2nd week Adventing

Day 8:  We made homemade ornaments - button wreaths - & they turned out even more ghetto than I imagined they would =) Awesome!

Day 9:  We watched the First Presidency Christmas devotional for family home evening.  Everyone was amazed at all the lights on Temple Square & how beautiful the conference center looked.  I love listening to the orchestra! I wish they played along for General Conference. 

Day 10:  Snowflake making!

Day 11:  Gifts of self.  Each person thinks of a service or something nice they can do for every other person in the family, we write it down or draw it & put it in our stockings.

Day 12:  We decided to make a gingerbread train instead of a house this year - thanks to Safeway for providing the kit! 

Day 13:  Chocolate covered pretzels- one of my favorites =)

Day 14:  We drove to Portland to spend the day with my parents & Brigg & Hava & their boys.  We were going to go see the zoo lights but it was so crowded they were sending people away.  But we had a good time anyway! We played all sorts of fun games in the gym at their church, watched the Grinch, played a Harry Potter trivia game, ate yummy pizza & had an impromptu piano recital.

 

Day 15: This was our day of service & out of all the choices the kids wanted to write thank you notes 

Justy wrote me a note to thank me for playing games with him.  He drew this portrait of me =) When Jeremy asked him what those dots were on my face he said they were 'Mommy's owies' I'm still giggling hard over that one.  At church I was picking up Hunter from class & his teacher said 'Hunter your Mom is here'.  One little girl said 'That's not Hunter's Mom!!'  I reassured her I was & she said 'Ohhhh I thought you were Hunter's Grandma!'  And earlier that day at church I had been told I sounded like a teenager on the phone.  I can't stop giggling every time I think of any of this!

Hunter wrote a note to one of his school friends.  "Do you want to play Spiderman and Spiderman next recess? Love Hunter" I think he meant to say spiderman & batman but not bad for a 5 year old!

Yummy cereal!

1st week Adventing 

My favorite time of year again!  I love our newish tradition of doing an Advent calendar & some Christmasy activity every evening in December.  I think this is our 3rd year.  The activities are never elaborate or fancy but we all look forward to them.  And I love that we do almost all our shopping & prepping in October & November so December is more relaxed.  We even skipped swim lessons this month so we can spend more time just hanging out at home together.

Day 1: Trimming the tree & decorating

 

Day 2: Making a Hershey-kiss-count-down-the-days-until-Christmas-chain.  It's one of the first things they all say when they wake up - can we eat our chocolate??!!??!! Oh & we also watched a movie that's not really a Christmas movie but hey in part of it there's snow, so there. 10 points to who can guess what movie it was....

Day 3: Game & treat night.  Ok every night is treat night & lots of nights we play games but there's something about making it the official title that gets everyone excited.  Here we are playing color tag & eating Daddy's delicious chocolate pie!  Some day I want to get my act together enough that we play Christmas games but for now Duck Duck Goose & Red Light Green Light work just fine.

Day 4:  Homemade wrapping paper.  I'd like to thank Nana for this genius idea!  I love to see what the kids draw & lucky for me my presents are the only ones not yet wrapped so I will get to have all the beautiful paper! 

Day 5:  Making Christmas treats & rocking out to Christmas music baby!  5 helpers in the kitchen equals 5 times the fun??  Or it takes 5 times as long??  Ummmm....both!

Day 6:  Deliver treats to friends...in the SNOW!!

We've been told it very rarely snows here so we feel super lucky to have had one of those rare occasions happen during our first year in Oregon.  It was a snow day for the kids & Jeremy has Fridays off anyway so we skipped our plans for the day & played in the snow, delivered our treats early in the day, & went to see 'Frozen' in the theater. Such a fun day! 

 

 

 

My wish came true-Hyrum lost his other top front tooth so now I can sing that song to him this whole month!  I tell you what he loves it when I sing that song.  All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth.....

