Santa Caught on Tape and Christmas Morning

Nicole being the ever-most clever and creative movie producer these days, had an idea to catch Santa on video. She set up the webcam that is built into our laptop and showed me how to press the start button. When I went to bed, I pressed start. There was a long gap by the time Santa made it to our house, so I edited that wasted video footage out. You can see Santa delivering Nicole's gifts under the tree. When he bends over, you can even see his beard. It's dark because only the xmas tree lights were on. Nicole was thrilled to have caught him on tape as a memory. Nicole got alot of clothes from Mom and Dad. You'll see her opening up presents from our relatives in Michigan. One of Nicole's gifts, is Dan's favorite. He has been jamming with her new Guitar Hero World Tour from Santa which came with a second guitar (we already had one), a drum set, and a microphone. Now we can rock out as a family. Other toys included a Wii fit from her Aunts and Uncles (My wii fit age was 50!!), and a microphone stand that hooks up her ipod with speakers so she can sing along. Hope everyone stayed safe and healthy this Holiday!

Christmas Mass and Christmas Eve

Instead of attending a traditional Catholic midnight mass, we attended a non-denominational Christian service on Tuesday evening at CCV. Being a day early, it wasn't as crowded, but pretty filled. The service started out with the stage filled with all Christmas theme decor such as snowmen, trees, gifts, etc. The band played some great xmas carols with a rock and roll band. It was a great sing along. The message from the Pastor was that we shouldn't be forgetting what Christmas is all about. It's not about the gifts, the parties, etc, it's about the birth of Jesus. Towards the end of the service, all the decor was slowly and quietly removed from the stage as well as the singers. We in the audience, were left singing Silent Night, Ocapella style, with all but a baby jesus on stage. The message was loud and clear... Christmas Eve dinner was spent at Brenda's parent's house with an awesome Italian dinner! Thanks guys for the invite! This was our first Christmas that we haven't spent in Michigan and Patsy and Mike are such warm gracious hosts and made us feel like part of their family. Later we attended an Open House at Erin & Mike's to finish up the evening with good friends. Stay tune for Christmas morning....

Caroling and Vistancia Lighting Contest

The other night, I heard some chitter chatter outside the front door. I knew at Halloween time, we have a tradition of "booing" when someone rings your doorbell, runs off, and leaves a treat. You're suppose to catch the person in the act. Well, I thought maybe there was a Christmas "booing" tradition that I didn't know about.....as soon as I heard the voices come up to the front door, I SWUNG open the door, before they had a chance to ring the bell!! I Yelled "BOO!". These four tiny little girls under the age of 5 jumped back 2 feet. Then they all started singing holiday carols with their families. I'm going to guess there were about 30 people in total from a mix of the Vistancia neighborhoods. It was so special and I ran to film what I could and followed them to a few neighbor's houses. Our Vistancia community hosts a xmas lighting contest each year. Nicole and I took a ride one night at all the houses on the list. I had two favorites but forgot to vote. One house was in the gated "Entrada" community and the gate was locked after hours. I could see it from the distance, but didn't get a photo of it. The owner has vertical stripes on all his roof tiles. That must've been fun installing.

Christmas Online Scrapblog

Enjoy this Christmas Scrapblog that Nicole created of photos since she was born.

Vistancia Band Concert

On Tuesday, Nicole's school, Vistancia Elementary, held its Winter Band Concert. The participants are grades 5th thru 8th. As you watch the short video, you can see how the children progress through the years. Watch the 5 min. mark at this young man who had a saxaphone solo (WOW!). I was thrilled to see Nicole and her friends play and read music. What an awesome program at their school. Many Kudos to the Band Director, Mrs. Carlson! Press Play and Enjoy.

Snow Day

Yes, believe it or not.....there is snow in Vistancia!! Last Saturday, our community trucked in and blew out snow for the kids to play in for the day. Nicole made this video. She is getting to be a great movie editor. Press the play button and Enjoy!

