The Greatest Gift!!

"Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto us is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. " Luke 2:10-11

Bouncy, Bouncy!!!

Day three of Christmas Vacation!! The kids all grabbed a friend and we headed to Bounce U for a little bounce play! What a great way to spend the day and get out some energies!!!

GOING BANANAS

Day two of Christmas break! The kids had friends over and made silly video's here is one of them. Hope you can look past the mess!!!

Run, run as fast as you can!!!!

Day one of Christmas Vacation!!! Ginger bread house and train decorating time! Yep! Even my sister Ellen would be impressed!! We stuck to the tradition of Necco roof, and peppermint candy walk way!!!

Fa-La-La-La-La-La-La-La-Laaa!

Hannah's 1st Middle School Choir Concert!!! I have been so impressed by what she is learning. Greenspun has a very knowledgeable and talented choir teacher. She teaches and conducts six awesome choirs!!!! Yes, six!!! Here are two of Hannah's choral numbers!!! Hannah sings alto and stands on the left second row third from the left. I am so proud of her. It has been so fun to hear her humming and singing around the house!!!!

Holiday Celebrations (Hanukkah, Kwanzaa & Christmas)

Various Themes on "fa-La-La"

DECEMBER DANCE!!!

Hannah you ROCK!!!

Marisa danced with fever and all!!

TONIGHT MGM DEBUE!!!

Food and Football!

Grayson's Primary teacher told him that Thanksgiving means FOOD and FOOTBALL! Grayson played his first season of flag foot ball. He was on a team with several of his buddies! He got to move around a lot and learn a lot of different positions. He is such a fast runner, he liked running the ball in the most!!! But who wouldn't. In one game he scored four touch downs. It was so fun to watch!!

Missing my Muse!!!

This will be the last post on my muse Jasper!! About a month ago Jeff came home from work at noon time and informed me that Jasper had moved up the list to go to the ranch for blind whippets. When we found out that Jasper would be blind within the year the vet told us about this ranch in California that takes blind whippets. We put Jasper on the waiting list and he was #3. He moved to #2 and then the #1 backed out so Jasper's number was up. The lady only keeps six dogs at a time and prefers to have them before they go blind so they can learn their way around. Jeff thought it was the best thing for the dog and so he packed him up and took him to California. It was a very hard thing!!! He sat the kids down and explained that Heavenly Father has given us animals to take care of and we needed to do what was best for Jasper by having him leave our family and go live with the other whippets in the care of this lady. As much trouble as that dog caused we all had a soft spot for him and it was a difficult thing to have to do. We loved him!! I will say life is much easier without him. I don't have to worry about putting meat out on the counter to thaw, the kids toys and shoes have been safe with no chew marks, our grass is beginning to fill in from all the digging etc. We still have Gene and one dog is good enough!!!!

Pilgrim Poses

These are the first Holiday decorations to see the light of day for a while. I haven't been very good about decorating in the last year. It is just a lot of work!!! Put out take down etc. Everybody wants them up not to many people are willing to help or take them down. Enough about the Little Red Hen though! Marisa and I were straightening the garage after the Halloween decoration take down and we came across this Pilgrim couple. She immediately had to take them inside and find them a home. Throughout this month I have noticed everyone enjoying the little Pilgrim couple! I have captured just a few of the positions I have found them in!!

I think they are in love!

I hope they were just tired and someone was not playing ball in the house!!!!!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

Can You Say ANDREA BOCELLI

The choir that I joined this fall The Southern Nevada Musical Arts Society Chorus has been asked to sing with Andrea Bocelli at the MGM Grand Hotel on December 12th. Andrea Bocelli has a chorus that usually travels with him based out of Arizona. For the December concert scheduled here in Las Vegas he opted to have a local choir sing with him and forgo the travel expense of his usual choir. He or "his people"read the review of our choir that was written in the Las Vegas Sun after our recent concert in October and listened to tapes of ours and other area choirs including Desert Choral the Master Singers and they selected ours to sing with him!!!!

