Dallin's 10th Birthday!

We now have a child in the double digits.  And to initiate him into this momentous birthday, we put him in charge of the kids today while Arthur and I ran some errands with just Sydney.  (Oh, I could get used to that!)  And Dallin did awesome!  He even made the kids macaroni and cheese for lunch!

We are running low on wrapping options at our house, so one of Dallin's presents was in a 30th B-day bag, with pink tissue paper.  sorry dude.

Thrilled beyond belief with his BYU hoodie.  It's a little big for him.  In fact, he'll probably be able to wear it for the next three years.  And I can borrow it too, for that matter.  I asked him if he wants to exchange it for a smaller size, but he doesn't care.  

Sean and Daphne helped me wrap the presents, and Sean told me, 

"I just wrote the presents are from me because Sean is the only name I know how to write."

One of the cutest girls at Dallin's birthday "party."

When I was growing up, my family had a tradition for everyone to go around the circle and say one thing they loved about the birthday boy/girl.  So in keeping with that tradition, here are some things we love about Dallin:

Mom:  I love that Dallin is responsible.  He sets his alarm clock and gets up on his own every morning, takes a shower, reads his scriptures, and does all his chores/practicing before school mostly without being reminded.

Daphne:  I love Dallin because he teaches me stuff and helps me.

Sean:  I love Dallin because he is nice to me.

Hayden:  I love Dallin becauthe he hath an awethome lego thet.

Dad:  I love that Dallin loves to learn.  At school or at home, he loves learning new things and that is a really great quality to have.

Not that anyone will notice, but . . .

I have moved my "LDS & other Christian Sheet Music" link-list to my Choir blog.

Oh yes.  I have a choir blog, because (as anyone who knows me can attest to) I take Ward Choir very seriously.  :)

In case any of you are serving as your ward choir director, or are friends with your ward choir director, take a look at my super-fantastic ward choir blog, "Preachin' to the Choir".

Primarily, I post background information about the hymns the choir sings in our ward's Sacrament Meeting, but I also have other stuff on there like links to recordings of some of the pieces we've done, and the hand-dandy link-list for LDS sheet music (most of which are for free music, in case your ward doesn't have a ward choir budget.)

I also just posted the Christmas program our choir is doing this year, and intend on posting the other two Christmas programs I've written just to throw ideas out there for anyone who's looking.  I should clarify that when I say I've "written" Christmas programs, what I mean is that I have selected a variety of great music (in my humble opinion) and tied it together with narration.  I'm not a big fan of the Christmas Cantatas you can buy, because so many of them are just CHEESY!   Inevitably, I don't love all the music in the cantata, and I don't like paying for music that I don't like.   So I "write" my own.  I choose Christmas music that I love, and then spend a lot of time searching the scriptures until I find the perfect blend that ties all the music together.  It just so happens that this year, my songs fit perfectly into the basic Christmas story in Luke 2.  So I didn't actually search very hard this year.

Anyways . . .  Preachin' to the Choir.  Check it out.

Lightning Bolts

Here are pictures from Sean's fall soccer games.  He is still pretty funny to watch, but he is definitely making progress.  He is kicking the ball more often and this season, he even scored his first goal!!!  It  was at the last game of the fall.  Yahoo, Sean!  (Unfortunately no pictures of that.)

Hayden and his friend Keian

Sean totally lucked out and got to be on the same team as his friend Kade, again!

The Lightning Bolts

Enchantment Feis 2011

October 29, 2011

Sheraton Hotel

Albuquerque

If you're like I was a couple months ago, you are probably wondering, "How the heck do you say Feis?"  The American pronunciation is "fesh" (but I'm sure it sounds cooler if someone from Ireland says it.)  Feis is Irish for "festival."  More specifically it is a Gaelic arts and culture festival, and even more specifically, it is primarily an Irish Dance Competition.  

Backing up a bit:  In July, I found out that one of Arthur's co-workers teaches an Irish Step Dance class.  I'd always thought it would be cool to learn that, but you never hear about Irish Step Dancing Studios.  Well, apparently there are a couple here in Albuquerque, and the one we go to is Coleman Academy, taught by two sisters who've been Irish Step-Dancing competitively for over 20 years and are very good.  

