Christmas time

 

We had a wonderful Christmas season as usually.  A lot of family time and a lot of activities to keep us busy.  I always try to get as much of the busy work done by the start of December so that I can hopefully keep the stress down as much as possible and truly be present. We had a lot of different activities planned leading up to Christmas including the office Christmas party, writing letters to Santa (which is always tricky because I have finished shopping by this point), Grinch Night, The Nutcracker, the kids both had friend Christmas parties, went and saw some lights, made gingerbread houses, watching as many Christmas movies as possible and dinner at Ruth's Chris.  These have all become fun traditions that help us get into the Christmas spirit and we look forward to them each year. 

Since Christmas Eve was on Sunday we did some of our normal Christmas Eve activities on Saturday.  We went with my side of the family to the Eagle Island tubing hill.  We all had a blast.  Afterwards we went back to my moms house for chili and corn bread for lunch and the kids decorated sugar cookies for Santa.

On Sunday the 24th, we went to church and had a wonderful sacrament meeting full of beautiful messages of Christ through song.  I then got a lot of cooking done for the next few days. We then stopped by my Mom's house on our way up to Craig's parents house for Christmas Eve dinner.  Diane did the traditional Prime Rib and ham along with all of the fixings.  It was delicious as always.  After dinner the kids and Stan and Diane did a fun White Elephant gift exchange and then we finished off the evening reading and acting out the nativity.  It was only our family and Mark's family so the Dad's had to join in.  Once we got home we got cookies and milk out for Santa and carrots and candy canes (McKay insisted that reindeer like them) for the reindeer.  Luckily Santa wasn't up too late, there was nothing for him to set up.

On Christmas morning McKay was in our room right at 7:00 am and Brooklyn woke up shortly after.  We headed downstairs to see what Santa got everyone.  The kids' Christmas lists were pretty short this year so it was a little difficult to think of enough things to get them, they live a rough life obviously.  After going through the stockings and checking out their sweet new basketballs, we took a break to eat cinnamons rolls that I had made the day before.  We then opened the rest of our gifts, which took all of about 30 minutes.  Everyone got some new workout clothes.  The kids both got some NFL gear.  Brooklyn got McKay a binder to keep all of his sports cards in and McKay got Brooklyn an Origami kit.  They both got some new workout shoes.  McKay got a new bike, that he desperately needed and Brooklyn got a new fitness tracker watch.  The kids opened a few things up to play with/look at closer while I got a few things ready for dinner.  We then headed up to Craig's parents house to hang out and open some more gifts.  The kids got a day at Roaring Springs Water Park and a day at Wahooz with their Nana and Pops.  They are pretty stoked about that.  We also ate leftovers for lunch.  We then headed to my Mom's house for Christmas dinner.  We got to eat Prime Rib two days in a row, can't complain about that.  We then got to open up even more gifts.  The kids did their cousin gift exchange and then McKay got a bean bag from Grandma and Brooklyn got a fanny pack and volleyball knee pads.  We had a busy but wonderful few days.  We are grateful to be able to live so close to so much family and be able to share these days with them.. The kids love to be with their cousins and grandparents. We tried really hard to focus on our Savior as much as possible and to remember that Christmas is only important because there was an Easter.  We are so grateful for our Lord and Savior and his sacrifice that was made on our behalf.  It was a wonderful Christmas season with our family, now time to clean up.

Fabulous Fall

 

We had a lot of fun this Fall and stayed very busy.  Busy enough that we didn't even make it up to McCall.  Football and soccer are what kept us most busy.  Brooklyn had a blast this season.  They switched her up to forward and she even scored a few goals.  They got second place at their tournament in Twin Falls.  The girls have so much fun together and even went to a BSU women's soccer game together.  McKay had a great football season.  His Raven's team went undefeated.  He averaged two touchdowns per game. The boys were a blast to watch and had so much fun pumping each other up.

We were also able to make it to a few Boise State Football games with Pops.  Craig and I were also able to head down to Salt Lake City for the UofU vs. UCLA football game.  The kids are great cheerleaders and love to yell at the ref like their Dad.  We also got Youtube TV and have been watching college and NFL football every chance we get.

The kids had a fun Halloween.  They both had parties to go to and then they got loaded up Trick or Treating.  They both dressed up as movie characters.  Brooklyn was Dottie from A League of Their Own and McKay was Maverick from Top Gun.  McKay was luckily feeling good enough after his surgery to participate in all the Halloween Fun.  Brooklyn finally carved her first Jack-O-Lantern and we got a bunch of Pumpkins for our front porch from Bishop and Sally.  Thank goodness for them, because I don't like driving all the way out to the pumpkin patches.

Craig and I were able to get in one last hike just here in the valley, up by Lucky Peak to Cervidae Peak.  It was a straight up 2 miles followed by a straight down of 2 miles.  Our quads were burning the next day because we pretty much ran down the whole thing. We also did the last Move Over MSA race.  The kids had the week of Thanksgiving off from school.  We spent a lot of time with family. We swam at the YMCA with cousin, Brooklyn went off the high dive.  We made our Thankful Turkey and had a yummy pie night at Nana and Pops and then ate a delicious thanksgiving dinner at Grandma's.  It was a great week together as a family. We had a great fall and are looking forward to a wonderful winter. Oh and last but not least, I got called as Primary President in our ward.  It is a little hectic now, but will be a blast once I get my feet underneath me a little bit.  I can't wait to be with the kiddos, best place in the church in my opinion.  Fall is such a beautiful time here and we love soaking up every second of it.