Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas!

We have had a great year full of tons of activities.

Ben stays busy with work (still at the city community center), coaching the kids’ teams, working with the Young Men, and continually redesigning the yard. Jill has been busy homeschooling the kids and participating in Heritage Choir. She has also been the Director of her homeschool co-op this year.

Jenna had a great soccer season in the spring. Ben coached the team to an undefeated finish and Jenna amazed us with how much she had improved since the previous year. She even scored a goal. She was able to finish a triathlon even after taking a bad fall during the bike portion of the race.  She has also been learning to sew.  Many great ladies have helped her learn and then she entered a bunch of projects in the county fair and won some prizes. Jenna has also been busy with her passion - dance.  She was very excited to be the captain for her tap dance and have a little solo part. She has also been busy with her homeschool groups and friends. She was in two plays this year, both including her own lines. We really are amazed at how hard she works.

Westley loves sports and anything that can be remotely competitive. Almost all of his free time is spent practicing sports. He played soccer, baseball, football, and basketball this year. Football is his favorite and he says he wants to be an “NFLer” when he grows up. He started tap this year, completed his 2nd triathlon, and was in one play this summer (he played Mr. Bucket in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Jr).

Charlotte loves musical theater. She was in two plays this year, both including special parts. She also takes a weekly musical theater class that she loves. She participates in some dance classes and I cannot believe how well she knows her terms and moves. Charlotte also started homeschool this year and is excited to have her own work to do. She loves co-op, her homeschool friends, and brings a lot of energy to our family.

Gingerbread Houses

The kids made some "gingerbread" (graham cracker) houses, while I ate some candy.  They actually did a lot better this year then in previous years. 

 

Sussical

Charlotte LOVES musical theater and has been taking a musical theater class this fall.  As part of her class she was able to participate with the older kids in Sussical Jr. 

Christmas Dancing

All three kids are taking dance this year.  They all really like it and they all do a great job.  Below are some pictures from one of their performances.  Between Ben and I, somehow we did not get a good picture of Jenna doing ballet at either performance. 

Jenna and a few girls from dance.

Jenna's jazz

Charlottes tap

Jenna's tap

Charlottes Ballet

Westley's tap

Girl's Play

The girls were recently in a play.  They had a great time and the college student who did the play for her project was amazing.  Charlotte was Roo the Kangaroo and Jenna was Skippy the Frog.  I also just loved the costumes.

 

Charlotte with her "mom" Kanga.

Girls Dance

Jenna choreographed this dance for a homeschool talent show.

Halloween Time

We had more Halloween events this year than I can count!  Charlotte did a Halloween dance at the Farm. We had a co-op Halloween party, a neighborhood party, parties at dance, a party at Dad's work, and of course Trick or Treating on Halloween night.

 

 

Below are some pictures of Charlotte dancing.  She is the pirate.  At the end of the dance she looks scared and then runs off.

 

Charlotte in one of the many different costumes she wore during the week.

Jenna.

Westley

Here we are getting ready to go Trick or Treating. The kids wanted a fun picture with our monster door. 

We had fun painting our pumpkins this year.  We looked on Pinterest for some of our ideas.  Westley made the football, Charlotte and I did the minion, and Jenna made the Let it Go pumpkin.

Farm Field Trip

Our homeschool group went to the farm for a field trip and we had a great time.  We ran (literally) through the corn maze.  Played on some farm toys and learned about farm animals.  We also went on a hayride and picked some pumpkins from the pumpkin patch.

 It is always fun to throw corn!

Rubber duck races.

Hay Ride!  Charlotte was not happy because she was HOT.  Crazy end of October in Southern Utah.

Butterflies

We watched five caterpillars grow and change into butterflies recently.  Here we are on the day we released them.

Making a Mummy

We have been learning about Ancient Egypt recently.  So, of course, we had to make a mummy.  We turned this poor Dora stuffed doll into a mummy following the correct procedure. They even cut a hole in her nose and took out her brains (stuffing).  The kids did a great job and really remember how a mummy is made.

Egypt

We have really enjoyed learning about Egypt.  We have especially enjoyed all the projects.

Sweet Kids

I found Jenna reading to the kids the other day.  It was very sweet.