Wrapping up the year

Ali – Age 4

My favorite things to do . . . play with friends.

When I grow up I want to . . . be a butterfly.

The best age is . . . four.

I am thankful for . . . Jesus, that’s easy.

In 2015 I will . . . go to church.

Johnny – Age 2 (answered by Carrie)

My favorite thing to do is . . . eat Greek yogurt.

Caleb – Age 10

My favorite things to do . . . play football with friends.

When I grow up I want to . . . be a football player.

The best age is . . . ten because I’m ten.

I am thankful for . . . my family.

In 2015 I will . . . play tackle football for my second time. 

Caroline – Age 8

My favorite things to do . . . play four-square at recess.

When I grow up I want to . . . be a chief.

The best age is . . . 11 because it is my favorite number.  It has been my number assignment at school for two years.

I am thankful for . . . cloths, family, food, games, Christmas and Easter.

In 2015 I will . . . play four-square.

Andy – Age 6

My favorite things to do . . . play soccer with my friends.

When I grow up I want to . . . be a cop.

The best age is . . . six.

I am thankful for . . . my family. 

In 2015 I will . . . have a sleep over with Ethen. (His cousin.)

2014 you were good to us!  Bring on 2015!!

We Played, We Played and We Played Some More!!

It is time for school to start!  I'm exhausted, but no one can say we didn't have fun.  We lived up every moment of December!

GEARING UP FOR THE BIG DAY

One fun "eatable art project" I did with our neighborhood preschool coop was making sugar cone Christmas trees.  It was a big enough hit that we repeated it with the family. 

What would Christmas be without sugar cookies and LOTS of really BIG MESSES!

For Josh and I it wouldn't be Christmas without the Low Christmas Party.  We love dressing up and enjoying a nice evening laughing, inspiring and creating memories with our friends.

One highlight of this years party is that for the very first time we left our children at home with each other.  Caleb and Cara are turning into good little baby sitters.  We could see them from the party on our webcam.  They were happily dancing around the Christmas tree for what seemed like hours.  By the time we got home they were all peacefully sleeping.  What a beautiful site!!

THE TABERNACLE CHIOR CHRISTMAS CONCERT

We were lucky enough to get to go with Merle to the Christmas Concert with the Tabernacle Chior and their guests this year were THE MUPPETS!  It was amazing!!  Really my mind was blown especially by the organist playing the 12 Days of Christmas along with The Count (from the muppets.)  What a special experience!

CHRISTMAS EVE

My mom always makes Christmas Eve special.  This year she planned a "Minute To Win It" game every 30 minutes of Christmas Day.  We are had a great time playing silly games!  This one started out with a contest to empty tissue boxes as quickly as possible and ended with tissue being thrown all over the room.

This one was not my favorite to play, but it was my favorite to watch.  The object of the game was to shake your booty to be the first to get all of the ping-pong balls out of the tissue box tied to your waist.  Prizes for kids division and adult division for every game!  What more could we ask for!!?

THE EPIC CATCH

Josh and I thought we heard something around midnight on Christmas Eve.  We had the unbelievable experience of catching Santa on the web cam as well as in video.  It was really quite amazing!

CHRISTMAS DAY

This year Christmas Day was unique because we didn't get together with the Kirks.  We had a quite day playing as a family.  In November Caleb made the mistake, in a very sassy moment, of saying, "Mom, it's your fault the basement is a mess.  You have given us too many toys."  Upon further evaluation we worked with Santa to give "memory" type gifts this year.  We got Season Tickets to Lagoon. We got a day pass to Boondocks.  We got a New Years vacation.  The kids each received something fun to play with as well, but most of their gifts will be something we can enjoy all year!

Cara has asked for an Easy Bake Oven for the past two years.  Grandma made her dreams all come true with her very own oven.  Santa went the more practical route by giving her boxes of "real" treats that she can make in the "real" oven.

Merle worked hard this Fall to clean and paint my childhood Barbie House to leave for the girls on Christmas Morning.

Johnny loved his car set, but maybe not as much as he loved the Elsa Doll that Ali got from Grandma.  It was true love!!

The boys received some nice gifts as well.  No pictures of Caleb as his gift was a couple of video games which he promptly put to use.  Andy received Nerf Guns and targets.  They also got street hockey sticks.  Ali and Andy put their new helmets and goggles right to use.

November and December had extremely warm weather and NO SNOW.  People were sad and wishing for a white Christmas.  It really was a Christmas miracle.  We went to bed on Christmas Eve to NO SNOW and on Christmas day it snowed all day long.  By afternoon there was enough snow for the kids to test out their new gear. 

I grew up sledding behind my dad's truck so I LOVED seeing the kids sledding behind my mom's 4-Wheeler.  They went twice a day for the three days that the storm lasted.

THE NEW YEARS TRIP

We started our New Years Trip at the Natural History Museum.  We enjoyed the special horse exhibit.  

Our next stop with the Discovery Gateway Children's Museum. (You can tell which children are always asking me to take pictures of them.  It isn't favoritism it is simply the posing and reminding.)

We discovered the secret to having a wonderful EVE SLC experience.  Go to the celebration at the Salt Palace on the FIRST night of the event, the 29th instead of the 31st.  We had the place to ourselves.  My children had unlimited bounce houses and as much time as they wanted on the equipment.

I couldn't resist joining in and inflicting a little playful revenge on Caleb!

