Christmas

Close on Nathan's birthday comes Christmas. One tradition that we always do is to have our children act out the Nativity.

This year's cast

Joseph --------------- Nathan

Mary ----------------- Crystal

Wiselady -----------------Lisa

Angel -------------------- Lexi

Baby Jesus -------------- Caleb

Shepherds ------ Mom and Dad

Nathan's Birthday

Nathan is growing like a weed. I can't believe how old he is now. His cake this year was a castle, complete with knights and torches.

Spelling Bee

Crystal got first place in her grade for the school spelling bee and got to go to the District competition. Good job Crystal!

Getting ready for Christmas

Christmas in Tucson is not like anywhere else we've ever lived. We did, however, still have our usual Christmas decorations and traditions. Just no snow. Here are the girls under the Christmas tree right after we finished decorating it.

Lexi's new 'do

I cut Lexi's hair. It desperately needed something done with it, as she had a bad habit of sucking her thumb while twirling her hair with her fingers and tying it up in knots. Those knots were horrible to get out and did a lot of damage to her hair in that one spot that constantly twisted.

The new Lexi:



Lexi and her Daddy

Birthdays

Caleb turned 2 on Novemver 24 and Nathan turned 11 on December 17.

Caleb had a Cars birthday cake (his favorite movie).


Nathan had a castle with knights and torches.

This singing dog was Caleb's birthday present from Grandma Miller. He immediately started dancing around to the music it played. The video doesn't do it justice. Now, we just have to keep it out of his bed when he's supposed to be sleeping. That particular stuffed animal doesn't help him get to sleep.

Night in Bethlehem

Our ward Christmas party was "A Night in Bethlehem". We dressed in appropriately, spoke with characters from the Bible story, and got a unique perspective on the Nativity. We loved this picture they took of us there, in front of a specially painted backdrop made just for the occasion.

Crystal and Nathan after their first school concert. Mary Had a Little Lamb was one of Nathan's first trumpet pieces.

Christmas music concerts

Nathan and Crystal had their Christmas concerts at the beginning of December, 2008. Nathan was in band and Crystal was in Choir. They have a fantastic music teacher at their school, and we were impressed with the progress they had made since the beginning of the school year, especially Nathan who had never played the trumpet before.

Update at long last

OK, I'm finally updating this blog. It's been over 6 months, and it will take me a while, but over the next few days I'm going to try to get completely up to day.

Wish me luck on remembering everything!