Marlee gets a Digital Camera from Santa! Her dream come true . . . now we have a new photographer in the family! She has been having fun taking pictures and just deleting the ones she doesn't like! Cool!

Miranda got an awesome "Wicked" book! It's a book all about the broadway musical, "Wicked." As you can see she is wearing her new pirate shirt! She loves it, Amelia! Thank you!

Santa brought a bike for Erin! She hopped on and learned to ride it in on Christmas Day! We have to be out there to help her on and get going, then she's on her way!

Marlee also got a new bike! The kids had fun riding all together up and down the street. Luckily, there is not much traffic on our street!

DANIEL & RYLAND have twinner P.J.'s

Marlee Performing "You Better Watch Out!" Marlee is taking a teen jazz class and is doing very well. She is starting to gain confidence and poise in her movements.

Erin dancing to "Run, Run Rudolph!"

Erin's taking a Jazz/Tap Combo class. Here she is performing at the Dance Christmas Party. She remembered all her steps and it was very cute!

Charlee's getting in the Christmas Spirit! Look at our little reindeer! I had fun running around going to the kids' school Christmas parties today. Now they're off until January 8th! Ho, Ho, Ho, Merrrrrry Christmas!

Marlee's Christmas Braces She picked alternating red and green bands in honor of Christmas!

Daniel's 2nd Grade Class They had a fun Christmas party today and made fleece scarves. Daniel is in the middle at the top between his teacher (Mrs. Galhouse on the left), and the teachers aide on the right.

Ho, Ho, Ho, Merry Christmas! We had a wonderful ward Christmas Party yesterday. We had breakfast out at the ramada near the ballfield by our ward building. Yummy french toast with strawberries, syrup, whip cream, and bacon! The kids made crafts and guess who showed up? Santa!

Christmas Caroling Cotton-Trailer Ride After all the food and fun we went on a ride in a ward-member's cotton trailer! More comfy than a hayride! We sang Christmas Carols around the neighborhood. The kids had fun burrowing in the cotton and throwing it at each other!

OUR CHRISTMAS ANGEL Marlee in the spotlight! Her 7th grade choir performed three songs for us the other night. First, "Papa Loves Mambo," "Love in Any Language," to which they also performed sign language, and "High Hopes." It was awesome!

MARLEE AND FRIENDS From left: Danielle, Brie, Marlee and Xan. They are all in the 7th grade choir. Xan and Brie are also in our ward. How can my daughter be short when I was always the tallest?!!

Retakes RULE! These pictures turned out much better than the last ones.

Thanksgiving with the Crockett's

Cara has a boyfriend, Cara has a boyfriend! Everyone, meet Shawn! I hope I am spelling it right.

Erin & Ashlyn The Myers and Christensen cousins came to play and ride the horse on Saturday.

Build-a-Bear Birthday Erin decided that all she really wanted for her birthday this year was to visit Build-a-Bear. She had a great time picking out, stuffing and dressing her little dog. She has been sleeping with her new dog every night, and even dragged it to school today! Side note for you moms: it's much cheaper than taking 10 little kids bowling or to Peter Piper Pizza, and we had a blast!

We let the big kids come if they promised not to beg and whine.

How's this for a Thanksgiving Feast? Guess what? The food is ALL rock! They had rocks that looked like pie, a whole chicken, fish, baked potato, cheese, bread and so much more! They even had tiny pink rocks in the glasses for punch!

HUMONGOUS The 7th graders visited the Mineral and Mining Museum today. There were some really amazing rocks there!

"Young Women in Excellence " Marlee and her awesome Beehive advisor, Sister Swindle (above). The girls made banners that reflected the important things in their lives. They displayed or performed their talents. Marlee chose to display the scrapbook she's been working on.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, LOVE, ERIN Erin, all made-up and ready to party! She is counting down the days until Saturday. As of today, 4 to go!

These girls never tire of playing dress-up! Even Daniel gets in on the action every now and then.

XOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOXOX Love, Marlee & Xan

Corona got the most and highest awards at the UofA Band Day on Saturday! They received three out of the four caption awards (best color guard, percussion and visual performance), they got a Superior rating, then got the highest of all the awards, the Milton B. Nunamaker Award for the most distinguished band(s). Desert Vista High School from Ahwatukee also won a Nunamaker Award (and stold the caption award for music). Looks like we're gonna have some serious competition next year! Mr. Parker gave the band a little hint about next year's show (which is already planned), he says they'll be playing the song "Red-Line Tango" . . . ooooh, Spicy! You can listen to USC play it online. Miranda is really looking forward to next year and actually misses those early-morning practices . . . odd child!

I know, more marching band stuff, but it all comes to an end tomarrow. They're headed to U of A for their final performance. They have been having night practices for the past couple of weeks. It would be cool if some of you could come too! They perform at 6:30 p.m. in the Wildcat Stadium. I've posted some cool pictures from Fall Band Camp and the Homecoming game below.

Fall Band Camp at Tontozona Isn't it gorgeous there?

Mr. Parker getting a good view from the hill.

Band Nerds ROCK!