Sadie is 16

Sadie turned 16 on February 13th.  I can't believe I have a 16 year old!  She now has her license and is driving the little blue car back and forth to school and lacrosse practice.  On her birthday, it was a pretty busy day because she had school, then practice, then a team dinner, then a church activity.  So we didn't see her much.  She also had early morning seminary, so I put a candle in her toast to make it festive.  :)  Then after school, before practice she got to open her presents.  Finley got her "the perfect man" made out of chocolate (pictured above).

I think this was probably her favorite gift.  

Then I was sneaky and planned a little surprise party for her.  We invited the youth from church to come over and do a mystery box.  They were here when she got home from practice.  

I told them to make sure they couldn't be seen until she got inside and they really hid well.  Ha ha!

Her friends are so fun.  I think they had a blast even though they had to go outside for part of it and it had started snowing!

Silly picture

Working on putting puzzles together for their next clue.

The prize was a suran wrap ball filled with cheap prizes and candy.

Happy 16th Birthday Sadie!

They had to go to a neighbors house and sing I'm a little teapot...and they didn't even really know the song!  Yikes.  ha ha

Birthday Toast

I'm so impressed with how grown up Sadie is.  She is so responsible, inclusive, nice, hardworking and she is always trying to be a better person.  We love her!  She's also planning on going to prom in a few weeks which will be her first date!  

 

Christmas 2023

Christmas this year was a blast!  We just stuck around West Jordan and had a quiet, relaxing Christmas.  We started off by seeing the Elves at Gardner Village.  I love that the kids are big enough now that we can browse some of the shops!  Zac was even able to get Sadie a gift very sneakily after she pointed out some books she wanted to start reading while we were in the book store.  :)  We came out of the shop and couldn't find Rob and Finley for a few minutes, and it turns out they were in the phone booth just laughing while watching us search for them.  Then all the girls crammed in for a picture.  

The kiss contest Elf display is always one of my favorites!

Sadie took this family picture and I love it!  

Notice how the kids are wearing just sweatshirts to walk around.  It didn't get very cold this year until after Christmas.  In fact, I don't think we had any snow on the ground until after Christmas this year.  It was a strange weather year.

Christmas Eve morning.  Elf chart opening before heading off to church.

As we were taking this picture, Zac's friend drove up and dropped off a present.  I'm sure they were laughing at our setup.  My phone was balanced on a barstool with a few books and I was running to get into the picture before the timer went off. 

Crazy picture.  I love how Finley is wearing a pair of socks she got from the Elf Chart with her church shoes.  :)

We kept a secret from the kids that Uncle Duncan, Uncle Luke and William were coming on Christmas eve. The kids went to bed and then Rob picked them up from the airport so when they woke up on Christmas morning, it was a surprise.  

The Chaos of Christmas!

We played a new game that William got.  We played lots of games while they were here.  It's fun to have enough people to play those games that you need a lot of people for.

Christmas Dinner.  I think it was Tri tip with Potatoes and bread.  Yummy.

Duncan got a Lego set that he very patiently let Finley help him put together.  She worked with him for a good 2 hours or more.  

Reading scriptures.  I caught Finley holding Uncle Luke's hand.  

We built a 9 square for the family for a gift this year.  It has been well used already!  We had it up the whole time we had visitors and we played every day. 

We went to Christmas in Color a few days after Christmas and it was fun.  The only weird thing was that almost the entire time we were driving through, they were playing Taylor Swift songs.  I didn't mind, because I liked them all, but it wasn't very Christmassy.  Rob wasn't loving it.  Ha ha

And, bonus!  They handed out the light glasses for everyone in the car!  So cool!

Zac and William had a great time.  Zac loves having another boy around to play with.

See what I mean?

Overall, it was a great Christmas.  We are so grateful for a loving Heavenly Father who sent his Son Jesus Christ to live on earth and atone for our sins so we can live with Him again.