Day 7:  Ward Christmas party.  We also went to the Festival of Trees (a fund raiser for our non profit hospital in town) & Emma & I had a girlie date to see the Nutcracker with some friends.  For a small town local production I was super impressed at the dancing, costumes, LIVE orchestra & sets!  It was so fun!  Despite the fact that Emma started asking me 'Is it over YET?' about 10 minutes into the production we lasted all 2 hours!  Then that night was our ward party.  It was a "talent" type show with a variety of acts.  It was really fun & everyone had a chance to participate.  It ended with the Primary kids acting out the Nativity which was just perfect.  

Thanksgiving

My parents were able to spend 3 days at our house to celebrate Thanksgiving.  I love living close to them!

Reading is always more exciting on Pa's shoulders

The men of the family (& all the children) putting together the kids new Christmas present from Pa & Darlin'

Wowzer! Here it is & it's fabulous - we've got a lot of fun use out of it already

Justy & Pa did a LOT of puzzles

We were pretty much all in different stages of icky sicky the whole time we were together but on Thanksgiving day after lunch we got out of the house & went for a walk to the beach.  The weather was absolutely amazing!!  I was sad we didn't get to do any of the fun things we had planned but I'm grateful we got sick when we did so we didn't have to miss school or work.  We went around the table reading all the things we had written down that we were thankful for & then guessed who had said what.  The kids were really into it & it was fun reading all their blessings.

One night we got out Twister because the kids are always asking to play & then I noticed the only ones playing were Pa & Jeremy- hahaha!

Handsome Hyrum

Hunter was in a Thanksgiving play at school this year.  I love that his teacher made a big deal out of Thanksgiving.  My favorite part was when each kid came up & said something they were thankful for.  It's so important to teach our kids to be grateful & recognize their blessings.

The boys also participated in the schools Turkey Trot 1 mile race.  Above is Hunter with one of his best friends Brendan.  Those two are so funny (read: hyper) together!

They both ran hard & fast - Hunter really wanted to win & even though the Kindergarten class started last by the time the race was over he was up with the 3rd graders!!!

Post race

 

Some at home dance party & Lego building pictures

Emma & Justy are really into their "homework" lately.  They ask me almost every day (sometimes multiple times) to do their homework & have amazing attention spans.  They can go for an hour without stopping!  Dallen doesn't want to be left behind - he was telling me 'Mommy color a moose!' Um, obviously that's a moose he drew there.

I dyed my hair purple.

Dallen loves playing Perfection & does a decent job getting all the shapes in place.  After he's done we turn on the timer & POP!  It is sooooo cute to watch him react to the popping

I was having a hard couple of days & Jeremy came home the day before Thanksgiving with the most beautiful bouquet of flowers I have ever seen in my life!  They are gorgeous!

A couple of weeks ago Jeremy & I went to a 2 Cello's concert in Portland.  We never do stuff like this ever!  I discovered these crazy guys on Youtube of course & we both really like them.  They are insane though - the most energetic & animated cellists ever.  They are very well-rounded & play classical to Green Day to Nirvana on their electric cello's.  Don't forget some ear plugs if you decide to go.

The weekend before Thanksgiving Brigg, Hava, Luke, Vincent, Pa & Darlin' came to hang out.  Friday night Pa & Darlin' were nice enough to watch all 7 kids so we could go see 'Catching Fire' at the theater with our smuggled in DQ.  Good movie & even better ice cream :)  We went to Young's River Falls & the Castle Park on Saturday.  It was chilly but I'm glad we got outside & ran around.

 

 

 

Emma has never had a haircut or trim in her almost four years of life.  It's getting too snarly & crazy to brush out so Darlin' trimmed about 4 or 5 inches off the bottom.  It is sooooo much better & easier to manage but still long-perfect.

Lukey Bear-look at that sweet face

Scripper Time

Darlin's turn to do "homework"

Don't interrupt this boy while he's reading.

He takes it seriously!