Flashback: Christmas Band Concert

Gabriel and Katrina participated in the Christmas Band Concert for their school in December. Gabriel played the trombone and Katrina played the trumpet.






My silly "Santa Wanna-bes"

MLK March

This year Allen suggested we all go to San Antonio and participate in the Martin Luther King commemorative march. After checking out details I realized that the route covered 2.8 miles - from MLK park to another park in town. Of course that is only one way. The kids did a pretty good job. Their only complaint was that we were walking too slow. Allen and I had to explain that this was not a race.


Some of the marchers at the beginning of the parade.


Waiting for the start of the parade to meet up with us.


Marching - and hanging out at the park where we watched documentaries about the civil rights movement, watched multiple performers, and listened to speakers. It was a nice program.

Afterwards we hiked the kids 2.5 miles back to where we had parked. This time it was mostly downhill. As we walked on the narrow sidewalk - with the streets open and cars driving swiftly past us - it became apparent that my children do not possess street smarts. We had to review some rules: stay together, look all ways before crossing a street, look up an alley before crossing, walk on the inside of the narrow sidewalk - away from the cars. Most of them "knew" these rules - they were just out of practice.

Estimates range from "thousands" to "tens of thousands" participating at the event. I really don't know how many were involved. Near the end of the route is a hill. From this hill you can glance back almost to the beginning of the route. All four lanes and both sidewalks of the street were filled with a sea of people - covering approx. 2.5 miles. That's a lot of people.

Simon's Quick Quip

Simon: Guess what mom, you are my mom and my sister.

Mom: I am?

Simon: Yes, I actually learned something at church today. But then I forgot what it was when you asked me in the car after church. That's what I learned - that everyone is a brother and sister.


So glad the my child "actually learned something at church today". Either I am doing such a STELLAR job of teaching him gospel truths that everything at church is a review....or perhaps he only pays partial attention in class. Hmmmm....

Pedernales Falls #3

Finally at the Falls:

Our first view. The falls were in a flash flood stage due to all the rain. The water was incredibly furious.

Out by the falls were huge "flat" rocks. We decided we needed to join the other hikers and crawl all over those rocks to fully enjoy our experience.

This photo is great: Gabriel, Katrina, and Abagail - with a peeking Uncle Bruce.

We took a minute to do family photos - since Christmas was coming up and we were all too cheap to go to a studio. Perfect opportunity. We are damp, sweaty, dirty, wind blown...all in our natural element.

The cousins piling on a felled tree.

The falls were our last stop. We were having a great time and really didn't want to leave. Alas, we had to make a mad dash back to our camp site to scarf down lunch and strike camp before check out time. "Next time" we will strike camp before hiking around so we don't feel so pressured.

Pedernales Falls...#2

Some photos from day 2 of our camp out at Pedernales Falls State Park in November.

Hanging out around camp. It was pretty chilly in the morning - and everything was wet from the continuous rain all night. The kids would run through the tall grass and their pants, shoes, socks were soaked by the time we were done with breakfast. Thankfully they were still in their pj pants so we could put on dry pants and socks for the hike. They didn't stay dry long though.

Simon, Oliver, Tomas, and Ryan after some exploration. Cool looking tree.

Actual Fall colors in South Texas.

On our first hike down to the river.

It was a surprisingly lovely area to hike and camp.

Hanging out along the trail.

We picked a perfect camp spot right next to a ravine. The kids explored and played in there - it was a very cool place to run around. We were also right next to a trail head which made for a great quick hike after breakfast.

"What"

Amelia is so funny. This last week she began some new habits.

She began to say, "Hi" to us as we entered into her presence. Didn't matter if we had just left. Used to be a toddler version of hello - I guess she prefers the shorter word now.

Her newest discovery is that a person should say, "What" whenever someone calls their name. I am sure she discovered that as she watched interactions between her siblings. So now every time we call her name we hear, "What". Very short, slightly sharp, as if she is a bit annoyed. Guess you can tell how the kids answer each other around here.

