Christmas

We had another great Christmas this year! We got a really pretty tree from Costco again.  The kids couldn't wait to decorate it!

 The kids really enjoyed acting out the nativity store this year with our Fisher Price nativity set and some popsicle stick puppets we made the year before. Ethan got to act it out with his friends at preschool.

This year a friend of mine came over and we made a bunch of Christmas treats to give neighbors.  We made sugar cookies, caramel, fudge and peanut butter cup cookies.  I ate way too  much of it!!  Dan made us sing a song every time we dropped off a plate.  I remember hating doing that as a kid but it was fun.

We took the kids to the American Tobacco District to see all of the Christmas trees. We ended up meeting up with Ben, Alyse and Kenzie there. It was fun, but cold!

We met up with some friends to watch the Hillsborough Christmas parade. The kids kept waiting for candy but we were at the end of the parade route so everyone was out by the time they got to us.

We also took them to Bass Pro Shop to sit on Santa's lap.

The kids loved everything they got and are still being entertained by it.  Present highlights: Dan got a big ladder, Kari got an exercise bike, Parker got a rock tumbler, Ethan got new Batman toys and a new balance bike, and Michael got train tracks and of course Batman toys. We also got a set of small nerf guns and the boys all got new church clothes from Grandpa and Grandma.

The weather was so nice around Christmas that we surprised the kids with a quick trip to the beach.  It was 80 degrees!  It was beautiful and the kids didn't even miss their new stuff.

Kari goes to Florida/ Boys go Camping

Back in October, my brother Joe and his girlfriend Heidi went through the temple for the first time. Dan was able to get a couple of days off so that I could go. It was so much fun! I am so glad I could be there.  Ella and Britta also flew in to be with him. We missed having Will there but had a great time! We ate lots of good food, had a great morning at the temple and visiting with friends, and had a lot of laughs.  Amy and Jerry's kids had their primary program that Sunday so we were able to see some of it. It was a great trip.  I am proud of Joe for making it a goal to go to the temple and making it.

While I was gone Dan took the boys camping for a night by the Eno river. It looks like they had a lot of fun! They had to hike a mile in to their campsite.

Fall Pictures - Kari's Phone Edition

I dumped the pictures from my phone onto our hard drive and realized I have a few more things to blog about before the Christmas one!

Parker lost his first 2 teeth this fall. This picture was after the first one. While we were in Myrtle Beach he pulled it all by himself one night when he was supposed to be going to sleep.

This is a picture of Michael at the exact spot where he fell and broke his arm in August 2014. He fell from pretty high up.  After he played for a while he said "Mommy I didn't break my arm again."  Thank goodness!

Dan did a lot of work cleaning up the creek area. There were so many vines and thorns it was hard for the kids to get back there. It looks a lot better!

This is what it look like before. Everything was over grown with vines and thorns.

Halloween happened. We went trick-or-treating with our friends, the Harts, and then went to a few of our neighbors houses. Parker was a scientist and wore one of Dan's old white coats. Ethan and Michael wore ninja costumes from last year.

For Ethan's preschool Halloween party he had to dress up as a soldier because his ninja costume was dirty.

Some friends of ours were nice enough to get us into a family Duke game the week of Thanksgiving. We didn't think we were going to get in, but we ended up with amazing seats!

The van needed new brake pads so Dan decided to do it himself.  It ended up being a big mess. He had to replace another part and we had to bleed the brakes.  It was a rough day, but we survived and the van is still running.... and stopping!

One day while I was cleaning out the garage Ethan tried to teach Michael how to play baseball. It was pretty funny.

At the beginning of December I offered to watch a friends kids for a few hours. The night before Michael started coughing but it seemed like he had a cough for months so we thought nothing of it. I was on the ground playing with the kids when I noticed that Michael was really struggling to breath. I sat down on the couch with him to observe him and ask him how he was doing and the next thing I know he is throwing up. I cleaned up the mess and gave him a bath and he didn't seem to be doing any better. I called another friend who luckily was home and could take the kids while I took Michael to urgent care. The diagnosed him with bronchitis with broncho spasms. They gave him a breathing treatment, steroids, an antibiotic and sent us home with everything to do more breathing treatments as needed.  He was really good about taking his treatments and got better very quickly.