Holiday Activities

Just a few more...........holiday activities that have been going on in our community. Last weekend, Santa paid us a visit at the clubhouse. Nicole made a craft ornament and decorated a sugar cookie. My friends, Brenda and Kristin give Martha Stewart and Suzie Homemaker a run for her money. Brenda hosted a dinner/gift exchange with a fantastic dinner. Kristin hosted a gingerbread house decorating event. Thank goodness it was in the backyard as things got really messy. Nicole opted for decorating a gingerbread tree this year instead of the house. Thank you ladies for making holiday memories for all of us!!!!

Vistancia Elementary Holiday Choir Concert

Today, Nicole's school held their annual Holiday Choir Concert with entertainment by the 5th through 8th grades. These kids were awesome! Press Play and Enjoy the video clip. Listen carefully to the words of the song about 7 1/2 minutes in called "The Twelve Groovy days of Christmas"....

The Polar Slideshow

The Polar Express

All aboard "The Polar Express"................
Let me summarize the book or movie of "The Polar Express" if you're unfamiliar with it. A little boy wakes up in the middle of the night and catches this mysterious train to The North Pole. When creating the character movements for this animated movie, electronic attachments were placed all over Tom Hanks' body as he was recording the voice track for several characters. This technology was new at the time and the movie was very realistic.

Nicole and I tagged along with The Reeds (Thank YOU) and joined the Sidaways (another THANK You) and drove 2 1/2 hours up to a little town south of the Grand Canyon called "Williams". After checking into our hotel, we ate dinner and changed into our PJs. Since all the children in the movie ride the train in their PJs, so did we and the rest of the passengers. There was hot cocoa and cookies served on the train just like in the movie. After driving past the North Pole, we stop to let Santa on the train. The BEST part was Santa autographed Nicole's Polar Express book that she received 2 Christmases ago from him. A truly magical experience.

Xmas Lights

It's beginning to look alot like Christmas......

Wow! No sooner did Thanksgiving end, then our family started gearing up for the Christmas Holiday. This past weekend was spent decorating the inside and outside of the house. As is our new tradition since we've moved here, I put up the tree and lights and Nicole and Emma put all the ornaments up on it. I like hearing them "oooh" and "aahhh" every year when they add each ornament to the tree.

Nicole and I attended a "drive-thru" festival of lights at the Joy Community Church. The first night was free with canned food donations. It was well worth the wait to get in. Enjoy the pictures of our house decorations and the movie from the xmas lights.

Monday afternoon, my friend, Brenda, and I volunteered at Nicole's School's Holiday House. It was so cute helping all the little students pick out gifts for their family members.

Presidential Campaign

The Vistancia 5th Graders have been assigned a three part Project. The first phase is for each student to create a Campaign Poster with a slogan as if she is running for President of the United States. See Nicole's Poster. The second phase is writing a speach and presenting it to the class in 3-5 minutes. The last phase is creating a brochure or handout with a biography.

Thunder

Here are two video clips that Nicole created of this season's volleyball team, Thunder.

End of Season Party

End of Nicole's volleyball season. The team had a party, pizza, snacks and tons of fun! The kids had a blast. And a blast of water! Watch the video to see what I mean.

Nicole's 10th Tooth

I think it's been about 2 years since Nicole has lost a tooth, but we are happy to say she lost her 10th one! Her bottom tooth has been loose for some time now and was just being stubborn. We were at church service Sunday and it started bleeding really bad while we were sitting there and we had to run to the rest room. It didn't come out then, and we got the bleeding under control. She sat the whole time in church with a wad of tissue on her mouth.

Today, she had a 6 month dental appointment for her teeth cleaning. I asked the Doctor if it was loose enough for her to pull it. She said she would numb it up with gel and Nicole can pull it out herself. I'm not sure if Nicole quite understood what she meant because she never had her cheek and mouth numb before and was quite taken by that. The Dr. said since she(Dr.) is pulling it out, Nicole will have to split whatever the tooth fairy gives her. So if it's $1.00, the Dr. gets 50 cents. She did it so fast, Nicole didn't feel a thing.

