December

 One of our favorite Christmas activities is the Magical Forest.  Every year for about 5 years Cameron has played the piano at this place.  It is as Opportunity Village.  OV is a place where mentally disabled people go for job training and social activity.  It is a great place and this village supports most of their funding for the rest of the year.  The piano teacher always arranges this for the first week after Thanksgiving.  I love it because the kids get to see Santa and then I can shop.  (:  This year was very exciting because  it was the girls first turn to play.  They were very excited.

 The girls are in a group with three other little girls. Two of the other girls are their best friends.  The third little girl is not in our ward but I am sure that as time goes by she will also be one of their best buddies.

 Go Team...Ready break.

 Lauryn started things off quite nicely.  This little girl had to practice a ton to be ready.  She worked her little heart out to learn her piece.  I was very proud of her. She played Away in a Manger.

 Clara was mad because she made a few mistakes.  (so did everyone else).  I am trying to figure out how to help her not be so hard on herself.  She was amazing.She played Jingle Bells.

 For some reason EVERY SINGLE YEAR Cameron's hat is always skiwampus.  He kills me. He played Fum Fum Fum.

 He and his partner Shelby  played a very difficult piece.  They hadn't played it very many times together.  It was Carol of the Bells Fantasy.  I love watching them play together.  They work really well together.  Shelby is a sweetheart and we love her.

 They have spent a lot of time together over the last 4 years and they have both came a long way.

 This is the whole group.  Most of these kids have been around for awhile.  We love this little group of piano players.

 Then is is off to have some fun.  The girls ran the place like crazy.  There was nobody else around because it was the first week and a school night.  They rode the train and did the 3D maze.

 They raced go carts.

 Cameron can be found playing mini golf the whole time.  I think he broke himself away to take one ride on the train.

 and we finished with the carousel.

total posers. a few months ago a girl gave a relief society lesson in our ward and she told the story of Gail Halvorsen, the candy bomber.  She handed out little candy bombs. She said she was going to pass them out to people at school.  I thought this would be a great idea to do to our whole neighborhood.  There are 125 homes in our little development.  I knew this would be quite a task for my three little people so we invited the neighbors.  It took the Adairs and us about 1.5 hours to make all the bombs and about another 1.5 hours to deliver them.  We watched the you tube link and listened to the First Presidency Christmas devotional while we worked. I thought we would just drop them at the door but the kids insisted on knocking  We had some really great experiences.  Only 2 people sent the kids away.  We attached the story of the candy bomber that they could go watch on you tube.  One lady started to cry and asked if she could hug the girls.  You never know what kind of struggle someone may be having and how a small gesture can totally brighten someones day.  We take for granted how much we help and serve each other in the church.  Most people are alone in this world and they need me and my family to lift them up.  So...we will continue to try.  We have already decided what we are going to do next year.  

Here is Lauryn with a completed candy bomb.