First ever....

On Saturday, January 8th, Little John went on his first ever temple trip to do baptisms for the dead. (I had to explain to him that he would be the proxy and that we DO NOT exhume bodies and actually do the baptism on dead bodies. He had been a little bit concerned until I told him that.) He rode down with four young men from the Hutchinson Ward and they met others youth from Hutchinson there.The Oklahoma City Temple

Driving down to Oklahoma City.

John, in front of the temple.

All the young men.... Jacob, Jason, John and Dustin. (I didn't make John wear his suit coat and I probably should have.)

She's been waiting....

and waiting and waiting and waiting....

for the
Third Grade Spelling Bee!

Seriously, Kelly has known for several weeks that she would be one of seven to represent her class in the third grade spelling bee. She called the grandparents to make sure they knew that she would be in the spelling bee. She chose her clothes a week ago. All week Kelly has been telling me that she would be going to bed by 8:30 on Thursday night so she could be well rested for the spelling bee (and she did!). She was up at 6 a.m. this morning, ready to go. She did not dillydally this morning like she is wont to do. Christopher, Leslie and I were there to cheer her on and take pictures..... (be warned, there are lots of pictures in this post)

Kelly, waiting for instructions with the other 27 spellers. She drew seat number 3.

First word - BELL. Cinchy.

Second word - BUNT. Easy.

Third word - PRETTY. Piece of cake.

Fourth word - EMPTY. Got it.

Fifth word - MELLOW. Check.

Whew. Kelly made it to the last five. They are listening to the final instructions.

Sixth word - DIGIT. Done.Seventh word - ORGANIC. No problem.

Eighth word - BACKGROUND. Dang. She went too fast and forgot the G. Jerrett (the tall boy) missed his word, but Grant got his. Grant had to spell one more word to win, but he missed. Kelly, Jerrett and Grant started another round.

Ninth word - VOLLEY. Score. Jarrett misspelled his word then Grant misspelled his word. Kelly had to go again - one more word and she wins.
Tenth word - DILLYDALLY. Cue laughter from the crowd - parents, teachers and students. You can see Jarrett laughing. And..... Kelly spelled DILLYDALLY without missing a beat.

SHE WON!!!

Kelly with her certificates. She also won a year subscription to Encyclopedia Britannica for kids - online. She was very excited!

With Mrs. Piester the Gate Teacher and the top five spellers - Noah, Jarrett, Kelly, Grant and Brett. (Grant, Jerrett and Kelly are usually the top three in everything. They will be competing against each other in a lot of things, I'm sure.)

(P.S. My mom won her school spelling bee in sixth grade. Kelly's got it in her genes!)

Thanksgiving - Finally!!!

We had a great Thanksgiving Day and then dinner with the Rodriguez Family. Irene is so funny.... she and her kids had Thanksgiving dinner with her parents and siblings at 11:00 a.m. but Irene said it was too Mexican. (They had turkey, tamales, beans, rice...) After Adrian got off work they came to our house for "White People Thanksgiving". I'm not kidding. Irene is always telling me she wants to learn how to cook "White Girl Food". It always makes me laugh and I tell her that I'm Mexican. She laughs at that because she knows that I have dual-citizenship but am mostly a "White Girl" who cooks "White Girl Food". (She did get me to help when they made tamales on Christmas Eve, but that's another post....)

Hat Day

Clear back on November 22, 2010, it was HAT DAY at Christopher's story time. He tried on MANY hats...a cowboy hat...

a Fargo hat...

an army hat...

and a monkey hat....

before deciding to wear a witch's hat (and his spider man pajama top which he never wears to bed - it's just too cool).

Here's the whole class with Miss Leeann.