Holiday Events at Blackstone

Holiday Events at Blackstone

This weekend the affluent Vistancia community nearby, called "Blackstone", hosted a variety of Holiday Events. Yesterday, we saw a cooking demonstration by Maggie who made an awesome Pumpkin Bread Pudding. I have one in the oven right now, so we'll see how mine comes out. I usually don't care for bread pudding, but this was extremely easy to make and tasted excellent. We toured some of the models as you can see some cool pools! We went to another Model that hosted how to decorate your house and wrap elegant xmas gifts. Today, yet another model had free pictures with Santa. So we got all dressed up and had our picture taken. I don't have those photos yet. However, Nicole was adamant that our christmas photo included Max, so we can home and took some more pictures with him. Those are the ones that are posted. It feels odd that Christmas is around the corner when you see the blue skies in the background of these pictures.....

Xmas Lights and Bingo

Tonight, our Vistancia community lit all the xmas trees (errr, palm trees) with xmas lights and hosted a family bingo night. We didn't win anything, but then it didn't cost us anything for 2 hours of fun with friends. They did have some awesome prizes though. Sorry for the photos of the xmas lights being blurry. I'm still learning how to use the digital camera.

Red Hatter Rose

Is it Halloween AGAIN? Nope, this is just my (older) sister, Rose, acting her age. Rose is a member of the Red Hatters in Bartlett, IL. Red Hatters is a group of women that get together socially. You have to wear a pink hat and lavender outfit until you reach the age of 50. After 50, there is a big celebration and you get to decorate and wear a red hat and purple clothes. Can you tell by the hat, that my sister LOVES her name? Rose lives in Illinois with her husband, Mike, of 32 years and two intelligent and charming sons, Michael and Anthony. I have another older sister (yes I'm the baby), Fran. Fran and her husband Bob live with their multiple dogs (I lost count :)) in my home state of Michigan. Fran and Bob are a tremendous help to my Mom who is very independent and lives on her own since my Dad passed away 8 years ago, this December. I feel very fortunate to be able to live out of state, knowing that my Mom is well taken care of.

Discovery Trail & Waterfall

Nicole and I took Dan on the Discovery Trail (3.5 miles one way) for the first time to see the Waterfall. Stopped at Safeway and Walgreens on the way home.

Views while visting Garage Sales

Garage Sale

Back in Michigan, once a year, our block would have a garage sale. You could find some interesting things there. At that time, Nicole was really into the stuffed animals(she still is but now that is not the only thing she is interested in). Last year we had one at our house but not too many people showed up. This year we didn't have one but went to some. But it's not just a "block" sale. Anyone in the Vistancia community is allowed to participate, so it's about 5 square miles.

We had Nicole's friend, Izzy, with us. The first house Nicole asked me if she could buy this giant giraffe stuffed animal. The answer was no. At that first house, Izzy bought a little box, inside it were a mini stapler with a box of staples, paper clips, and tacks. Nicole got nothing there. The next house Nicole bought a music stand for $5 for her clarinet. At another house Izzy bought a Spongebob Squarepants computer game. At one house Izzy bought a finger painting kit. That left Nicole with her music stand and nothing else. As we were driving around, we saw that a friend of mine that was having a garage sale. Nicole saw two hassocks and got those. No clue where to put them. Like we don't have enough "stuff" in our house already! I really didn't buy anything for myself. But I did buy a bar that you put on your bathtub to help you get up and out. I bought that for my mom when she comes here. And after that we still had to go to Nicole and Izzy's volleyball game.

During our ride around the community, we caught some interesting scenic views of the community and a hot metallic pink car.

Angelina's birthday slideshow

Angelina's 5th Birthday

Yesterday, we attended Angelina's 5th Birthday party at her parents, Val and Anton's house. They had a professional magician there and the kids couldn't stop giggling. Thanks for an awesome day and Happy Birthday Angelina!

