Random December

 We had fun doing the Light the World challenge all month long. We did lots of different things- make bread for people who need cheering up, make cookies for our bus driver, send cards and stuffed animals to kids who are sick, befriending lonely kids at recess, etc. I really loved how it kept our focus on Christ during the holiday season.  (delivering bread)

Our ward had "A Night in Jerusalem". Morgan was sick so Wes stayed home with her.

 My mom had all of these costumes I was able to borrow.

Mass Ascension of hot air balloons one morning.

Morgan loves the car and the sunroom. But her favorite is the wiggle car.

I took the 4 older kids  to a cookie decorating party at a friends house.

Hallie was in the Spelling Bee. She was so nervous but she lasted a few rounds.

Shopping one day with Kimber, she told me she wanted her dad to wear this bunny costume, which I found hilarious.

 

Jaxson and Hallie had a piano recital. I only had video of them, but Wes and Jaxson had to sneak out early for Jaxson's basketball game, and Morgan wasn't too happy to be stuck at the recital.

 

Sunday dinner at a friends house. We let these paper lanterns go.

Kamryn always wants her picture taken (this was after we got the Chistmas tree taken down, because it was right in front of the windows on the left).

Nana and Papa took all of us girls out to eat while Wes and Jaxson were quail hunting at the end of December.

New Years Eve-I made them all take a nap so they could stay up late (sleeping in the fort that Addi got for Christmas).

 

Right before Christmas Wes and I went to Showlow for the day to get the razor and crew serviced. We made a little date out of it and went to The House for lunch. It was sooo good. This was Wes's burger. I highly recommend going if you are in Showlow. We spent the rest of the day antique shopping until the bikes were ready to bring home. It is always fun to get away for a little bit.

This girl also loves having her picture taken, and pretending to take selfies. I don't know where that comes from because I am so not a selfie person.

Christmas 2016

 

We spent this Christmas at home, with all of Wes's family. We spent a lot of time at my inlaws house over the few days before and after Christmas.

We played Greedy, Cards Against Humanity, and the kids played lots and lots of games. Morgan was so funny because she would open her legs, let Camie push the tupperware across the table, and then immediately close her legs around it. over and over and over.

 

We enjoyed having our family come check out our new house-the kids loved playing spoons and "super spoons"- I would bring the spoons into another part of the room, and they had to run to grab them when it was time.

  

Kamryn was all excited to match Morgan.

The kids made lots of ornaments for Nana's Christmas tree. Kamryn made the manger scene out of clay as well.

 

On Christmas Eve we went out for breakfast to Cracker Barrel. We usually go on Christmas morning, but Christmas was on a Sunday this year. We had our traditional lasagna for dinner, and made cookies for Santa. While Papa read Luke 2 as per tradition, Hallie had a breathing treatment. She had a cold that settled in her lungs.

 And then it was a rush to get home and get everyone showered and ready for bed at a decent time.

I really loved Christmas in our new house...the first morning after we moved in I walked out to the big living room and thought-I can't wait to have Christmas here- and it met all my expectations!

It started snowing Christmas Eve night. We opened our bedroom windows, which have a great view and stared at the beautiful snow until we fell asleep. I love having a white Christmas!

 Santa came! We woke the kids up at 6:45, opened presents, had monkey bites for breakfast, got ready for church and were there by 9:00am.

 

Christmas morning- music, a fire, couldn't have been better.

 I had to wake Morgan up and she wasn't too happy about it.

 

Jaxson got a drone and the boys had fun learning to control it.

 

Morgan was so serious about the whole thing.

 I loved going to church on Christmas. I accompanied the choir on a number, and I was so glad to have that over with. We had a combined Sacrament meeting with 1st ward, and it was so nice to see so many friends old and new.
After church we headed back over to my inlaws for more presents and our traditional Prime Rib dinner. It was delicious as usual.

Morgan didn't love the cupboard, but she did love the glasses!

 

The other kids were always playing with cousins, so I mostly have pictures of Morgan.

Random November

In an effort to get caught up once and for all, here is November. We had family pictures at the beginning of the month and I knew I wanted Addison's hair to be wavy, hence the braids.

 

Our first fire!

I brought home this antique table from Luke and Shawnie- they had it in Nashville, but its been in the family for a long, long time. It was in our big family room in the Cherry St house growing up.

A first for me- I decorated the tree before Thanksgiving. I was worried I would tire of it before Christmas, but I didn't. It fits perfectly in our new space.

This was at the beginning of the month, I took a couple unstaged (obviously) pics for my sister-in-law. This is one angle of the family room.

 The other side of the family room.

We went to Mesa twice-once for a sealing and then again for Thanksgiving. We were able to watch one of Finley's football games. It was pretty entertaining.

Hanging out at Grandma's.

These two are best buds.

You can barely see him, and I didn't post the video of his presentation, but Jaxson had a culture project. He enjoyed getting to know Grandpa Lo better, and using his creativity to decorate his 3d project.

Thanksgiving lunch at the school-4 different lunches in the space of 2 hours. I had to force Jaxson to sit with me, and the girls were thrilled to sit by me....par for the course.

 

Bingo night at the school

 

Hallie was bummed we weren't able to leave for Mesa the day we had planned, so we compromised by making this homemade pie. Hallie made the crust, the filling was given to us by a friend.

On Black Friday we took the kids on the lightrail to hike 'A' mountain. We had never been on the lightrail- it was a cool experience for our kids...they weren't too sure about public transportation.

 

Furniture shopping with 6 kids= thumbs down. It is a grueling enough process without the kids, even though they did pretty good.

 

She kept playing in this container

We went to Mango's for dinner and then to Merry Main with Luke and Shawnie and their kids. It was fun-perfect weather to be outside!