm looking forward to doing it again next semester - although a bit nervous with a baby coming and all.