Teagan is 7!

Teagan's birthday was such a fun day, we decked out Grandma Packer's house and got ready for a party.

Teagan really wanted to go to Chucky Cheese.  For $20 we got so many stinking tokens that we couldn't hardly spend them all, who knew that it only would take $20 to make a 7 year old's dreams come true!

This picture is so blurry, darn.  Teagan was loving the basketball game and skeeball.  He's actually a pretty dang good shot and can about beat me!  We also shot a lot of tokens on pointless games in an attempt to get lots of tickets.  I think we all had quite a bit of fun!

He wanted a minion cake to match his PJs and stuffed animal.  He thought the cake was awesome, I wondered if we were looking at the same cake.  Let's just say we were having a little too much fun at the park and Chucky Cheese to spend hours perfecting a cake.  :)

This was the only picture to choose from, sorry buddy.  Next time I won't pose weird, no guarantees from Ellie.

Teagan is such an awesome, amazing, hilarious, talented, kind hearted young man.  We love him so much!

Teagan's Favorites:
Color: Bluish Greenish
Day: Friday
Subject: Reading
Friend: Eli
Food: Mac n Cheese
Game/activity: "Sorry"
Sport: Basketball and Football
What he wants to be when he grows up: Math Teacher
Most embarrassing moment: There are 3 first graders named Taylor.  Only one is in Teagan's class.  One day at recess one of the Taylors was bugging somebody and Teagan said "if you don't knock it off I'm going to tell Mrs. Ishino."  Then he realized that it was the wrong Taylor!  How embarrassing.
Most hilarious thing that happened this year: Blowing raspberries at Adeline and she did it back and making her laugh really hard.

Happy Birthday Bud!

Christmas

We were so lucky to be able to drive to California and spend Christmas with Grandma Packer!  Unfortunately Zac's phone was lost at sea so we don't have many pictures of Christmas Day.  At least we have a few though.  :)

Christmas Eve we got all dressed up and went to Olive Garden.  When we got home we opened up pajamas. We all had matching jammies, it was so fun! (Pictures are on zac's phone...) It was late so we all headed to bed to wait for Santa to come.

We set out carrots and gingerbread cookies for Santa, he loved them!

As soon as Teagan and Eloise woke up they ran in to grandma's room. This picture was just before they ran to the living room. It was so fun seeing my kids run down the same hallway that I ran down when I was younger.

Christmas morning was really fun, it always is!

Addy was content to eat wrapping paper, she is such a cute baby! Her favorite present was the tambourine from Grandma Packer. She still loves it!

Daddy got a giant Reese's and the kids all got little ones in their stockings.  I got Lindor truffles, Santa knows us all well!

Teagan made his little sisters mini blankets for their babies that matched the big ones that I made them when they were born.  Eloise absolutely LOVES wrapping all sorts of things up in the blankets and puts them to bed.  Adeline doesn't get it quite yet, but one day she will love them too, for now, they taste great.

Of all the fun dollhouse toys and girly things Eloise received, her favorite present was a tiny purple dinosaur from a quarter machine, go figure.

Teagan had his best reaction for his rubber band loom set. All the kids are making rubber band bracelets at school and now he has the gear to make his own. He has been making bracelets like crazy. He also got a remote control car. He was so excited to play with his new toys that he wanted to be done opening Christmas presents early! Apparently we bought too many presents...lesson learned.  

It was such a fun day and so relaxed. It was nice to not have to go anywhere, to have beautiful weather and go play at the park. I think that a white Christmas is definitely optional! Thank you so much mom for hosting us we had so much fun!

Grandma Packer's House

We took a trip to California and it was fantastic!  The drive went great.  We were hoping to make it to Cedar City, but the kids were sleeping and we felt good so we kept going all the way to Las Vegas.  We stayed at Excalibur.  This is our kids at 1 am waiting in the lobby for a room.  Eloise is under Adeline.   

Of course, the next day we got up early and drove the rest of the way.  First stop?  The pool.  It was a little chilly so we watched as my mom was the hero and played with the kids in the pool.   They loved it so much.

Adeline was the hero of supervising.

We all ended up soaking in the hot tub.  It was soooo nice.

It was so much fun being home!  We spent everyday at the park and taking walks and playing games and visiting.  My mom introduced the kids to Anne of Green Gables, my all time favorite movie.  Teagan loved it and has asked to watch several times since then.  He thinks Anne is so funny.  It made my heart happy.

Spending time with Grandma Packer was so fun, it made me want to go down and visit more often!  She needs to live closer so we can have fun with her more often.  Love you mom, thanks for the awesome visit!

Christmas Party

We had so much fun with our Christmas party this year.  We were sad that my mom couldn't be there so she joined via FaceTime.  :)

We did a family musical number, jingle bells, it was so fun.  Getting ready for it was great, me and teagan practiced the rhythm sticks tirelessly.  In the end, I messed up our rhythm, and Zac skipped a page, but teagan and Eloise had perfect execution.

We had so much fun going caroling on grandpa Durtschi's tractor/trailer.  We got to carol for a few widows that are in our ward.  It felt so good to spread Christmas  cheer.

A highlight was the stilts grandpa Durtschi made for the kids for Christmas.  Teagan is getting pretty good on them, he took several steps in a row.  

