Christmas Eve and Christmas Morning

 Christmas Eve started out at our friends the Green's house.  We decorated sugar cookies and talked and played for a bit.  It was a good time.  Then we got home and the kids talked us into opening the Elf chart gifts in the morning time. 

 So we opened those and the kids enjoyed it.  It was especially fun to watch Finley open her presents.  She tore tiny pieces of paper off and throw them on the floor even if we had our hand there for her to put it in.  

 That evening Crys and Alan came over for dinner and to hang out for a bit.  We watched Home Alone and chatted.  Riley especially loves when they bring Ponyo.  She makes sure to give her a good pet while she is here. 

 Sadie loves trying to win Junie over.  I think she finally did by the end of the night.  :)

After Crys and Alan went home with Junie, the kids were so excited to give each other the gifts they picked out for each other that we let them exchange gifts before they went to bed.  I love how excited they are to pick gifts out for each other and then see them open them. 

 Zac got Riley some Hatchimals.  Riley got Zac a lightsaber, some kit kats in a candy cane container, and a small Harry Potter Lego set.  He was so sweet and when she asked if he liked it he responded "I really love the Kit Kats!"  ha ha.  

 I think Riley loved her gifts!  And Zac did too. 

 Sadie and Emery both loved their gifts.  Emery got Sadie some bath gel, and a bath bomb advent calendar.  And Sadie got her this big Squishimal.  

They all were excellent gift givers and receivers.  What a great way to start Christmas.  We read and acted out the nativity and then sent them to bed. 

We told the kids they had to stay in bed until 7 the next morning (they all slept together in the basement).  They negotiated down to 6:59.  Ha ha.  So we got to "sleep in" on Christmas.  We all got up and looked through our stockings and then took a break to eat breakfast.  We were completely out of milk (bad planning on my part...we realized on Christmas eve around 9pm, but we ran to the store and it was close.) So we ended up making eggs and toast.  After breakfast it was time to open presents.

 Emery with her gingerbread socks. Zac holding all of the large Squishimals they all got.  They are pretty big, but they are so soft.

 They all love them.  And they all (except Finley) got these one piece jammies.  I made them put them on right away.

 I love how Finley does everything her older siblings do.  

 I got these new jammies.  I love them and wear them all the time!

 Sadie and Zac both got new socks in the form of advent calendars.

 Here's Finely checking out her new doll house.  She loves it.

 Sadie's primary teacher brought this over for her.  She loves it.  It's her favorite kind of candy bar.

 Finley all snuggled up with her new froggy.

 Here is Zac trying out his new battle bots.  They are really fun.  

 I can't help but take a million pictures of Finley.  She's just adorable.

 She played a good long time with the doll house.

Here is Rob at lunch time trying out all the hot sauces I got him.  He was a little disappointed that they weren't hotter, but he still had fun trying them all.

Christmas is always such a magical day filled with excitement, fun, and tons of other emotions.  So we tried to take it easy and just relax the rest of the day.  I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and that he was willing to come to earth as a baby and experience a mortal body and provide and example for all of us to strive for.  And for a way back to the path when we go astray.  Repentance is pretty awesome. 

Christmas things

 We did lots of fun Christmasy things this year.  It's getting easier to do outings as a family as the kids get older.  So we did some fun things like going to look at Christmas lights, going to see the elves at Gardner Village and making gingerbread houses.  And let me tell you, it's really fun having older(ish) kids who can help with the younger kids, and they can go off on their own a little bit.  It hurts my heart that they have to grow up, but it's also fun seeing them go off on their own and figure out the world. 

We got 2 gingerbread house kits and paired the kids together.  Sadie got to work with Riley.  Riley mostly just ate the candy and Sadie did most of the decorating.  :)

 Zac and Emery got to work together.  They make a great team when they are both working toward the same goal.  

For dinner one night I made pancakes that we cut in the shape of Christmas trees.  We used a sausage for the trunk of the tree and m&ms and whipped cream to decorate.  These pictures are real life.  I can't remember what happened but Emery was upset about something and so I finally excused her from the picture.  ha ha.  It's what happens. 

 Attempt #1

Attempt #2

 Finley couldn't wait, so her cheeks are full of food.  Ha ha  Probably m&ms.  

 This place is called Christmas Street.  It's a cauldesac where everyone puts a ton of Christmas lights up and a part of the "Night Before Christmas".  It's really fun.  And bonus, this year my mom had gotten these cool 3D glasses where it turns the Christmas lights into different shapes like snowflakes, snowmen, Christmas trees and other things.  They were seriously cool! I want to get some for next year. 

We brought the kids to Gardner Village to see all the Christmas elves.  We let Sadie and Zac run off and do the hunt on their own and met them at the candy store about 45 minutes later.  So they ran off, and the younger three and Rob and I quickly found the kissing contest and decided to participate. :)

 Then we realized they meant the candy.  

 How embarrassing.  

 Emery thought it was gross.  

 We spotted Sadie and Zac.  

 Took a picture with a nutcracker.

 Emery wanted a picture with this huge caramel apple.  YUM.

 The kids loved this huge candy cane too.

 Elfie Selfie

The whole family with a few extra elves.  

Emery is 8!

