Bedke Family Nativity

Every year my family gets together before Christmas to celebrate the birth of Christ. We act out the nativity, a tradition we have been doing ever since I can remember. It is sort of a right of passage in our family. If you are under 18 years of age, you participate in the nativity. Shaely who is 16 years old, could not get out of it this year. Sometime in your 18 years, everybody has to be Mary or Joseph. For some reason those are the characters no one ever wants to play. (Most obviously because you have to act like you are married and who wants to do that with relatives?) This year it was Callie. She was not happy, especially to find out Javie her cousin would be Joseph. She hid and was last to come in and get her costume on, but it wasn't without coxing and bribing. I could hear the grumbling going on between all of the other girls saying, "I was it two years ago", "me last year." " I had to do it twice!", were some of the comments. It made me think back when I was that age and I always wanted to be the angel. If only they could see how lucky they are to act out such a wonderful chosen couple.



Anyways it always turns into a talent show, (which makes grandpa so proud! )this year we had huge participation. Here are some of the highlights.
Hayden played his bag pipes


Shaely and Darby sang "What Child is This"

Kelsee, Tallen and Callie sang" When Christmas Comes to Town"

Tim played the guitar


Cade played "Jingle Bells" on the trumpet
Cydne sang "Mary Did You Know?"


Dad sang "Chestnuts Roasting??" ( is that the name of that song?)

Turkey Trot!

Go Tallen- Friday, November 20th was the Warm Springs Middle School Turkey Trot. Tallen was one of the 5th grade boys who got to go. It was fun to watch. He was so nervous to run against boys from 3 other elementary schools. Here he is ready and rearing to go.

I love this picture! These are some of the boys from his school. Look at them taking off. Some look questionable.

I thought his form looked pretty good here. He was in 6th and then sprinted up to finish in 5th at this point. Go Tallen!

Soccer, Soccer, Soccer

I love to watch my kids play soccer, and in this house it is 6 days a week. There is nothing I would rather do on Saturday. They have all had a great year and here are a few of our highlights.






Tallen's team so far is in first place with 2 games left.


Kelsee and Erik's team also in first with one game left. Both teams will get to move up a division.


Kelsee has this incredible throw in.






The header that won the Arsenal game


Callie doing her thing

Create

I was browsing one of my peeps blogs and saw this and loved it.

Priorities

Here I sit, at my computer, Friday, shaking my head, asking myself, how do I get myself roped into these things? Why can I just not say "no". How come I can't be more like the women who often say "no, to me, with no hang- ups.

"I am sorry that just won't work for my schedule, I have to make dinner."

Usually, with some empty-headed excuse that could be accomplished within 10 minutes. Why can't I clear up my schedule like these women? I mean we all have our priorities! Aren't my priorities my children and my husband? I aspire to be one of those mothers whose house is tidy at all times of the day, the laundry always folded and in drawers, not stacked in laundry baskets and dinner waiting beautifully on the table, while I look so put together for the day.

I do get tired of saying "not right now, I have to finish the 6 page newsletter for your school before tomorrow." Well this was one of those weeks. The ones where you are out of milk and you just don't have time to go to the store for four days, because other priorities take precedence. This was the week, where my kids and I had In N Out 3 nights out of the 5, because we were in the car 4 out of the 6 hours they are home from school. (Monday thru Thursday we cover 12 hours of soccer practice.)This was the week, "The Reflections" for the school had to be inventoried, categorized,labeled, filled out, invited to,judged etc.. This was also the week the 6 page newsletter was created, copied, folded, stuffed for 1,265 students. (Copies alone took me 5 hours, with the high tech duplo machine at our school.) This was the week the embroidery stack waited so patiently for me to finish.

This was the week the house, the laundry and the dinner were sacrificed ( and I mean sacrificed) for me to do those things that I just can't say "No" to. (Of course it makes it easier when Erik is out of town, and can't see any of it. I do scramble the day he comes home so he thinks everything is just as perfect as he left it. He has no idea!)

