Jenny's News Stand

Our primary program, which had all of 12 kids in it. I had to sneak a photo of my Ashton giving his part. Is that bad?

And one of Jacob. He was fabulous this year. He kinda sang, said all his parts when prompted without giggling, and never once said "I am so bored!" really loudly so everyone could hear. The program went well, even though we had so few kids. So we made all the teachers read a part too. Next year will be even harder since we have 8 kids, and three of them are too shy to read parts.

On December 14, my dad's mother passed away. My grandfather Roscoe had been gone for years, Ruth McGee was 98, almost 99, and very feeble. While I don't have tons of memories of that feisty, bossy, hot tempered woman, she was always nice to me. She was a hard worker, had a testimony of solid rock, and never let her kids get away with anything. She was a good cook, loved to serve others, and loved to farm and ranch. The funeral was postponed till after Christmas when more cousins could come. I went and will talk more about it later. It is sad, it is the end of an era. Her farm will be broken up and sold. I won't have an excuse to drive down there and most likely won't see many of my cousins again. We are all grown up.

Christmas concert time. I love the little kids. Jake kept putting his hands on his head for no reason. He tried to sing along and I was pretty proud of him. Its nice to see your kids behave themselves in public and helps you to realize they are going to turn out just fine.

Ashton's class did a small play about a reindeer trying to get Santa's attention. It was cute! He was so proud to tell me he had a speaking part. He was a bit sick but we made him tough it out since he had a part.

There he is! He has grown three inches this year. He did a good job.

And this was painted by Jacob. Isn't it awesome! I love how he did it. And frankly am pretty surprised that he could paint this. He hates to draw. I should have saved it but instead took a picture of it.

This is just funny. Suddenly Jed decided to do a going-to-bed bit with the kids. Mostly he is super silly and gets them all wound up prior to bed. Tonight's show featured Words of Wisdom with Baymax. I really should record them - the kids just love it. Jed does his voice to be Baymax and it's hysterical. He lets the kids ask questions. He is such a goofball.

Jacob brought this home to hang on the tree, but I put it on our wall. This is super cute in my mind. The hat and glasses are held up by straws. He has a really creative kindergarten teacher.

We made gingerbread houses and this is who kept sneaking out of bed to eat them!

And my little pilgrim. His class let them bring home hats, he wouldn't throw it away until I took a photo of him in it. He wants to keep every single paper.

Two cuties who went outside to see what the lights looked like, Emma and Jacob.

Christmas eve was fun. We gave the kids their new pajamas and planned to have a nativity with our family.

This was the just the beginning of Ashton's and Jacob's excitement over new pajamas. Jacob's reaction surprised us all, he jumped up and started screaming hurray over the fact that he got Jurassic Park pajamas. Ashton got Star Wars. That moment won't be forgotten too soon. 

Our nativity getting started. The kids had a great idea to build a stable and put Jacob's brown blanket on it. Emma's unicorn is a horse. Emma was the angel, complete with jewelry.

Jed was Joseph and the narrator, in a Jedi costume robe.

Our boys were shepherds in their Yoda and Jedi robes. We put socks and leftover batting on their pugs, Bully and Puggy to make them sheep. Jake said his was a worm.

Emma telling the shepherds the good news.

All of us together. It was super fun.

Then we made the kids go to a light show in West Bend. The boys hated it and whined the whole time.

Emma danced to the blinking lights on the screen but then got bored. The best part was when I said I didn't have any fun  because of how moody the boys were and Jed said, "Well, let's make everyone get out and do it again!" He really has this funny dry whit. I love it.

And check out what Jed got from one of the gals at work. These are super cute! Made from perla beads. What a great idea.