Dance Class 2010

Alli is once again enrolled in dance class with Miss Holly. She's really enjoying it this year and the pictures are priceless! (to me anyway)

Here's Allison with her friends Madeline and Gracie. They are such good girls!





The cutest little tooshy around!




Alli loves the tumbling part of class:

Paint Pals

Alli had a preschool field trip to Paint Pals! She picked a ceramic butterfly and chose a lovely rainbow of colors to paint it with. They had other fun activities like a shadow room, black light maze, karaoke, giant bubble, dress-up, etc. It was a fun morning with her teacher and class.










This is Miss Chris and Teacher Traci. They both taught all my boys when they were 2 and 3 years old. Sadly, Teacher Traci quit the preschool scene (to teach at Pierce College) the same year Alli started so she had a different 2 year old teacher. But she came to our field trip so it was great fun to visit with her and catch up. I sure missed having her last year. We do still love Miss Chris for the 3 year old class!


Jan 25, 2010

Pinewood Derby 2010!

Blake & Ryan are finally at the age to join in the long anticipated Pinewood Derby! After watching their big brother have a go at it, they were quite eager to finally participate. Their leaders made it known that the MAIN criteria for this years derby would be creativity. It wasn't about speed. Really? Well, they took it to heart and got creative. I am grateful their den leader set up an appt. for the den to go to the Berg's to cut their designs.

Blake instantly decided he wanted to do a skateboard. He designed the "color burst" design on the deck and painted it (with a little touch-up work done by Mom). He was so proud of his board! It weighed in at exactly 5.0 ounces, with MANY weights hiding under the grip tape.





Ryan had a tougher time figuring out his idea. For HOURS we kept at it, giving him many suggestions. Nothing struck his fancy. Finally while being pressured to just make a decision, and in his frustration he blurted out, "WHAT?? Am I just supposed to do a Wii game or something?" This was not one of our previous suggestions, it was not one of the ideas we had seen online, it just came from him. We all stared at him and said "That's it! A Wii controller!" A huge grin spread across his face and he was finally excited!

Ryan loved painting it. Then we found a Wii remote candy dispenser and took it apart for the buttons. He super glued them on and used a toothpick to paint "Wii" at the bottom. Nice job Ry!





Here is Ryan winning one of his heats.


Our boys placed 8th and 10th out of about 25 cars. Not bad. And we had a fun family night hanging out at the race track.

my silly girl

Yesterday Allison dropped something down a small hole in her carseat and was upset that she couldn't get it out. I was driving at the time so I couldn't help her. She said, "Mommy, someday when my dreams come true, this hole will get really big so I can get it out."
I just thought it was so funny! Too much Disney maybe?

Ultimate Playdate

Allison invited her friend Madeline to go to the library with us for story time, and then back to our house for a play date. It turned out to be a fun-filled day!

After the library the girls played dress-up.
Next they made sugar cookies. Yum! They used alphabet cookie cutters and made each of their siblings a cookie with the first letter of their names.


Ready for the oven!


While waiting for the cookies to bake & cool, the girls decided it would be fun to paint nails. We got out the pink polish and Allison set up this salon. Before I could get over there, she had the polish opened and started painting away on Madeline's nails. She did pretty well for her first time. Madeline was the model client, knowing how to sit perfectly still and keep her hands flat until they were dry. (she's no rookie - she had obviously done this before!)

When the nails were dry, the girls frosted and decorated their masterpieces.
Allison had the best playdate with her best friend Madeline! She can't wait til Madeline comes to play again!

Disneyland!

One of our favorite places to go is Disneyland! We haven't been in two years so when we got tickets for Christmas the kids were VERY excited! (almost as excited as Mom!) We stayed 3 nights in our motorhome at a park a couple blocks away from Disneyland and took a shuttle back and forth. It was a great couple days!!

The Happiest Place on Earth!


Nana & Papa were able to join us our first day there. That was a special treat! They always spoil the kids.







"A" is for Allison!

Merry Christmas!

