Deck the Halls & Bring on the Treats!

Every year, for the Family Home Evening on the Monday following Thanksgiving weekend, we decorate our tree.  This year was no exception.  We blasted the Christmas tunes and trimmed our tree!  It is always a lot of fun.  The girls did it all this year, with only a little help.  It turned out fabulous!  We LOVE this time of year!

One of our favorite traditions is holiday baking.  We have incorporated treats from both the Tanner side and the Elvester side of our family... which means we bake A LOT of treats!  We make homemade chocolates (YUM!), fudge, sugar cookies, cream cheese cookies, crumb cookies, ginger cookies, chocolate cereal balls... and probably some I forgot.  The girls favorite part is licking the bowls and table when we are done!  It is always a lot of work, and pretty daunting to begin, but it is such a big part of our Christmas that I just can't NOT do it!  (Maybe in January when I am 10 pounds heavier, I will change my mind!)  Happy Holidays!

Thanksgiving Feast Number 2

Even though we went to another Thanksgiving feast on Thanksgiving Day, we had to have our own dinner too... so we could have the left-overs!  Saturday morning, we cooked our turkey and all the fixin's and had our own dinner together.  I am so grateful for all of the blessings that I have in my life.  I feel so lucky to have a wonderful family, to have health, to have employment, and a roof over our heads and food on our table.  I am especially thankful to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in my life.  It helps me to be a better person.  It teaches me how to raise responsible, caring, virtuous, strong daughters in a world that is so confused between right and wrong.  I am thankful for my Savior who makes it possible for me to improve myself and who loves me unconditionally.  I am thankful for the holiday season in which we can reflect on our lives and those things that we have been blessed with by our loving Father in heaven.  I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Perot Museum in Dallas

On Friday, we visited the Perot Museum in Dallas.  It is a fairly new science museum, only open for about 2 years I think.  Ciera and Chloe had already been with a friend's family, and Dave had taken with his class for a lab trip, but Brooke, Autumn and I had never been before.  It was pretty awesome.  There are a lot of interactive things for the kiddos to do.  They got to "build a bird", be a weather forecaster, build things, race a T-Rex, and stand on an earthquake simulator.  It was really great!  We got a family membership, so we will be going a few more times, I am sure!  Fun times!

Happy Thanksgiving!

For Thanksgiving this year, our friends, the Merrick family, invited us to join them and a few other families for dinner.  I was volunteered to make rolls (yummy!), and green bean casserole, and pies.  We always make our own dinner even when we are eating somewhere else (leftovers!), so I got started baking pies on Tuesday.  Wednesday I made more pies and put together the casserole.  Today I finished with the rolls.  Four batches!  I ended up making 6 pies, (plus one gluten-free, dairy-free cake for Alisha, Zara and Evangeline), and 116 rolls!  It was a lot of baking, but everything turned out really good, and all of the other food from everyone else was really yummy too.  It was a great day!!
I wanted to get some family pictures while we were there, so I had one of our friends snap some family pictures, and I got some of the girls individually and together.  Some of them turned out pretty good!!  I am so excited to get them printed... but here are some of them for a sneak peek...

I am so grateful for the blessings that we have received this year.  I feel so lucky to have good jobs, a home to live in, food on our table, and good friends.  I am grateful for our family (even though they are far away!), and for their love and support.  I am grateful for the Gospel of Jesus Christ that gives my life meaning and direction in this crazy world we live in.  I love my sweet family so much!

Happy Thanksgiving!

All-City Band

Ciera was one of the few band students in her school to make the Junior High All-City Band!  The band consisted of band students from the 3 different junior high schools in Wylie School District.  They had to audition for it, and it is a great accomplishment to get chosen.  We were so excited for her!
On Friday, they got to get out of school at lunchtime and go meet together at the high school.  They practiced together that afternoon, and then put on a little concert for everyone that evening.  They played four songs.  It was really wonderful!  We are so proud of Ciera!!

You Gotta Recognize!

Brooke and Autumn were both recognized this month at school.
Brooke was recognized for UIL, and by her teacher for being a great kid in class, for being a hard-worker and a good friend!  Both of her teachers really love having Brooke in their classes!  We are so proud of the kind of student and person Brooke is.  And, we love having her in our family!

Autumn was recognized by her teacher as the Dino-Kid for November because she has climbed 11 levels in reading since September.  She has just really caught the "reading bug", and is reading SO well!  We are so proud of Autumn's progress... she really is a DINOmite kid!

University Interscholastic League (UIL)

Every year, in all grade levels above 1st grade, the students in Wylie School District compete in different categories.  The topics range from Math to Art, Music to Geography, and everywhere in between.  One of the areas of competition is Oral Reading.  (Ciera competed in this category in 5th and 6th grade.)  Brooke made it on the 3rd Grade Oral Reading team for her school.  (There were only 3 girls on her team.)  For this competition, they choose a poem and them practice it for about a month.  They work on volume, enunciation, emotion, and overall delivery.  Brooke's poem was called "I Want a Pet Porcupine".  On Thursday, they competed.  It took them about 3 hours... it was a LONG time.  Right afterwards, they had an awards ceremony.  Brooke took 4th place from all the 3rd graders competing!  (There were 5 elementary schools taking place in this competition.)  We are so proud of her.  WAY TO GO BROOKIE!!!!