Santa Claus is Coming to Town!

Yesterday around 5:00 pm, Jason told me and the kids to get ready and be ready to go by 6:30 pm. We kept asking him why and he just wouldn't tell us. I am not one that likes surprises very much and kept asking questions about what I should expect... "Do we need to wear coats?", "Do we need to bring blankets?", "Do I need to bring a camera?" etc... I was trying to figure out where we were going and what we were doing but he really wouldn't say much. Well, at 6:30 we hopped in the car and started driving. I asked him how far we were going and he told me, "About 3.7 miles." That was probably the most information I got out of him with all my questioning. Anyway, about 5 minutes later (holiday traffic) we turn into the Walmart parking lot. Wow, Jason... Fun... Thanks... I mean, what do you say to that?

Well, actually 'Vixen' the Coke truck was there. If you don't know what Vixen is, join the club. Vixen is one of a small amount of Coke trucks that is decked out in lights and a huge picture of Santa on the side.

However, when we first got there, the lights weren't on. As we got closer we noticed that there was a large chair and some Christmas trees with a camera set up for pictures with Santa. Santa had not yet made his appearance and Nevaeh FREAKED out when we told her that he was going to be there. And I mean freaked out in a bad way. I'm still waiting for the blood to return to my fingertips... She had a death grip on my hand and was hiding behind me and he wasn't even out there! We decided that we would go inside and get a few things while we waited for Santa.

When we got done inside and walked out, Santa was there and there was a line of people waiting to get their pictures taken with him. After some discussion, we all got in line to get a picture with Santa. At first we were just going to have the kids get their pictures taken and I tried my hardest to convince Nevaeh that Santa was nice and there was nothing to be afraid of. After a while, we came to a compromise and decided that we would get a family picture with Santa.

The best part was that the picture was FREE!!! And the line was only about 10 people long so we were only in line for about 5 minutes.

It was a great surprise for us and kudos to Jason for taking us there. Thank you Jason!!! We love you!!!

Here is a picture of our picture :-) and some other pictures from last night. They had Santa's mail box there with some paper for the kids to write letters to Santa... They were all in Spanish, but that's ok :-)

Nevaeh's Christmas Program

Today was a very busy day for Nevaeh.

First, Nevaeh had her Hibernation Celebration during school today. All the students in her class wore their pajamas and slippers to school and brought a stuffed animal with them. During school they talked about hibernation and then put their stuffed animals into the hibernation box. In the spring, they will bring them out of hibernation.

Then she had her Christmas program tonight at her school. The kindergarten performed with the 4th graders. It was very cute, they all came dressed in their pajamas and slippers (which they were all wearing during school already). Someone read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas and then they sang songs in between. I didn't check my memory card before we left and I kept running out of room and then having to go back and delete pictures to make more room for more videos. So consequently some of the songs are cut short and for that I apologize. However, I think they are still cute.

One of the best things about today was that Nevaeh got to wear her new night gown that her Grandma Roth made for her. She was very excited to wear it to school and show everyone her "beautiful night gown." Thank you Grandma Roth!

Here is a picture of Kohlton cheering on his big sister.

Here are the videos of the songs.

Pictures

The other day we had Nilda take some pictures of us in the park. Kohlton was quite amusing because he wouldn't sit still to get his picture taken. We did get some good ones though. One of the only ones with Kohlton smiling was the very last picture taken.

Here is a little video of what it is like trying to get Kohlton to sit still :-)

Here are some more pictures that I thought were cute and funny.... enjoy!

A flock of birds flew over us during this picture... Both Nevaeh and Kohlton are looking at them. If they wouldn't have been looking off to the right, it would have been a really good picture.

I'm not quite sure what we're looking at here, but Kohlton is still looking at the birds.

At this park that we were at, they have a bunch of old buildings, houses and such and for some reason there are a bunch of roosters and peacocks out and about. Here are some pictures of Nevaeh chasing one of the roosters and finally catching up to it. Once it finally stopped running and she got close to it, she got scared.

Kohlton Discovers Olives

We had olives tonight with dinner and showed Kohlton how to put them on his fingers. He thought it was pretty funny. Here are a couple pictures I took. It was just cute so I thought I'd share :-)

Nevaeh's Thanksgiving Program

Tonight Nevaeh had her Kindergarten Thanksgiving program. The night started off a bit shaky because Nevaeh fell asleep after school. When we woke her up to get ready to go she had decided that she was NOT going to be in the program and she did NOT want to be on stage. After a LOT of tears and some yelling and screaming on her part, I got her settled down enough to at least get in the car to go to the school. I knew that if I at least got her there to see how excited all the other kids were to do the program that she would finally be ok. Well, that didn't really work either. She just decided that she didn't want to do the program, she just wanted to watch all her friends from out in the audience. So, in our last effort to get her to do it, her teacher, Mrs. Welling bribed her with the "special" treasure box. Worked like a charm! As soon as she had chosen her prize she was all smiles and ready to go. I may need to invest in one of those to use at home!!!

The program was so cute. She was a pilgrim woman in the program. There were also pilgrim men, Indian women, Indian men, turkeys, and preachers. They had a few narrators telling a story and every time they would say "pilgrim women," all the pilgrim women would say, "Oh, mercy me!" Pilgrim men would say, "A hunting we will go!" Indian men said, "Big and brave!" Indian women would say, "Shhh! Baby's sleeping!" Turkeys of course said, "Gobble, Gobble, Gobble!" And the Preachers would yell out, "Praise the Lord!" It was very cute! They sang a bunch of songs and said a Thanksgiving poem at the end.

