8 is GREAT!

 

Well it is official, we have an eight year old!  I really can't believe it.  8 is a big year so we wanted to throw her an actual party this year.  She invited a few friends from school and a few from church over to the house the Saturday before her birthday (2/20/21).  The girls and McKay decorated aprons and then made their own pizzas for lunch.  After lunch they decorated their own cupcakes and we sang happy birthday and opened presents.  Then the girls just played until parents came to get them.  Craig had to work that day so luckily my Mom was willing to come help keep things under control.  Brooklyn had such a blast with her cute friends and McKay too of course.

Then on Monday the 22nd, her actual birthday, after school she opened up her present from McKay (slime, a puzzle and coloring book) and then we met Stan and Diane for dinner at Smoky Mountain Pizza.  McKay was a little upset he didn't get a free pizza like Brooklyn and we had to remind him that he could still get a pizza, we just had to pay for it.  After a yummy dinner we headed back to Stan and Diane's to let her finish opening up her gifts.  She was very patient all day while waiting to open her gifts.  Nana and Pops got her very own scriptures and will take her to go pick out a scripture bag and get a treat.  They also got her 3 books.  Craig and I got her a BB Gun, some bb's and targets and some clothes.  After presents it was on to CAKE!  Diane made a super yummy, beautiful cake for Brooklyn and me.  Seriously sooo good! So then we sang happy birthday and stuffed our faces.  Brooklyn also got to go pick out a CTR ring and purse with my mom the weekend before while she was watching the kiddos.  I think it is safe to say that Brooklyn had a fantastic birthday and was spoiled rotten.  McKay was a great sport and was just so excited for Brooklyn the whole time.

Brooklyn is such a joy to have in our family.  She is the perfect mix of tom boy and girlie.  She loves to read, play sports(basketball, soccer, football, tetherball, etc.), play with friends and cousins, watch a good movie (especially Star Wars).  She is a great big sister, most of the time, she is in a phase that she finds everything McKay does annoying but fingers crossed that won't last until she leaves for college.  She loves to smile and tease.  She loves to learn new things and understand how things work.  She excels at school and is always hungry to learn, her favorite things at school right now are P.E. and math.  She has her sassy moments, but really just brings so much happiness and joy to our family.  We are so lucky that she made us parents 8 years ago.

Ski Weekend

 Craig and I decided to take a little weekend away to go snow skiing.  Over President's Day weekend which was also Valentine's Day/My Birthday Weekend, we headed to Jackson Hole Wyoming.  We dropped the kiddos off at my Mom's on Thursday and made the 6 hour drive, which is like nothing when there are no kids to entertain.  Friday morning we were up early to catch the bus from our hotel to the Jackson ski resort.  We initially thought we would try to ride the tram up first, but the wait was over 2 hours because only a quarter of the people were allowed on because of Covid. So instead we just stayed on the chair lifts the whole day.  The area had been dumped with 3 feet of snow the week before and then another foot the week we came with an additional 8 inches the night before.  It also snowed lightly on us the whole day.  Needless to say we were skiing powder the whole time.  Craig is a much better skier than me but I feel like I held my own and didn't slow him down at all, I just didn't look near as pretty.  We skied hard all day and got some amazing snow, sometimes up to our waist.  We were tired out and grabbed the bus back to our hotel around 3:30.  We grabbed dinner and then hit the hot tub before heading to bed early.

Saturday morning we were up even earlier, like 5:00am, to head back over the Teton Pass to Targhee Ski Resort.  We had skied here a couple of years ago and were excited to get back.  We knew it would be busy just like Jackson because of all the snow they just got so we made sure to get there an hour before it opened to get in line for the lift.  While we were waiting in line we met a girl who actually went to my high school but now lived locally and she kind of directed us around the mountain for a few hours.  Again the snow was amazing, but our legs got tired pretty quick after each run.  We did our best to hit as much of the mountain as we could and really get our money worth.  I think each day we hit about 15 runs or so.  Once we were worn out we made the hour or so drive back over the pass to Jackson, showered off and grabbed some dinner.  That night the hot tub was busted so we watched part of a movie and went to bed early.

