Christmas 2011

Random Pictures of Christmas Eve and Christmas morning

Ryan Finishes Karate

Ryan took a karate class this last semester. He enjoyed it and it was really good exercise. The last class was a ceremony class where the students could show us everything they learned. Afterwards, the students received an award. Of course, I don't have to say that Ryan put on a performance for everyone.

Ryan showing a punch.

Ryan being put into a hold.

Ryan getting out of a hold.

Ryan ready to attack person who put him in hold.

Now Ryan's turn to put a peer in a hold.

When the other student got out of Ryan's hold and turned to attack him. . .

Ryan put his hands up and screamed like a girl.

And here is Ryan receiving his award.

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?