Happy New Year's Eve!

Our neighbors had a big get together tonight for New Year's Eve. It was a little odd feeling not doing our traditional NYE events, but the kids really wanted to do this this year, so we did. Happy kids, happy parents?!??

And this is the end to our 2018 adventures :)

Church-y Things

Tonight we had FHE and Lydia had amazing lego renditions of the stories that she was teaching. It was pretty awesome. 

Also the boys wore their ties that they got from Nana and Papa from Hong Kong for Christmas. Very dapper dudes. 

On Target

Tonight I had a GREAT idea for a date. We went shooting at Cabela's. It was a lot of fun. Grant taught me how to shoot because let's be real, I had no idea how. Once he taught me, I didn't miss a shot. It was a lot of fun!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Day is such a fun day. The kids didn't wake up too early...luckily. We had a fun morning by opening up stockings. Then we ate breakfast, followed by opening gifts. 

 Lucy loved her Octonauts pajamas. I'm not sure if she will take them off anytime soon. Every gift, including undies, were awesome gifts for her. She was so excited. And she was excited when everyone else got something too.

 Our kids gave the most thoughtful gifts this year. Handmade items from school like this one that Lydia gave us, or saving up money to buy gifts for each other. Their generosity and thoughtfulness was great!

 We think that Piper forget for a couple of minutes that she wanted a bike and didn't get it when she got this ginormous bear! She loved it!!

 This one was one of my personal favorites....Piper made me a vest. She took a big piece of felt and cut holes in them for arms. It was great!

Christmas Eve

Grant was so sweet and took some of the kids shopping this morning so they could get last minute gifts. I was SO thankful for this. We had a fun day working on a puzzle, cooking, watching Norad, and opening a few gifts. We face timed Nana and Papa so we could have them as part of our Christmas Eve. We all got to open our gifts from them, and then they stayed on as the kids opened up our traditional gifts of pajamas and a Christmas tree ornament. Ben got a race car (since he got his license this year), Trevor got a chalkboard of some of the highlights he has done this year, Karmin got a whisk (because she has found a love for cooking), Lydia got a gymnast, Piper got a framed picture of her and her first grade teacher, and Lucy got a paw patrol ornament because she loves her tv time. 

The kids all liked their pajamas. I was particularly excited about Lucy's. We gave her Octonaut pajamas that are very much boy pajamas, but they didn't have a girl version. She loves them so much!I felt like I was redeeming ourselves for not getting her an Octonaut Halloween costume (because it was ridiculously expensive). 

 I love these cuties!

December 23

This is a post to be added to later---more pictures of other people. Grandma gave Lucy her Birthday gift since she was here. Also Karmin went ice skating with friends.

Eagle Scout

Ben delivered the first half of his bikes today. He got close to 15 bikes donated over the last few months. Toys for Tots only accepted new bikes, so he took them up to them today. They were so excited and said that save one other group, Ben had the largest donation ever. It felt really good to go up there and give all those bikes to them. I felt bad though because I had no idea how big Toys for Tots is and how much they give to the community. It was a humbling experience. I was proud of Ben for getting so many donations that otherwise wouldn't have been donated.

I took Piper and Lucy for some ice cream to celebrate afterwards!

Two of a Kind

Skipping Clovers

Karmin had her Irish Dance performance tonight. She loves taking this class at Northside. I wish we could get her in a group that she could really take part in, but there is no place that teaches it. She lights up whenever she talks about it and she loves practicing.

 Today, Lydia had her Christmas party at school. I got to go help out with some stations. It is always fun to see the kids and how they interact with their peers.

Santa Sighting

After we went caroling at Cabelas, Piper wanted to take advantage of their free visit with Santa. So we finally made that happen today. It took about 10 minutes to get a picture with Santa, walk around the store to see the fish, and see the animals. It was a win!

Christmas Parties

Today we had the McClelland Christmas party. It is a fun tradition that we have. Then we had the Ward Christmas party after that. Lucy was not thrilled to see Santa at all. By the end of the night, Grant and I were partied out

Love

I love Lucy!