New Years Eve

We're such party animals... not!  We had my parents over for a Chinese dinner and then we snacked and played games.  A few rousing hands of Blokus, a wild game of Greed... it got crazy!  ha! ha!

We closed out the night at about 10:00.  We didn't even get out the bubbly that we had chilling!  Oh well... guess we'll toast the new year on New Year's Day instead!  So long, 2018!

Building a Temple

We got a Brick-em Young kit of the Nauvoo temple for Christmas, so this evening we sat together and put it together!  It was a little involved getting it all figured out, but we finally figured it out.

 Such a fun reminder to have in our home!  We love Nauvoo!

Boxing Day

We ended up having our annual Boxing Day get together in Lethbridge this year.  It was a little weird not being in Mountain View, but it was still good to get together.  We had LOTS of food!  It was the first real meal that I've eaten in a week!  I still don't want anything sweet, but the food tasted good.

The fish pond was fun and Emma got some bath bombs and Ben got a remote control car.

 The cousins had lots of fun playing with each other.  Most of the little boys got remote control cars, so they played with them for hours!

It was a bit hard to visit with all the noise in the gym, but we managed.  We ended up leaving to head home at about 6:00ish. 

Christmas Day

It has been such a wonderful day!  I was up at about 6:00 and ended up inadvertently waking the kids up, so we were all up nice and early.

 Lennard went out and got the tree lights on and lit a fire and then the kids raced in! I tried to video them coming in, but I think it's mostly a blur!

 We finished our '25 Days of Christ' by putting on the last ornament on the tree and then had family prayer before we started opening presents.  We'd put Buddy in the laundry room overnight so he wouldn't wreck anything, so he enjoyed getting to explore everything!

The kids have become friends with our neighbor across the street and she gave them Christmas/birthday presents this year.  Ben got a fun Lego set and Emma got a necklace and ring!

 They definitely got spoiled!

 The whole afternoon was spent just playing and relaxing!  We all took turns with Ben's bow and arrow.

 I took advantage of the quiet and read my book in front of the fire! So cozy!

 My parents popped in for a while in the evening and the kids were able to give them their gifts.  They picked them all by themselves, so they were SO excited.

Even with not feeling great still, it's been a great day.  I sure love our little family.

Christmas Eve

This year, Dave & Nysha invited us out to their home for Christmas Eve.  My parents are going to stay over and spend Christmas Day there, so they were there as well as Shauna & Matt and their family.

We had a 'Webster' style evening with lots of goodies to eat and cousins to play with.

We shared our favorite memories, sang Christmas carols, read the Christmas story and finished with family prayer.

 We got home about 9:00 and the kids found new pajamas under the tree!  They were pretty excited but went to bed pretty quickly.

Happy 9th Birthday!

How is it possible that Emma is 9 years old already?!  She was so excited for her birthday.  She had a friend's birthday party in Lethbridge today, so she really got to party!  Both Lennard and I ended up with the stomach flu yesterday, so neither of us really wanted to do or eat much, but she was so happy that we still did fondue!  My parents came over too so that made for a fun dinner.

 My parents gave Emma a kit to make her own slime.  She was thrilled!

 Her Primary teacher, Sister Edgson, gave her this picture.

 Ben gave her a cute little stuffy kitten.

 Then she got a new outfit from us!

 She always requests a DQ ice cream cake for her birthday... which makes it easy for me!

 Happy Birthday, sweet girl.  We sure love you!

Festival of Nativities

We drove in to Lethbridge this afternoon after church to go to the Festival of Nativities.  It was so packed with people that it was a bit hard to see everything.  The kids only wanted to play in the Children's room.

 Emma was excited to dress up, but we couldn't convince Ben to.  Oh well...

 We wandered around for a while and looked at the nativities.  The kids took pictures of their favorites, but I'll only include one here!

Piano Recital

The kids had their Christmas Piano Recital tonight.  They played a duet "The French Carol". They did so good!  They got off timing in one section, but they didn't stop and managed to pull it together later on.  I'm so proud of their hard work!  Erin is such a wonderful teacher and has pushed them to learn so much more this year!

Christmas Dance Showcase

After Emma's birthday party was done, we had a couple hours to get cleaned up and then head out to Mountain View for her dance showcase.  It was a really informal night where they got to show us what they've been working on.  Lennard had the Town Christmas party at the same time, so he attended that while I took the kids to this.

Emma did a great job performing.  She definitely likes to take charge and 'help' everyone.

 I got videos of all her dances, but I didn't get many good pictures.

Early Birthday Party

Emma has been so excited for her birthday party and it kept growing as she planned things!  I had to work this morning, so last night was a little busy trying to get everything organized.  Emma and the girls met in the school foyer and walked home together with Ben and me.

They were all 'starving' when we got home, but I still had to make lunch!  It only took a half hour, but you'd have thought it was days!  They inhaled all the food put in front of them... except the carrot sticks. Ha! Ha!

 I had a bunch of "Minute-to-Win-it" games set up for them to play.  We even kept score so that they could win a prize at the end.

 After a bunch of games, they decided it was time to open presents.  Emma got thoroughly spoiled.

Back: Violet, Emma, Maelle, Alyssa, Fiona  Front: Peyton, Amy and Izzy

 They had a cupcake decorating contest afterwards... although most of them thought it was a contest to see how many sprinkles they could fit on one cupcake!  There were sprinkles everywhere!

It was loud and wild, but I think they all had fun.