Sunbeam

Caleb is now a sunbeam and is so excited to go to primary. He's been going for 2 months now and loves it. The pictures were taken his first Sunday in primary.

And today, Feb 25 he gave his first talk in primary. It was about how Heavenly Father has given us this beautiful Earth and we need to help take care of it. He did a great job, I'm so proud of him! However, he didn't want me to take a picture of him after church holding his picture of the Earth.

New Year's Eve

I really haven't been a big fan of New Year's Eve until the past couple of years. It has been so fun with the kids. We usually start our activities at about 5 and the kids get to pop a balloon every 1/2 hour and inside is our next activity. The first balloon was making your own pizza for dinner. While the pizza was cooking our next activity was to make your own noise maker. The kids painted plates and we put rice in them and glued the plates together.

 

 After dinner we played minute to win it games and these were the best part of the night and the kids thought each game was hilarious. We played the same games from Makenna's birthday party and had such a fun time.

 Not pictured-we also played a balloon toss game. We had our new year's eve countdown at 8 and toasted in the new year with egg nogg.

By the time we got the kids calmed down and into bed it was about 9 and I was exhausted. I don't think Steve and I have stayed up till midnight in years!! 2017 was a great year!

Christmas Break

I knew we had to keep busy during Christmas break or it was going to be a looooong, drive me crazy break! One day we went sledding and it was the best! We all had so much fun and it wasn't even too cold! Steve and I were the cool parents and the kids got to some friends to come along. We were their all afternoon and had so much fun!

Albany, Miranda, Makenna, Mason, PJ, Chase, Graycen

 You must have hot chocolate after sledding and Albany was able to stay as well.

 One afternoon we went to a MSU girls basketball game....

We also took the kids ice skating one day and they loved that as well. It was the kids first time on ice skates. Makenna was a pro and I'm sure glad they had these walkers available so that the boys could go around too!

 It was a really fun Christmas break and made lots of good memories!

Christmas Eve/Day

Christmas Eve was on a Sunday this year. We attended church in the morning. I love when Christmas falls on a Sunday/Monday so that church is included in our activities. 

 The rest of the afternoon we played games, ate and just hung out together. It was pretty relaxing! We played some Christmas bingo, we also have chimes that the kids like to play, watched some movies and the boys even did a little crafting!

 Christmas morning the kids were under direct orders that they could not get out of their rooms till 7. I have a feeling it would have been much earlier if we would have let them get out! They got lots of fun things and enjoyed playing the rest of the day.

 The highlight gifts were magnatiles, new pj's from Grandma, new USU shirts from Andrea, Caleb loves his ABC stencils, Makenna got a kit to tie her own blanket and Chase got a new lego set.

 It also snowed on Christmas so later in the afternoon they all went out to shovel. It was a great Christmas together!

December Activities

 Our December was busy as usual with lots of fun things. Michael's was having fun Christmas crafts on Saturdays in November and part of December and while we didn't make it to all of them we did make it to quite a few and each time the kids loved it!

 Our friends, the Walds hosted a fun Ugly Sweater Party and it was such a good time. Food, games, no kids-it was perfect!

 One of the white elephant gifts someone got were these nose coasters that everyone enjoyed wearing!

 Makenna and I had a girl afternoon and went to the Nutcracker. It was Makenna's first time and I haven't been in a long time. We thoroughly enjoyed it.

 The kids had their Christmas concerts as well, all on different days. The cute kindergartners sang all sorts of fun Christmas songs. It is currently impossible for Chase to give me a nice smile- so this is what we get...!

 The third graders put on a Christmas play with singing and Makenna was a pirate. The story line was that the pirates were trying to steal all of Santa's presents for themselves and ruin Christmas. It really was pretty cute and both Makenna and Chase did excellent!

 Santa came to the ward Christmas party (Chase was at a birthday party).

 The city of Belgrade had their festival of lights one Saturday. We spent the afternoon at the events center playing games and bouncy house. After that in the parking lot was the firemen and you could check out the fire truck.Caleb just wanted to stand and eat his candy cane!

 Also in the parking lot was a petting zoo, which happens to be run by our friends, the Stewarts!

 That night they had activities along main street, hot chocolate stations, Santa and fireworks.

 I've been doing a healthy eating challenge with some friends and we celebrated the end of 12 weeks with manicures! Its amazing how a little support can go a long ways in helping you achieve a goal. I have felt so much better as I've cut out extra treats and focused more on fruits and veggies!

 In lieu of a Christmas piano recital I had a group lesson instead. It was great and I think the kids really liked it. They still prepared a song to play in front of everyone and then we played some piano games and had a treat. It was perfect!

L to R: Makenna, Ashlinn, Blake, Arleigh, Austin, Abby, Liv
Front: Ella, Kena

 Caleb also had his preschool program with cute Christmas songs. He did so good. He stood right in his spot and sang all the words. We were so proud of him!Santa also came at the end.

The kids and I decorated gingerbread houses. I think Caleb and I enjoyed it the most this year. Makenna and Chase weren't into it as much be we still enjoyed it.

I was able to go and help at Caleb's preschool party. It was a PJ party and he was so excited to wear his pajamas to school! He also got to wear the elf hat since he was the line leader. Lots of fun crafts and treats!

 As part of the church's celebration for Christmas each day they had something to Light the World and spread the true meaning of the holiday and to strive to be more Christ like. We tried hard to remember every day what the challenge was. One of the days was to support your local food bank and donate. So that day I picked the kids up from school (which I never do, I always make them ride the bus home:) and we went to the store and the kids picked some items for us to donate. It was a great afternoon activity!

 The Friday before Christmas we had a polar express night. We ate dinner and had hot chocolate while watching the show.We definitely kept busy this month!