Around Christmas time she began to say "Wow" and "Whoa" to all the sparkle, shine and neat sights that accompany the wonder of Christmas. Over and over and over and over again - even if she had seen that exact sight multiple times.

I also love it when she sings. She will sing the tune of "Where is Amelia" a song we sing anytime we are playing around with her or when we are looking for something...substitute cup, shoe, daddy, etc. She will get the whole song out, minus words. Very cute.

One more thing Amelia does is complain, exclaim, and chatter in complete "sentences" - no words, but definitely a complete sentence.

Ok - just one more. Amelia has mastered the art of what we call "dark eyes". Glaring. She tilts her chin down, narrows her eyes, forms a pouty frown with her mouth. Perfect. Don't know where she picked it up but it is hilarious! As we walked into the doctor's office today she had dark eyes at every single person there. She walked down the long narrow hall past every person with her head down and eyes dark. We were the first appointment of the day so all the nurses, doctors, office personal were around. They thought it was so funny. Guess she remembered the last time she visited the dr. and got shots. Or maybe the time the poor innocent nurse tried to pick her up and carry her - poor lady. She only thought Amelia was a sweet, cute little girl. Little did the nurse know the attitude that my darling daughter can pull.

Simple things...but so cute.

Christmas Time...again

Back to Christmas for a minute...

Grandma Bergstrom (my mom) sent Christmas dishes and table settings as a family gift this year. We received it in November and used it multiple times a week - still do at times as I have not packed it all away yet.

The kids loved it. Instead of eating buffet style - as was our normal method - Allen and I took the opportunity to re-teach the kids more formal table manners. As most of our other dishes are mismatched, and often plastic, the kids felt this was a real treat.


Set and ready for dinner. Even have cloth napkins. Kids felt a little unsure that they were actually supposed to wipe their hands and faces on these..."but mom, they will get dirty".


All gathered around to eat! Lasagna, homemade bread, salad....yum.


Thanks Grandma!

Army All-American Bowl

Gabriel and I had a fun day attending the Army All-American Bowl at the Alamodome in San Antonio today. One of his teachers passed out free ticket vouchers at school on Friday.


Here is Gabriel in the top "300" level seats at the game. Not the closest but the price was right :)


The All-American Marching Band. They were pretty cool to watch. Gabriel had an opportunity to play with the H.S. marching band last fall. He had a great time and developed an appreciation for all the time and practice it takes to be really good.


After the game we went out to the Army displays where Gabriel took a robot for a test drive.


Over 35,000 spectators were in attendance. Definitely a fun way to spend the day with my son.

(Allen stayed home with the other kiddos. They got to watch some of the game on NBC. Although Simon was quick to inform us that he didn't see us on T.V. - then we mentioned the 35,000 other people and he said, "Ohhhhh, that makes sense.")

Pedernales Falls Camp out

In November our family joined Allen's two brother's and their families for an overnight camp out. We drove 2 hours north to Pedernales Falls State Park. It was a bit chilly and damp that evening. The rain/drizzle was supposed to quit by 4 p.m. and just be cloudy that night with sunny skies the next day. It rained all night, loudly, but the sun did come out in the morning.

Some photos from Friday night:


Kids hanging out under the sun shelter that Uncle Bruce and Aunt Yaw brought. Worked great in the rain!
Cousins Tomas, Ryan and Manissa in top middle photo.


Top left: Aunt Juanita with her kids, Tomas and Kadi. One of my favorite shots of the night is the one of Tomas - the lantern carrier.

Oliver reminded me that we needed to include that the kids all sat under the canopy with their song leader, Aunt Juanita, singing lots and lots and lots of songs. Christmas songs, Primary songs, and their favorite, Found a Peanut - over and over and over again. It was a great way for them to pass a drizzly evening.



Smores Time! No camp out is complete without smores. Even though it was raining...and the fire was small and smokey...it worked. Check out how loaded those smores sticks are. We had a big crew of kids that all wanted one first. Aunt Yaw manned the cooler while Uncle Bruce manned the fire, and Uncle Kevin kept himself dry under the flowered umbrella. Aunt Juanita, Gabriel and Katrina cooked most of the marshmallows. Funny, later that evening we saw the next campsite over...their fire was blazing, even in the rain.


