~Ropelato Christmas Party~

It is always fun getting together with the Ropelato side of the family.  Scott and Erin hosted the Christmas Party this year.  We had fun visiting, watching the kids play together, having a special visit from Santa, and watching the kids perform the Nativity.

I love how all the cousins can not see each other for a year, and still come together and play like it was just yesterday.

Such cute kids!

It took Garrett a little bit to warm up to the idea of going up to sit on Santa's lap.  Luckily, his name was called toward the end, so when Santa called it, he was ok with going up there to get his picture taken, and his gift.  Santa brought everyone socks.  It is a fun tradition to get socks at the Ropelato party.

Kids getting ready for the Nativity.  Hunter as the Karate Kid Wiseman :)

The 3 Wisemen

Garrett was one of the sheep.

Mya and Lexi as angels.

All the angels.

Mckell was a shepherd.

Hunter was a good sport to participate in the Nativity.

The girls sporting their new Christmas socks.  It was a fun evening!

~Christmas Piano Recital~

I really love hearing Hunter and Mckell play the piano.  It is a fight to get them to practice, but I do enjoy hearing what they've learned.

They look so nice in their new Christmas church clothes from Grandma Darinda.  It is a tradition that she always buys them nice Christmas suits/dresses.

Hunter played  Deck the Halls & Up on the Housetop.

Mckell played Snowboard Boogie & Silent Night.

Ellen Haddock's piano students who performed in the afternoon recital.

~The Polar Express Christmas Party~

For our ward Christmas party this year the youth were in charge.  We decided to do the theme Polar Express.  All the youth helped make the decorations and I think the gym turned out beautiful!  We had a d.j. play Christmas music, had a kids area with activities and the movie Polar Express, and the young men served us hot cocoa.  We even had a special visit from Santa.  It was a fun morning visiting with friends and neighbors.

Ethan is so cute with Garrett!  He even cut his ham up for him.

Garrett loved the train!

Garrett was terrified of Santa.  You would never guess it from this picture, but he had a smile for the camera and when I was done taking the picture he immediately started crying, lol.

We have the BEST neighborhood and ward!  It is really fun visiting with them.

~Bishopric Christmas Party~

When Dave was a High Councilman, one thing that I liked was the ward he was over always had a bishopric Christmas party.  We thought it was great that all the members of the bishopric (including secretary/clerks/high councilman) could come together for a fun evening and not have to talk church stuff.  So when Dave was put in as bishop that was a tradition we wanted to start in our ward bishopric.  This is the 2nd year we have held this party and it is a lot of fun, a lot of laughs, and the food is delicious.  Dave works with a great group of people.

(I couldn't get the wives to be in the picture too, lol)

~6th Grade Science Fair~

Hunter and Davis teamed up again this year for their science fair project.  For their project, they decided to see if smiles were really contagious.  They did some research, and thought they'd see for themselves.  One Saturday we headed down to the new Smith's Marketplace to smile at people and see if they would smile back.

It really was hilarious watching Hunter and Davis, with their clipboards smiling at people.  The rule was they had to make eye contact first, then smile.  Their smiles got pretty cheesy at times, in fact, one man asked Davis if he was OK? LOL.  As I followed Hunter around I noticed that a lot of people would just look away from him as he smiled at them, then they would look at me and smile :).  There must have been something about having a kid smile at you that made a lot of adults look away instead of smiling back at him.  So their results were that a smile isn't contagious, even though the scientific research proved that it was.

Hunter and Davis ended up tying for 1st place in the Science Fair.  Whoot! Whoot!  Their project will go on to Weber State to be judged against other 6th graders in the community.
You may be wondering why their projects title is "The Ebola Smile" (they came up with that one all on their own).  For their question, they said that they wanted to find out if smiles were as contagious as Ebola.  I guess you can tell what they have been discussing in their World Current Events class.  They were pretty proud of their title.

If we would have thought/known they were going to win. we would have had them dress up a little more for the presentation, lol.

~Family Pictures~

Family pictures are a lot of work ;)  From picking out everyone's outfits, making sure they all look good together, and then making sure everyone's hair is done and that they actually smile cute for the camera.  It's a lot of work, but I'm so glad we get them taken to capture our family in it's different stages.  I am really happy with how the pictures turned out.

This is one of my favorite pictures!!!  Garrett was being such a ham during the photo shoot.  The faces he was making were killing me.  He wasn't being serious at all.  And the poses he was making, he was being so silly.  It didn't help that the kids were laughing about it.  That just got him going more.  But I really love how this picture turned out.  He is such a funny kid.

I guess Garrett wasn't the only Goofball.  Hunter!!!

I love this family of mine!