Eloise liked to have daddy's help on hers.  

We love our Christmas party and love that everyone gets excited about putting together musical numbers!  We are already practicing for next year.

Christmas Shopping

The other day, I took the kids to the dollar store to pick out presents for others.  They come up with the most hilarious ideas!  Eloise was bound and determined that Zac would love a package of thumbtacks. And Teagan was sure that grandma Packer would love the 15 pack of glitter nail polish.  

At one point I turned around and the shopping cart and Eloise had disappeared. My first thought was that they had both been kidnapped. But then I heard a reassuring crash.

Eloise had decided to take Adeline for a little stroll.  Since she couldn't see over the cart, she was having trouble staying away from the displays. It had both Teagan and I laughing!

The holidays are so much fun with these kids, I love all the traditions. Spending time together is just the best!

Random Christmas Fun

Our family loves Christmas time.  As soon as Thanksgiving passed, we moved right on to Christmas. Teagan and Eloise loved helping to set up the Christmas tree.  Teagan always made a goal of getting the ornaments as high as possible, while Eloise loved putting them all in little bunches on the bottom branch.  Let me tell you, this tree belongs in a Christmas catalogue.

We noticed that the tree was a little bare so while the girls slept, Teagan and I had a lot of fun making homemade ornaments.  It was so fun to just chat and get excited about each others projects and enjoy some down time together.  We made trees, stars, a snowman, sled, and a santa.  Teagan made such a good santa!  He was so proud of himself and said "this looks like an ornament you could buy at the store."  He carried it around for a couple days and asked people, "do you think this was bought from a store, or do you think I made it?"  He is my favorite.

As always we made gingerbread houses.  Teagan has discovered that if he puts tons of candy on the house, he can eat it later on, so he really decked his out this year.

Eloise bypassed the formality of making a house and just ate candy the whole time.

I'm so bummed we didn't get a picture of all three kids with Santa this year.  Teagan was with his Daniels Grandparents, but at least we got a picture of the girls.  Eloise was so excited and loved talking to Santa about what she'd like for Christmas.  Adeline didn't scream so we count that as a win.

The Christmas devotional is always a fun family event during December.  This year I was left wanting more heartwarming Christmas stories...does that make me immature?  I just love those fabulous Christmas stories that they usually tell during the devotional.

Our ward had an awesome Christmas party!  They had a live nativity and the kids got to ride the horse/pony.  They also had a hay ride, musical talent show, scones and dinner.

I let Eloise hold Adeline for a ride.  Eloise was holding on tight and Adeline was giggling so I tried to take a video of the cuteness.  Then Adeline started slipping and I barely grabbed her in time...oops.  She was a little unhappy about almost falling off a horse.

After the Christmas party we took Eli and Jordan Heath with us to see the awesome Christmas light show over in Iona.  It is so fun, we love those Christmas lights so much!

A few Sundays before Christmas we realized that we were all really matching for church so I announced that we needed a picture in front of the tree.  We were on the verge of being late to church (we always seem to be, especially on Sundays when I want a picture), so we set up a timer on Zac's picture and posed for a quick one.  We only had time for one try, can you believe that we're all looking at the camera and happy?!?  This picture turned out better than our professional pictures.  Go figure.

I'm realizing that the reason we love the Christmas season so much is that we are doing things as a family.  It doesn't really matter what we're doing, just that we're spending time together.

Let the festivities begin!

We love getting dressed up for Christmas!  This was right before church this morning.  Eloise is wearing a dress that I wore as a little girl.  It is the twirliest dress ever, I love to see her enjoying it as much as I did!

  We are looking forward to some fun family traditions in the next few weeks like seeing the lights, service fun,  and gingerbread houses...but we are going to try some new things too.  We'll drive to Valencia and spend Christmas with Grandma Packer and then take a week long cruise with Great Grandma and Grandpa Casper and their posterity!  So many fun things to look forward to!!  If only someone else could pack for me and then apparate our family to sunny California.  In fact, that's all I want for Christmas this year.  

Someone's Going to get Hurt!

One of these days someone is going to get hurt with all the rough housing that goes on around here, and it will probably be this happy little lark who lays/sits quietly observing her wild siblings.

Teagan and Eloise got really into this game where Eloise tries to hit Teagan with a mop and he uses my couch pillows as a shield.  Whose idea was this???  I have no idea, but I promise it wasn't mine.

Me: Oooh, this game looks dangerous, Eloise, let's not hit Teagan with the mop, that could really hurt him.
Teagan:  Actually, I love it when she hits me with the mop, well, not me, the pillow.
Me: And what if you don't block in time and she gets you?
Teagan: Oh, that could never happen because she is too slow and I am too fast. (compelling argument there)
Eloise: Yeah, he loves me to hit him with the mop.

I let them play a little longer, just to get these pictures for documenting purposes.  It was pretty entertaining to watch, but  I had to stop it, my inner mother just had to put an end to the violence.

I love that even with a 4 year age gap, these two can still find fun games to play together.  Eloise loves to go along with Teagan's big ideas and he is pretty good to play soft with her.  (Notice that he wasn't trying to get her with the mop).  Everyday while Teagan is at school, Eloise asks, "Where is Teag? At school?  Will he be home soon?"  She loves him so much.  I hope they stay buddies forever!