At first I only brought Daphne, and even though I would bring a book to read or something to do during her class, I always caught myself just watching and trying to memorize the steps so I could do them with Daphne when we got home.  After a few weeks, I noticed Dallin seemed interested in learning too, so I brought him to class.  He and I joined at the same time.  There weren't any other adults out there, but I wanted to learn really badly, so I asked if it would be okay if I joined the class too, or if they thought that would be weird since there aren't any other adults.  They said, of course I could join!  I am the only adult in the class, but I don't even care anymore, because I have so much fun dancing with my kids!

Okay, back to the Feis.  So once a year there is a Feis held in Albuquerque, called the Enchantment Feis.  Apparently, there are Feisanna in many states at all different times of the year, and serious dancers travel to various Feisanna to compete all over.  At our feis there were dancers from Colorado, Arizona and Utah, and I think Nevada?  Not sure on that one.  I told Dallin if they get really good, I might take them to the Feis in Denver someday.  :)  And now they are totally motivated to improve.

Dallin and Daphne both competed in four different dances, and I thought they looked so cute with their little competitor numbers.  The major bummer for me was that according to Feis regulations, there was absolutely no photography or videoing in the ballroom or they would ask you to leave.  (boo--I really wanted to video their dancing!)  Hopefully there will be another performance sometime soon that I can video.  Anyway, the pictures below are just out in the hallway after they'd finished their competitions.  

I should have had Daphne turn around so you could see her 

gold cute "shawl" on the back of her dress better.  

Next time, I guess. 

Here is Sean all dressed for his soccer game which was right after 

Dallin & Daphne finished their competition.

Here is the position they take as they get ready to begin their 2-hand Reel.  

(Isn't it just too adorable?--don't tell Dallin I said that . . .)

Daphne with some of her friends from class.

Back home with all of their metals:

Dallin placed 1st in his solo Light Jig,  and in his 2-hand and 3-hand Reel.  I should disclaim that his group was the only one in its age category for the 2 and 3-hand Reel.  But the Light Jig soloists was a big group, so I was actually kind-of surprised that he won that group.  Go Dallin!  Daphne got 2nd for her solo Reel and 5th for her Light Jig, and I think she got 2nd or 3rd for her 3-hand Reel, and there were a lot of competitors in that age-group, too.  Go Daphne!  

Anyway, I was so proud of them for getting out there and trying something new and especially for dancing in front of judges!  At one of the classes before the Feis, the teachers told the kids that they needed to be really well-prepared because sometimes performers got scared and forgot their steps when they got on stage.  Dallin told them with pride, that he and Daphne had been in FOUR PLAYS, (thank-you CMT) so they weren't likely to get stage-fright.  :)  And they didn't!   

October Quotes

Hayden, having a hard time opening a door, muttered:  Cheap piethe of junk.

Dallin:  Why do they cheer for Utah State?!?

Me:  Dallin, we can't all cheer for BYU.  If everyone cheered for BYU--

Dallin:  The world would be perfect!

Me:  um, actually, I was going to say, it wouldn't be any fun . . .

Hayden: Mom, if we add some blue paint to our house it will be a BYU house!  And we can put a big Y on the garage door!

Hayden:  Mom, if you don't come right now, I'm going to drive the car MYTHELF!

Dallin outgrew his first violin, so we finally got down to Robertson and Sons to trade it in for a bigger size.  When we got out to the car, he carefully opened the case and examined his "new" rental violin, (which actually is rather pretty) and said, "Wow.  I feel SO upgraded!"

Hayden:  Mom, I think Daphne needs a spanking.

Daphne:  Hayden, kids aren't supposed to say that.

A Halloween tradition our kids love is "booing" people. That's when you leave a plate of goodies on someone's door, ring the doorbell and run.  They love booing and they love getting booed.  We took our kids booing this past weekend, and Hayden has been talking about it and reenacting it all day.  He booed our next door neighbor with an apple this morning.  I thought they might wonder what the heck a random apple was doing on their front porch when they got home from work, so I had him go get it back, which he did happily and gobbled up the whole thing himself.  (Apples are his favorite.)  Well then a few minutes later, my doorbell rang, and when I opened it, I found Hayden curled up in a ball on my door mat.  He looked up at me and said, "I'm pretending I'm cookieth."