One of Nevaeh's parts in the program was to welcome everyone to the program. You can't hear her but here she is.

They are saying, "Get your cameras ready! Because we're sure cute!"

She is by no means the tallest kid in the Kindergarten... In fact, I think she is pretty much the shortest! But for some reason she got put in the back row. Here are a few pictures of her.

Ok, so the kid next to Nevaeh on the right is a Preacher if you didn't guess. He was so funny!!! This picture pretty much shows what this kid looked like the whole time!

The whole Kindergarten.


Here are a few videos of the songs that they sang.

Blowing a Kiss Goodbye!

ALL DONE! SHE DID A GREAT JOB!

Twilight...

Ok, so now that the movie has officially been out for about 24 hours, I feel that I can post my feelings about it. Plus, I have now seen it 3 times so I need to write SOMETHING. Yes, I did say 3 times... but, don't call me a Twi-Hard, or a Twerd, or anything like that I have valid reasons for seeing it this many times already. First, I had purchased tickets to the midnight showing with a friend, then I got the AWESOME tickets to see it 2 days early but couldn't bail on my friend so I saw it twice. Well, the third time came about because after talking to Nilda about how we felt about the movie and then hearing how others felt about it, Nilda wanted to go a second time to get a second opinion about it. I couldn't very well let her go alone could I?

Ok, so here is how I feel. The first time I saw it, when it was over, I felt that it was a good movie. It isn't as good as the book by any means but still a good movie. But then on the way home from the movie Nilda and I were talking about it and started comparing the movie to the book. As we were comparing I found myself getting more and more frustrated and disappointed in the movie because some of my favorite parts of the book were not in the movie and there were some pivotal parts of the book that were barely touched on in the movie. For example, the meadow scene could have been WAY better! I feel it is one of the most important parts of the book and they barely even skimmed it in the movie. It was all wrong. Blood typing wasn't in there and that is one of my favorite parts too. Edward asking Bella all his little questions wasn't in there. I just feel that they didn't get in any sort of depth to how Bella and Edward felt about each other. So, those were my frustrations and disappointments.

Then I went to watch it for the second time at the midnight showing. Since I had already seen it, I knew what to expect and got to just watch it for what it was. I liked it better the second time. I don't know if my expectations were too high or what, but the second time I watched it, it was definitely more enjoyable.

So now we come to the third time... I like it even more. I think it is just one of those movies that has to grow on you. I think you just have to take it for what it is and not expect it to be like the book. It was fun to listen to some of the boyfriends in the audience that clearly had never read the book before during the movie. During the scene where Bella walks into the classroom for the first time and her scent hits Edward and he is GLARING at her, this guy next to me leaned to his girlfriend and said, "Jeez, what is that guys problem?" I just started laughing. Now there are some parts that I still think are a bit cheesy but like I said, still a good movie.

I am curious to see what everyone else thinks. Tell me what you think and if you agree or disagree on what I have to say.

I SAW TWILIGHT!!!!

So, Nilda and I went to see Twilight tonight. How is that possible you may ask? How is that possible because it doesn't come out until the 21st? Well, because we are special that's why. Ok, so if you aren't falling for that answer, we just know the right people. One of my friends asked me a few weeks ago if I was interested in seeing Twilight 2 days early. My answer: OF COURSE!!! Evidently Mr. Harkins' (the owner of Harkins Theatres) daughter is a senior this year in Scottsdale and for their Graduation fundraiser he was able to do a premier of Twilight for an exclusive audience of 750. So, we bought the tickets and now I've seen it before everyone I know, except Nilda. Neener neener neener!!! Ok, gloating over. I'm not going to say what I think of it until it comes out for all you common folk... just kidding... but I don't want to ruin anyone else's experience. I am seeing it again tomorrow night for the midnight showing because I actually had those tickets bought before I was offered the other ones. So, for all of those that are seeing it this weekend, I would love to hear your take on it and what you think about it. I will probably be giving my opinion about it in a week or so... So, if you haven't seen it by then but are still planning to see it and don't want your experience ruined... STAY AWAY!!! I hope you all have a happy viewing!

Fall Festival

Tonight Nevaeh had a Fall Festival at her school. It was really fun. We played games, paid way too much for a hot dog, chips and a pop, and won Ding Dongs at the cake walk. All in all it was a good night. I didn't take any pictures however because I forgot my camera at home...oops!

I wish that the school where I work did cool things like Nevaeh's school. I'm so glad that she doesn't attend the school where I work. Not only is her school better academically, it is just a better learning environment altogether. For some reason the principal at my school decided to take all the fun out of learning. We are not allowed to have any kind of parties or celebrations... no birthday parties, no holiday parties, nothing. His reasoning behind it is that having parties is taking away from their learning time. Now, I'm not saying that every class should have a party every day or anything like that, but come on give the kids something to look forward to or reward them with for all of their hard work! Now, because I'm the PE teacher, I really don't have the opportunity to even attempt having parties but I still think that school should be some place fun and exciting for the students. If school is a place where they enjoy being, I think that they will learn more... Just my opinion. :-)

Now Blogging... The Roths!!!

Ok, so we've decided to join almost everyone that we know and set up a blog. What this means is that soon our website will be no longer. :-( Not that I really did a very good job at keeping it updated anyway. Hopefully I will do a better job at keeping this updated. A short note here and there can't be too hard right?

Everyone wish me good luck!