Nativity

I love the Sunday before Christmas.  It is my favorite Sunday of the year.  I love all of the music and the special Spirit that is there while we focus on our Savior. 

We always act out the nativity with our little family.  This is my favorite Family Home Evening of the year.  This year Wyatt and Hallee were Mary and Joseph. Melt my heart, they are adorable!

Caitlyn was the Shepard.

Jonah was the wise man and was all ready with his gift for the baby Jesus.

They were all so cute!

I love these kids!

They were all excited to get in their costumes.  The nativity always brings the Spirit into our home.

After that we watched our animated Nativity movie.  I had this vision of a perfect Family Home Evening, but it didn't go quite that well.  Wyatt got mad about something.  Caitlyn was grouchy because she was exhausted.  I have to remember that things won't be perfect, but that doesn't mean that we can't enjoy them and that they won't have an impact on the kids.

Hallee cracks me up.  She loves to make us all laugh.  She can always lighten the mood.

The Best Christmas Pageant Ever

Back in October Caitlyn and Ataiya auditioned for this play.  This was Caitlyn's first audition so she was thrilled when she got a part.  She had a lot of small parts and she did a lot of singing.  It was perfect for her.  It has been a big time commitment, but Caitlyn has really enjoyed it.

Caitlyn loves to sing and she has a beautiful voice.

They had their final dress rehearsal for their families on Wednesday night.  Caitlyn was nervous and excited.  I was very impressed with the play.  They did a great job.

Caitlyn did a good job of acting with facial expressions.  The director gave them all a card and she told Caitlyn that she did a great job and made the most of her "moments." 

The play is about this rough family that ends up taking over the Christmas Pageant.  There were a few fighting scenes.  Some kids really got hurt during those scenes, last night one of the boys ended up with a bloody nose.  The cast handled it really well!

Caitlyn did a great job with the lines that she had.

She had to stand up and say that her wings were bent.

Look at that face, she is such a beautiful girl!

My favorite part was the angel choir that sang during the pageant.  It was so beautiful.

They played the chimes during one song, it was so pretty.  It is a touching play.  The rough family ends up being touched by the Christmas Spirit as they learn the true meaning of Christmas.  I saw the show four times and I loved it every time. 

Thursday night I could tell that Caitlyn didn't feel good during the show.  She was in tears after the show and ended up missing school on Friday.  I think she was just overwhelmed and exhausted.   She loved the play, but it was overwhelming at the same time. She took it easy on Friday and felt so much better for the last three shows. Poor Caitlyn gets overwhelmed so easily.  She loves to do things, but she has constant anxiety that makes it hard for her to enjoy things without stress and worry.  I know how hard that is, so I hate to see her have to deal with it.  She had a few breakdowns this week, but I think overall the play was a very good experience for her. 

Caitlyn was excited that all of her cousins were there to watch her and Ataiya on Wednesday night.  Caitlyn was excited that both sets of grandparents were there too.

Caitlyn's friend, Cecelia was in the play too.  She had one of the main parts and she did a great job.  Baylee and Elisha came to see the show the first night.  Caitlyn loved having people there to see her.

Last night the Serr's came to see the show.  It was so nice of everyone to come, it meant so much to Caitlyn and to me.

Wyatt and Hallee did pretty good during the show.  They got a little restless, but not bad at all.  We bought them some candy during intermission and that helped.  Jonah really liked the play.  He wanted to see it every night. Jonah and Keith went to the Saturday matinee.  I'm so proud of Caitlyn, I love that she will do things even if they are hard or scary.

Sing-along

Caitlyn and Jonah had their Christmas Sing-along at school this week.  Jonah sang one song with the 2nd grade and then a few songs in French.  He did a great job.

Caitlyn just sang one song with her grade.  She did great and had a big smile the whole time.

Hallee has to take her purse everywhere we go.  It is so cute.

We went to Tiff's on Thursday.  I thought Hallee and Wyatt deserved a fun day after going to the play and the sing-along.  These boys crack me up!

Wyatt and Rockwell made a party for us downstairs.  The girls were happy to jump in the tent they set up for them.

Cute girls!

Caitlyn is always quick to comfort Hallee when she is upset.  Hallee jumped right into Caitlyn's lap when she got hurt.

My beautiful girls!

Jonah was excited for his first real game of basketball on Saturday.  He loves playing with his best buddy, Gaven. These two boys are the only two on the team that can dribble without getting the ball stolen, so it was a rough game!  Jonah had some great steals and he had all of the points for the team.  I'm hoping that the other teams won't be so tough because it was a rough game yesterday!

