Early December Happenings

 We took a Behind the Scenes tour of the Science Center the beginning of December. It was quite interesting and we learned and saw a lot. For example, we learned that the Science Center received an Emmy for one of its productions. Who knew?

Ferro nanoparticles being affected by a magnet. Pretty cool!

We saw the shell exhibit, which is not normally open to the public as it is in the basement.

In the huge elevator. Semis can empty their cargo directly from the truck into the elevator.

Megan enjoying a simulation flight.

Matthew learning how to fly a plane.

Matthew and Me went to a virtual son/mom date through the school. We did a number of kahoots and did pretty well.

Megan's kiva that she made for a school project.

Matthew's cliff house that he made for a school project.

December Festivities

December has been a full month with lots of festivities!

Sarah celebrated her half birthday the end of November. She loves her Christmas earrings.

Megan and U dressed up for the daddy-daughter dance at school.

Fun collage of photos.

Daddy and Megan

Dancing with friends.

Elsa and Anna were there as well.

We participated in the Fire Department's toy drive and got to go on a ride in the fire engine. Matthew sat up front this time.

Firewoman Me and Fireman Matthew

Anxious to open their first Christmas gifts.

Sarah shows her prairie dog, Matthew his golden snitch and Megan her sorting hat. (The R2-D2 and BB-8 were from last year.)

Matthew and Megan participated in the first running club race of the season.

Matthew really wanted to be in running club. He regularly runs over 2 miles during the 20-25 minute practice they have twice a week. You can tell he is really running hard here.

Megan running fast.

Matthew getting close to the end of the race.

Megan coming into the finish.

Matthew had his last Cub Scout pack meeting.

Matthew participating in a corny Christmas play he and the other wolves wrote.

Receiving all the awards he's earned. There were a lot of them!

Eating whip cream to find his wolf badge.

There it is!

Matthew's class had a super hero party for reading the most words in 3rd grade this quarter. Together, the class read more than 3 million words with Matthew reading over 1 million himself. (That's what reading the Harry Potter series does!)

Megan's class Christmas party

Decorating cookies

Making a card

Playing some games (whatslkj)

Matthew's party

Me timing how long it took people to move marshmallows from the table to a bowl. The fastest time was 12 marshmallows in 13 seconds.

Matthew making a donut snowman.

Snowman Matthew

Mrs. Kyle as a snowman. The class loved making her a snowman!

Matthew's class

Our ward party had a photo both. While U and Me were looking for the children to take a family picture, the children were evidently already at the photo booth getting pictures taken. (We didn't know about most of these photos until we looked at all the pictures from the party.)

Rudolph Megan

Jeff and Megan. The kids LOVE Jeff! He often helps out with their Primary class.

Matthew and Fayth.

Rude-elf Matthew (Rude-elf was part of the Cub Scout play)

All three of our kids with some church friends.

Finally our family get a photo!

The Primary did a skit on gifts we can give at Christmas. Megan and Matthew shared the following:
Matthew: We would check the chore list off as fast as we were able...
Megan: ...so we could spend more time with puzzles at our table.
Matthew: Then we noticed mom, whose chose list never seemed quite through.
Megan: Now we do some extra chores and she does puzzles too!

Matthew and Megan (and the rest of the Primary) singing. The poster is what was held up to show them helping mom with chores.

Megan and Matthew with Santa by the Tumbleweed Tree. We always like seeing him. Interestingly, we saw two more Santas this weekend.

Megan, U and Matthew with the Tumbleweed Tree.

Megan, Me and Matthew with Santa's candy sleigh.

We saw some friendly snowmen.

We went to a live nativity where they had a small petting zoo. This goat was super cute.

See the chickens in the tree??? (They said it took a long time to get them to stay there.)

We drove around looking at Christmas lights a few nights.

Grandma O is on the Naughty List....

Who is sitting on whose lap???

Speaking of Whos, we saw a few of them.

Matthew giving daddy a piggyback ride.

Matthew, Megan and Sarah with Santa

U and Me with some nice decorations.

Matthew built a gingerbread RV for his last Cub Scout meeting.

Front of the RV.

Back of the RV.

Megan and U made a gingerbread house.

The collapse of the gingerbread house.

It's Spirit Week at the elementary school. The theme one day was "Winter in the Desert." Matthew and Megan bundled up in their snow clothes. Matthew wore his snow pants all day long!

Snowball fight!