New Year's Eve

Kent has had the last couple weeks off of work for the holidays.  We decided to frame our basement ourselves, so our days have been filled with construction.
Today we ran out of wood with only 40 minutes to make it to the store and load up all our new wood before it closed early for New Year's Eve.  We knew we'd never make so we had the evening off!
Instead, we went grocery shopping, ate dinner, watched a movie with the kids, and ate candy. 
Now we are bone tired, and off to bed while the older kids stay up for the magic of midnight.

Hayden made a project along side our framing work the other day.  It's a little table for his panda bear. He placed it at the dinner table and fed his little panda from his plate while "Pandie" sat at his own little homemade table.

Christmas wrap up

Favorite gift for 2014:
McKinley-outfits for her American Girl doll, giraffe scarf
Sawyer- r/c helicopter
Hayden- r/c helicopter
Josh- train set

And apparently Josh was wiped out from all the holiday fun because he didn't wake up today until 12:50!!!

Merry Christmas

Christmas Eve

We started at my parent's house around 2:00 with pizza and snacks.  We played a game of holiday bingo to decide the present opening order.  Then we took turns opening presents.  Around 6:30 we were on our way home to get kids nestled all snug in their beds.  Of course we had to do our little family gift exchange first, and the traditional Christmas Eve jammies picture.

Now the littlest is asleep in his bed, and the three oldest are having a sleepover in McKinley's room where I hope they sleep a little!

Old Timers

McKinley had another concert with the service symphony on Sunday.  She informed me that the first concert would be at the assisted living center after which we would go through the locked area to the "Old Timers" area.  Which confused her since they are all old to her. 
So I set her straight about the Alzheimer's area :)

It was a beautiful concert,  and I have much to be grateful for. 

3rd grade Christmas program

Sawyer had his Christmas program today at school.  They were adorable. 
They made these funny little characters out of themselves to decorate the walls.

Earlier this morning I helped out at his classroom making gingerbread houses.  I love the Christmas season through the eyes of kids.

South Valley Service Symphony

McKinley joined in with the South Valley Service Symphony, which is all volunteers in the community who come together on Sunday evenings to practice and then perform in the community.  This week and next they are performing Christmas music at a couple of assisted living centers.

She made a difficult decision this weekend and turned down a weekend-long cabin trip with a friend so that she could do this performance. 

iphone pic

Mommy's little helper

This kid has been getting dragged around everywhere during this busy time of year.  He is not the happiest shopper.  Mostly because I insist on him being strapped in to something instead of running around like he'd prefer.  He's been getting a lot of snacks to stay entertained though.

I love that face!

Neighbor party

Last night, much to the chagrin of my introvert husband, we hosted a little neighborhood party.  My neighbor and I talked about starting the neighborhood tradition here of giving to charity instead of gifting trinkets to each other.  So I hosted an open house at our home, and we made donations to Primary Children's and Huntsman Cancer Institute.  We had a good turnout and it was a lot of fun visiting.
Poor Kent is going to have to endure years of socially engaging with people as long as he is married to me.

We had treats and hot chocolate (which later burned because I was talking instead of minding the pot).

Sugar cookies

We made sugar cookies tonight while watching the Christmas devotional.  I think they were a hit!

Sinterklaas came!

Last night we spent our Dutch Christmas Eve with a dinner of chocolate sprinkle toast and strawberries with nutella.  McKinley prepared the whole feast.  Before bed we put out our shoes and placed baby carrots inside.  Hayden almost earned himself a lump of coal, but was lucky enough to find his shoe filled with chocolate and treats this morning.  Sinterklaas was very lenient this year.  Sawyer was very kind to his brother and promised him last night that he could have some of his chocolate in the morning after Hayden was threatened with no goodies.  He actually did give him most of his chocolate coins this morning.  Sawyer said "It's better to be kind than to have chocolate."  

Josh quickly figured out the whole thing and spent his morning eating chocolate and stroopwaffels for breakfast.

Gelukkig Kersfeest!

The lists

We just mailed off our Christmas lists (although they were made in October).  Before they left I took a picture of everyone's list.

Hayden's: Tenkai knights (1,000), a scientist play thing, Mario party 9, Mario party 8, a helicopter, battroborg, skylanders, skylanders giants, a giant panda bear, more beyblades, a phone, more marshmallows (erased it though later), Ipad, Ipod, 3DS, webkinz (1,000), Orbeez, 90 bucks, ds games.

McKinley's:  Cozy Sweater outfit (for American Girl=AG), Pet bed (AG), the dog Meatloaf (AG), the healthy smile set (AG), clothes, national geographic magazine, Nintendogs DSI game, pipe cleaners, colored crafting foam, Journey girl accessories, boondoggle.

Sawyer's: remote helicopter, remote car, $50, PS3 games (sport and car games), football gloves, Mizzou/Clemson jerseys,  Legendary pokemon, webkinz (5), X out Freckles (Ha!  He wants to get rid of his freckles.  I told him no.), a verizon phone, Legendary Pokemon...again, hamster, clothes, BYU tickets (30 tickets), blankets (6 blankets), football card packs.    And then on the back of his long list he wants an Iphone 5S, Iphone 4S, beyblades (again), and an ipod touch.

