Ski Day in Park City

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Why You Should Read the Directions!

I'm happy to report that after checking out the Rockband Support website, we discovered why our microphone wasn't working!!! We didn't know a controller had to be plugged in to operate the microphone. We must have missed that in the directions somewhere. The website told us to try plugging in the controller before we returned anything and voilla...it worked! The great thing about it is, now 4 people can play at one time. That means we only have to rotate one person in after each song. We're so happy nothing was broken except for the reading directions step!

Christmas Morning

The music you'll hear with our Christmas morning pictures is from a group called Celtic Thunder. We had not even heard of them until Ariel gave her dad one of their CD's for a Christmas gift. We all LOVE them so I put one of the songs from the CD with our pics. Hope you enjoy. The song is called Come to the Hills and it's sung by the youngest member of the group...the 14 year old!!!

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Christmas Eve

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Cousin Shelby's Choir Christmas Concert

As most of you know, I know a little bit about music and teaching. Because of that, I can be a harsh critic when it comes to being an audience member at any given concert. I was very impressed with my niece, Shelby's concert at Sunset Ridge Middle School in West Jordan last week. Her choir director had 6 or more, large groups, including 2 bell choirs perform in under an hour. The individual groups knew when it was their turn to line up out in the hall to be ready to SILENTLY come on stage without delay between groups. The director accompanied and directed every single song on the program except the solo she sang, which was fabulous. I enjoyed an excellent evening of singing by well behaved, well directed and well organized middle school students. My hat's off to Shelby's AWESOME teacher!!! That's the way it should always be. :>)

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Officially Ready for Christmas

I've been AWOL from our blogspot during the last week for the same reason I'm sure most of you have been AWOL...
Even though we (Roger and I) are feeling much like this picture, I'm so excited for Christmas! I even had trouble staying asleep last night! Now what kind of mom behaves like that?! (Insert voice of cute boy on the Disneyland vacation commercial) "I'm too excited to sleep!" Tune in next week to see the juicy details of what I'm so excited about!!!

Costco Gas

A half a tank of gas cost me 8.50 tonight!!! Gas was 1.30 per gallon at Costco, so we topped of my tank while finishing the last of the Christmas shopping. What a way to "wrap it up!" (pun intented)

Awards from the Cousins Party

To encourage positive behavior and cheerful attitudes while having 8 kids here for a sleep-over last weekend, I posted certificates around the walls with special awards on them. I was worried about sharing, having enough space and playtime during the party/sleepover. I showed the awards to the kids as they arrived at the party and told them if they earned an award, they would also receive a gift to go with it. Who knew it would be that easy? The kids were so helpful and kind to each other that I almost couldn't belive my ears/eyes! Not only that, it lasted the entire time they were here!!! That made the event so much more enjoyable because we didn't have to referee/break up fights, give time-outs and/or take things away, etc. etc.

Here are the awards the kids earned:

Little Ben
Best at Sleeping Upstairs Without the Big Kids





Parker:
Best Direction Follower
(He was the last decorator(er?) standing with his gingerbread house! He stayed with it until the very end of the party!)



Kayla:
Most Helpful
with the Little Kids



Brayden:
Most Kind with Words and Actions


Devin:
Best "Go-fer" Helper





James:
Most Positive Attitude
(Here he is finding some time at the party to type a report for school. Now that's the spirit!)

Shelby:
Most Cheerful










Eryn:
Best at Keeping Things Organized



As you can see, they're beautiful kids anyway. This just gave me a chance to recognize each one of them for something a bit more special. It wasn't hard to come up with ideas because they are INCREDIBLY AWESOME human beings and I love 'em to pieces!!!

Hooray! It's our 100th post and we had fun, Fun, FUN!!!

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Cousins Decorate Gingerbread Houses

Christmas Concert at Highland High

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Cheap Gas Hits Again! -Want to Play Another Game?

Are you ready to play "Predict the Lowest Gas Price" game? If you are, make a comment under this post of how low you think the price for Unleaded gas will hit before it starts heading back up again. I'm going to say.... hmmm, I'll get back to you on that.
P.S. Who cares if we're wrong, this is just for kicks and giggles!

Hey, You Buckley Cousins...

To: Shelby, James, Brayden, Parker, Kayla & Ben

From: Ariel, Eryn & Devin

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Infused Oil and Vinegar Bottles

They're beautiful, aren't they? Last night at the Wilkins Family Christmas Party, I bought one at the family auction for $8. It came with a great recipe for artichoke dip that called for some of the oil and vinegar from the bottle. Too bad no one brought the bottle in the house last night with the rest of the things from the party, because on the way to school this morning, not too far out of the neighborhood, Devin and I heard a strange thump in the back of the car. Suddenly we began smelling the pungent smell of vinegar wafting up from the back. Yep, you guessed it, the strange thump was the oil and vinegar bottle tipping over, blowing it's top and spilling out all over the back of the car! Does anyone have any ideas how to get that smell OUT OF MY CAR?!!! ...Sorry, Aunt Vicki!

Wilkins Family Christmas Party

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Saturday Haircuts...AKA: Bonnie's Got Mad Cosmotology Skills

Today, Eryn and I had Bonnie cut (and color for me) our hair. Bonnie went to High School with my little sister, Liz, and she (Bonnie) is the best beautician in the West!!! While we were there I thought Roger and Devin were "running errands." SUPRISE! They got hair cuts somewhere too. They're both a bit on the short side, but boys do super short much better than girls!!! It's just hair...it will always grow back, right?!

I don't know what I'm going to do while Bonnie takes 8 weeks off to spend with her new baby!!! I'm just going to try and hold out til she's back in business.

Book Club has a Christmas Party

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Ward Christmas Party

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Festival of Trees

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Santa Joins our "Spot the Cheapest Gas" Game!

Tonight on the way home from the Festival of Trees we had another "cheap gas" sighting! Just off 90th South and State Street by the Southtown Expo Center, we found gas 6 cents cheaper than yesterday! There were 14 cars waiting to fill up at this station. It was AWESOME!!! Even Santa couldn't resist!
We put 9 gallons in my truck for $13.25. Last summer that much gas would have cost around $36.00. YIKES!!!