Holiday Recital 2013

Sunday I hosted my student holiday recital.  It was a full house - 23 out of my 27 students were able to attend.  When they first arrived they entered a "guess how many candy santas are in the jar".  Alana won with her guess being within 2 of the correct number.

Then the kids played their pieces for each other.  Everyone did a great job.  I also had 4 guitar students who performed and 6 who sang.  Ashton played Yankee Doodle and Bowen sang Silent Night.

After the performances I had some snacks for the kids.  We had sausage, cheese, crackers, pickles, chips, grapes, rice krispie squares and Cadbury chocolate fingers.

It was a great time.  I enjoy teaching these great kids and to see them progress in their musical studies.

Christmas Preview

I had a productive day yesterday.  It started in the morning when my friend Shelley (she's also my visiting teaching companion) and I hosted a brunch for the ladies that we visit teach at my home.  We served waffles with strawberries and raspberry sauces, whipped cream, fruit, syrup and bacon, and sent them home with a box of chocolates.  It was so yummy!

We had a nice visit but missed the one lady who was unable to come as her son was sick.

After they left Shelley and I got to work dipping chocolates.  Mom had been up earlier in the week and had made some fondant for me.  I hadn't felt well for a couple of days and hadn't had time to do it yet.  Such a huge help to me.  We had fun working together and getting the fondant dipped.  Our dipping is improving and we are getting much faster.

Now the rest of my weekend I'll get ready for my student recital on Sunday.  Once that is done then I can focus on getting the last few things done for Christmas.  Most of my shopping is completed, but I want to do some baking next week.  This year Christmas sure sneaked up on me.  I'm trying not to stress about it though and enjoy the season.  I'd also like to have a little get together with some friends - but we'll see.  Maybe we will wait until the New Year!  How are your preparations going?

Pregnancy Brain

Yesterday of course was another busy Sunday.  We had church and then I had choir for an hour afterwards.  After choir we were trying to quickly leave the church so we could get home and have some dinner before attending the Stake Carol Festival at which our ward choir was performing that evening.  I headed to the hall to grab my coat and noticed there were no coats there.

Jason and Ashton were elsewhere in the building shutting off lights and I thought maybe they had grabbed it for me.  They came back a couple minutes later and then didn't have my coat.  The sister missionaries and a friend of mine were still in the building and they started looking for my coat.  They checked all the classrooms - but no luck - no coat.  I couldn't imagine who would have taken my coat.  I was upset as it is new and I had bought it big enough to hopefully last me the entire winter even with my growing belly.

My friend Anna insisted that she wanted to buy me a new coat.  I told her, of course, that that was completely unnecessary but she was adamant that she wanted to do this for me.  She said it was going to get so cold this week and I had to have a coat and she was taking me out to buy one on Monday.  About 20 after 5 we finally decided it was no where to be found and headed home.

When we got home and I was taking off my shoes I slid open the closet door and low and behold - MY COAT!  Still on the hanger in the closet.  How did I leave the house in December without a coat on?  I felt so stupid.  That night at the Carol Festival I let Anna know I had left my coat at home.  She was so disappointed - she had already been online looking for coats to buy me.  What a sweet friend!!

Ashton informed me that maybe the more brains I lose while I'm pregnant, the smarter the baby will be!  I don't think it quite works that way.

Wonder of Wonders / Miracles of Miracles

My poor blog has been so neglected as of late.  There has been something big I've been wanting to blog about and have not felt ready to do so - so I just found I wasn't blogging about anything.  My life feels so surreal right now I'm not even sure how to write about it.

But I won't keep you in suspense any longer...


So without further adieu...


Drum roll please!!!


badabadabadabadabada...

That's right - I'm pregnant!

We are thrilled, excited, surprised, nervous, etc.  As most of you know we lost our third baby boy over 5 years ago.  Since then we've always hoped that we might be able to have another baby join our family.  After a miscarriage and years of trying I had pretty much given up hope.  But both Jason and I never quite felt like our family was complete yet.

I must admit I'm nervous about this pregnancy considering my history and age - but I also know I was meant to carry this baby no matter what happens.  This past week we had our 19 week ultrasound.  I was especially anxious for this appointment as it was during this ultrasound that the initial problems with Kenny were diagnosed.

As you may or may not know babies with Trisomy 18 have some outward signs - one sign is a clenched hand.  Leading up to this week I prayed so hard that I would see open hands in the ultrasound.  Shortly after the exam started I saw a little hand lift up with 5 open little fingers.  It was all I could do to not start crying right then.  The rest of the ultrasound went great and as far as we can tell so far so good!

Introducing Baby Atwood - due to arrive April 2014

The boys are so excited!  When we told them Ashton burst into tears and kept saying over and over "I'm so happy, I'm so happy!!"  They've had fun thinking about sharing a room when the baby comes, and giving us their ideas for baby names.  They have both adamantly informed me that they will not be changing diapers however.

We pray that everything will continue to go well and are beyond grateful for this miracle of miracles!!

Stir Crazy

Last weekend Jason's work held their annual kids Christmas Party.  This year it was at "Stir Crazy", a games and activity place for kids.  They boys had so much fun.  They fed us, and the boys played in the bouncy houses, the arcade room and a big obstacle play area.

No Christmas party is complete without a visit from Santa.

Santa told Ashton he was brave to be wearing an Oiler's Jersey in Calgary!

They were both really happy with their presents.

Even Jason and I had a visit from Santa

The boys decided before we left they wanted to try one of the little kid rides.  Silly boys!

We had a fun family day!