Some more random shots. Roasting hot dogs and hanging out. That white stuff on Allen and Gabriel's hoods is not snow...just rain, rain and more rain. At least it was light rain and not heavy downpour. Even still - it got plenty cold that night!

Our camp story would not be complete without a recounting of our misadventure with our skybox...that convenient carrier we put all our supplies in that sits on top of our minivan. Convenient...riiiiiight.

After arriving at the camp site we attempted to open this wonderful space saver. Alas, it was stuck. We tried for at least an hour. All the adults had theories of how to get the thing open and we tried them all - except the last resort which was to take Allen's knife and cut it open. I wasn't so for that plan as we would have to drive 2 hours home with a broken skybox.

Finally we resigned ourselves to the fact that the box was not going to open. Unfortunately, most of our sleeping bags, tents, blankets, our sun/rain shelter, camp chairs, etc. were in that baby. We had a 2-man tent, some sleeping pads, and 2 sleeping bags for our family of 8. Fortunately we still had our extra clothing, coats, and food in the back of the minivan.

Allen's brothers and wives came to our rescue! They lent extra tents, blankets and sleeping space in their tent. It ended up that Allen, Amelia and I slept in our 2-man tent with borrowed blankets. Simon and Oliver slept in a borrowed tent with a shared mummy bag. Katrina and Abagail slept in their cousin's tent with a shared mummy bag, coats and a few light blankets. Gabriel slept in the minivan with a few coats on top of him and an endless supply of leftover smores snacks - which we didn't realize until morning.

We made it through the long, wet night and were so glad it didn't get below 40.

The next day more than made up for any inconvenience suffered that night...to be continued.

His First Dance

Last week Gabriel attended his first Stake Dance for our church. For any fellow former YM/YW out there you know what those are like :)

He said he had fun. He ate lots of snacks, hung out with his guy friends and even danced with some girls.

Gabriel said he found a trick to getting a girl to ask him to dance. He would sit in a chair between two groups of girls who were sitting around talking. Then he would look sad and alone. He said that within a minute a girl would ask him to dance. Said it was his foolproof plan - worked all three times he tried it.

Even so, Gabriel's official report of the evening included his experiences of asking girls to dance too. He said he was very nervous at first but after a few accepted he began to feel better about it.

Ahhhh...my little guy is growing up. :) & :(

My Cute Young Woman

Katrina with her Young Women's group at the Stake YW Excellence night.
(Katrina is the one in the middle in pink.)

It's hard to believe that she is already 12!



These other two photos are taken from Katrina's first YW activity. They had a local dance instructor come and teach the youth proper dance etiquette and some steps. The photos are taken with my lousy camera phone - but kind of cute anyway.



Gabriel bowing as he asks Katrina to dance.



Gabriel and Katrina practicing a waltz.

Katrina was physically the smallest person at this dance instruction activity. Therefore, the instructor used her to demonstrate all kind of cool swing moves.

Coleman Family Weekend

Had such a nice weekend with Allen's family earlier in December.

Cousin Karoleena turned eight and was baptized. Grandma and Grandpa Coleman came from Utah to share the weekend with us.

Grandpa & Grandma Coleman with the kids.

Zany picture with Grandma and cousins.

Hanging out

A gaggle of Coleman cousins at Kadi's baptism.

Katrina and Kadi at baptism.

Such a good looking husband I have.

Pinata time!!!

My favorite thing about these photos is not the child hitting the pinata - it is the expressions on the faces of those watching. Click on the collage to see what I mean...priceless!

Abagail, Simon, and Oliver have all asked, "Can I have a pinata for my birthday?!!!"

Temple Trip

Had a wonderful "date night" with Gabriel and Katrina right before Christmas. Our ward had a temple night for the youth.

We drove up to the San Antonio temple and the kids were able to perform baptisms. While Gabriel has attended many times, this was Katrina's first opportunity to attend.

What a great way to spend time with my kids.