What a privilege to sing in a chorus on stage with Andrea Bocelli. I feel so blessed not only to sing with someone as talented as he but to be able to learn and sing beautiful music. I truly feel the Spirit of my Heavenly Father when we sing this glorious music. I know the Spirit is there and helping me to do this. I could not do this on my own. My experiences in this choir and with the talent that I am working to develop is a blessing from heaven and I cannot deny it. It has brought me more joy and happiness than I could imagine outside of my own family!

Things are about to get complicated. . .

Jeff was put in as the Second Counselor of the Bishopric on Sunday. It has been a whirl wind ever since he received the call! We went to church on November 1st expecting the new Bishopric to be put in. Nothing happened. After Sacrament Meeting a man came up behind Jeff and I and put his hands on our shoulders and said, “Brother and sister Boyce could you meet with President Romney at 3:20 this afternoon?” Our eyes must have popped out for our heads. I quickly responded, “Yes.” He pointed it out, and I said, “Well I know it’s not for me!” He said, “How do you know?” Oh I know!!! It’s funny how you can see things coming from a mile away. A few months back Jeff gave a talk in Sacrament meeting. It hit me like a ton of bricks seeing him up there I had the realization that he would be up there some day. However I didn’t think it would be so soon. He is so wise and sensitive to the spirit, always worthy in my eyes and ever ready to serve the Lord. He will do a great job and is so blessed to be called with these wonderful men. He isn’t one to enjoy meetings and that will be a challenge. I am not eager about being a “church widow” either. Jeff has always shared the load. He is such a “hands on” dad. He really helps out. We are often late for church with his help- it could be a disastrous without his help. I know the Lord will bless us and hopefully our hardships will be but a small moment. I think it was more than a coincidence that my parents happened to be here the same Sunday Jeff was set apart. Jeff’s parents made a special trip. It was a lovely day!

88 Keys

For decades, Liberace was known for his music, candelabra, charisma, rhinestones and dazzle. Friday my parents my sister and I went to visit the Liberace museum here in Vegas. Wow!! What a story! He was an amazing showman and a dedicated son. Displayed at the museum are pianos like you have never seen before, some of his legendary wardrobe, and boy did he knew how to make an entrance. He had mirrored, crystal rhinestone cars etc. Some of his flamboyant costumes weighed up to 200 lbs. It was very interesting!

Thrilling . . .

Could Halloween get any Scarier? Wow it is exhausting!! All I can say is at least we got our monies worth out of those costumes!!! The girls both got to wear their costumes to dance, we had a ward trunk or treat, they got to dress up at school this year, we attended various Halloween parties and events, and a night of trick or treating in the neighborhood. Marisa went through two pair of tights before the Halloween night even came!! The best thing I ever did was to buy their costumes early. The kids had a day off of school early in October. I took them right out that day and we made some decisions!! Once it was decided there was no going back!!! Just wait for the day to come. Some moms got together this year and preformed THRILLER at our tri-ward trunk-or-treat! Yep that's me down there in my gauze reaper outfit!!! Marisa said she was afraid to look at me. I was a little afraid to look at myself!!!! It was too dark to video tape so we won't be making our YouTube debut anytime soon!!! It was thrilling!!!!

Battle Born

Howdy all!!! Here is Marisa and I duded up for our Nevada Day Celebration!!!! Nevada was became a state on October 31st during war time so it was nick named "The Battle Born State." The first graders always have a big Nevada Day Celebration. We did line dancing, learned about the Pony Express, roped some horses, dressed and undressed like cowboys, and threw some horse shoes. This celebration usually takes place on the day before Halloween and the kids get to dress up in cowboy/girl gear in lue of dressing for Halloween. This year it took place Three days before Halloween because the kids are actually going to dress up for Halloween and have a parade and everything. But that will be another post!!