Random things

One night the kids put on a talent show.  Caitlyn loves to do things like this so she is thrilled when she can get the rest of the kids to cooperate.  They all danced and sang.  Wyatt and Caitlyn did a little Christmas show for us too.  They read the nativity and talked about Jesus.  Caitlyn sang, "Away in a Manger."  I love listening to her sing.  When Caitlyn was talking she said, "Christmas isn't about presents or eggs benedict, it is about Jesus."  Ha, love that girl.

Caitlyn and Jonah have been doing a little school with Wyatt.  He loves it.  One night he brought a note home from his teachers.  So funny!

It doesn't matter how naughty kids are during the day, they turn into angels at night.  Hallee has actually been a lot better lately.  She isn't screaming or hitting as much.  She is hilarious and always has something to say.

Yesterday my cousin, Eric, came into town.  It was so fun to visit with him and meet his wife.  I'm so glad to see him so happy.  He won Wyatt over by giving him a dollar!

Hallee had fun playing with his little girl.  I was excited to hold their new baby.  Wyatt told me that the baby was cute and asked if we could keep him!

On Monday Caitlyn went skiing for her 4th grade field trip.  She was nervous about it, but wanted to go.  I was proud of her for going even though she was scared.  She came home and said she loved it.  She said she didn't even fall except for when she was taking off her skis.  I really wish I could have been there to see it.  She said her teachers took pictures so I will have to see if they will send them to me.

I think Caitlyn looks adorable in her play costume.  I'm so excited to see it tomorrow night.  I hope she survives 4 days of performances.

Caitlyn is such a fun girl.  Her emotions are all over the place lately.  I'm told this is normal for girls her age.  I wanted to have a copy of the talk she wrote so I'm going to write it on here.

"Forgiveness brings peace.  In First Nephi Chapter 7, verse 21 it says, 'And it came to pass that they were sorrowful because of their wickedness insomuch that they did bow down before me an did plead with me that I would forgive them of the thing that they had done against me.' Laman and Lemuel wanted Nephi to forgive them.  In First Nephi Chapter 7, verse 22 it says, 'And it came to pass that I did frankly forgive them all that they had done and I did exhort them that they would pray unto the Lord their God for forgiveness.'  This means Nephi forgave them and asked them to ask for forgiveness from God.  Nephi is a great example, even though his brothers did horrible things he forgave them very quickly."  After that she bore a very sweet testimony.  I'm always amazed with Caitlyn, she is wise beyond her years in a lot of ways.

Gingerbread Houses

Sunday we went over to my mom's for gingerbread houses. Wyatt was so excited he could hardly stand it.

Keith helped Wyatt with his house.  Wyatt loved it and was so proud of his house.

I helped Hallee with her house.  She had fun putting the candy on the house.  We gave her a bowl of candy to put on the house, when the candy was gone she put the bowl on her head.  She was on one on Sunday.  We were all downstairs so Alexys could open her birthday presents and Hallee was singing and using a stick as a microphone.  She was really putting on a show.  After every song she would say, "was that pretty guys?"  I finally had to tell her to stop so we could all pay attention to the birthday girl!

They all had fun decorating their houses.

Wyatt and Rockwell had fun playing with the Christmas decorations.  Wyatt thought it was hilarious to put this Christmas Tree on his head!

Amarie and Caitlyn found a Christmas piano book and worked on Christmas songs the whole time.  They sounded so good!  They were so proud of themselves for figuring out so many songs.

Christmas Concert

On Sunday morning we took Jonah and Caitlyn to see the Mormon Tabernacle Christmas concert.  A friend in my ward got two sets of tickets so she gave us some.  I thought it sounded fun, but I had no idea I would enjoy it so much.  The first half hour was Music and the Spoken Word.  It was amazing. 

After that they started their Christmas concert.  The guests this year were the Sesame Street Muppets.  Caitlyn and Jonah thought they might be too old for it, but they loved it.  I think Wyatt would have enjoyed seeing the Muppets, but it would have been way too long for him.  They did a great job with the show.  The Muppets were really funny and the songs were amazing.

Santino Fontana was the special guest.  He does a lot of work on Broadway and he is the voice of Hans in "Frozen."  He was amazing.  I loved his voice and he was a great actor.  I didn't even get embarrassed or have to look away! 

There was so much going on all the time, you didn't know where to look.  They had the choir, bell ringers, dancers, the band and orchestra, the Muppets and Santino Fontana and sometimes they were all on there at the same time.  We were there for just under two hours.  Caitlyn and Jonah really liked it.  I loved looking over and seeing them laughing.  At the end of the concert they had all of the performers come out on stage.  They had all the puppeteers and Santino come out and they gave them a nice framed pictured and then the choir sang, "God Be With You Till We Meet Again."  It was very touching, some of them were crying.  I love that everything the church does is done so well and with so much love.  It was a great way to spend the Sabbath.