Safety Poster Contest

Emma's school recently participated in a contest sponsored by the county sheriff's department all about safety.  I guess it was just for the 4th graders.  Fifteen schools in the county participated.  Each kid had to draw a poster about some type of safety and write a 50-100 word essay about it.  Emma drew and wrote about car safety.  Her teacher (who had nothing to do with choosing the winners) told me Emma won because her essay had a voice and personality in it.  It wasn't just a list like most of the other kids had done, writing "First, blah blah blah. Second, blah blah blah.  Third, blah blah blah." I think it's fantastic that she won of course, but especially since she wants to be an author, and she won this contest based on her writing.  It makes her extra proud.

She won a bike, helmet, plaque, and target gift card, which the winners were each awarded with at a banquet held in their honor last night.  The winners, parents, and their teachers were all invited to the banquet.  Emma thought it was great being able to have dinner with her teacher and meet her teacher's husband.

It was a fabulous night, and we're very proud of Emma for working so hard in school.  And now she's excited to try out her new bike and figure out what to do with her old one.  =)

The Sheriff and Deputy Friendly teasing Emma while awarding her all the loot.  It's funny, they didn't tease any of the other winners, just Emma.  There is just something about her that makes people want to joke around and mess with her.  =)

A nicer one with them.

Emma with her teacher.

Emma's poster.  The scanner cut a little off the corner.  The sun says "Stay Safe."

Emma's essay.  Of course she used almost the max amount of words allowed.

St. Patrick's Day

Just wanted to share how cute Emma looked on St Patrick's Day.  Sometimes it's the simple things that make a day special.  And something as simple as wearing green can be fun.  I think it's funny how times change though.  When Emma got to school the first thing her teacher said was "No pinching."  When I was in school kids pinched each other all day long!  =)

Sledding

Gotta love sledding!  And we finally had some nice snow without the temperatures being into the negatives.  So we took advantage of the beautiful day and had some fun.

At one point Emma started pushing she sled back up the hill instead of just carrying it.
Not really sure that saved any energy, but maybe that's just me.  =)

December Stuff

I love December each year.  It's such a fun time, and I love getting ready for Christmas.  There are so many fun activities.  Here are just a few of ours from the month.

We went down to Chicago to go to the Christkindlmarkt they have each year.  Eric and I were both hoping it would be something like the ones we went to on our missions.  The one in Chicago was very small in area, but looked alright.  It had been made up fairly cute.  There were so many people there though we could hardly move.  We were literally (as in the actual meaning of the word 'literally' and not the exaggerated use most people place on it now for added emphasis) touching shoulders with people around us the entire time.  I was holding Emma's hand for fear I'd lose her in the crowd. So many adults meant Emma couldn't see anything other than the person in front of her.  She would try to give herself a little space as we walked around, but each time someone else would just squeeze in front of us.  I had to tell Emma that she couldn't have any personal space there.  Not if we were ever going to move around.  We walked around the place once, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and left.  We only managed to look a little more closely at one shop.  It was a nightmare.  It took us forever to just walk around.  We were all very ready to leave.  Even though it was a bust, I'm glad we went so now we know to never go again.  And we won't be wondering if it's super great like the ones we've been to in Europe.

This was the tree at the Christkindlmarkt.  There wasn't room to move further back for a better shot.

We decorated some gingerbread houses.  It was fun just messing around and adding things all over.  We didn't even try to really make them look real.  Just had lots of fun with lots of icing.




Emma sang in a school concert comprised of the 4th and 5th graders at her school.  It was just as you would expect it to be.  It's always fun to see Emma in these things, but I really wish I liked the song choices better.  Emma was cute as always though, and she had fun seeing her friends.


On Christmas Eve Emma opened up the pajamas I'd made for her (well, I only made the bottoms.  I bought the top to match).

Christmas Day was fun.  Every year we try to cut back, and every year we fail.  Oh well.  We just had a nice quiet day at home this year.  We had a delicious brunch, and then a yummy roast for dinner.  We were planning on going to see a movie in the afternoon, but Emma was getting over being sick, and so we just stayed home and played some of our new games.

And this is before we went to Ohio and exchanged gifts with my brother.  Emma got another lego set from them. Also missing is a taekwondo bag Eric's parents are giving her for Christmas.  It wasn't here yet.

Early the next day we drove down to Ohio to visit with my brother and sister-in-law who were there visiting her parents.  I was excited to see them, but really excited to see my nephew, who was only 2 weeks old the last time I saw him, and is now 18 months old.  He was so cute!  We only stayed for the one night, but it was great seeing them.  And my sister-in-law's parents are great too - it's always fun seeing them.  We exchanged gifts with all of them, and then just played games and hung out.  I miss them already and can't wait to see them again!

Besides our other gifts, I made these hats for Michael and Ben.  Michael loved the ninja turtles when he was younger, so they seemed perfect.  I saw the idea here:  http://chucksforchancho.com/2013/12/08/tutorial-tmnt-beanie/

This video is a cute one of Ben singing along with Michael

 and Eric and Eric played his ukelele.