Happy Birthday Angelina

Halloween scrapblog

Halloween 2008

My favorite season in Michigan is Fall. I love the sound of crunching leaves and the crisp weather. After living in Arizona for two years, trick or treating is a heckuva alot different here. So to my dear Michigan family and friends, please do not get hurt when I say.... trick or treating in AZ is AWESOME! The kids do not need to wear coats so you can actually see their costumes. All the neighbors sit at the end of there driveway passing out candy and it's one big block party. Some folks have open house parties and some had their firepits out front.

Cha Cha slide performed by Ms. Ghaster's 5th Grade Class

Harvest Daze Scrapblog

Harvest Daze

Well the month of October has just been a flurry of activities between school and community events. So we are just a little behind with our postings. Last week, Vistancia Community hosted a Harvest Daze event. They had pumpkin carving contests, costume contests, face painting, sno cones, popcorn, cotton candy, bouncers, and gord bowling. Even dogs were allowed to dress up and join in the fun. With all the food being around, we elected to keep Max at home. Our friend, Brenda, won the 13 & over costume contest (Yeah Brenda!). She looked like a lawn ornament. Many thanks to all the resident and staff volunteers for putting on an awesome time!

Western Diamondback Rattlesnake

Yesterday, Dan went to pick up Nicole's friend, Emma, to bring her over for a play date. Emma was waiting on her front porch for about 5-10 minutes before Dan arrived. Afterwards, Emma's Mom, Erin, was on the porch too reading the paper. Shortly after that, a neighbor, Megan, came to ring the doorbell and caught something move out of the corner of her eye. She ran home and had her Mom call Erin. Erin & Mike found a baby Western Diamondback Rattlesnake on their front porch. Apparently, the snake wasn't too agitated when Erin & Emma were on the porch because he was snacking on a mouse. Mike did what he had to do, and I won't provide you the gory details. You may be able to see the feet of the mouse in these pictures.

Max's Birthday

Yesterday (10/24) was Max's 6th Birthday. We've had him for four years. He was a former Leader Dog for the Blind. He was one of their stock puppies which means his parents were former guide dogs. The process is the puppies are placed with a Foster Family for one year and trained in a leader dog training campus for 6 months - 1 year. If the dog graduates and has passed all its accomplishments, it is matched up with a blind person. Sometimes dogs are returned for allergy issues or grooming issues. Max graduated and was with a candidate for 3 months and then returned. The Leader Dog facility doesn't provide much background, other than "Max was easily distracted". We've defined "distracted" as stealing food and chasing squirrels. Max is a stealth dog. You could be in the same room and he is so quiet and will raise on his back legs to sneak a treat. He has even sampled a milkshake of Nicole's once without ever tipping the cup over. Happy Birthday to Max!

Early Release Bike Ride

Early Release Bike Ride

Today Nicole only had two hours of school and got released at 10:00 a.m. I don't often get to enjoy these short days with her but today I brought her and her friend, Ashley's, bikes to school in the Tahoe. Later, Ashley's Mom, Kristin, and other daughter, Katelyn, and I rode our bikes to school (about 1 1/2 miles) to pick the girls up.

All five of us rode our Vistancia discovery trail up to the entry waterfall (I'm guessing another 3 miles). I've lived here for two years and have never seen these awesome views. We stopped off at this cute little playground nicknamed "castle park". Then rode up to the waterfall. Ate lunch at Safeway. And then ventured to the Farmer's Market in Trilogy. Trilogy is part of our Vistancia community, but contains all one level homes for the active adults. Then we finally got home 3 1/2 hours later. I sure got my exercise for the day.

This little time I spent with my daughter and friends, reminds me to enjoy the day you are in and not always look ahead. There may never be enough money to buy a particular item, or time to complete a house project, or good health to enjoy your great grandchildren. Things may not go as planned with our lives and we wonder why we have to make some sacrifices. I have this plaque on my wall and I firmly believe in this phrase: "Everyday is a Gift"

Wild West Days Slideshow

Wild West Days

Today Nicole's school, Vistancia Elementary hosted Wild West Days. They had inflatables that included an obstacle course, a rock climbing wall, a dunk tank, and arcade style games. Everyone wins a prize. Nicole also went on a horse drawn wagon ride and ventured into the petting zoo. Her teacher, Ms. Ghaster won the "kiss the pig" contest and we missed it :(

Nicole & Emma Jousting

Nicole getting Erin in the dunk tank

Nicole's 5th Grade School Picture

Outdoor Ed Slideshow

Outdoor Ed - Nicole made it back!

