Cat Adventures

For Christmas Elena got a kitten, she named him Tiger. He was a 3 month old kitty from the animal shelter in Murray. Such a cute cat! He was very, very active and playful! He also really liked attention and to get into anything he could. He loved human food, but his belly didn't agree with his taste. We had to give him up after a month or so, because we all had a hard time sleeping at night as he was very active especially then. Elena really wanted a kitten so badly, but once she had one, she sort of lost interest in him quickly. He was a little overly active for our bunch.  He was so cute, I miss him!

Meet Ginger the orange cat. 

Not long after we got Tiger we also got Ginger, because Kevin has always wanted to have an orange cat, and he finally convinced me to let him get one, while we were in kitten mode. She is very sweet and apparently a rarity - female orange cats tend to be harder to come by because both the mom and dad have to carry the orange color gene. Her belly looks like this because she was neutered at the shelter before we picked her up. She came from a barn cat litter, so she has been more shy than our other 2 cats (we still have Kitty Roxi the black cat, 15 years old now, and then Tiger was here with her for a few weeks). Ginger is slowly relaxing and playing more and more with us. She isn't too fond of the kids but likes me and Kevin. She has the smelliest gas in the world and has some pretty messy cat litter habits. I hope she gets over them soon! She likes to hide in the garage so we have to keep the door shut at all times because we worry we'll run her over. 

 

The Nutcracker

The Utah Metropolitan Ballet put together a performance at the Covey Art Center in Provo for kids attending Spectrum Academy and their families. Elena was so excited to go to a ballet performance and I had never seen the Nutcracker either. We had Kevin and the boys join but they only made to the intermission. Kevin more or less hated it because there were no words to tell him the story; the boys were very fascinated with the costumes and décor but their attention span just couldn't do 2 hours of sitting. They left for the second half and went to look at Christmas lights at the Pioneer Park not far from there. Elena on the other hand loved every second of everything. It was so special for us to have some girl time! The performance was beautiful and so amazing to see in real life!

 

I tried to look fancy for my night out to the ballet :)

The children got a personal opportunity to take pictures with the dancers after the performance.

 

Christmas 2021

This was our first Christmas at our new house. A lot happened in 2021, so it was a nice time reflecting on all the good new things we had in our family, such as our new house, neighborhood and all that it entails. 

George started school this year and even though kindergarten was a mess for the first few months, he was at least getting used to everyday school by Christmas time. 

Elena started school at Spectrum Academy this year and that has been the best experience for her! The school curriculum and schedule leave so much room for Elena to be herself without fear of getting in trouble all the time. Her teacher Miss Kaylee loves her to pieces and that bond they have makes school even more enjoyable for Elena. She's learning a ton and has already caught up on a lot of missed material she didn't learn at Montessori. 

Charlie is still at French immersion at Belmont Elementary (George goes there too) and he literally goes there still because he loves his best friend there named Declan. French has been too hard for him, and mainly because he hasn't learned to try to pick out what is being said to him. He goes through the motions in French class but is still somehow doing his math work, which is relieving (all math is taught in French). It was very cute seeing him perform a Christmas song in French at their Christmas program.

Charlie's Christmas Program at Belmont Elementary 2nd Grade French Immersion

George's Christmas Program at Belmont Elementary Kindergarten class,

He didn't sing a word! He at least did some of the song motions with his classmates...

Looking at Christmas lights is a family tradition now. Turns our Lehi has quite a few homes that do light shows. It was fun driving around and looking for them.

Grandma Debbi brought this gingerbread house kit and built it with the kids. I love when Grandma and Grandpa spend time with our children!

Annual gingerbread houses tradition. Kevin and I didn't help at all this year, which is the first year ever we haven't had to do that.

Cheeky George in his Christmas PJs

Christmas Eve tradition of getting new Christmas PJs

Elena's Christmas kitten,,,

All of her presents! I guess it was a bit too much ;)

A visit to the Aquarium

Watching Home Alone 2 or 3 on repeat this Christmas. They found Home Alone 3 especially hilarious (kind of terrible for us adults in the house lol)

Charlie enjoying a Christmas gift from my friend Polie.

Elena at her Christmas class party. Her teacher sent this photo to me in an email. I love her so much!

 

Winter Fun 2021-2022 Part 2

 The other activity we did as a family while in Park City was taking the kids skiing, teaching them to ski. 

Elena and Charlie have gotten a lot more confident and actually enjoy skiing now. Last year was the first time they skied, so this year they've grown in every aspect and their lessons from last year sunk in this season. 

George is harder to teach. He hasn't responded too well to us teaching him, so we're (Kevin mostly) are having to hold him with the ski leash and follow behind him. That's pretty painful to do as you're having to pizza down the entire hill and get frustrated as George does not respond to the suggestions to turn this way or that. Eventually he'd end up on the "Magic Carpet" area - essentially the beginner's hill with a conveyer belt that takes skiers to the top and you ski down a fairly flat area with a whole lot of other beginners. 

George also gets tired very quickly at this age and he's usually done skiing after an hour of being up there.

Kevin and I started taking turns skiing with either Charlie and Elie or with George. Usually I start with Charlie and Elena and do 2-3 runs with them, by then George is ready for the magic carpet, so I stay with him there and Kevin takes a few runs with the two older kids. 

We are so happy that it's our family sport and truly hope George becomes more teachable next season as he get older and more mature. 

The last time we went skiing it was just me, Elena and Charlie, since George didn't want to go. Kevin took him on a Daddy - Son date instead. We had a great time skiing and when we got down to the bottom to go home, we saw that Toyota was doing an event. We got our faces printed on a cookie and the kids created their own logos that ended up on a ski hat that they gave to them as gifts. Super fun!

It was also dumping snow like crazy so by the time we got to the car our cookies had gotten wet through the paper bags they were in. Good thing I took a picture of them for a memory! :) 

Winter 2021-2022 Fun Part 1

I work for Surefoot, which is located in Park City UT. I go into the office to pick up mail and file paperwork every so often. I used to go every Saturday but that has changed as my work responsibilities have shifted towards doing a lot more Payroll work, and digital Accounts Payable filing. We made it a point to do something fun while we're up in Park City. 

Kevin introduced us to this park last winter. In the summer it's a mountain biking park trail/skate park/dog park/ and kids playground. Pretty cool place we've enjoyed taking the kids to.

In the winter it's an awesome place for sledding. The kids have a great time playing in the snow.

Here are some pictures of the one time we went this winter.