Gingerbread Houses

Every year at our school the second graders get to make gingerbread houses for Christmas. This year I got to go help with Eden's class. It is loud and crazy and there's candy everywhere but it is also soooo Cute!

pictures taken December 07, 2012

Council Reflections Awards Night

I've been organizing Reflections at the Council level for several years now. I enjoy it because I get to help honor children who have talents that aren't often recognized. Artistic talents are very valuable in the world we live in but often go unrecognized in our children because more popular things like sports take center stage.

This year Eden and Cameron both had entries that won for their schools. I don't oversee Council for the Jr. High level but I did coordinate with the lady that does. We have our awards night together. Ryan helps too by putting together a great slide show of each of the children's entries. It was a little extra special this year also because Cameron won for the Council level.

Cameron's Christmas Concert

Cameron plays the violin in the Jr. High orchestra this year. On December 5 they had their Christmas concert.

She got to perform a song with a small group of other violinists. It turned out great!

Eden's Baptism

Eden was so happy during her baptism. Her smile was bigger than I've ever seen. She was glowing! It was a beautiful day and a wonderful moment that brought tears to my eyes. I'm so proud of her. She has such a sweet testimony of Jesus Christ and is trying so hard to be loving and kind just like him.

That night we took the kids to The Brick Oven for gluten free pizza! Guess who else happened to be there that night!

Decorating the Tree

We got a new Christmas tree after Christmas last year. The cat climbed it so many times the bottom branches broke off. We thought since our ceilings were high we would get a 12 foot tree. I had no idea how tall 12 feet really was. It was much more challenging than we thought it would be to get this tree up.

Fortunately, the branches are small enough that the cat can't climb the tree. He does love sleeping under it, though.

Austin's Class Pancake Party

I got to go to Austin's class Thanksgiving Feast aka pancake party on November 20th. I brought gluten free pancake mix for him and another little boy in his class. These kids are so cute.

Las Vegas Ragnar

On November 9 and 10 Ryan and I ran the Las Vegas Ragnar with 5 other great couples. Our van had us, the Turners and the Mickelsens. We were in van 2 so we started around noon on Friday. It was an intensely windy day which made everyone's runs very challenging.

Ryan was our first runner.

Van 2 consisted of the Marshalls, the Martins and the Monroes.

All 3 of Ryan's runs were uphill. Good thing he's tough.

I was runner 6. My first run wasn't until about 6 pm. My first two runs were in the dark. Good thing I'm used to it.

Our middle of the night runs started at midnight with Ryan running 8 miles uphill into the wind. It was about 40 degrees. Like I said, he's tough. I finished our second run with an 8.5 mile run downhill heading back into Vegas. The view was pretty cool and I felt good. Unfortunately, I got back to our hotel to wired to get any sleep.

Both vans met up before our last run on Saturday. We started around 10:30 am. It was a beautiful sunny day with little wind.

The clouds, wind, and cold came back just in time for my last run. Ugh. Good thing Kelly brought extra warm blankets in her van.

It was pretty fun to be the last runner and come flying into the finish!

All of us got double medals for finishing two Ragnars in 2012. Since we did Wasatch back and Vegas we got the Saints and Sinners medal. It has a bottle opener on one end for Beer and a bottle opener on the other end for Root Beer!

Overall, Ryan and I had a really great time. The course itself wasn't as good as Wasatch Back but we really enjoyed doing it with other couples and especially with each other.