 Our little Emery isn't so little anymore!  She turned 8 on December 1st.  She is so beautiful inside and out.  She definitely keeps us on our toes with her dramatic nature, but we love having her in our family.  She is very creative.  She loves to draw, paint, make things out of paper or cardboard.  She is always up for a game of Sleeping Queens and she loves staying up late at night.  She currently shares a room with Finley and gets her out of her crib in the mornings.  Finley loves it.  :)

 It's really neat because there are 4 other kids in her primary class that also turned 8 in  December, so she gets to be baptized with them on Saturday.  One of them is her best friend Stella.  I think it will be a pretty special day for both of these girls.  Stella's mom offered to take these pictures (she's a photographer) for their baptism.  Thank you Rosalyn!!  I'll post more of those in another post.

 Riley loved being right next to Emery while she opened her presents.

 She requested a chocolate cake.  So that's what she got.  She also got to have a birthday party and invite a few friends over.  They watched the new Dora movie.  I think they all enjoyed it.  They definitely enjoyed the treats and popcorn.

These boys were funny because they combined all their snacks so they could share them easily.

We love having Emery in our family and can't wait to see her be baptized a member of the church on Saturday!

 

Fun with Friends

 Our good friends the Jones family were going to be moving away.  They have 3 kids that are all our kids ages.  So very last minute a few days  before they were packing up their truck to drive away, we decided to throw a little party.  I ended up inviting almost the entire primary and a lot of neighborhood kids.  We played some games and ate some treats.  We sure miss having those guys around.  But I think the kids had a good time at their going away party. 

 I should have taken a picture at the end of the night instead of at the beginning.  More and more kids kept coming.  So this isn't all of them.  There were close to 30 I think by the end of the party.  It was so crazy and loud, but so much fun.

 Down in the basement playing toss the marshmallows into your partner's cup.  I literally couldn't even yell loud enough to get the kids attention (I can't yell very loud) so Rob had to be the one to yell to get their attention so I could explain the games.  We did a few minute to win it games and then we did the saran wrap game.  WE separated into two groups (I'm so glad I made two!!) because there were so many kids.  ha ha.  It was a fun party but lets just say I was glad when it was over!  

Speaking of good friends, our friends the Caywoods invited us to go to Disney on Ice with them in Salt Lake.  There were just enough tickets for Rosalyn and I to bring all of our kids (minus Finley).  She ended up winning tickets on the radio.  Pretty cool!  Zac enjoyed the night I think, but he didn't want to show it. 

 We took up a whole row!

I hung out with Sadie and Zac.  I think my favorite part was when they had the cars from the movie Cars out driving around on the ice.  

Thanks for the free tickets and the fun night!

Last Pack Meeting

Rob's calling used to be cubmaster so he was in charge of the cub scouts.  Every other Wednesday we would have about 10 or 12 boys in our basement for a cub scout activity.  Rob loved it!  The boys seemed to enjoy it too.  This pack meeting was planned and somewhat run by the boys.  They did some fun activities like running across the room holding an egg on a spoon, somersault contest and other similar relays and races.  There were a lot of sweaty kids when it was all done. 

Visitors

 Luke and Taylor came to visit.  We were all excited to see them, but I think Riley was the most excited because she wanted to see William!  They stayed with us for a couple nights, and then drove down to Cedar City, where Taylor's family is to spend Thanksgiving with them.  Well, there was a massive snowstorm coming so after about 24 hours with her family, they ended up driving back so they didn't get stuck in the storm and miss their flight back home.  So they actually got to spend Thanksgiving with us!

 Here is everyone at Crys and Alan's house watching a Christmas movie on Disney +.

 Everyone worked together to put a Pokemon puzzle together.  They did it pretty fast!

 The kids love playing with Uncle Luke.  He's such a fun uncle.

 It took 4 of them to beat him at arm wrestling.

 We made snow cones out of all the fresh snow we got.

 Riley and William spent a ton of time outside playing in the snow.  

 I suggested we take jumping pictures and William was all over it.  He kept looking at the picture and saying "let's try again!".  ha ha

 Finley spent some time outside with her snow gear on, but here she is enjoying the warmth of daddy's coat with her bare toes sticking out.  Also, Sadie and Zac built this snowman all by themselves.

Then they helped Luke build an epic snow slide.  This was about halfway done.  Luke was filling the wheelbarrow with snow from the front yard to bring to the back for the slide.  It was really fun when it was done.  The kids all liked it.

We always love having family come visit us!

Haloween 2019

 Catch up...

This year for Halloween, we kept it low key.  Most of the kids just wore something we had on hand.  I made Zac's nintendo remote out of cardboard and I made mine and Rob's oreo costume out of cardboard as well.  I saw my brother and sister in law dressed up as a double stuffed oreo, and I had to copy them.  It was so cute!

Oh and I was also in charge of our ward's Halloween party.  It was a chili cook-off, and trunk or treat.  It was s ton of work but a lot of people came and I think they even had fun.  It was such a relief when it was over though.  :)

On Halloween night, Sadie got to go out with her friends without adult supervision.  That was nerve wracking, but she made it back ok and had some funny stories to tell.  She's getting too old!

We carved pumpkins one day without Rob because I think he was at church meetings or something.  I love how they all turned out.  I didn't get a picture of Sadie with hers...oops!

 Emery and Riley tried to copy their pictures, and Zac has a Battlebot scene on his. 

 The kids before the ward Halloween party.  Rob forgot to bring his keys so he had to run home to get them...so we had a few minutes to take some pictures.  

 Double stuffed Oreo. 

 We went to the school to see the kids parade around the school in their costumes.  It was fun, but so crowded and hot inside.  I was outside for a bit, but then moved inside because I was worried I was going to miss some of the kids. 

Then we stayed and helped out in Sadie's class party.  Finley was in heaven and I think Sadie loved having her there to show her off.  :)