Allys turn to sing

Ally is in an after school choir called Singing Coyotes. She has been in Singing Coyotes for 2 years now. They had their annual Christmas concert right before we went on Christmas break. I did not get to attend this one since we have AWANA on Thursdays and I had missed AWANA the previous Thursday. Henry was able to miss AWANA and attend the concert with Grandma Cookie and their auntie Cheryl.

Excited before the concert begins.

And a couple of shot during the concert from way back in the audience.

Don't you love that she is leaning against the wall as she sings?

And hanging with the girls after the concert.

Sledding 2011

Boy did it snow in Rio Rancho. School was cancelled for 3 days due to the snow. We live by a little park that has a little hill. So I bought a couple of plastic sleds and introduced my kids to sledding. You might ask "this is the first time your kids went sledding?" Go ahead, ask yourself. My reply would be "Yes. My kids do not enjoy a) the cold and b) anything that moves them fast that they feel out of control".

Both Ally and Ryan were pretty hesitant to go down the hill. I went down once to show them that they would be okay. I then stood at the bottom of the the hill and promised to "catch" them as they came down the hill.

Ally was the first one to try it out . . .

And Ryan quickly followed . . .

Once they got going a couple times they really were enjoying themselves. That is until . . . Ryan's sled broke.

Here is Ryan upset that his sled broke. I explained that it broke because a) it was cheap, only $5, b) it is made out of thin plastic, and c) I probably broke it when I went down.

I love this picture.

and this picture.

Ryan's Christmas Concerts

Ryan is in a choir, through school, called Coyote Choral. They practice every Thursday morning and it has been like pulling teeth to get him to go to practice. He will ask in the morning "is today Golden Corral (meaning Coyote Choral)?" If I say it is he starts whining that he does not want to go. Despite all of this, when he had 2 Coyote Choral concerts this past month, Ryan was in heaven. He just loved being on stage and singing.

The first concert was at Cleveland HS performing arts center. This concert consisted of the high school choir students (all in tux's and gowns), a middle school choir (also in tux's and gowns) and about 4 elementary school choirs (dressed up as well). All choirs first sang on their own and then at the end of the concert all the choirs joined together on stage and sang a closing number. Like I stated earlier, Ryan enjoyed being on stage. Maybe, a little too much. After every song that Ryan's group sang, as the audience clapped, Ryan would take numerous bows. Now I must note, no one else was bowing. Just my son :) He would even face a different direction for each bow in order to make certain that he bowed to all who were applauding. At the end of the concert when all choir's sang together, when they finished the last song and everyone was applauding, Ryan began blowing kisses to the the audience. Again, he would turn his body and continue blowing kisses making sure not to to miss anyone.

Ryan bowing for the audience. Unfortunately, I missed getting pictures of Ryan blowing kisses.

The Coyote Choral also did a concert at the elementary school. This was a much smaller venue. Also, much shorter. There was no bowing or kisses blowing. However, Ryan being Ryan added his own little touch to the concert. When I dropped him off in the choir room his white shirt was tucked in. When he took the stage, his shirt was untucked. So, when the choir would finish a song and the audience would clap, Ryan would grab the bottom of his shirt, and curtsey, with biggest smile on his face.

That's my Ryan.

Grandma and Grandpa were in town to see Ryan's concert.

Another concert? Yes, Ryan was in his elementary school "Frosty Follies" concert. All the first graders sang some Christmas songs and performed a little dance.

Ryan with his teacher. Ally has had this teacher in first grade. Click here to see that post, from two years ago.

Ryan with one of his friends from kindergarten.

Halloween 2011

So I finally downloaded the pictures in my camera and was surprised that we took Halloween pictures. We also took Thanksgiving pictures that I will post later.

For Halloween Ryan was Darth Vader (of course), Ally was a snow princess and baby Daniel was a little monster. The kids went trick or treating around the neighborhood and collected a good amount of candy (which I later took to my classroom to give out at incentives).

Don't you love Daniel's 'monster' face?

Ally's 9th Birthday

Okay, since I have been a slacker blogger, you have to pretend that I am posting this post on August 23, Ally's birthday.

Ally is now 9 years old. Yikes! Half way to 18 (that one is for Charlene). Ally is growing up way too fast for me. She is now in 3rd grade. She still loves school. She is so eager to learn. And she always want to do her best (at school at least, not when cleaning her room).

