Sick at home

Owen has a double ear infection that spread to his eyes. And Beki has a sinus infection plus ear infections. Yeah, loads of fun at our house.

Test of App

Going mobile with Blogger.

This is especially for my Mother

So my mother always wishes that she was closer so that she could go to my band concerts and things, but since that is not really a possibility, I thought that I would bring a bit of the concert to her. Tonight was the Band and Choir concert at my High School. Now I am not the Band or the Choir teacher, but they let me tag along and feel important now and again - probably as a way of saying thank you for making it so that they don't have to teach the General Music class anymore. (That is what I do.)

Tonight the Women's choir sang a piece that I had originally arranged for my church choir to sing, and the choir director, Ms. Lowery let me conduct the choir and handbells. Then the band played a holiday piece that I actually own - long story about how I ended up with my own band library that I will tell another day - and since it was my piece, the  Band director, Mr. Townes let me conduct that. Then there was an extra surprise for me at the end when I played an African shaker with the choir. (I had never played the instrument before, and had only ever heard the piece once, and I wasn't really listening.)

Anyway, here you go mom:

Veni, Veni, Emmanuel

Trumpeter's Winter Holiday

And me making a fool of myself

   

Duckpin Bowling

Owen earned his Book It Certificate for reading 150 min for October, so we planned another trip to Pizza Hut and the bowling ally next door.  This time, we had a Groupon for four people for 2 hours (way cheaper than last time) and so we invited Owen's best friend Dean to come too (we also had his little brother Scott because their parents were at a Christmas party).  It was fun!  They were mostly patient in waiting for their turn.  Back story: the last time we went to the Pizza Hut, they brought us the wrong pizza and so we got a free medium pizza in the end.  This time, they did it again.  We ordered the same pizza we did last time and this time got a free medium cheese lovers, and it was a good thing.  Owen ate his entire personal pan pizza and the other two boys ate their pan pizza's too and were still hungry.  In the end, the children ate half of the cheese lovers pizza plus their little pizzas!  I guess starving them works after all (we didn't go to Pizza Hut until after we went bowling for 2 hours).

Now duckpin bowling is some perverted form of bowling that only exists out here.  The bowling balls are small and so are the pins.  (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duckpin_bowling).  Ever since we went real bowling at the beginning of October, Owen has wanted to go back and play with the "small ones".

Here are some highlight from the evening.

Being so patient at waiting for their turn.

Mommy and Scott were a team. 

Papa and his awesome form.

Owen with his less spectacular form.

The results of Game 1 - yes, Owen beat us all.

Game 2 - Papa and Mommy/Scott tied. 

We are very pleased that we have found a nice incentive to help Owen read more.  He is naturally lazy and would like us to read everything for him.  Both Chris and Beki remember the Book It program from when they were in school and are very glad that it still going on (http://www.bookitprogram.com/) - thanks Pizza Hut for encouraging him to read.    

The Thankful Tree

This year, we struggled a little to do a leaf every night, things were just really busy.  But we did make-up all the days.  Every person put 30 leaves on the tree and it was a great visual reminder of all the many blessing we have in our life.  We are greatly blessed, even when we think that things are not going like we want them to.

Last day of doing leaves.

Owen has been practicing his Ninja moves as of late, complete with sound effects.  This is a classic one.

One very full Thankful Tree. 

Some of the things that Owen is thankful for:

Friends

Papa

Dark

Mommy

Santa Clause

Church 

TV

Angels

World

Transformers

Zhu

Dean

Saws

Roule CaRule

Lightning McQueen

Trains

Medicine

Lawn Mowers

Heavenly Father

Jesus

Souper Saturday

Back in the day, Relief Society used to do a Super Saturday that would be like a craft day (from what I understand).  It has since been phased out, but there are some very ambitious ladies in our ward that wanted to do one this year.  They decided to serve soup for lunch, so we could get as much done as possible, hence "Souper Saturday".  They offered 10 different crafts and you could sign-up for the ones you wanted and pay for all the supplies.   Then on the Saturday you just show up at the church and all the supplies would be there and some teachers (for those us who just aren't crafty = Beki).  Beki was interested in making some magnets for Owen's teachers for Christmas and a clock that was personalized for our family.  Since the sign-up period was during the time that Beki was sick (all of October), Chris signed her up for the things she was going to attempt to make and a few more.  In the end she make the clock, 50 magnets, and 2 plaques.  It was a LONG 6 hours, but was a success in the end.

THE CLOCK!!!! (Says Renberg Family Est. 2004, 24" diameter = HUGE).  I know you are all jealous now and totally want one for your home too.  We had seen one in our friends house and had been pricing them (WAY too expensive), so we were very excited to be able to make one for less then $30!!!

