Adult Prom...yes, please!

Everyone once-in-a-while I get possessed with an idea that I somehow am convincing enough to get others to join in.  The last time I went to prom I was wearing braces and weighed 80 pounds.  Fast forward twenty-three years and I have put on a few pounds, have fairly straight teeth, and still love to dance.  So...I was reserving Skateland (yes, roller skating) for the youth in a month and noticed that Skateland was hosting an adult prom.  I sent out an email to a bunch of friends and surprisingly eight couples wanted to join in on the fun.  I decided to keep the date a surprise from Birch which made the suspense that much more exciting.  I borrowed a beautiful prom dress from one of Alex's friends that is now on a mission and my friend, Krista came over and did my make-up after Alysee had transformed my hair.  Alysee and I picked out Birch's outfit and all he knew when we left was that we were dressed up fancy.

The first half of our date entailed visiting home and visiting teaching families and delivering some holiday cheer.  By 8:30 pm Birch couldn't figure out what we would be doing that started so late.  And then....

we pulled into Skateland!!  Ironically, Birch had been there the night before with the kids for a school skate night (after a ten year hiatus from skating). 

Skateland was all fancied up and had hired a live band to play jazz, swing, cha cha, and who knows what else.  Our Mormon group just about doubled the number of dancers!!  Lucky us...Santa was even there to take pictures with each couple.

Pretty sure we win the "awkward couple" award in this picture -- "sit on my knee, it's fake," says Santa.

Cardons

Cluff

Andersens

Williams

Winters

Tews

So sad we did not get a group picture!!!  The Cobias joined us for the evening as well but they must have not been on Santa's good list and didn't get a picture.

I've pretty much decided that I am a free-spirited dancer.  There were amazing couples dancing all evening long and as much as I would love to be able to dance like them I seem to find myself most happy and comfortable when I am writing my own choreography.

It was such a treat to spend the night with my Lover!!!! 

Oh Christmas Tree

We were lucky this year to be in Oregon for Thanksgiving and have the chance to cut down our town fresh Christmas tree at a u-cut farm.  The weather was rainy but we made the most of it and really ended up having a great time together as a family.

Deciding which tree to chop down was the hard part.  We were grateful we ran into a guy with a chain saw as it made the "chopping" down part real easy.

It was a beast to drag around.

We then loaded the tree into a trailer and then got to climb in out of the rain for a fun little muddy ride back to the shop. 

Next the tree was shook to get rid of the dead needles and then sent through this bounding machine that wrapped it in twine.  

We tied it down to the top of the van and were on our way!

This year the kids all received 3-d cut temples -- each temple had a special importance from that year to them.

Nate got the Columbia River Temple to recognize the family history work he had done throughout the year.  Finding his own names to take to do baptisms for the dead.

Alysee got the beautiful Logan temple to help her remember her special summer trip to Retreat for Girls in Logan, UT where she gazed out of her dorm window each night at the Logan temple.

Luke and Camilla joined our family for a couple of weeks over Christmas and got to open up Alex's ornament.  He got a cute little clay missionary guy.

Tyler received the Provo City Temple to remind him of getting to do baptisms there this past September when we were there for Luke and Camilla's wedding.

Cooper got the Meridian, ID temple as this is the first temple that he was able to go inside -- he got to attend the open house this past November.

Chloe also got the Meridian temple for the same reason as Coop.

We sure love decorating the tree together as a family and remembering past ornaments.

This is one of my favorite ornaments -- it was given to Chloe last year to remind her of her baptism.

One of the prettiest trees we have every had!!  It was huge - probably 11-12 feet tall.  It seemed amazing!

Gobbe, Gobble

We had a fabulous trip to Corvallis for Thanksgiving.  It was filled with family, food, and fun!!  We stayed with Seth and Caroline's family which was super fun.  The kids enjoyed evenings playing games, putting together puzzles, and being spoiled with yummy salsa and chips with Seth and Caroline.

Lots of the family had a great time shooting clay pigeons.  Nate clearly has learned something at scout camp!

Chloe getting instructed by Poppi.

Tyler wasn't too bad either.

Thanksgiving day we each did our food preparations as the respective homes we were staying at (we were all kind of split up at various homes) and then brought it all to the Institute to finish our preparations.  Keeping up with the Ditto tradition of making oreo turkeys we pumped out thirty for all the guests.

Lots of playing

Willie and my cousin Eleanor's little guy were the two youngest guests.

The whole clan minus Zuma (cousin Eleanor's husband who is taking the pictures)

Loved my time with all the nieces and nephews

Emily captured this great picture of Chloe and the Andersen kiddos Sunday morning with Ami and Poppi.

Some of the Post-turkey Trot Runners

Seth organized a 5K or a 1K for us all to participate in on his birthday at the Lewisburg Saddle.  It's funny how I lived in Corvallis for years but never knew of this location until recently.  We had a great time -- even those that were grumbling at first ended up doing the 1K several times.  Tyler actually won the 5K, Aunti Leah was second, Natedog came in third place, and Sage was in 4th place.  Everyone agreed that the 5K was not for the faint at heart!  Apparently there was quiet the large hill that just kept going!  I enjoyed a nice stroll on the 1K with a former high school friend of mine.  

We felt so blessed to have so much family in town for Thanksgiving!!  What a treat to have seen everyone several times this year!!

Wonder...we can do hard things!!

This past weekend Alysee and I were able to watch the movie "Wonder." We listened to the book as a family on one of our drives to Utah a couple of years ago. The movie was FABULOUS!!! It followed along with the book wonderfully. I was impressed that the theater was filled with young children, yet I never heard one peep - we were all captivated. Be prepared to shed a few tears and leave wanting to be a better person. I wish I could take our whole school as this movie is as good as any school assembly. Just a treasure!!

It made me reflect on Alex's journey with having reconstructive ear surgeries (external and internal - over 19 surgeries) due to being born with microtia. I remember like it was yesterday when Alex was born and the doctor got all quiet and said, "something is wrong with his ear." And they quickly whisked him away. We always were in the craniofacial floor at the hospitals. I remember one time early on in Alex's treatment we got on the elevator at the children's hospital and I was at the time feeling a bit sorry for Alex (and honestly myself) for having this deformity. When the elevator door opened a little boy got on who's face was so deformed and I quickly kicked myself internally and was reminded that SO many people suffer, endure, and triumph over hard things!!

I love to see the temple

About six months ago we were talking with the kids about the temple and why it is so special inside.  The kids all said they wished they could go inside a temple -- my response, "remember when you got to tour the Columbia River Temple when it was built?"  No one remembered it and then I remembered it was built in 2001 and most of the kids weren't even born yet.  So I quickly looked up which temples were going to be having opening houses and found that the Meridian, ID temple was set to be completed in November. 

We were delighted to spend the weekend with Tavia and Vaughn's amazing family!  They always make us feel so at home and welcomed when we come visit -- which is especially nice since we are usually like a bomb dropping in for one day and then leaving out messes behind. 

The temple was absolutely beautiful.  Although, the open house tour was fast I think we all felt the special spirit that resides in the temple.  Nathan commented afterwards that he noticed how automatically quiet all the kids were when they toured the Celestial room. 

The Ditto and Kimball clan

It was a crisp morning but the sky was beautiful!

Such a special day!

The rest of the weekend we enjoyed pizza, playing with cousins, going out to a movie at the cheap theater, and going to church with the Kimballs.  We all had such a wonderful time together!

The marvelous Kimball kids!