American Pyes

The Williamson's came to our house to help us rock in the new year. We busted out the lego rockband and had a great time. Lots of junk food helped a little too.

My favorite time of the year to visit the zoo is winter. There is hardly anyone there and you are not miserably hot. It's kind of fun to bundle up and go to the zoo. On our way home from Marietta we went to the zoo with Doug's family. The zoo is always more fun with others.

The day after Christmas was Sunday. We put on our pretty new dresses and headed to church. Papaw got to speak in sacrament meeting. After church we quickly got these pics before everyone changed.

This year it was just us and Doug's family at nana and papaw's house for Christmas. The morning started out with powdered donuts as usual and then the kids lining up on the stairs. The had a great morning of opening gifts and stockings and then a yummy dinner in the afternoon. I think it was all a bit much for Sarah. She was wiped out by the end of the day.

We went to Marietta for Christmas 2010. Our Christmas eve celebration was at Doug & Cyndi's home. The cousins had a great time being together. We had a great dinner and then like always papaw read the Christmas story. Then everyone got to open one gift.

The day after our family Christmas celebration we decided we should take the kids out to do something. Since moving to Dayton I've heard over and over again about the Boonshoft museum. We went and had a great time. They had a planetarium that we went to and watched a show about our night time sky. They had lots of pretend play areas like the court room, the market, the pizza parlor, the garbage dump, the recycling truck, and auto shop. They had legos, a treehouse, a water table, climbing nets and slide, and a little indoor zoo. It was a lot of fun. We got a membership so that we can go back again and again.

We celebrated our Pye christmas this year on Dec. 21st. We started out with some pics of the kids and then we dived into the gifts. Everyone got just wanted they wanted. That included lots of legos, make-up, and toys. This year we even did a full christmas dinner just for our family. Richard did most of it and thoroughly enjoyed making it special for our family. After dinner we played some games while Richard picked the rest of the meat off of the bird. I love our tradition of celebrating our own Christmas together.

Except this is as far as she got. She was a little nervous of it all once she got outside.

After looking at a ribbon holder on black friday Kim and I decided that we could make our own. I went down to her house and out of some scrap wood this is what we came up with. We made one for her and two for me. I was quite happy with how it turned out. Now I need some more ribbon to fill it up. I think this is going to be the first of more projects to come.

Rachel joined the shaw la la's (her school choir) and she auditioned and made it on to the ensemble choir. This was their winter concert. She sang, played instruments and had a speaking part. She did great. She has to stay after school for an hour twice a week to practice and an extra hour one day for ensemble. We are proud of her and all her hard work.

I was called as the ward activities chairman about a month before the Christmas party. They already had a Mexican theme so we went with that. The young men made us some pinatas, the young women did a story room, and the primary did a craft room. We started the night with groups of members reenacting the night that Mary and Joseph came to Bethlehem and being turned away from all the inns (they call this the posada). They finished in a room full of nativity scenes and Christmas music. In the gym we had chips and salsa and lots of dessert. It went really well and the kids had a lot of fun. I was just glad it was done.