Again, on the subject of "booing." For those of you who aren't familiar with this practice, you are supposed to hang a picture of a ghost in your window or on your door after you've gotten boo'ed so you don't get boo'ed multiple times--(it spreads out the fun.)  Well, one night, after we'd gotten booed TWICE, Hayden came into my room crying.  He said he'd bonked his head.  I had no sympathy and said, "Well, that's what happens when you are supposed to be in bed.  What were you doing?"  He replied, "I was just taking down the boo sign so we can get booed again."  nice. 

Hayden:  What now?  I have muthelth (muscles)

Sean:  Yeah?  well, what now?  I have a car! (I think it might have been a maxbox car)

Hayden returns with a big hand-me-down airsoft gun from Uncle Nathan and simply said: 

"WHAT NOW?"

Now that Sean is in Kindergarten, he has plenty of wisdom to impart to his younger brother.  Here are a couple snippets I picked up on this weekend.

Sean:  Hayden, if you go on the moon naked, you'll die because it's freezing in space.
Sean:  Hayden, when God tells you to die, you just die, because He said so.

The other night we were driving and Sean noticed the tiny sliver of a moon in the sky.  He said, "Hey Mom!  It looks like the sky is smiling at us!"

Halloween 2011

Here's a run-down of all our Halloween Festivities this year.

School Parade, 10/26

Here are the kids dressed up for the school costume parade, which I missed.  I was running the stroller up the hill as the last classes finished marching around.  sad.  But I poked my head into both the kids classes to say hi, and did get to take pictures of Sean's class who came out for class pictures.

At our school, all the kindergartners have a tradition of dressing as scarecrows.  It's really cute.

Church Halloween Party, 10/29

Our Pirate family, with our bottle-drinking-parrot on Arthur's shoulders.

Things have been so busy this year, we almost broke the "family theme" streak.  In the end, I was able to convince the kids to dress as pirates which was great for me since I already had all of their costumes, (except something for Sydney,) and used borrowed costumes for Arthur and I.  It was close this year, but I'm happy to say the theme-streak continues!

  

Here is Sydney's little parrot costume.  

She hated it.  But she was pretty adorable.  

trunk-or-treating.

10/31

Halloween afternoon, we finally carved our pumpkins.  I'm so glad we actually found some time to carve them this year!  Last year, they never got carved.  

In order to get the kids to agree to be pirates as a family, I told them they could dress up as anything they wanted on Halloween to go trick-or-treating.  (As long as they could get it out of our dress-up box.)  So we had a real hodge-podge.  Hayden was R2-D2, Sean was Darth Vader, Daphne was a princess bride, and Dallin was a mad scientist, and they all found their own costumes, while I was getting our dinner ready.

Sean choking me with the force.

Thank goodness Julianne and Eric brought over some cool stuff to eat or we would have just had mummy fingers and apples with caramel.  Sometimes my best-laid plans just don't turn out.  But Jewels' and Eric's brain, turned out awesome!  And they brought pizza mummy faces, and a delicious but gross-looking drink with gummy worms in it and veggies & dip.  

Eric practicing his brain surgery techniques.  Not sure if I would trust him with my brain . . .  :)

The cute mummy pizzas that Julianne made: 

Sydney chowin' down on a mummy finger.

The weather was PERFECT for trick-or-treating this year.  Our kids went with some friends in the neighborhood and the Schmutz's, who weren't here for this picture, (but just wait until you scroll down and see Brigham's costume.)  Unfortunately, all the walking around did NOT put Erin into labor.  We hope her little guy will make his world debut SOON!!!

Julianne and Lilly.  She was an adorable scarecrow.

trick-or treat!

Brigham Schmutz as "Mega-Mind!"  

Best costume I saw this Halloween, hands down.

Enjoying the spoils of the evening.  

I am suffering from candy overload.  It doesn't look appetizing to me in the least.

Dallin said, "Hey some houses played tricks on us and gave us fruit snacks instead of a treat!"

Here are Dallin and Daphne reenacting their dismay at finding fruit snacks amidst their candy collection.