She love to draw and loves to work on any sort of craft. She is no longer in gymnastics. She continues with Awana and will start volleyball shortly. She continues to let me know that she does not want to grow up. She wants to be a kid forever. Henry use to tell the kids that when they turned 18 that they had to move out. This would really upset her. So now Henry will say that when Ryan turns 18, and if they are not both out of the house, that we are moving out.

Ally's favorite thing to do, continues to be to bug her brother. If Ryan says stop, Ally will get a sly grin on her face and bug him until either he explodes or I explode, which means she gets in trouble. However, Ally and Ryan continue to be best friends.

In the past year Ally has gone through an interesting friend phase. For second grade, last year, she was put into a class without any of her friends. While most of her friends ended up in the same classroom. Whatever her thinking may have been, she withdrew from all of her friends. This was hard to watch. She did make a new friend in 2nd grade. However, that friend moved away later in the school year. This year Ally seems to have made a good friend in her class and also reconnect with a good friend in SAFE.

She is growing up so fast.

Isn't she beautiful?

Where Have I Been?

Not sure why I have not posted in six months. I could use the excuse that I'm tired. I am always tired. I could say it is because I went back to work and am so busy. I'm not quite sure why I have not posted. But, I'm going to try to get back into blogging. So, here is the last six months in pictures. Enjoy and glad to be back.

I returned to work in August, after taking a year off. I actually went into work, to decorate my classroom, the day after baby Daniel was born. Four days after returning to work, I took a sick day and we drove to Austin for Henry's cousin's wedding. We drove 25 hours from Thursday evening to Sunday afternoon. Not much site seeing done in Austin, but it was nice to see family.

Ally at the wedding.

I wonder if Ryan enjoyed the wedding ;)

Ryan enjoyed dancing at the reception. Ryan was the hit of the party. So many girls were dancing with him. The lady in the background, in the black dress, was Ryan's dance partner for quite awhile.

A week after Austin, Ally started 3rd grade and Ryan started first grade.

I did not get to take them to school on their first day, due to work. So Henry took the 1st day of school pictures and took them to school.

Ryan lost his first tooth in September. But Ryan, being Ryan, either swallowed it or it fell down the shower drain. About a month later he lost his second tooth and literally lost it. He thinks it fell on the floor and Jasper ate it. Who knows. So, I don't have a baby tooth for Ryan like I have for Ally.

We went to Taos for a weekend in October (I had not gone since last Thanksgiving). Ally spent the weekend riding the tricycle around the hill and Ryan spent the weekend shooting a bow and arrow.

For Thanksgiving we went to Jal. For some reason we did not take any pictures. It was a nice, relaxing time with family. We drove into Hobbs one day to go see the movie The Muppets.

And this is how I spend every Sunday afternoon.

Baby Daniel Has Arrived!!!

I just found this post in my drafts. I can't believe I had not posted it.

Baby Daniel, my nephew from my sister, joined this world on August 4th at 2:04 pm. He weighed 6 lbs 3 oz, which is one ounce less than Ally weighed when she was born. Ryan was 7 lbs 4 oz when he was born. He is 19 1/2 inches long.

Baby Daniels mom is my sister, Cheryl. I am so excited because this is my first nephew on my side of the family and my sister lives only 5 minutes from my house. Based on how many clothes I bought this little boy before he was born, I am going to spoil him so much. Baby Daniel is a baby I can love and cuddle and dress up and when he gets fussy, I can take him back to his mom and dad.

Ryan and Ally love Baby Daniel so much. When I picked him up from the sitter today they immediately asked if wecould go to Cheryl's to seeBaby Daniel. "Of course we can!"

Baby Daniel gave my sister one heck of a pregnancy and delivery. Cheryl developed pre-eclampsia, gestational diabetes and low platelets. The doctors decided to induce her two weeks early. She was induced on Monday about 10:00 pm. He did not arrive until Wednesday at 2:04 pm. I joke that she has one heckof a war story.

My mother, who retired a week ago, willlive with my sister from Sunday night to Friday morning once my sister returns to work, in 8 weeks. My mom will now be the Granny Nanny. I'm pretty sure my dad will also come along with my mom.