Pipe-A-Phone

For school Emma was learning all about different instruments and their families.  They were given the assignment to make their own instrument, which they would then bring into class and give a presentation on as well as turn in a paper about it.  Lots of suggestions were sent home, things like a rubber-band guitar or drums made from cans with a balloon stretched across the top, etc.  Emma wanted to make something that was different than these suggestions.  At first she wanted to make a pan flute, but that soon escalated into what she named the pipe-a-phone.  It was big and heavy, so I had to help get it to and from school, but she loved it, and so did the kids in her class.  And it was definitely different than anyone else's.  She did most of the work to make it too, under our supervision.  Eric took turns with her sawing the pipes down to size mostly because it was very difficult, and he wanted to give her a break.  I had to take a picture and video of it though, because there was no way, given the size, that I was going to keep this thing around for long.  It takes up too much space.  So this is our record of her project.

How To Make Snow

Since our temperatures today reached at least 40 below with wind chill, we decided to try a little experiment.  We took boiling water out and threw it into the air.  It's so cold the water froze before it hit the ground.  Much of it turned into powder like snow.

December Activities

December is always a fun time, but never fails to come and go too quickly.  And there's never enough time for all the things I'd like to do.  But each year we do at least some of the things I have planned, and always have fun being together.

At the start of the month, Emma had a school music concert we attended.  They were supposed to dress nicely, and Emma ended up looking kind of like an elf.  I only wish they had sung some regular Christmas songs.  There are so many they couldn't learned and sung, but instead they sang weird songs I'd never heard of before.  And it wasn't even because they were trying to stay about from holiday songs and stick with wintery ones.  Oh well.  It was fun seeing Emma do her part.

We only saw Santa once during the month, but made sure to grab a picture of Emma with him.

We were all sick in turns for several days before Christmas and a couple after, but amazingly were feeling fine almost all day on Christmas itself.  It was a Christmas miracle.  Being sick didn't stop us from doing the basics each day though - Emma's lego advent, chocolate advent (although she didn't eat the chocolate for a few days - it wouldn't have stayed down), and watching Christmas movies.  The first night Emma woke up sick (after the initial shock of finding "evidence" of the sickness everywhere and cleaning it up), she took a bath and soaked for awhile.  I dried her hair, but knew she wouldn't be able to go back to bed.  She was still sick and continued to have her moments fairly frequently, so I put some towels on the couch, propped up some pillows, tucked us in with blankets, put a bucket and a water bottle next to her, had a back up bucket and some paper towels near by, and at 2:30 in the morning she and I started watching It's A Wonderful Life.  It was a little weird starting a movie with Emma in the middle of the night, but what else were we going to do?  That was a very long night.  Then two nights later, still not fully recovered from the lack of sleep that comes with staying up all night long, I got sick and stayed up all night again for myself this time.  Yuck.

We made neighbor gifts and went to see some lights, but mostly took it easy as we recovered from being sick.

Christmas was great.  We opened our presents and then later went over to our dear friends house for dinner.  It was a nice relaxing day.  The days following Christmas were spent by Emma building her new lego sets and making rubber band bracelets.  Also watching new movies - I hadn't seen either Monsters University or Despicable Me 2, so that was fun to finally see them.  Emma had seen them in the the theaters, but was still excited to see them again.

Christmas Eve in her new pajamas.  I made the bottoms and bought the shirt to go with them.

Do you think she's excited?

After Santa's visit.

Usually Santa brings Emma's entire stocking, but I added a couple things from me this year.   The different wrapped gifts are mine.  Santa's gifts never need a tag because they're all in the same wrapping each year.

The damages.  What I think is funniest about this picture, is that Eric and I wanted to cut back on Christmas this year.  I think in the end Emma got more than ever before!  Obviously we didn't really plan the whole cutting back part very carefully.  Oh well.  In case you're wondering, that big blue thing in front is a big lounge thing I made for her.  It holds 5 pillows in a column and can be used for resting, TV watching, reading, etc.  You can fold a couple of the pillows over to make a head/back rest and stretch out on the rest.  I almost didn't finish it because I was so sick.

She got out all her Monsters stuffed animals.  She already had a few,
but wanted to show them all together with her new ones.

I crocheted some hats for my nieces and nephews last summer and took them with me to Utah.  I wrapped them up and had my mom store them until Christmas.  The top two were for my sisters girls, the blue and brown one was for my little brother's son, and the five red ones were for my older brother's kids.  For them I decided to go with a University of Utah theme.  The girls got flowers because they are so special.  =)

My sister's youngest in her new hat!

I just loved seeing her in this finally.

For New Year's we decorated sugar cookies.  We had been planning on doing it before Christmas, but then got sick, and somehow the thought of cookies was not appealing.  We all had so much fun!

My cookies.  I didn't make brown icing, so I had to use the black for the reindeer and tree trunk.  The gingerbread man (who I thought should also be a ginger- hee hee) is supposed to be wearing lederhosen.  I had an excess of blue icing, so I made the world too.

Eric's cookies.  His two favorites are the yellow circle (which is supposed to be him), and his gingerbread man who has an evil mustache.  I guess he's a villain.

Emma's cookies.  She made a hula girl complete with grass skirt and flip-flops, and the other gingerbread man is supposed to be Eric all ready for church.

I'll end by saying how grateful I am for the Savior and for this time of year.  It is always wonderful.  I look forward to it all year long.  I missed being with my family this year, but feel so fortunate and blessed to have such wonderful friends here to celebrate with.  I wish everyone a wonderful 2014!

Museums

In November we went to a couple more museums in Chicago we hadn't been to yet, and I wanted to throw some pictures up here.  We went to the Adler Planetarium and the Field Museum.  We had a great day.  On our way home we even tried a new restaurant (to us) attempting to find doner kebaps like we had on our missions.  These were not the same.  Pretty good, but not the same.  Oh well.  We tried.  It'll be some other place next time.

Emma was a little cold on our way into the Planetarium.  I think Eric's hoodie is just a little big for her.

Emma thought the dinosaur footprint made a great seat.

Just outside the restaurant we tried.  I just really liked the brick wall.