As you read my writeup, play the third song in the Playlist and listen to the words of the Crystal Shawanda song playing "You can let go now Daddy" and you'll know how I felt this week....

What an adventure Nicole had while she was at the Friendly Pines Camp for her 5th Grade Outdoor Ed trip. Talk about coming out of her comfort zone and pushing the limits. I am soooo very proud of her. I also realize that it was for the best that I didn't get picked as a chaperone. Since I am not a dare devil and absolutely hate heights, she may have been more hesitant had I been there.

Wed - I dropped her off at school at 7:30 a.m. The buses were scheduled to leave at 9:00 a.m. and were late. They departed at 9:40 a.m. The kids were starving and finally had a chance to eat their lunch upon arrival at the camp. Rules and procedures were given as well as their room assignments. Nicole's room included two Mom chaperones: Brenda Reed (Izzy's Mom) and Mrs. Kavanaugh (Skyleigh's Mom) as well as Nicole, Izzy, Emily, Gabriella, Skyleigh, Giselle, MacKenzie, Summer and Taylor.



All the activities were designed to mentally and physically challenge the kids. Nicole's first event was a zipline. She climbed up a pole that had "U" shaped brackets bolted in and got to a platform. A guide clipped her into zipcord. She already had a harness on. They she sat on the platform and scooted off and zipppppeeed. The zip line has a slight downward arch to it, so after Nicole went forward, she scooted back a little. Then someone comes up with a ladder to get her down.

Next up was this giant swing/bungee cord. Again, she has a harness on. There is a line to her left and one to her right. Her "Green" teammates pull her back until Nicole decided that was as high as she wanted to go. Nicole then releases a rope and she drops from the bungee. Once the bungee tightens up, she ends up swinging. I hope someone took videos of her (Brenda?) For both events, she said she was a little scared but was thrilled afterwards.

The third event was with her climbing up a large tree again with a harness and getting as high as she could. Then she sorted of dangles sideways coming down. Imagine her laying on her back in mid-air.

Nicole liked all the food at camp. Dinner the first night was pasta with your choice of butter, meatless, or meat sauce, bread, green beans, salad, and brownie. Later at night they had a campfire, sang songs, and roasted marshmallows.

Thursday - Breakfast was choice of cereal, eggs, hashbrowns. Nicole went fishing, learned how to use a compass and diasected owl pellets. "What are owl pellets?" you ask. It is owl puke. Apparently, when an owl eats a rodent, he is unable to digets the bones and hair and it comes out in a pouch. So when the kids take apart the pellet, they were able to piece a skeleton together. I know "too much information".
Nicole didn't catch any fish. Mackenzie and Gabby caught "like 5". When Skyleigh and Nicole went to get another worm, Jake who was also on the green team, decided to name his worm "Timmy".

The second day was filled with crafts. They painted a ceramic bowl which will be fired later. They made lanterns from soda cans, and they tie dyed t-shirts.



Lunch was pizza, watermelon and a rice krispie treat. Snacks later was trail mix that the teachers made when all of us parents donated the ingredients. Nicole even attended a self defense class hosted by a police officer. The officer grabbed Nicole's wrists and she broke free from him in 20 seconds. Dinner was chicken (on the bone), mashed potatoes, and ice cream.




Each team had to learn a skit and perform it in front of everyone. And yes, Nicole did it (she is on the far right in picture)! Apparently, her team's was really cute. Imagine Nicole on all 4s with her hands inside a pair of short and shoes so it looks like a really short body. Another girl was behind her covered with a blanket and only her arms were exposed. Again, I hope someone (Brenda?) took a video. Later they went back to the campfire.