The first day of Christmas

We got our tree up today!  I even let the big kids help.  That's progress.  

Num nums

Kent has the week off, so we took a quick jaunt to Los Hermanos for lunch.  It was Josh's first time, and he was such a good lunch buddy.  He loved the chips and salsa, dipping his chicken taquito in guacamole, and the yummy brisa de mora negra.  He is officially allowed back on our next lunch date.

Monster Science

Last week was parent/teacher conferences.  If the reports are good, the kids get to choose one book as a reward at the book fair.

Hayden chose "Monster Science" for his book.  It came with a little kit to make some "experiments".  He chose to first make the Frankenstein monster.  It is essentially jello with nasty food body parts inside of it.   He was incredibly excited about the results.   I wanted to puke each time I opened the fridge. 

Wimpy Winner

McKinley entered the Diary of a Wimpy Kid self portrait contest at the library.  We got the call on Friday that she was one of 2 winners!  The prize was the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book.  She is keeping the book secretly hidden, though, because she wants to give it to Sawyer for Christmas.

We love the library!

Tree Hunt

Now that we're back in Utah, we went on the annual Christmas tree hunt in the mountains.  We even had to get up at an unnaturally early hour like hunters do!

Josh wanted to be held during all the wandering and the older kids played around while Kent and I looked for a good tree.

After wandering around the mountains for quite a while, we finally found our tree!

It is now patiently waiting in our garage until Thanksgiving is over.

McKinley was happy that Zoe actually came to her and wanted to be held.

The boys just wanted to eat...

and eat!

Reflections

The Reflections theme this year was "Believe, Dream, Inspire".  McKinley was excited to make a project, and the other two were forced.

Sawyer painted a race car scene.  Here's his artist statement about his piece, "I dream to be a race car driver.  I want to be a race car driver because I get lots of money and a trophy to remind me when I'm 82."

Race Day

Hayden painted a picture of him as a scientist.  Here's what he wrote, "It's my dream to grow up and be a scientist.  I want to mix stuff and see what's good and share it with other people so they can be healthy and strong."

Science Day

McKinley made a 3D project of a boy 'fishing' for clouds.  She wrote, "My little brother, Hayden inspired me to make 'amongst the clouds' because he's always had a dream to go up and touch the sweet sensation of the clouds.  I made this piece because I believe that some day that dream will be fulfilled."

Amongst the clouds

McKinley was chosen as one of the winners for the 3D category in her school and her project is going on to regional.

Every participant got a certificate for a free Menchie's yogurt, so after the assembly we had our little treat.  It was yummy!

Happy Halloween

Hayden was a skeleton, McKinley a cat, and Sawyer was a Mizzou football player (but it was chilly so he covered up and looked like a regular boy).  

It was our first year in our new neighborhood, and it didn't disappoint.  In addition to the occasional full size candy bar, there were homemade scones, hot dogs, and a cash house!  Josh stayed with Kent, but McKinley took him to a few houses later on.  He was Batman minus the hood because he refused to wear it.

The night did not help my illness.

Ipod pictures :(

In character

Witch Hunt

I promised the kids we'd do the witch scavenger hunt at Gardner Village while they are off track.  Time was running out, so today was the day.

We found the witches, got our cookies, and then bought a little candy at the candy store.

I am still sick, so the outing wore me out.  I'm off to nap.

It's Alive!

Today we made our mad scientist potion.  The kids were enthralled!  Josh was afraid of it though and kept saying "hot!"

Pumpkin Palooza

The WJ library held it's first annual pumpkin Palooza.  It sounded like fun.  

It was really mostly vendors with little carnival type games and treats.   Apparently there was a pumpkin decorating contest that had some good prizes.  We won't miss that next time!  We like prizes!

Trick or Treat

Friday was Kent's work Halloween event.   The kids (mostly McKinley) begged to go.  So we had to forgo toddler nap time to go downtown.  The kids got a decent haul of candy.  

Then we decorated cupcakes, made skeletons and sucker spiders, before we headed home in packed Friday evening/game night traffic.  

The zoo

Well, lucky for us, our scarecrow won first place in the library contest!  So we got to choose between tickets to the zoo or tickets to the symphony Halloween concert.  The kids chose....the zoo.  Unanimously.

Today was the perfect day for a zoo outing!  Nearly 70 degrees!

My favorite, the elephants.

The kids had a lot of fun!  Glad the temperatures were ideal.

The Polar Bear was up to his usual stellar performance and entertaining everyone.  Josh got very nervous when his body slid right up against the glass next to him, but he loved seeing the sea lions swim by.

McKinley's favorite, the giraffe.  I think they are a close tie for my favorite as well.  

This one kept doing some cool tongue twisting tricks.

When I was going through my pictures I couldn't get over just how beautiful this creature was...so I posted a few :)

Since I got in to the zoo for free, I felt justified in paying for the carousel ride.  Hayden really wanted to ride the panda, Sawyer chose the tiger, and McKinley chose a giraffe.  Josh was not happy to be forced to sit at first, but once we settled on some smallish bug creature with my arms tightly wrapped around him, he was giggling and smiling.

A good day for the zoo!