On The Road

The day after Christmas we packed up the car and headed out of town. It's a long drive to Washington, but for all the fun we have...totally worth it!

We love playing with our Washington Cousins and were so happy to have so much time to be with them! Thanks Aunt Nan and Aunt Em for coming over so often and bringing our cousins!

A favorite is a day at Uncle Ry and Aunt Han's. The kids love to spend time on "the farm." Avery asks us to tell her the names of all the animals Ryan and Hannah have.

Ethan turns into a real farm hand, ready to work! He's so grown up when we're at Ry's.






The kids are getting so brave around the horses. They both let them eat apples right out of their hands.








Ryan also inherited Grandpa's 4-wheeler. It was fun to see the kids riding around with Uncle Ry. It brought back great memories of being on the old farm. So much fun and all this in the first few days we were at Gram and Papa's!

Christmas Day

All our Christmas preparations paid off! The kids were so excited they could hardly fall asleep...which may be why they slept in until 7:30! When they finally woke up we darted downstairs for the festivities!

Santa was kind to the kids and brought exactly what they wanted...A new baby for our budding mama and a blue light saber for our Jedi. It was magical to see the smiles on their faces.

The kids each got some really great gifts from Bob and I and Gram and Papa. The favorites...

A Playmobil Boat with a shooting grappling hook and fire jets.


Seven Princess Barbies! I love her excitement.


We dressed up and headed to Church. It was nice to focus on the real meaning of Christmas and see friends on such a special day.

After church we headed over to Grandma and Granddad's for the cousin party. Great food, more presents, and lots of quality time with family.

Avery got her own puppy to walk, just like Ally and Alissa's so she knew just what to do!



Ethan got Laser Tag. He'd played with Aunt Mary one day when she tended him...he was thrilled!

Doesn't this face say it all? We had a great Christmas!

Christmas Prep

There's a lot to be done before Christmas...This year we had a great time with all the things leading up to the big day.

A few months ago Avery asked me for yet another baby, she had 4 or more at the time so I told her maybe not. Ethan quickly chimed in and told her to "ask Santa for one for Christmas." That's all that was said and from then on Avery would say, "Santa bring me baby for Christmas." In a very matter of fact sort of way...she was a born believer.

She of course had no idea who Santa was because the first 2 times we saw him she wanted nothing to do with him and especially didn't want to sit on his lap. Finally, at the ward party I placed her on his lap. She quietly asked for a baby, smiled for a picture and was off. The deed was done. He would now bring her a baby.

We love to go to temple square and walk around admiring the beautiful Christmas lights and different nativities. This year did not disappoint. It was cold and a little crowded, but the lights were amazing. It's a great family outing.



The kids and I baked, crafted and cooked up a storm for neighbor gifts, family parties, and fun. It helped pass the time as we counted down the days until Christmas.


Finally on Christmas Eve we joined Bob's family for a couple of family parties. The grandkids always act out the nativity. I think they look fabulous all dressed up. Avery was the wise man complete with a gift for the baby and Ethan got to play Joseph this year as the oldest boy. He was proud of himself, felt so grown up.

We opened PJ's with cousins as is tradition. Ethan was excited when I told him he'd get to finally open a gift, then a few minutes later he came back to me and said, "but if it's pajamas never mind." Sorry kiddo!

Once we got home Avery insisted we leave a snack for Santa. Ethan wanted to include the reindeer which I thought was cute. Avery on the other hand was a little hesitant to think of so many visitors coming in to our house while she slept. She was shaky on letting Santa in, but no way were reindeer to enter our house. I assured her Santa would feed the reindeer on the roof. She calmed a little, but kept asking me if Santa would take the food outside. Ethan wrote a sweet note to go with the treats, I'm glad Santa wrote a reply on the back and left it for us!

It took some doing, but we were ready for Christmas...stay tuned for the big day!

It's Tradition

It's a tradition in our family to make sugar cookies and decorate them at Christmas time. This year Auntie Hannah and Uncle Ryan gave the kids a cookie kit complete with cookie cutter, recipe, frosting tubes, sparkle gel and sprinkles. They were thrilled.

We whipped up a batch of dough, rolled, cut and baked up lots of fun cookies. I love my little helpers and they love to choose the shapes and roll the dough. Ethan is really becoming a great chef and Avery is a super sous chef.

We invited Aunt Amy over to help decorate the delicious cookies (Uncle Ray needed her out of the house for a Christmas Surprise). It was fun to have so many great frostings and easy to use decorations.

We also had cousins over and frosted mini sugar cookies. I was impressed at how creative the kids were and how cute the cookies turned out.

Thanks for the fun Auntie Hannah!

A Furious Five

Ethan had one Kickin' Kung Fu Party for his "Number 5 birthday." He and I had a great time planning and preparing as much Kung Fu Fun as we could think of. Ethan had some great ideas and plans of his own. It was fun to plan with him and make his ideas a reality. In his mind, momma can do anything!


We invited 4 of Ethan's best friends...together they became The Furious Five plus Avery of course! We started with a game of Master Says. Master Says show me your best Kung Fu move!

The boys had a dumpling race with chopsticks and marshmallows. They each tried to get the most marshmallows in their bowl before time was up. Master and Po fight over dumplings with chopsticks in the first movie and Ethan loves to use chopsticks with the chopstick helpers so it was a perfect game.


Next we had a Rock, Paper, Scissors tournament up the stairs. The winner of each round moved up the stairs to his new challenger while the loser moved down to try his hand at defeating the next player. While they may not really get who won the whole tournament they really liked playing.

The Furious Five had a staring contest with masks. Ethan was thrilled to be Po and face off with Master Shifu.



Tai Lung is the villain in the second movie and of course the Furious Five defeat him. I had Bob draw Tai Lung faces on balloons and the masters did their best to conquer the bad guy!

Finally a few karate chops were in order. Each Kung Fu Master took a chop out of a Kit Kat stack of boards. They each took pride in breaking through so many layers of boards.

His birthday packed a real punch! It was fabulous and my big boy was delighted with every activity, present and birthday wish!

Animals Galore

The kids and I joined Aunt Hailey and Cousin Angela for Free Day at the local zoo. We had a great time! I think I love the zoo, animals, and adventure as much as the kids.

Most of the animals had just been fed when we arrived. It was fun to see the gorilla eating kale and celery and Ethan was treated to seeing a crocodile pick up a rat. Our favorite food scene was the elephants eating their hay from a net up high. We were all impressed with how they could twist the hay with their trunks.


Ethan was our Zoo Guide for the day. He kept the map and gave great directions on where we needed to go and what we still had to see. He loved every minute of it!


The kids were treated to a ride on the carousel. Avery chose the baby giraffe. She was so brave this time...must be all the practice she's had recently.





Ethan could not be swayed from riding "his favorite" the snakes. He couldn't have been happier!




We had a super day and headed home just before the storm blew in.

Thankful!

This Thanksgiving the kids and I really got in to showing our thankfulness in crafts...

We made Thankful Pie for Family Home Evening. Each pie would spin around and show the different things we are thankful for.

We had friends over to make a cute little Indian corn project out of candy corn. The kids liked eating the candy corn as much as gluing them on their paper.



I crafted a Reese's Pieces Indian Corn favor for the Big Feast. I used real corn husks. I thought they turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself.

Finally we joined Bob's family for the beloved Pie Party on Wednesday night and then the Banquet on Thursday. We had a wonderful time munching, visiting, playing, and eating entirely too much!