So, am I complaining? Yes it sounds as if I am complaining. But deep down inside, in a place I have to dig deep to find, to come to the realization and confess to myself, I ENJOY the weeks like these.... I said it, something about my warped personality actually enjoys being spun out in every direction.

These things that I say yes to, they allow me to create. I am a creator and I need to create to feel appreciated. I have this inner gravity that attracts my physical well-being to CREATE!!! Whether I am creating something so simple as a new hairstyle to my 9 year-olds hair or just adding different fonts to a newsletter, it is all boils down to my artistic potential.

Yes, you may be one, who knows exactly what I am talking about!! Those relaxing weeks where you have no demands, where you could sit back, unwind, read a book, go to lunch with a friend, get a pedicure. Those are the weeks that I am pulling new jobs down from the craft cupboard,finding new things create.

So next time I go to complain, remind me I do this for my internal preservation!

Highlights from the Night!

Dad's Art Show

Last night, was my dad's once every 5 year art show. We had a wonderful time. The food was great, the people, the service and of course the art. My dad started off the evening with a demonstration of a watercolor painting. He starts from a bare canvas and works a beautiful piece of art in a matter of 20 minutes. I love to watch him whip out these paintings, like it's just making a peanut butter sandwich for me. His vision is all in his head and I am fascinated with the beautiful colors, and exceptional details. He is truly amazing and talented.

The older girls were so excited they got to serve the guests. Cydne and I decided to make them aprons. I helped her cut out the aprons and then I took them home to sew and embroider them. They were very cute.

Because of limited parking, the cute husbands were the valet. They drove the guests up and down the steep hill all night. There must of been 15o people through out the night.

The food was delicious,(even though I couldn't eat anything). My mother's cater and friend Jody is unbelievable. She makes everything from scratch. She had asked my dad if he would paint a picture of one of the foods that she would be serving for display on the food table. He ended up painting a few and everybody wanted to buy them. They were really for display, but they all ended up going at the end of the evening. He will have to do more they were a huge hit.

It was fun to see everyone race to certain paintings. Lots of people wanted them off the walls of the house. My mother said sure!!! I am not sure how my dad felt, but I guess he can paint more.

Lake Powell 2009

Our Friend Jagger

Tallen Jumping off a cliff
Hiking up to go see some old Indian ruins. Very steep, although it doesn't look very steep.
Miss Callie decided to jump when no one was looking. We caught the picture just in time.
Tallen again!
Erik and Callie Wakesurfing

Well I thought after 2 years of having a blog I have decided I better post something. In August, we went to Lake Powell with the Pulsipher's and had a great time as usual. The weather was perfect. Not too hot. We did run into a little trouble our first day,which we thought would set a precedence for our trip. As we were trying to set in anchors, a gust of wind slammed our boat into some rocks. The boat started taking in water and we thought we were doomed. Luckily we had McGuiver, (Daniel) who shoved a kitchen towel in the hole, which seemed to do the trick. After that, things were great. The kids had a great time as usual. We did some cliff jumping, tubing, wakeboarding, tubing, wakesurfing, tubing, hiking and more tubing. We love our trips to Lake Powell. Here are some of our highlights. Check out some of the scenery it is so pretty there. Since every year Tallen is the only boy among 6 girls, he was able to bring his friend Jagger this year.

Lake Powell 2009

Cancun

Erik and I were fortunate enough to escape to Cancun in January. We had a great time fleeing our lives for a week, while Janet, Erik's mother came and stayed with the kids. She is an angel sent straight from heaven. We went with our favorite vacationing friends Daniel and Rebecca. We were busy everyday and here are some of the highlights.
This was actually a picture of our last day. No one around to take our picture!


Xel- Ha (Shell Ha). Isn't it gorgeous? The snorkeling was great!

Snake Lady. Erik wouldn't come near the snake. Ironic enough, this was at an alligator farm


Erik in front of our hotel beach side.

The Beach

Erik and Daniel can find bikes anywhere.

This is at X- Caret. Here, we floated through the Cenotes (sacred Caverns)

Random Pelican

The Beautiful Beach


Chichen Itza


Erik at the Alligator farm

Here we are at dinner and for dessert they bring every table a large cone of cotton candy.