Excited new scout

Kyson has been so excited to go to scouts.  He turned 8 at the end of November and since our ward doesn't do scouts in December, he didn't get to start going until January.  He was very excited to go his first time.  He was even more excited the next week when it was pack meeting where he would be introduced as the new scout.  I love new scouts!  They are so excited about learning new things.

Sad Goodbye

I was released today from serving in the Primary presidency.  It has been a lot harder than I ever thought it would be.  I have truly loved this calling and was not ready for it to come to an end.  I love serving with those sweet little kids and will miss them.  I know that all good things have to come to an end, I just wish the end wasn't now.  I am nervous about the future because I was comfortable where I was and change is scary.  I know that change is part of life and I will just have to have faith that the Lord will put me where he knows I will be able to serve and grow.

Best Chritmas Present

I think my favorite Christmas present this year was something that we gave to all the boys.  We gave them an indoor basketball shooting game.  It has two hoops that are side by side so you can compete against each other to see who can shoot the most baskets.  Dale and Jadon put it together two days after Christmas.  It was waaaaaaaay bigger than it looked in the store.  The first day, it was set up in the great room and the kids and their dad played all day.  I could barely get by it to get to the pantry or garage.  The next day, I took all our Christmas stuff down and put the basketball hoops in the front room.  This is something I never thought I would do.  Have something like that in my front room.  It's been great!  Someone is almost always playing with it.  Kierra even uses it.  The kids are always playing together.  Dale has the record for the most shots and Jadon keeps trying to beat him.  Someone is always practicing shooting.  It's the last thing I hear before they go to school and the first thing I hear when they come home.  The plan is to rearrange the basement to make it fit downstairs but until that happens I will enjoy watching my family have fun together.

Hookie Bobbin'

Jadon and Katie (yes, that's really her under the orange mask)

 We did some hookie bobbin' on Christmas but I forgot to take my camera with me.  We got some great snow last night so we spent a few more hours again today.  Unfortunately, Jaxon,Jake and Kyson didn't want to come out today so I didn't get any pictures of them.  They did have a great time on Christmas though.  The kids have so much fun going around the block on the sled behind the van.  I got to go a few times and it really is fun.  We picked a few neighbor kids today and gave them rides too.  We had a great time!

Kierra waiting to go

What a cute picture

She figured out that it was a lot easier to hold on when she was on her knees

Jadon has bad knees so he had a hard time doing it that way

Jadon after one of his wipe outs

This was Jadon's face when Daddy said we could go hookie bobbin'



Christmas Eve

Jaxon's favorite thing is to get the ice cream

We had a very fun filled Christmas Eve this year.  We stuck with our tradition of going out to dinner and to a movie.  We decided to go to chuck-a-rama this year.  The kids really love buffets because they can eat immediately and they can pick whatever they want and get their own food.

Kyson loved the orange slushie drinks

Jadon's favorite is the salad.  He says he likes salad without lettuce.

Jake had quite the spread.  Everytime somebody went and got something that looked good to him, he went and got it too.

Kierra and Katie sharing some dessert

All the kids in their tye die shirts.  This was our Christmas craft this year

 After dinner, we went to the dollar store to pick out candy for our movie.  Everyone was really full so nobody felt like getting anything.  We went to see "Rise of the Guardians".  Everyone really liked it.

 When we got home, our driveway was covered in snow so all the kids went out with Daddy to shovel.  It was so much fun to have a snowstorm on Christmas Eve.

 All the kids were excited to open the traditional "jammie" christmas eve presents. 

The kids in their new jammies!

I love the excitement of Christmas Eve.  We had such a good day together.  It was so fun to see the excitement all the kids had during the day.  It's cute to listen to them talking to each other after we put them to bed.  Today we can definately say that it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

More Christmas activities

 On Saturday, Jadon had to work at one of his 3 jobs (talking about his jobs will be another post) so we decided to go visit him and all have pretzels.  It was very crowded at the mall that day and pretzel maker was pretty crowded too.  Dale entertained the kids by spinning a penny on the table while I ordered the pretzels.  We all enjoyed the yummy pretzels!

Jadon getting our cheese to dip the pretzels in

Katie and Kierra with the Pretzel bites

The boys

 That night Dale and I went out to dinner with my siblings, their spouses and my parents.  We have decided to do this instead of giving each other gifts.  I love it.  We went to a mexican restaurant and then went to my parents house for dessert.  We also played a fun little game where we each got a small present.

It's nice to be able to visit with just the adults once in a while

Christmas Activities

 I'm getting so excited for Christmas.  I love the last week when the kids are having parties at school, we start putting presents under the tree and we do fun Christmas activities.  This year I decided to do something I've never done before.  I used a code system for the kids presents.  I wanted them to have fun trying to figure out the code instead of figuring out how many presents each person had.

 Everyone, except Jaxon, has had fun trying to crack the code.  I didn't tell Dale about the code so I gave him the chance to figure it out.  He got it pretty fast.  Jadon was next but it took him a few days to get it.  Kyson is the only other kid who has figured it out but he had some help from his Dad.  Kierra is going crazy trying to crack the code.  She has all the present's codes written down in a notebook and she studies it at school.

 Here is a sample of one of the codes.  We are going to give the kids a clue on Sunday night if they don't get it all figured out by then.

 Last night we all went downtown to see the Christmas lights.  We decided to walk around City creek since we hadn't ever been there.  It was pretty cool and we all had a great time walking around.

The kids loved climbing on anything they could find!

 

Me and my girls

No better way to start the Christmas weekend

After we walked around for several hours, we went to McDonalds to get hot chocolate.  Some of the kids wanted ice cream but their machine was broken.  Here they are waiting for the hot chocolate.  We had a great night together.  I can't wait for the rest of the activities we have planned and then Christmas...Yay!