The Nutcracker

The Dance Center is the greatest dance studio!!! Every year they put on a Fabulous production of The Nutcracker. They have all the students in their studio perform and higher college/professionals to play the largest roles. It is perfect! It is Good and it is a shortened version to capture the attention of the little children and get them hooked on ballet at a young age. :) I lOVE it! And to make it better you get a huge discount if you go both nights so I bought the back to back night ticket and took each of my older two girls on a mommy-daughter-date.

 The night that I went with Eliannah was magical. We dressed up and got excited. She chose to sit with Gabriella and her family. Fun. She had a hard time sitting through the whole thing, but She was simply ecstatic to be there. :)

Tsadakah and I dressed up too. She knew what to expect because Eliannah had told her all about it. She watched the ballet completely. Loved it. And she wanted to be in ballet for a few days afterward. She is so cute!

Our Thanksgiving

I was more excited about Thanksgiving than I have been in a long time. I was going to be hosting for the first time and I was just super excited to be able to do it in my beautiful new house with my china that I got at our wedding. I wanted it to be a special event and I really felt that it was. :)

 

 

Michael bought  a Smoker and we had smoked turkey which is really superb! He was the star of the show because it turned out absolutely perfect!! It really couldn't have been better. He had practiced smoking turkey for weeks before hand.

 

 

Tsadakah and Lara.

Olivia and Anna

Isaac, Carson, Eliannah, and Stratton.

Seth, Tsadakah, and Lara.*MiKaylah fell asleep on the downstairs couch right before dinner time so she didn't eat with us, she ate later.

Hayley, Ari, Steve (my dad, who is being like the guy on Patch Adams who always has his hand up. lol My dad is so random sometimes.) Marsha (my mom) and Troy.

I went to Pinterest and found some ideas to make it special and beautiful. I typed many quotes on Thanksgiving and taped them to each cup. It was much prettier on goblets but I didn't have enough for our whole group, so we did what we could. I also made these napkin holders and I am very proud of them.

And as traditions go we had a lot of pie! There wasn't 25 pies, but there was still enough that we could each have had half a pie to ourselves. There was a cake because it was also Lara's birthday.

 

Olivia, Leah, Lara, Hayley, Rivkah, MiKaylah, Anna, Marsha, & Steve.

Unfortunately, my sister Simcah couldn't make it because she was on a Disney cruise. Poor thing! ;) lol. She was greatly missed.

Family Photo Opps

This year we tried more than once to get the perfect family picture. It really isn't easy to get everyone looking at the camera and smiling, with the right atmosphere and lighting. Whew! If you are a mom who has ever done a photo session you know what I am talking about. These pictures are great, but they have also been photo shopped. :)

 

First was done at a family get together on my side of the family. I loved out outfits.

 These we took for Christmas Cards and we really struggled getting everyone to look at the camera and smile! So after swapping a few heads we got one. I loved the setting of this one.

 I posted these pictures before, but after playing around with them I ended up with these and printed them in 12X12 and hung them on the wall. They look REALLY nice there!

 And Mike's Company Party was so much fun! They had these pictures available and I loved them!!!

 I love the people, smiles, and attitude it them.

Resquested Dinner

November 11, i told Tsadakah that if she did something (I can't remember what it is now) that I would make her whatever she wanted. I expected her to ask for a dessert, but she wanted a Macaroni & Cheese Pie. Well a promise is a promise. She was specific and said that she wanted it "striped" like the one Snow White makes.

 

So here it is, the Lattice Macaroni & Cheese Pie.

 

It was fun to make and I had high hopes, but in all honesty, it was dry and (as my dad would call it) "sticky-in-the-mouth.

But she loved it! She was so excited and grateful for it that she made my bed as a thank you. She is a sweetheart!

So, you might have noticed that I haven't blogged in months. the thing is that I cant get pictures loaded on here because somehow my blog is connected to my google+ and although the blog has unlimited picture allowance, google+ is limited. So I was wondering if any of you good experienced bloggers out there know ho to help me solve that problem. Anybody? Anybody? Thank you.

Elections

Well elections came and went. I fouind myself compulsively eating the three days before and eating out of depression for a week afterward. The thing that makes me the saddest about Oboma winning the election is that I now feel out numbered. I feel scared to be honest. Scared of the unknown and my greatest fears coming alive. My imagination might be too strong and the only thing that I can rely on is my hope.

 I think that I said it most elequantly on facebook November 7th, "After the results. I am thinking that there is nothing more important than teaching my children right from wrong. Nothing else matters but teaching them to distinguish truth from error, right from wrong. God has always been with his righteous and He will continue still to abide with them. I can only feel sorry for the ones who do not. Join with me in teaching our children to live a virtuous life."

 

My little girls need to understand the role that God has planned for them. That the only way to save America is to live righteously. That is where I draw my strength and my hope for the future from, because if I couldn't do that, than I would be a basket case who is afraid of the world and its end. My kids are the light of the future for me.

 

Wednesday, we went to the edge of the lake and took some pictures. It was fun, and humbling. I still have so much to learn about in order to be a good photographer. But my subjects were beautiful despite my limited efforts.

 

 Tsadakah's best friend, Julianne, came with us. It was a wonderful fun play date. These girls play so well together and they are silly and giggly. I was just like that.

 Got to love a good lolli! :)

 Thursday night Mike's mom and dad came to stay. It was nice to visit with them. The next morning George and I went through all of his Vietnam pictures. We spent precious hours talking about his memories and figuring out the people in the photos. Seriously it was great. I can't wait to make his book for him. :)

Tsadakah's wonderful school held a powerful assembly honoring Veterans. George didn't like the attention. He said that he did it all for Tsadakah's sake. So sweet! This picture is from him coming in with the others. They played a patriotic song and I was crying right away! He had told me that when he came home the service men were not honored or recognized. In fact they changed in the airport to avoid being spit on or ridiculed. So it touched me so much to be part of the first people to ever recognize him with respect and appreciation.

 The assembly was beautiful and the music was inspirational. The children sang songs that I have never heard before even. Tsadakah sang "Your A Grand Old Flag." Can you see her in this picture? In the end they all sang a song that was beautiful and melodious. Tsadakah told me that she had cried during one of their practices. At the end they called each veterans name and gave a class made award. There was a verean who was recognized as a Prisoner Of War. There was a standing ovation for him. He humbly accepted that response and went around shaking people's hands. What a hero! What and honor that would have been to have had him shake my hand. Better than a celebrety.

 Tsadakah giving Grandpa some sugar. We were so grateful that he and Carol were able to come and I want it to become a tradition.

 I kept MiKaylah entertained by taking her picture over and over again. She was pretty good for the most part except that she insisted on taking off her tights.

 One Saturday I had my biggest event of the year for my calling, Super Saturday. It really went so well. I was so happy with it. I had an amazing group of woman on my commitee and they came together to pull off one great event. They were there without complaint for the set up, the crafts and the clean up.

Here are some of the crafts that we did, just a few. These were beautiful wall hangings that were all the craze! We had the most sign ups for this one. Jenn Bullock was super amazing and on top of everything for it.

 This is one that we found on line and had to have. Originally it was from etsy. We bought the packets and they were well worth every penny! They are GORGEOUS! I can't wait for Christmas just so that I can display them.

 And these votives were a beautiful project that didn't take long or cost much and were the perfect gift for extended family.

I had a great first Super Satuday.