Twinkle Toes

Ginny just started a dance class called "Twinkle Toes". It's just a fun class where she can dress up as a ballerina and learn some basic ballet. The most important part to her is the outfit. One day I forgot her ballet shoes. That was a tragedy! She was so mad at me!
This is good for her to be in a structured class. She needs to learn how to follow other people's directions and receive instruction. I'm glad she's learning some basic ballet steps. I'm not sure what to do when she collapses in the middle of class and whines " I can't do it. It's too hard!". When she does this at home, I try to ignore her. It's hard to know how to help when she's in a class setting. Any one have tips on dealing with dramatic daughters? While I'm glad she's learning, my favorite part is watching her when music is put on. She has such joy in dancing her own way. I love the smiles on her face.

Sculptures

I am a strange Mom, but I like when Ginny gets creative. Last week she spent quite a while building "tape sculptures". I had no idea scotch tape was so strong. Here are a few pictures of her masterpieces:






Today she made a "tether ball" pole with a mop and lacing cards. I thought it was pretty clever how she figured out how to attach all the strings to the mop.


I can't believe she'll be 5 next month! She is just starting to get the hang of reading, when she wants to. I'm trying not to push her and just let it happen when she's ready. But it's so fun to hear her sounding out words and reading.
I signed her up for the lottery of a charter school near here, Walden. It is a Montessori style school. I visited the Kindergarten last week. I love how everything is so hands on. I think she would love it there. We'll see if she gets in. I can't believe I have to start figuring out the whole school thing already! Has anyone heard good or bad things about this school. What are your thoughts about Montessori learning? I'd love to hear your ideas.

Best of 2009

I am way behind on our blog. I just wanted to post some pictures of our favorite things this year. I am also including our Christmas letter for this year with updates about our year.

Happy 2010!

It’s been an eventful year for our family. Here are some highlights:

• In February, Danielle was named the 2009 Utah Young Mother of the Year. She got to meet with the Utah Legislature, Governor Huntsman and represent mothers of young children from Utah. She also represented Utah in the National Conference of American Mothers in Portland in April.
• In April, our family also went to Disneyland! We went with Matt’s school’s choir who performed there. We’re not sure which Ginny loved best- Disneyland, the beach, or having so many teenage girls to play with.
• We enjoyed a fun summer full of swimming, mom and me art classes, canning produce from our bounteous garden and fun visits from cousins.
• Matt started his second year of teaching at Karl G Maeser Preparatory Academy- a charter school in Lindon. He and Danielle went to Cedar City in October to help the students perform and compete in the High School Shakespeare Competition. Maeser students won first place in sweepstakes in their division!
• Ginny started preschool and loves it! It’s hard to believe she’ll be 5 in February and start Kindergarten in the fall. She is a happy, active, curious and smart little girl. (Ginny says I forgot singing and dancing.) We love her so much!
• Danielle is the volunteer director of a local preschool near our home. She also does storytelling once a month at the Orem library. She still works very part-time supervising student teachers at BYU who are going into special education.
• Matt had surgery three times in December for kidney stones. He is fine and doing well. We appreciate all the skilled nurses and doctors who helped him. We just hope not to have to see them again any time soon.
• We had a fun trip with Danielle's family to the Homestead at Midway after Christmas. We enjoyed snowshoeing, sledding, swimming in the natural warm pools and being treated to a massage at the spa. Thanks to Danielle's parents for a great trip.
  

We have been blessed to see what good and loving friends we have this year. We are constantly blessed with love and prayers by so many wonderful people. Thank you for your friendship.

Excited for Christmas

Ginny is so excited for Christmas. It's going to be a fun holiday with her. Yesterday morning when she woke up, she came into the living room and asked "Did Santa leave anything in our stockings?" She helped put up our tree and put all the ornaments at her eye level. She was very upset when I told her we couldn't move the tree to her room. I did offer to set up a little tree in her room, but she wanted to move all the decorations from the big tree to hers. So now we are making little paper ornaments to put on her tree.
She was sad when I had to throw away the huge pumpkins we had on our porch all throughout October and November. She flung herself on the biggest one and wouldn't get off, hoping to shield it with her body. I guess we could call her a "pumpkin hugger". Here's a picture of a sad girl with her friend standing bravely by for support.
So we took a picture instead and said "Bye, Bye Pumpkins" as they made their way to the garbage.

Catching Up

I can't believe it's the middle of November already! Here are a few things I've been meaning to post:
Oct 24- I ran a 5k! Ok, I jogged/walked it, but I finished! I'm grateful to my two friends, Katie and Helen, who encouraged me and kept me going. I'm not going to tell you my time or what place I took. You just need to know that I finished and they didn't even have to escort me off the route. This was part of the BYU Homecoming celebrations, and the 5k was right before the parade. Here's a picture of my bib and time card- notice that the time is covered up : > My friend took pictures of us at the race. I'll have to see if I can get copies.

Halloween! Ginny was tinkerbell this year. Very beautiful, as you can see. This was the first year she got to go trick or treating. She really got the hang of it, especially the candy. When she came home, she took out all the candy she didn't like and gave it to the trick or treaters who came to our house.

Ginny started preschool!

Ginny started preschool on Monday. I don't know why, she just seems so grown up. We always do lots of classes together, but this is the first time I've dropped her off somewhere and just had to say goodbye. I was more sad than she was. She took one look at the toys and kids to play with, and didn't even look back. She did say she doesn't like school. Surprised, I asked her why. She said because she doesn't like having to go home! I can't believe she'll be 5 in February and next year she'll be in Kindergarten!
Meanwhile, I just discovered the joy of having a few hours 3 days a week to myself! I think I'm going to like this. : >

Canning time

I am so proud of this.











14 jars (plus seven a few weeks ago ) of homemade spaghetti sauce. I have never canned on my own before. After spending the whole day doing this, I realized why, but I'm proud I did it. I know I'll be especially grateful for it in January. These were all with tomatoes from our garden this year.