Dec 23

This was the only picture we took last week. Audrey ready for her dance. Cecily wanted to get all pretty and go. In another 11 years, Cec.














Making the gingerbread house.


































Cecily made everyone dance with her at least a few times to the Christmas carols that were playing.





























Cecily discovered that you could make a really fun bed out of the laundry basket.



















And she insisted on taking her nap in the bed that she'd made.















Cecily got a hold of the camera.














Elliot's orchestra concert.














Caroling with the Logan Parnells.














Audrey's ensemble playing for her orchestra class.














Elliot's Christmas program at school. He's the fourth boy from the left. You can only see his head. Which is a good thing, because even though we won the battle of what shirt he'd wear (blue polo shirt), he won the battle of the pants (blue track pants with yellow stripe down the leg).



















Cecily really liked the Scooby Doo video Elliot got for his birthday from Grandma and Grandpa, but it's too scary to watch alone. So she makes Elliot come and watch it with her and then she squishes herself up next to him.














It finally really snowed in Logan, making everything so pretty for Christmas.





























Elliot's class decorating gingerbread (graham cracker) houses.



















The canal by our house.














Elliot playing at the piano recital. The batteries gave out before we could shoot Audrey :(














Cecily and Jonah eating snow.



















This is as good as our Sunday morning Christmas photo shoot got.



















Nope, not going to choose this one.



















Or this one (Cecily's saying, "Go ahead, make my day....").

Dear grandma and grandpa,

Monday we made gingerbread houses for Family Home Evening. The hardest part was doing the frosting and trying to get stuff to stick. The funnest part was putting the gumballs and treats on. We danced in the living room because Ceci wanted to dance. Tuesday I had no Scouts. I had a concert at the Middle School. It went pretty well. I got lost only two times. Wednesday Jacob and Kara came over for dinner and we went Christmas caroling. I liked caroling. It was kind of cold. We sang to like eight people. Probably singing to Nathan was my favorite. Oh yah. In school that day we got to wear our pajamas, so we were still in our pajamas, me and Emma and Gracie. But I didn’t wear pajama pants too. Thursday was my singing concert for the whole school. We didn’t mess up at all. It went really good. Friday it snowed. We got to make gingerbread houses in our class. I thought Grayson Pitcher’s and Kaden Merrill’s houses were really good. We went on a tour so we could see all the gingerbread houses in the fourth grade. Friday night we delivered Christmas present and then I played with Nathan and had a snowball fight and we built snow forts. Saturday morning we had to get up early because we had our piano concert. It went pretty good. And then I invited my friends to go sledding. It went good. Austin, Brock, Eric, Taylor, Nathan, Andrew, and Audrey and Dad went. And Taylor’s sister and brother. Me and Austin and Brock put on this show like we were pretending like we were on TV and our TV show was called “Rating Bad Crashes”. And I had the best crash of all. I got an 8. The judges rated it an 8. Which was Andrew, Andrew rated it an 8. Emma and Grace came over last night and we watched the football. Actually it was Jonah and Jacob and Dad and me that were watching it. It was a good game. Except BYU didn’t play well. They were kind of cocky and they didn’t have very good defense, but they got really lucky. Their defense blocked a field goal with three seconds on the clock.

Love,

Elliot

Dear Grandma and Grandpa,

Monday night for Family Home Evening we did gingerbread houses and then my sister decided that she wanted to dance and so we went and danced. We were dancing silly. Wednesday we had piano lessons. They were good. Also we went caroling and had dinner with Emma and Gracie and Jacob and Kara and Jonah and the little baby on the way. It was fun and we went to some of my mom and dad’s friends and then some of Jacob and Kara’s friends and neighbors. I guess they were neighbors. Friday I had a half day of school. And the faculty basketball game and the boys made us lose. Because it was the kids, like the eighth graders against some of the faculty and we do it every year and how you can play is you play three on three tournaments and the top two teams of boys and girls, and the boys play against the boys and the girls play against the girls. The girls started so we were up a lot of points and then the boys didn’t, and the second half we were starting to go down and the boys just fouled the other team and so they got to shoot and on the second basket he scored and then they just beat us. Friday night we went out and delivered our Christmas cards and it was nice and cold and pretty. It was good. Friday night I went and babysat for a couple and I didn’t get home until almost midnight and then I wasn’t very happy because I had to wake up early. I had to go to a choir practice that lasted a couple of hours and I didn’t really want to go to it because we had to go there at eight. Then we came home for a little while and my mom practiced a song for Sunday School and then we went to our recital and I did well but I messed up on the second page. I wasn’t too worried. I went sledding with Elliot. It was fun and cold. It was okay. Emma and Gracie came over last night and we played a game. Today we had our Christmas program and I sang in it because I was in the choir. I think we did pretty good. Tomorrow I get to babysit. Love you.

Audrey

Dear Grandma and Grandpa,

On Monday Mommy and Daddy put on the Christmas music really loud while we were decorating gingerbread houses. I thought it was loud because we were supposed to dance, so I kept yelling at everyone to get into the living room and dance with me. Everyone was really tired of dancing with me. On Wednesday Jonah came over and we went and sang Christmas caroling. I had fun because I always love it when I get to wear my snow boots. On Thursday we went to Elliot’s school to listen to him sing, but I just wanted to run up and down the ramp outside of the gym. It snowed and I’ve been having a lot of fun getting scoops of snow and eating it. On Friday we went to see baby Alissa because my mom had to Visit Teach. We got Paige from her house because her mommy still doesn’t feel good. Then we went to Elliot’s class and the kids made gingerbread houses. I was writing on the whiteboard in Mrs. Kelley’s class and Elliot didn’t know that she had said that was okay so he started to come over to take the marker away from me and I panicked and said, “Swiper, no swiping!” Elliot’s class thought it was so funny. They laughed really hard. Paigey played at our house until her brothers and sisters came home. She didn’t really like being at the school. She gets very shy. I have been telling a lot of secrets lately. I love telling secrets. Sometimes I just come up to Mommy and Daddy and check to see if they have any secrets they need to tell me. I’m getting very good at my “secret” voice. Today I really didn’t want to wear my new Christmas dress. It didn’t matter that it had three pretty flowers on it. I didn’t want to get dressed. And when I did get dressed, I really wanted to wear my 4^th-of-July Crocs to church with my dress but Mommy wouldn’t let me. She took pictures of us in our Christmas clothes and I wouldn’t smile. Our Chinese neighbor who was taking a walk while Mommy was yelling at us to smile out on the porch thought it was pretty funny. I had to sit by myself with Elliot during Sacrament Meeting because everyone else was singing. At one point Elliot had to come up to sing with the Primary and I was sitting with Kathy and I stood up and yelled, “Hey, where’s Elliot!?” We went to see Raymond and Roselena this afternoon. I petted Muffy for a while. She’s such a soft puppy. Their grandson Nick’s girlfriend was there. She’s from Tokyo Japan and she played with me the whole time. She thought I was so cute and funny. She doesn’t speak English very well, but we made up a game anyway where I chased her around the basement with Nick’s guitar tuner. I was sad to go home. I love you and miss you and I can’t wait to see you.

Cecily