You don't choose your family.: December 2014

Friday, December 26, 2014

ÇhᏒᎥsᏆmᎪs 2014

Christmas was wonderful and relaxing. Woke up early and had no agenda or places to rush, with a light snow that fell all day. I'm still like a little kid and wake up too early for the excitement Christmas brings. We found the boys checking out what Santa brought at 6am...I think they were pleased. Riley got his AT-AT Star Wars Legos and the 'Maze Runner' book. Reece got a second Mip robot and the newest 'Diary of a Wimpy Kid' book.

Reece refuses to give me a "normal" smile these days.

Coffee cake and egg nog before present time.

Mine craft Legos from grandma Sally and grandpa.

A new KU shirt from grandma and grandpa.

Wonderology toys from grandma and grandpa.

City Legos. Reece also got a new iPod. His old version was sad and extremely outdated. Riley's Christmas wasn't as exciting (he is getting to go on a slightly expensive field trip to Moab in the spring) and his gifts included a guitar case, clothes (anything to get him out of sweat pants) and a new Xbox video game. Overall, we have a couple happy boys. Reece wasn't super excited about a second Mip robot until he saw the two interact...they fight and even dance in a synchronized fashion. Very entertaining...and having the new iPod helped. Once he figured out how fun having two was he ran out to thank us. Thankful kids make me happy.

And after a fun filled day we all were a little pooped. I crashed early but would never look this cute in the process. So you're welcome for sharing this instead. :)

Sunday, December 21, 2014

"ιм đɾєåмιиg σf å ωħιтє çħɾιѕтмåѕ"

A white Christmas is will be.

It's been a very dry winter with a few snow showers here locally that never collected and stayed around for long. I'm pretty sure the skiers were starting to panic. We are now in the middle of a big one, just in time for Christmas. I love how it's collecting on my ornaments outside.

ⓢⓘⓒⓚ ⓑⓤⓖ

Ugh. The sick bug hit.

And Reece missed so much fun this last week of school, before Christmas Break started.

He missed a field trip to the high school for a Christmas concert, he missed an all day field trip to Sunlight to ski with his classmates, and he missed his Christmas party with a fun gift exchange.

It's not unusual for my boys to just run fevers...and for days this was just a fever. Not saying my kids are sick often, it's just when they are, it is usually just a fever that needs to run it's course. By Friday he suddenly started complaining of a sore throat and headache. That was it...time to see the doctor. We elected for a strep test...it came back negative, but after his symptoms were examined, the doctor was pretty sure he was heading in that direction. His throat was red and his lymph nodes were swollen. Antibiotics it was. Reece was better almost immediately...

So what's worse than a Reece that is sick??? A Reece that has days of energy stored up from being sick, which has to be released immediately. I love my Reece, and love him healthy, but he is more exhausting at these times. He talks up a storm and is bouncing off the walls. Thankfully, Jake took them up to ski today and I hope his extra energy was exerted just in time as head into Christmas week.

This photo was taken in the office...apparently they are being very cautious this flu season.

BẠ₦Ð ₡Ø₦₡ẸƦŦ

Riley kept us busy this week...tonight it was his band concert where he got to show off his mad trombone skills. If you see the big drum in the back, that is Riley's head right in front of it. I love Christmas music, so I enjoyed the concert. It's amazing the difference you hear from year to year. From sixth to seventh grade, and seventh to eighth. Looking forward to next year... Riley is only one of two trombones, and apparently he's not the loudest on his trombone. Something he needs to work on...not sure what's holding him back from belting out.

RΩCҜ STΔR

Above is a video of my rockstar.

Riley was given another free private lesson from Jaxon...a traveling teacher that just received his masters in some sort of guitar. He was impressed the first time he met Riley, so he pushed Riley even more the second time around. This video was at Riley's first Lead Guitar concert which was just 24 hours after his lessons with Jaxon. At these lesson Riley learned "second position" and had 24 hours to learn a new song in a new position to show off a duet with Jaxon. It was amazing!! How has Riley done this in just 2 short months? I'm pretty darn proud and in the video you see his usual guitar teacher Mike smile with pride that Riley is doing so well.

Celebrating Riley's performance at White House Pizza. Buffalo Chicken Pizza...Riley's favorite!

ṃıṡһåƿ

We had our first mishap with our new guitar...Somehow at school it got banged up pretty bad. So bad that repairing it wasn't worth it, and it was no longer playable. We still have no idea who or what did it, but with the damage done, someone knows they did it. Riley's teacher felt awful and was kind enough to lend him his guitar for the weekend, so Riley could practice for their upcoming concert. Time was of the essence and we had to act fast with the concert coming up... the local music store offered a new guitar at the price we paid for the original. It was a good deal, just painful to pay double the cost for a guitar we had only had for a couple of months, but we bit the bullet and bought him a new guitar, and this time with a better, sturdier case. If Riley wasn't doing so well it would have been harder to make such a purchase.

A couple days later we had a nice turn of events...the Aspen Music director for the Lead Guitar program offered to replace Riley's guitar for free if it wasn't too late to return the guitar we had just bought. I truly believe it was mostly due to how well Riley has been doing. He has been an amazing student and is ahead in his class....even after missing several lessons due to basketball. We took her up on the offer and we were able to return the purchased guitar with no problem...we of course kept the case. A case that will most likely prevent any such mishap from happening again.

*knock on wood*

PS... Aspen Music Festivals and Schools is amazing!! I have my down days once in a while being so far away from family, but the experiences my children are getting out here are priceless. Riley is thriving in middle school. (Seriously, who thrives in middle school?) This Lead Guitar program is just one of them. I'm not sure I would have ever figured out how much of a natural musician Riley is and I have this director who just randomly reached out to us at the middle school open house to thank for it.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

ʍɛʀʀʏ ƈɦʀɨֆṭʍǟֆ ṭօ ʏօʊ

Merry Christmas from the McMillan clan!

Please overlook our very mediocre card this year...life is happening so fast I cannot believe 2014 is just weeks from wrapping up. A year ago, I was only working three days a week, I felt like I had time to plan and organize life. Now, I'm working full time and I mostly blame for the uncontrollable feeling that life is flying by. So here is a rare photo that all four of us made it in, and yes, Jake and his coworkers take "No Shave November" very seriously. ;)

May you have a blessed Christmas, followed by a blessed 2015!