The Ballroom was literally filled with Balls!  The kids loved it!  We spent a few hours at the Salt Palace on New Years Eve as well, but it was super crowded and crazy.  Not nearly as fun as going two days early!

The highlight of Day two was going to the Jazz Game.  The whole family went and we were joined by our dear friends.  We had amazing seats and the boys even got a few autographs pre-game.  

It was a really close game and the Jazz won so the energy and excitement was awesome.  Caleb and his best friend Isaac made a big enough ruckus (and we had good enough seats) that they got on the jumbo-tron twice.

Staying in a hotel with a large family and a lot of small children is always an adventure.  Apparently the more pillows you have the more comfortable you are.  These pictures were take after I removed one pillow from each child.  Yes, count them, Cara started out with five. 

I was a little concerned about Andy suffocating before I removed his extra pillow.

Caleb would have liked to have had more than his three pillows but as always he was the last one to bed. 

We have created the tradition of spending New Years Eve on Temple Square.  We enjoyed the lights, Luke 2 video and Joseph Smith Movie without the Christmas crowds.  Temple square also has a great line up of concerts on New Years Eve.  I highly recommend it. 

We attempted to make New Years Eve dinner special by eating at the Garden in the Joseph Smith building.  Another thing we did right was making a 4:30 dinner reservation, before it got packed and supper busy.  Hopefully it will be a fun memory for the kids. 

One of the ironies in all of this is that one of the highlights is always the short ride on Trax!  It is the simple things!

2014 has been an amazing year!! We are so excited for 2015!!  Happy New Year!!

Where did November (and half of December) go?!

Time is flying!  If my kids didn’t LOVE reading the book I make each year, compiling my blog entries, I may stop blogging.  But since it serves as our family journal here I am to share some of the events and details of November. 

One thing that contributed to November passing so quickly was having the Coombs in town.  My sister Cathie, her husband Keith and their six children are relocating from Alaska to New Mexico.  They spent three weeks, mid-move here in Utah.  It was awesome for us.  My kids love having their cousins around.  It made life crazier than usual, but it was totally worthwhile.  I didn’t take many pictures, but there was a lot of playing, tackle football in the basement, board games, soccer, Barbie’s, running around, and craziness.  There were big family dinners and visiting.  One special outing we did was spending a day at Boondocks.  I had no idea the kids would love it so much.  We were there for 9 hours.  Admittedly I really like the laser tag myself. 

We usually stay home for the holidays since both Josh’s family and mine are local.  That gives us some extra time to play here in Cache Valley.  Call me crazy, but I took the kids ice skating the day before Thanksgiving.  Josh has had a really heave workload lately and I have to get out every day or I go a little crazy.  The kids loved it.  Ali even caught on eventually.  She had to watch for about an hour (after getting her skates on) before she decided to give it a good try.

Thanksgiving was really low key this year.  It was just us, Lonn and Sharon, April and Ethen and my mom.  I am making the tradition of having an essential oil booth at Novemberfest the two days after Thanksgiving.  It seems to be an event that is worth the effort. It keeps me busy while Josh enjoys some time with the kids.

Rec basketball is in November and December.  This year we have two boys playing.  Caleb is so tall that he has a lot of potential, but he isn't a super aggressive player. He loves sports so much and wants to be great, but he'd rather not do hard practice or push himself during games.  

Andy is playing on a kindergarden team.  They play first graders and there is apparently a lot of progress in coordination in that year.  His team doesn't often win, but he really enjoys it.  He especially loves playing on a team with some of his best friends. 

Cara had her first ballet recital.  She seems to have enjoyed ballet this semester, but the week before the recital she became very apprehensive.  She was really nervous about dancing in front of people.  She decided she wanted to quit just before the recital.  She pulled herself together and did it, but she has now decided Ballet isn't her thing.  She is in the smallest class at Cache Civic ballet.  Most of the classes have 10-12 and hers only has 4 so I'm going to keep her in for one more semester just to build a little more confidence.  For the recital they did parts of the nutcracker.  Cara and her class were the flowers.  Adorable!

I told Cara that she has to choose something extra curricular to practice and work on.  She just wants to play with her friends.  She doesn't want to do anything that is hard or cuts into play time which makes everything unattractive.  She did say she is most interested in becoming a chef.  I told her she is more than welcome to help with dinner every night and we can teach her how to cook, but she needs to be actively developing her talents.  It will be fun to see what she decides to focus on.  I'm hoping she will become actively involved with the orchestra and start violin again or another instrument next year.  

The Christmas festivities continue even though the weather has been warm and beautiful. The kids love the tradition of sleeping under the Christmas tree on Friday nights in December.  

Our neighborhood Christmas party and our ward party are both behind us.  The ward party was Grinch themed and was probably the most detailed and beautiful ward party I have ever attended.  

I may be business than I've very been with my calling and my business, but I'm enjoying my little clan.  Here they are lined up waiting for tithing settlement.  It is a wonderful time of the year.

For many years I have done some sort of 12 days of Christmas count down.  This year I am doing one that helps us remember Christ as we try to focus on the true meaning of the season, the lights, the giving, the trees, etc.  This is one worth filing and doing again.  I have adapted what is here:  http://family-home-fun.blogspot.com/2011/12/christ-centered-12-days-of-christmas.html  Each day we are opening a gift that helps us to remember the things Jesus has given us.  The gifts are inexpensive, but always exciting to open.  Having a Christ centered discussion each evening is a blessing.