New Years Eve

We spent our New Years Eve together at home.  It was great!  We got to try out our new raclette grill and had the most delicious meal.  I think we're going to have to make it a tradition every New Year's Eve!  With every bite it felt like I was back in the mission field.  It was so, so good!

Our countdown activity for today was to have a family dance with Disney songs.  Emma loved every single minute of it, while Ben whined and wanted us to change the music to rock and roll!

We finally changed the music to 'rock and roll' and discovered that Ben's rock and roll is actually country!  Ha! Ha!  He showed off his best dance moves for us when he found a song that he really liked!

We didn't even attempt to stay up late.  The kids were cranky by their regular bedtime, so we just put them to bed!  We weren't that far after them either.  Happy New Year!

Fun Times

Our activity for today was to watch some videos about the Magic Kingdom rides that we'll be getting to go on.  Emma and Ben were pretty intrigued with the parade videos and started jumping up and down when they saw a couple rides were roller coasters.  I can't wait to see them ON the rides!

I got to watch Rachel & Cub's kids while they went to the temple this morning.  The kids all played so well together.

I've also got a bunch of Primary stuff done for the new year.  It's crazy how many things have to be done still though.

Lennard is going back in to Lethbridge tonight to watch the new Star Wars movie with a bunch of my family.  It would have been fun to go with him, but we already had a babysitter last night.  I guess I'll curl up with a good book and enjoy a quiet evening.

We had our 'Kermit the Frog legs (chicken wings) for dinner before Lennard left and then had Mickey Mouse ice cream for dessert!  Nothing like fitting in a few days activities into one!

Another Day Down

The kids were so excited to turn over another day this morning.  When I read, "Muppet Movie Night" they weren't excited.  Ben's response was, "I don't like Muppets."  Oh well, can't win them all.  I had planned to do a full meal - Swedish 'Chef' Meatballs; Kermit the Frog 'Legs' (Chicken wings); Miss Piggy cupcakes, etc.

Unfortunately (or fortunately - however you want to look at it), Lennard and I ended up getting to going out for dinner with my parents and siblings in Lethbridge!  We will have chicken wings for lunch tomorrow and pretend we did our activity for today!

We did get a lot done today.  We got all the Christmas stuff taken down, the living room cleaned and re-organized, my new picture that Lennard gave me for Christmas hung, I made six loaves of bread and we went sledding at Redford Park with Rachel & Cub and their kids and Mike, Makenna and Mason... all before noon!

The afternoon was spent going through all of Emma's baby clothes that I've had in storage and just couldn't make myself part with.  Since my sister, Melissa, is having a baby girl in April, I decided it would be a good time to share the clothes.  It brought back so many memories, but it will be good to see them worn by another little girl!

Murray Clan at the Saigonese (Missing Dave & Nysha)

Second Christmas!

Emma was so excited to get to wear her new dress that she got for her birthday.  

We turned our next day over and the kids were excited to see that we were going to have Mickey Mouse ice cream for dessert tonight.

Ben didn't stand still long enough to get a picture of him before church and after church I was too exhausted from dealing with crazy Primary stuff.  I really don't enjoy getting all the teachers changed around for the new year.  We try to make sure everyone gets a class they can handle, but dealing with complaints or teachers that won't even talk to you is completely overwhelming.

It was a pleasant surprise to find a message on the answering machine when we got home telling us that there was a package for us at the Greyhound Station in Lethbridge.  When Lennard got home, I told him and we decided to go for a drive!  It was the perfect way to decompress!

Once we got home from Lethbridge, the kids were overjoyed to open the box of presents from B&T.  It was like a second Christmas for them!

Emma was thrilled about every single item she opened.  She especially loved her Care Bear and her rock and roll Barbie.

Ben had his cars out the second I finished taking this picture!

We feel so blessed to have such wonderful people in our lives.  Especially those who love our kiddos as much as we do!

Note:  It ended up being too late to have ice cream tonight, so we'll do it tomorrow!