Friday - Breakfast was pancakes, bacon, melons.....The kids packed up their stuff and learned some chanting poems. Sack lunches were packed for them and they returned to school around 2:00 p.m.

Outdoor Ed - 5th Grade

Today (Wed), Nicole left for the much (NOT!) anticipated Outdoor Education program with all the 5th Graders. Outdoor Ed is at the Friendly Pines lodging in Prescott, AZ, about 1 1/2 hours north (and much cooler) than where we live. If you know Nicole, you know that she has had alot of anxiety about this trip. Especially since I didn't get selected as a chaperone. The trip is for 3 days and 2 nights and the kids are assigned to cabins with a chaperone.

The tears started flowing last night and she got up several times after bedtime. This morning in the school gym, her eyes were watery. She was clutching on to her friend, Emma, with her dear life. At one time, I thought Nicole was going to lose it when Emma disappeared for a minute. Emma's Mom, Erin, also went on the trip and was kind enough to text me that Nicole got assigned to our friend Brenda and her daughter, Izzy's room and that Nicole was doing great. Stay tuned because on Friday, Nicole will input her own updates on the trip.

Thursday Update:
I spoke with Alesa who was up at the camp in the early part of the week with the 6th graders. Alesa said the kids were physically and mentally challenged. They had zip lines, and bungee cords, etc. Nicole likes roller coasters and doesn't mind heights. I'm interested to see if she did most of the activities. The ambulance came twice for the 6th graders . One kid got dehyrdated. It wasn't real hot and the kid just didn't drink enough water. Another kid was goofing around the campfire, fell and hit his head on a rock and had a concusion. Alesa said the food was pretty good for camp food. Erin texted me again tonight saying that Nicole's group just put on the funniest skit.

Evening Tennis

Tonight Nicole and I went to play a little tennis. It was already dark so when we went to turn the lights on there were hundreds of bugs -- (flying grasshoppers, crickets)! It was hard to ignore them because when you ran after the ball they fly right up to you. We had to keep our mouths shut. We saw at least two giant beetles. We even saw one of those poisonous toads. I told Nicole, if any balls go over that fence I'm not getting them. Nicole had some surprising hits and her serves were pretty good. She gave me a run for my money. A couple times we would miss a ball because a flying grasshopper or two. Very fun! (NFD)

Volleyball Game

Nicole had her first volleyball game for the season. This is her fourth season playing. Which is funny because she is number four. Everyone on her team goes to her school, Vistancia Elementary. Kayleigh and Izzy played a season with her, So we were all used to it. Their team name is the Thunder. I guess it used to be the Heat but on the second practice they changed their minds due to the fact their colors are black and gray. Now everyone on her team wants her Volley Lite volleyball that her godmother (Barina Fran) gave her. So today was the first game day. Everyone was at least a little confused. I couldn't figure out the rotation they did myself! They got their shirts right before the game. It was the Thunder vs. the Clovers. The girls played three games and won two of them. Pretty good for the first game. One of the moms already had the snacks waiting when they were done. Great game!

Boo

We have some sneaky neighbors around here in AZ. Last night a little ghost rang our doorbell and when I opened it, there was a caramel corn treat with a note with a paper ghost. The note said it is a tradition to hang the paper ghost on the door, make 2 more copies of the ghost and bring that with a small treat and Boo another neighbor. It will be interesting to see how many neighbors have ghosts on their door by the time Halloween arrives. Thank you to the caramel corn ghost. We are going boooooing tonight.

Oktoberfest

Last night our Vistancia community hosted an Oktoberfest. Over 450 people attended. They had a duo polka band and all the kids ran around in our welcoming cooler weather. I didn't see any adults dancing

:( I even wore my dancing shoes. The hotdogs and bratwursts were donated by our local grocery store and we just had to bring our own chairs and beverages. This is Nicole with her friend, Emma, and then Emma holding another friend, Beck, upside down.