Grandma's Birthday Weekend

This past weekend the entire Puzey clan headed to Edmonton to celebrate Grandma's birthday.  We pulled the boys from school and after a quick trip to the barber shop for haircuts we headed on our way Thursday morning.  We arrived in Edmonton around 4:00 p.m. checked into our hotel and then went over to the West Edmonton Mall.

After a bit of shopping we met everyone at the Old Spaghetti Factory for dinner.  We had a great meal together with all 19 of us at the same table.

After having a yummy breakfast at the hotel Friday morning we headed back to the West Edmonton Mall and spent the entire day at the Waterpark. The boys had so much fun with their cousins.  They swam in the wave pool and rode the slides all day.  Bowen was so adventurous and went on lots of slides he had never been on before.

Bowen, Ashton and Jason also decided to try the new zipline that goes the entire length of the park.  I couldn't believe Bowen agreed.  He told me he was nervous but still wanted to do it.  He ended up thinking it was awesome.  Ashton of course wasn't hesitant at all to go as he is our daredevil.

After they kicked us out of the waterpark we got a bite to eat and went back to the hotel.  The boys were pretty quick to fall asleep.

Saturday started with breakfast again at the hotel and then we went back to the mall to spend the day at Galaxyland.  Again I was so proud of Bowen he tried so many new rides.

The boys even tried one call Space Shot that shoots you 130 ft in the air at 3G's.  Bowen didn't like this one very much, but Ashton went on it 3 more times.

You can see the difference between my boys in this picture.  One in sheer joy, the other sheer panic!!

We opened and closed galaxyland as well as the waterpark the day before.  We went to Earl's for dinner and then back to the hotel.  Straight to bed again for all of us.  We were all tuckered out.  We headed home on Sunday and were very fortunate to have good roads to travel on.  We had such a great time with everyone.  Mom was pleased to have her whole family together for her birthday!  We'll have to do it again in a few years.

Pulled a Fast One

Many mornings Ashton gets up before me.  This morning he got up around 6:00 a.m., had a shower, and made his lunch.  When I came downstairs at 7:00 a.m. he was getting himself some breakfast and was dressed and even had his snowpants on already.

Later this afternoon I got an email from Ashton's teacher.  Included was a note - "Wanted to send you this picture.  Thought you might get a kick out of what Ashton has on under his snowpants today!".

What a stinker!  But I've got to hand it to him, he pulled one over on me!

Halloween 2013

Our Halloween celebrations started the night before with the carving of pumpkins.  My boys and Jason love carving pumpkins but got started a bit late as they didn't begin until after bishopric meeting and cubs.

The finished products - a couple of classic designs.  Bowen carved the one on the right all by himself!

A quick bat that Jason and Bowen carved.

A wolf that Ashton carved completely by himself - he wanted me to make sure I told you all that!  He was pretty proud of himself!

Halloween day the boys were having little parties at school and I had volunteered to bring in cookies.

I thought they turned out cute!  I took Hobnobs, piped frosting on top and stuck a hershey kiss on top to complete the little witch hats!

Of course after school it was time to get ready to go trick or treating.  Bowen dressed as a Jedi.

Ashton dressed as Darth Maul.

The boys had lots of fun trick or treating with their cousin Dane!

Another successful halloween!!

Super Saturday

If you know me, you know that I'm not very crafty.  Sure I can cross stitch, but that is about it!  This past Saturday was our Relief Society super saturday and they looked like they were making some pretty simple little Christmas crafts.  I committed to go with a friend of mine.  It was a good thing that I had agreed to go with someone because come Saturday morning I didn't much feel like going.

I'm glad I did though.  We first made this cute little nativity project.  I thought it turned out pretty cute!

In fact I think I may go get supplies and make a few for friends this Christmas!

Then they served us a nice lunch, and then we finished up with making a tulle wreath.  So easy to make and will look nice on my mirror when you first come in the house this Christmas season!

One of the girls had brought halloween coloured tulle (purple, green, orange, black) and made a halloween wreath.  I plan on making one for next year it turned out really adorable.

All in all it turned out to be a successful super saturday for this non crafty girl!

Fall Pictures

Back to school also means fall school pictures.  The boys took their pictures at school a few weeks ago and of course they turned out really cute and I ended up ordering a 5x7 of each of their pictures.  But I refuse to pay the huge fees to get 8x10 pictures.  So after school the other day I took a few pictures of the boys in our backyard.

They are growing into such handsome little men.  Love my boys!

Home Reading

So it is that time of year again - HOME READING time!

Bowen brings a book home each week that he is to read with us and then draw pictures and write in his scribbler and return every Monday.

I'm so grateful Bowen is such a good reader so this is a fairly painless exercise for us all.  Especially when he brings home one of my favorite books as a kid.

His book this week is "Jacob Two Two Meets the Hooded Fang".  It's been fun to have him read this book to me every night.

Happy Reading!

Another New Game

This summer Jason also taught the boys to play chess.  I have no idea how to play!  I love that they can play games together.

Do you ever feel that maybe your kids are smarter than you are?

New Favourite Game

The boys were going through the games in the basement the other day and came across an old game of Jason's - "Axis and Allies".

They brought it up and begged Jason to teach them how to play.  It is a strategy game, really meant for kids and adults much older than our boys, and Jason was sure they would get bored and not like it.

Well - he was wrong!  They both love it, especially Bowen. Each round takes about an hour to play and they have spent days in a row playing in the evenings.

I think it is great as it gives me a bit of free time.  The only downside - it takes over the dining room table!  I'm thinking it is time for a games table in the basement.