Sunday was Valentine's Day and after "sleeping in", which was like 7:30, we got ready and walked to the town square and walked through a bunch of shops on our way to brunch.  I had the eggs benedict and Craig had chicken and waffles, both were delicious.  After walking around a little more we headed back to the hotel to read, relax and take a nap.  It was a pretty lazy day, but it was really nice to relax a little bit.  That evening we walked to dinner and then started packing things back up.  Monday morning after a quick workout we were back on the road.  We were ready to get back to the kiddos.  They had a blast with my mom and playing with cousins all weekend in the snow.  Boise got a big storm while we were gone and the kids built snowmen, went sledding, and played in the snow to their hearts content.  We had a blast skiing and hope to make this an annual thing to check out new resorts and hopefully in a few years the kids will be good enough that they can join us.  We had a great time and it was so nice to get back to something that we love doing but haven't had the chance to do a lot of in the last decade.  The lines were long, the snow was great and the company was even better.

Christmas Time

 

As always we had a wonderful Christmas together as a family.  We spent most of Christmas Eve with my family since Craig's parents were in Florida.  Christmas Eve morning we met up with my family, minus Sunni's clan, at Eagle Island to try out their tubbing hill.  McKay was a little hesitant at first and always wanted to ride with someone else, but by the end he was so proud to go down all by himself, even if that meant he sunk down low in the tube and closed his eyes.  It was a lot of fun to go out and do something active with the whole family.  After tubbing we headed over to Casa Mexico, a family favorite, for lunch.  My mom was able to reserve the banquet room which allowed the kids to roam.  After lunch we all headed home for a quick shower and then back up to my Mom's for the reading and acting out of the nativity, cousin presents, our gift to Christ,  and more food. We then headed home to get the kiddos to bed and make sure Santa was ready for the next morning.

Luckily the kids weren't up too early Christmas morning.  I got up a little early to get the French toast casserole in the oven and make sure everything was ready to go downstairs.  At 7:00 we then let the kids head downstairs to see if Santa had come.  I love watching the awe and excitement of kids on Christmas morning, it doesn't get much better than that.  After going through Santa's gifts we took a break and ate some breakfast and then went back to finish up the gifts.  The kids were so excited to buy each other gifts this year.  They may have only been from the dollar store but they were as big of a hit as the more expensive gifts form Mom and Dad.  

Once all the gifts were opened and playing had begun, Craig and I started to get packed up to head up to the cabin.  We decided that since Craig still had Saturday and Sunday off we might as well take advantage of the weekend and head to McCall as well.  We had the cabin to ourselves and Craig and Brooklyn headed up to the ski hill for the first ski of the season and then we spent the rest of the time playing in the snow and drinking hot chocolate.  It really was a magical Christmas!

Getting ready for Christmas

 

As always we had a lot of fun things planned to help us get into the Christmas spirit.  Right after Thanksgiving we got the house decorated and the kids wrote their letters to Santa.  The city of Star had a mailbox just for Santa so we went and dropped them off and the kids even got a letter in return letting them know that they were on the NICE list.

A few days later we headed over to Mark and Paige's for the annual Grinch night.  The kids always have a blast playing Christmas bingo, pin the heart on Grinch, decorating sugar cone Christmas trees, eating everything green and watching The Grinch.  We look forward to Grinch night every year.

We then had an early Christmas Eve dinner with Craig's side of the family.  Craig's parents were in Florida for Christmas visiting their newest grandbaby so we decided to celebrate a little early.  As always Diane cooked an amazing prime rib and we had all the yummy sides you could imagine.  The kids then acted out the nativity and opened a few gifts from Nana and Pops.

My Mom decorated my Dad's grave for Christmas and put up a little tree.  The kids were so excited to make some ornaments to take to Grandpa.  McKay also had a little preschool Christmas program.  They sang a few songs and played the bells for a few songs too.  It was super cute and McKay was just so thrilled by it all.

Because of COVID we weren't able to go to the Nutcracker or the Lights A Glow at the Botanic Gardens, but we were still able to go check out the lights at Indian Creek Plaza in Caldwell.  They do such a great job every year and they even had a socially distanced Santa and Mrs. Claus to take pictures with.  We had fun walking around with the Sell's and their kiddos.

We then topped off our pre-Christmas festivities with lots of sugar.  We decorated a gingerbread house and decorated sugar cookies for Santa.  We love having friends over every year to help us decorate.  I may find sprinkles on the floor for months afterwards, but it is totally worth it.  The hard part is not eating all the cookies.  

On Craig's last day of work before Christmas we took the kiddos in for their annual eye exam, Brooklyn had been complaining about not being able to see the board at school.  She doesn't need glasses quite yet, but it is coming soon.  While their eyes were dilated we hung inside and then watch yet another version of the Grinch, by this point we had watched every version there is at least once if not twice. It's always hard balancing all the fun activities and making sure the kids understand the real meaning of Christmas.  Fingers crossed we got the point across.