It look a very prominent position above the desk. 

The plaque - one for our home and one for Chris' classroom at school 

The magnets - these are WAY easy and so much fun.  You use clear stones (ones used for decorating) and glue whatever you want to the back and then stick a magnet on them.   Ta-dah - personalized gifts.  Beki made the vowels for Owen's two teachers at school = 10, the names of her lab-mates = 10, and all the different keys in treble and bass clef = 30 for Chris (true love).

Even though, this was outside of her comfort zone, things turned out really well.  She is most pleased with the clock - not too bad for a left-brained person.

   

Deck the Halls!!!!

This year, Chris only make a few unauthorized Christmas light purchases.  He found some new icicle lights at Costco that he LOVED.  Also new this year, is the ability to get the lights all the way to the TOP of the roof.  We found out during the past year that our neighbor had a large ladder that can extend far enough to reach the apex and they allow us to borrow it whenever we need/want to.  Since Chris is not a fan of falling from great heights, Beki was the one to go up the ladder to get all the lights to the top of the roof.  Apparently from here on out, instead of the lights being Chris' thing, they will be our thing.

Chris is very pleased.

Inside, we moved the furniture around and put the tree in front of the back windows.  Our village is getting quite large.  The building we added this year was a Fire Station with a bell that rings.

The stocking are hung on the mantel with our new stocking holders (after Christmas shopping last year was very lucrative and like having an early Christmas this year because we had totally forgotten about all the great things we found).  Yes, there are four stocking and there are only three of us - not an announcement - it just looks WAY better that way.

The entertainment center got a make-over as well.  It now hold's Beki's collection of Nativity Sets (she is up to 4) and the advent calendar of awesome (and Nuke because we haven't managed to kill him yet and there is no where else to stick him).

We are very pleased with how festive the house looks and it has helped us to get into the spirit of the season. Time flies so fast and it doesn't seem like it is time for Christmas again.  We are hoping that our neighbors get some lights up too, so our little cul-de-sac can be very festive!!!  Let the countdown begin.

Thanksgiving and things

Our Home Teachers came to visit in November and shared a wonderful message about how the small and simple things can lead to great things.  To illustrate their point, they tied Owen and Chris together and they had to figure out how to get undone.

Start:

End - our home teacher had to show them how to get untied, but the lesson was learned. 

Thanksgiveing Day!!!!

For Thankgsiving this year, we were invited to another family in our ward's house for the feast - there ended up being 22 people there!  It was nice to divide up the food and not have to worry about doing it all.

Before the feast, the Elder's Quorem held a Turkey Bowl and Chris wasted to go play.  Owen wanted to tag along and Chris wanted Beki to come along too (to show off his manly sports ability!?!?).  Beki and Owen spent all the time at the play ground area of the park and Chris managed to stay injury free the whole game.

"Stuck like an insect on a spider web!" said Owen. 

Papa in his uniform!!  (thankfully it was flag football) 

Beki can't remember if Chris actually caught this ball, but we will say he did.

He got to QB for one drive - check out that form!!!

Back to what Owen and Mommy were doing.  The monkey bars have become a new favorite of Owen's, even if he can't do them by himself. 

Toward the end, we did wander back over to the field and Owen played very nicely with another child - proof he does share.... sometimes.

Over all it was a nice day.  We ate a lot of food, visited with friends and remained out of the emergency room.  Owen got to play with a bunch of other children, Chris got to hang out with other men and do manly things, and Beki tried to hang out with the women and do womanly things (black Friday planning is not her things).  We did not end up with a family picture the day of, so you will have to take our word that we were happy.  

Family Pictures

This year, we were trying to figure out how to get some decent family pictures for Christmas cards, when Beki got an email from another family in the ward that was trying to find someone willing to take their family pictures and they would take the other family's pictures - an official family pictures swap.  In the end there ended up being 5 families that came and we all took pictures of each other.  One family had a REALLY nice camera (Beki only drooled once).  So here are some shots of our adventure.  There is a church that had an old cabin, out building, and pond that allowed us to take pictures. 

Owen hanging out with one of the other family's boys, doing boy things.

 I love this one because you can see the pure joy the boy has on his face at finding some rocks to throw into the pond.

Throwing rocks.

Apparently it never gets old.

 Some of the keepers.

You can see by this point the boy was DONE and needed to throw some more rocks.

So over all a success.  We got some good pictures for our Christmas cards and we own the copyright to them, so Costco will actually print them!!!

For our anniversary, Beki got Chris a certificate for a canvas wall hanging of any photo of his choice.  Of course we waited right until it almost expired, but in the end, he choose to make a collage of our family picture adventure.  It will be printed on a 16 X 20 canvas.  Here is what it will look like.