Christmas Carol

We took our kids to the youth Christmas Carol at Hale Center Theater. It was just a shorter version of the actual Christmas Carol performed by their youth group. The kids really enjoyed, it turned out to be the perfect length for them. I thought it was a great way to kick off our Christmas season. It was kind of exciting to see Elder D. Todd Christofferson there, although we didn't actually end up talking to him.

Jr. Jazz

Liam  and Tad tried out their first season of basketball.  It was a learning experience for all of us. Their coaches were really good and they learned a lot, it was fun to see them improve over the course of the season.

Random November

Harvey is such a weird sleeper. Some days he sleeps until 6:30 in the morning, and other days he is in my room at 5:30. Those days are typically pretty rough for both of us, and occasionally will lead to him falling asleep for an earlier than usual nap.

 I had to go to the dollar store to get Addie an elf hat. While we were walking through Harvey found little cartons of goldfish. He was so excited. He said they were just for him.

 Tad has been really into drawing lately. He likes to sit and draw and color. Then I'll find his pictures taped up random places.

It is usually a bad sign when Tad starts falling asleep random places. It typically means that he is coming down with something. This was right before he came down with a fever that then led to a croupy cough.

 Harvey hates real food. He asks me every night, "What you making? Is it a yutty one or a dood one?" (yucky one or good one). Then we sit and dinner battle. He cries at the table until we both give up. He is stubborn enough that very rarely do I come away feeling like I've won.

 Max took advantage of the fact that Tad was laying down and insisted on a belly rub.

Liam's Baptism Photo Shoot

Turkeys

My mom made rice krispie treats and got all the stuff for the kids to make turkeys. She had all the stuff with her on Thanksgiving but the kids were having so much fun playing that we didn't get to it.  So we brought all the stuff home and did it for family night Monday.

 They all turned out really cute! The kids all had fun making them and then were excited to be able to eat them.

 Harvey had refused to eat his dinner so he helped make it and then wasn't able to eat it. He kept trying to sneak a lick during the picture. I was really hoping having a treat would want to make him eat but he is really unbribable when it comes to eating dinner.

Hotel Night

My family decided to stay in a hotel in Salt Lake they day after Thanksgiving. We loved the hotel night growing up and my kids love it too. They get so excited to swim and hang out with cousins. We got up there early and let the kids swim for an hour or so before meeting in my parent's room for dinner and Tad's and Erin's birthday party. Tad was super excited to be able to stay in a hotel on his birthday. 

 After the party we went to temple square to see the lights. It was the first night and it was a complete madhouse. The kids still had fun we just had more crowds to wade through. On our way back to the hotel we stopped to watch the fountains at city creek. They had a little show to music, with fire. The kids loved it!

 After that we headed to our room for the night. Addie was excited because there was a Harry Potter movie marathon on tv so we let them watch a movie before going to bed.

The next morning we got up and ate and then headed back to the pool. Harvey was pretty adament that he did not want to swim so we stayed in the room watching a movie. About thirty minutes later he changed his mind. We went to the pool  and luckily papa was willing to swim around with him since I was avoiding getting in a swimsuit again. The kids had so much fun at the pool, that is by far their favorite part of staying at a hotel. All the older kids were playing a funny telephone game where they had to copy the person in front of them before jumping in the pool. They were so funny to watch the adults were trying to sneak videos of them while they played. Everyone was having so much fun, they played for a couple of hours before I finally forced them to get out so we would have time to shower before we checked out. 

Happy Birthday Tad

Tad is six! He has been telling me for months all about the tiger cake that I was going to make him and he really, REALLY wanted a blue skateboard. Since his birthday was the day after Thanksgiving we were able to do presents right after his breakfast cake in the morning. Then he was able to play and practice with it all day until we headed to a hotel night with my family.

Tad has grown so much this year. He is still the 50% for height and 10% weight. I keep waiting for us to break the 40lb mark but not yet. He is still a really picky eater but actually is more willing than most of the kids at trying new things (he just doesn't like most of it). His favorite animal is a tiger and favorite movie Star Wars. He likes school and is doing really well. He likes reading but really wants to be able to do it without any help which gets a little frustrating for both of us. He still has a lot of fire and stubborness in him but also loves hugs the most (he is the one to nightly remind us of hug time).

Happy birthday Tad!

Happy Thanksgiving

Alicia hosted Thanksgiving this year at her house. We got there a little early so the kids could make some fun Thanksgiving place mats. Then it was time to eat and let the kids play while the adults visited. It was nice and relaxing. 

Family Pictures 2017

I am so happy with how our pictures turned out this year. I love to see when it shows off a little of the kids' personalities. It was hard to pick my favorites. We ended up taking pictures in two different settings. We had decided it would be kind of fun to do one by the lake but getting there early enough for good lighting ended up being miserably cold (20 degrees). Everyone was so miserable in the end we decided to  come back another day to take more.

When we came back the second time we wanted to try one or two with Max. The kids were so excited. I think that was their favorite part of taking pictures. He's still a little crazy so getting good shots was a little difficult but we got some good ones in the end.