Boxing Day Fun

 We started our morning with turning over our first activity of our Disney countdown!  We got to make Mickey Mouse pancakes for breakfast.  I even attempted a Minnie Mouse one for Emma.  Not the most artistic, but the kids loved them and they tasted great!

At noon we headed out to Mountain View for our annual Boxing Day get together with my family. Amazingly, every single person was there, so we snapped a few family pictures before everyone got to eat! For that many people in a picture, it's not too bad!

My parents and all their grandchildren (until April when there will be one more added!).

After our yummy dinner, we had our fish pond.  I love traditions.

After the fish pond, we got to exchange gifts with the families that we'd bought for.  We gave my parents a banner for their hangar with an RV-10 on it.  I don't have any pictures, but Rachel & Cub had our name this year and they bought us a raclette grill and real raclette cheese!  So excited!

I attempted to get everyone doing some 'Reindeer' games and after a bit of back and forth we got most of the kids and some of the adults to participate.

One of the games that worked fairly well was making our own antlers out of balloons and nylons!

Rachel - modelling their teams antlers!

 Anna showing off her antlers.

We played a bunch of card games, ate snacks and visited with each other right into the evening.

Christmas Day

Christmas morning was so much fun!  The only picture I managed to get of the kids coming out to see the tree is completely blurry - but I guess that shows how excited they were!

It was cute that before they did anything they were both astounded to see that the cookies and milk were gone that they'd left out for Santa!

The kids opened their stockings first and then we had family prayer and put the last ornament on the tree from the '25 Days of Christ'.

 Ben informed us that he'd changed his mind and that he likes his pajamas now!

Ben got another Lego set from Santa!

We had to laugh when the kids clued in that their was a tube sled for them sitting right out in the open!  They'd probably looked right at it a number of times and then suddenly, Emma jumped up and realized what it was!

Emma was so excited to give Ben a present and he was thrilled to get a cap gun and soldier toy to play with.

We loved to see how excited both of them were to receive scripture cases!

Emma got a Lego set from Santa too!

After the majority of the gifts were opened, we sent the kids on a scavenger hunt!  It was a little frustrating as I had this vision in my head about how it would go, but they both had meltdowns when the other one found a clue before them.  After about six clues that had them running to various locations around the house, they found the gift in the laundry room!  We moved the big box into the living room for them to open.

We purposely only put wrapping paper on top of the box, but they ended up ripping all the wrapping paper off the sides first.  When they finally ripped open the top, we had four helium balloons that floated out!  They were more excited for them than what was actually in the box!

 Ben grabbed his suitcase out of the box and was ready to play with it, when we told them to keep looking in the box.  Emma finally found the sign that told them we are going to Disney World!

I really expected a bit bigger reaction, but I think they don't understand what it involves yet.  They had lots of fun playing with the balloons though!  lol

We had a few more presents to open afterwards - Magic Bands from Grandpa Nichols!  It will be so nice to have them at Disney in January.

Emma with all her presents.  There was definitely a theme this year, but we're really excited to use most of them for our trip!

Ben was happy to take a picture as long as he got to open his Lego right afterwards!

I made a countdown to our Disney trip and the kids were excited to get to help put it up.  Each day has an activity to do together and I hope it will help them get as excited as I am to go!

It wasn't long before the Lego sets were out and being built.  Ben has really made huge strides from the first time he got Lego.  Lennard didn't have to do hardly anything.  Ben followed the instructions and just went for it!  

Emma had fun with her Lego set too.  I helped her a bit, but overall she did the majority herself.  As she hasn't really had her own Lego before, it's fun to see her enjoy creating too.

Emma loved her new Minnie Mouse outfit!  She even got bows in her stocking to go with the outfit!

 Ben was very happy with his Minion shirt, but had to make sure I took a picture of his Lego creations too!

We went out to my parents at around 3:00 and had a meal with Shauna and Mindy's families and my parents.  It was fun to visit with them and play some games together.  It has been such a wonderful day.