It was great to have Daddy home for both Christmas Eve AND Christmas Day this year. That is rare and we really made the most of it.
Christmas morning began with Darren waking at 6:30am and stating that "even though my lip may be half off, I'm still a kid and I'm going down to see what Santa brought!" I'm glad he was feeling good after the prior night's ordeal. Luckily the other kids didn't wake us again until 7:30am when Jason & I finally relented and got up. We tried to get Alli to wait for us to get up but she raced us down the stairs! I could barely grab the camera in time. Santa brought her the baby bunk bed she asked for! She was so excited, even though the photo doesn't really show it!


Santa also puts a new ornament in each child's stocking. This year I got the idea from a friend to take a picture of each ornament. I write name/year on the ornaments to help us remember too.


Santa again was gracious in giving the desired gifts to the other kids.
Blake: favorite Star Wars Lego set


Ryan: Birdhouse skateboard which to his surprise came with a backpack


Darren: the airsoft pistol he desperately wanted, although this picture is BEFORE he opened it.


After opening the plethora of gifts Mommy made the traditional Christmas morning breakfast of waffles, bacon, eggs, OJ, etc. Then we enjoyed our day playing with new toys and activities, and just enjoying our family time together!

Christmas Eve

First stop on Christmas Eve was Nana & Papa's house. Emily & Ty were there with cousins Daylen & Gwen. The kids had a great time having lunch with everyone and then playing with their cousins. Papa had a new train for the tree this year... a Mickey Mouse one! That was a big hit with all the kids! We enjoyed the afternoon there, exchanging gifts and enjoying the company. Thanks Mom & Dad!



Second stop: Grandpa Steve & Nana Deb's house. Here we had a different experience. All the family was there for dinner and gift exchange. Grandpa, Nana, Samantha, Taylor, Leah, Mike & Tammy w/ Jayden & Gavin, Rick w/ Reily & Hannah, Rob, Aunt Debbie. Another fun Price family get-together waiting to happen! We were there all of 5 minutes when Sam's new dog bit Darren in the lip. (scroll down for picture) Grandpa took Jason & Darren to the ER, then came back and took me to join them a short time later. Meanwhile, our kids had Christmas Eve celebrations with the rest of our family while we were at the hospital waiting for the plastic surgeon to come give Darren 12 stitches in his lip. Yikes! This is one Christmas to remember but hopefully never repeat! Here is some of the fun the other kids had. Sorry Darren missed out!


Third stop: Emergency room

This photo was taken right after the stitches were done. It was worse looking in person, I guarantee you!

Gone Riding!

The couple days before Christmas we made a last minute decision to head out to the desert for some riding fun! We had a lot of fun, mixed in with a little drama. The first night was freezing cold, about 20 degrees outside, and we realized at bedtime that the converter box was broken, which is necessary to run the heater in the motorhome. Brrrr!!! At 2am, the Carbon Monoxide alarm went off because of our alternate forms of trying to heat up the motorhome. The next morning Alli's thumb got smashed in the door (the hinge side) and looks like the nail will fall off, and I'm still hoping it's not broken. Despite the cold and drama, the trip was worth it.

We left the desert Christmas Eve morning to head off to our family's homes in Riverside to enjoy Christmas with them. That's a different post. Here is some of our fun in the desert:


Darren catches air:


The girls:


Alli's protectors:


Daddy's girl:


Princess:


A place all to ourselves:

Naughty or Nice?

 

The answer to that question changes from minute to minute around our house!
It's extremely fun to enjoy this Christmas through the eyes of our children, especially with Allison so enamoured with Santa and the whole holiday season! She jumped right up on his lap and without pause said, "Santa.. for Christmas I want a baby bunk bed for my dolls." No fear. Total faith. Such joy! The boys were there too, but evaded the photo. Do they really have to grow up so fast?
We are grateful at this Christmas season for our abundance of blessings, especially our Savior Jesus Christ. We make many efforts to remember and celebrate Him this season. We are thankful for our dear friends and family and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Love to you all!

Christmas Sunday

 

Just a sweet picture of my family after church.

Card Tower

Ryan saw a picture on his cousin's blog, where he built a card tower. He thought was pretty cool and was inspired to try himself. He spent the ENTIRE day trying this over and over again. It think we need to call his cousin to see if there are any secret tips he can give him. This is as far as he got, but he was soooo proud!!