Don't play tackle the daddy while the kids are eating chocolate

 A game that we play a lot in our family is "tackle the daddy".  Rob sits on the floor and the kids have to work together to figure out how to tip him over.  Sometimes the trick is that they have to run and push him down...sometimes the trick is that they all have to be helping...sometimes it's that they all need to push really softly.  You get the picture.  Well one day after family home evening, the kids had their treat (which we didn't really have any treats, so I gave them each a handful of chocolate chips) and then they decided they were going to play tackle the dad.  Zac shoved his chips in his mouth and ran at Rob.  I didn't see it happen, but I think Zac laughed and sprayed chocolate all over Rob.  It was rather funny.  He felt pretty bad about it as you can tell from the picture.  Ha ha.

 Poor Zac.  But that chocolate really did spray everywhere...lets get a closer look...

 Ha ha.  All over his face and arms.  So funny.  :)  Next time we will eat the treat after the game. 

Mostly Riley

I'm realizing as I'm going through my pictures that I mostly take pictures of Riley these days.  Ha ha. I mostly use my phone for taking pictures because my other camera is slow and really big, but my phone camera is not working great these days.  It takes forever to focus and the pictures inside are really blurry.  But oh well.  It takes great outside pictures.  :)  So I need to do better at taking more pictures of all of the kids.  It's just that Riley is at such a fun age.  So enjoy this post that has mostly pictures of Riley.

Riley called her crib her "gate". It was so cute.  Then a couple weeks ago she told me that she wanted to take the gate off and she would stay in bed.  We had tried this a few months ago, but she did NOT stay in bed.  This time she actually did stay in bed...for the first week or so.  Now she gets out of bed a few times a night.  But that is just part of being a two year old I think.  ha ha.

Riley loves these princesses that she got for Christmas.  Here she was lining them all up and counting them.  It was adorable.  

And I love this face.  

I walked downstairs to find Riley like this one day.  Talking on the "phone" to grandma.  

Playing with the bean bucket. It made a big mess but it helped keep these kids entertained while it was freezing outside. 

We got to meet Crys and Alan's dog Ponyo.  She is so cute and Riley just followed her around the whole time she was here.  

Riley helped herself to some cereal one day.  I love that she wants to do things on her own, but sometimes it backfires.  I was in the shower I think.  But it did motivate me to clean out the bottom part of my pantry.  he he.

Zac got student of the month!!!  While we were at the assembly, Riley learned how to make the fishy face.  

One of Riley's favorite things to do with her princesses is put the dresses on her toes.  It's pretty cute.

These are my buddies while I go grocery shopping usually.  We took a pictures really quick because Emery noticed that they repainted the outside of our usual store.  These girls are so cute!

Again...she loves her princesses!

Sledding

We have been getting some awesome snow this year so we have taken the kids out sledding a couple times.  They love playing on our little hill that we make when we shovel the driveway, but the love going on an actual hill. 

The hill was pretty steep and really hard to climb up without sliding down.  Emery had a really hard time making it up, but that didn't stop her.  Sometimes it would take her ten minutes to make it to the top because it was so slippery. 

We I think at the end of the day, my fitbit said that I climbed like 50 flights of stairs.  ha ha. It was a great workout!

ANd thanks to the "smart gloves" that Taylor got me, I could take pictures with my phone without taking my gloves off.  It was amazing.  

Riley was having a blast going down the hill.  I would go down with Emery, and then while she was walking to the top of the hill, I would climb half way up and go down with Riley.  Rob decided to take her all the way to the top of the steep hill.  I was a little bit nervous but he assured me that he would keep her safe.  Well, he kept her safe, but the snow was spraying up in her face a ton.  At the bottom her cheeks were caked with snow.  It was pretty hilarious, but she didn't think it was very funny. 

Emery was so determined.  She had such a great time.  All of the kids did.  We may need to invest in some more sturdy sleds.  There were TONS of sleds just like ours that had broken.  And people just left the pieces lying around.  WE tried to pick some of them up, but they were buried in the snow and there were just so so many.  WE each brought some to the garbage.  Then we went home and got warm again.  :)

Ice cream in a bag

 My friend Robyn came over with her kids and brought all of the stuff to make ice cream in a bag!  It was the first time I've done it with my kids and it was a lot of fun.  My hands got so so cold.  I had to put my gloves on...and they were still freezing!  But it was worth it.  That ice cream was delicious!

It started out with 6 kids (mine and hers) then friends started trickling in and we ended up with 11 kids.  ha ha.  It was so loud and crazy, but there was plenty of ice cream to go around. 

 The original six kids...

 

 Now we are up to 8...

 And now there are 11.  ha ha.  

 Enjoying the fruits of their labors.

 Yum.

 Sadie and her friend Brytin.

It was such a fun activity.  Thanks Robyn.

Pie face videos

Here are a couple videos of us playing pie face.

 

New Years Eve and New years Day

 Finally I'm posting about our New years eve!  Yikes...I need to get back on top of things or else this blog will be way behind!  I've been doing lots of sewing for a friend, but I'm almost done and then I will hopefully get back on track with the blog.  For New Year's Eve, we had Luke and Taylor and William over and also Crys and Alan.  Luke and Taylor were getting ready to move in a week or so after this so we wanted it to be one last big hurrah before they left.  We had the traditional cheese and chocolate fondue and then we played pie face.  It was so fun.  Here are the pictures all out of chronological order, but I'll try to say whats going on in each one underneath it.

 Yum.  The cheese fondue was amazing.  And thank you to Crys and Alan for bringing the steak and chicken to dip and also to Luke and Taylor for bringing the BREAD!  Yum!  We ended up having lots of bread leftover so the next morning I made a french toast casserole that was delicious fi i say so myself...

 Here are the cute kids at the kiddie table.  Sadie has now graduated to the adult table.  :)

 Luke and Taylor stayed the night so they could come to church the next day with us.  I loved watching these two playing together knowing that it would be a long time until they saw each other again.  

 Luke tied these two care bears together and it was so funny how much these two loved it!  They ran around with them tied together for a while.  Dad's have the best ideas!

 Pie face.  I'll try to add some videos at the end.  William tried it once with a wet sponge and Taylor got a video of it.  It was hilarious.  He was done after that.

 The best part of the night!!  Chocolate fondue!!  I couldn't stop eating this. 

 And we realized pretty quickly that we should have waited until after the chocolate to put these two in their jammies.  oh well.

 Full table=happy family.

 Say CHEESE!

 I mean look at that cheese!  Yum.  I think we licked the bowl clean.  THere wasn't any left when we were done.

 The spread.

 WE pulled out our new drone for a bit and these two hid under the table.  William was pretty nervous about the whole thing.

 Rob, Luke and Zac all took turns being the pilot.  

 And Taylor protected these two.  ha ha.

And of course we had to throw some pop its!  

It was such a fun holiday.  I'm excited for 2017 and can't wait to see what new things it brings for our family.

PS.  We sure miss Luke, Taylor and William!!!

PLaying Vet

 Sadie got a little stuffed dog and vet set for Christmas.  She got to work right away and set up a vet office downstairs.  She thought of everything.  A sign at the top of the stairs saying if the vet was in or out, a table with magazines for the waiting room and a little area for the vet to do her work.  :)  I love seeing our kids imaginations working.

 Here is her sign.

 Zac brought his penguin in to see the vet.  And colored while he waited.

 Sadie the vet in action.