Christmas Break Fun

Christmas break is one of my favorite times of year.  I love all the extra time I get to spend with my kids. We had a great time playing with new games.

We used some Christmas money to take the family to Gravady one morning.  We had a blast!

James is always fearless and loves to do awesome flips.

All the boys loved the obstacle courses.

Even Lydia had a great time!  I wish we could have a room like this at home!

We used some other Christmas money toward a pass to the new aquarium.  So we spent another day checking it out.  There were so many cool animals to see and it was very hands-on.

Our favorite part was the birds!  It was so much fun for them to land all over us.

Christmas!!

The night of Christmas Eve we had our traditional dinner.

We then read the nativity story from the Bible and re-enacted it.  (James: wiseman, Alex: shepherd, William: angel, Henry: Joseph, Lydia: Mary)

Afterwards, the boys played a game while we put Lydia to bed.

Santa came!

Everyone was so excited on Christmas morning!

We opened all our gifts and then got ready for church.

What a super good looking bunch of kids!

After church we enjoyed time together as a family and had fun with our gifts.

Christmas Fun

December is always full of Christmas fun. We went to our annual ward Christmas breakfast.  The young men put on a play of the nativity which was... interesting.

We also were able to visit Mr. and Mrs. Claus.  Lydia wasn't thrilled with the idea.

While we were making special deliveries out by the temple we stopped by to see the nativity.

This year we made a trip down to the Ethel M. Cactus Gardens.

The boys worked really hard on their sibling gifts. Alex wrote and illustrated a book for everyone.  James made peg people, William made bath bombs, and Henry made Muddy Buddies.

We had a great time at the Springs Preserve and enjoyed the beautiful Christmas displays.

Lydia was obsessed with watching the Curious George christmas movie on Netflix.  I had the Christmas Monkey song running through my head constantly.

The boys couldn't wait to get the tree up and decorated.

We don't have a fireplace anymore so we had to get creative where we hung our stockings.

Alex and Henry were great helpers making some holiday goodies.

This year we made gingerbread houses.  Once they let go of perfection and just embraced the mess everyone had a lot more fun.

There was even time for a sleepover under the tree.

I just love the Christmas season and all the time we get to spend together as a family!

Band

William has had a good time in band this year so far.  Our band program is so huge!  The beginning band alone has two different periods... one for brass and percussion and another for woodwinds.  It was really fun to go to the Winter Concert and hear what they had been working on all semester.  It is amazing that they can make music after only a few months when most of the kids have never touched these instruments before August.

School Days

I love reading the writing pieces that my boys bring home from school.  Here is a sample of their work that was on display for parent-teacher conferences.

The most exciting school news is that James completed his Nevada Citizenship Award!  It is tons of hard work and lots of memorizing but he did it!  He was one of the first 5 students to complete it and the first one in his class. I promise my boys a reward if they pass off everything before Christmas break.  James chose to go to Salted Malted and get an ice cream sundae--cotton candy and bubble gum ice creams with chocolate rocks and sour gummy worms topped with whipped cream.  Yum.

8 is great

I love the "8 is great" program that our ward does every year.  This year was Alexander's turn to go!  I was so impressed with all the children and their answers to the questions asked--especially Alex.  He is such a thoughtful, kind boy.  I'm so glad that he and all his church friends get to take such an important step this year!

Silly Lydia

Our little Lydia is such a silly, sweet girl.

Rich dressed her one morning in this eclectic outfit.  She loves these kitty kat shoes even though they are still too big.

One morning before school Henry was making a giant leaf pile at the park.  Lydia watched him for a minute and then started helping him out.  She loves to copy her big brothers.

I was looking for her one afternoon and found her hiding in these cushions behind the rocking chair.

She thought it was fun to jump up and surprise me.

It's fun to play with Lydia while the boys are at school.  I love when she wants to play dress-up and wear all of her fancy stuff.

Sometimes Lydia's hair goes crazy after going down the tube slide and riding in the bike trailer.