Ringing in the New Year!

I am not a night person and I have never really been one for staying up until midnight on New Year's (unless we're in Lordsburg and I get to shoot a rifle at midnight...). But I love celebrations and I do feel that the start of a new year is momentous - a fresh start for all of those goals and hopes. I envision the new year bursting with potential, all of those days and weeks and months untouched and ready for anything. Anything. How wonderful it is to dream big!

For our family celebration on New Year's Eve, each of the kids helped me with part of the planning. (And we kept it super simple. I was not up for anything hard that soon after Christmas!) Jacob and I blew up balloons and then put little notes on each one for things to do every half hour from 6:30 to 8:30. (My memory is a little fuzzy on the exact details...but this is close.)

6:30 - Photo scavenger hunt (by Bekah)

7:00 - Snack bar and dance party!

7:30 - Play Beau's game of "Midnight"

8:00 - Finding Tender Mercies (Mom's deep thoughts) and Milkshakes

8:30 - Sparkling apple cider and a toast for the New Year!

Bekah came up with a photo scavenger hunt that had pictures from each month of 2015. The kids had to find the pictures and then put them in order. It was hard to remember when we did certain things!

We went to a wedding reception earlier that afternoon where there was so much food we didn't have to eat dinner...So some of our food themed ideas like the snack bar and milkshakes weren't met with as much enthusiasm as I anticipated, but that was okay.

Also earlier in the day, Bekah and I went to Marshall's to find new journals for each member of our family. I was working on a lesson for church that week that talked about seeing the hand of God daily in our lives and recognizing the tender mercies of the Lord. Elder Eyring had shared in a talk that he had kept a journal about seeing the hand of God in his life every day for years and years, and that he was blessed to be able to see more how Heavenly Father loved him and cared for him in small and simple ways. I want to be more grateful everyday to my Heavenly Father, so I have set a goal to write in my journal everyday how I see the hand of God bless me or my family.

I shared that story with my kids and then challenged them to write down their thoughts, feelings, and tender mercies that they observed in their journals. I told them that journals are SUPER personal, and no one could ever, ever read someone else's journal, so they could write anything they wanted. And then we all sat for the remaining 20 minutes and wrote in our journals! They took right to it and were easily occupied the whole time - I was pleasantly surprised, and I considered that to be a tender mercy from my Heavenly Father.

Rus added one thing to our night that the kids all loved - they got to stay up and watch one of the Star Wars movies (#4, or the first of the original series). He is making sure they have a solid Star Wars-ucation.

 Before bed we opened our bottle of "bubbly" and gave a toast to the New Year!

 It was a good, fun night! Welcome 2016! With this crew anything is possible! Bring it on!!

Have yourself a merry little Christmas...

(My Christmas angel!)
We came home from Lordsburg the night before Christmas Eve (or "Christmas Adam" which is what Claire called it...) Christmas Eve was spent making treats, delivering them to friends, and visiting our neighbors for a short but sweet glimpse of Danish Christmas traditions. For dinner, we invited Carla, Doug and their family and a friend from church named Xathena who is a talented jeweler with wonderful stories from growing up in Louisiana. She very generously brought us several tupperwares full of cookies and a beautiful Christmas cactus that bloomed for me the next week! We had a delicious dinner of homemade sopapillas, taco meat, beans, and a pecan pie, popcorn, and cookies for dessert. (So much food, so many treats!) After dinner we continued our tradition of reenacting the nativity. With my four kids and Carla's five, we are beginning to have quite the cast! We sang songs, Rus shared Christmas stories from his family history (hoping to inspire gratitude for what we have), and visited while kids played, hyped up about Santa coming. We were so happy to have Carla's family and Xathena over to share the Christmas spirit with!
After they left the kids were able to open one gift: predictably it was pajamas. But this year I bought EVERYONE matching pjs! Even Rus!

 I gave him his mostly as a joke; last year he gave me terrible pink onesie pjs.

He had the good humor to at least pose for a picture while I sat laughing/crying at how ridiculous he looked...and we returned them to Target the next week.
Christmas morning dawned at 6 am - the earliest we have let our kids get up - Jacob was grumpy to be woken up, but everyone else was naturally very excited.
Rus gave Jacob partial ownership of his gun - a 6mm rifle.

 Bekah had begged and pleaded for an ipod touch, and Rus and I thought we had done a pretty good job of squashing any hope she might have of actually receiving it. So this picture, although blurry, accurately depicts her excitement at finding one near her stocking!

 Beau wanted a Nook. And he got one. Because he's a good boy.

 One of Jacob's wishes was for a pair of overalls...and he has loved wearing them! He loves all of the pockets and that he and Beau both have a pair.

 Cinderella made an appearance Christmas morning! She wore her new beanie to keep her head warm...Such an elegant little lady!

 I had to get a picture of Beau wearing a bunch of his Christmas goods: Minion beanie and headphones, model Hummer, and a really cute Fly Guy pillowcase that Bekah made him.

I guess a week before Christmas, Rus told my mom he'd found me the perfect gift: a really nice new blowdryer. And then she told him that she bought me a blowdryer too, and that hers was better. It was sparkly purple and powerful.

 Rus was sent back to the drawing board and found me a terrific gift: an oscillating spindle sander with various diameter spindles and a belt sanding attachment. I decided I got a sweet deal getting both the blowdryer and the sander! Something to file my nails and something to blow off the sawdust! ;)
I had to include a picture of the minion I got for Christmas!

 Nana made Marianne the cutest doctor shirt to wear when she played with her Doc McStuffins! It even says, "Dr. Marianne." We later made her little Doc McStuffins doll a matching scrub top!

Doc&Doc

 

I gave Rus a PorterCable multitool and a book that teaches the basics of making a violin (he wants to be like his great great grandpa McFate and make himself a fiddle someday).
Tyler and Gina had us for Christmas this year and they made us a beautiful set of windchimes that we hung on our pergola out back. They have a deep beautiful sound and I've enjoyed hearing them make music!

 I am grateful for the Christmas season, and grateful for having to people to share my love with!

Lordsburg with Katie

The day after Jacob's birthday we headed down to Lordsburg. Katie and her family were visiting from Alaska, which made the trip extra special. I haven't seen most of her kids for four years, so I was caught off-guard at how big they all were! Abi is 14, Claire is 12, Calvin is 10, and Sadie is 7. Calvin is Jacob's only boy cousin his age, so you'd better believe that I didn't see them at all the whole time we were there! 

Here are a bunch of pics with highlights from our trip:

Louise wanted to have luminarios lining the driveway the first night, so the kids collected sand for them.

 Timber came on the trip with us! Abi and Claire were great at coming up with ideas for things for him to do. My favorite was when he made a zipline from wrapping ribbon and hung out there for a day.

 It turns out that Claire is a prankster and I was happy to play sidekick! We wrapped Nana and Grandpa's toilet! (It was still functional though!)

 We also decided to wrap Nana, Grandpa, and Uncle Brooks in their rooms. We wrapped the doorways and then waited, and waited, giggling, for them to come out. It took a while, but it was very entertaining when they finally burst through!

 Don't mind Jacob's face. It always looks like that.

 One of my favorite things from the trip was when we made tamales. Roger had slow-cooked some delicious pork, and Katie got everything else ready...so all we had to do was trowel on the masa and wrap them up! Mmm they were delicious!

 I brought stuff for graham cracker gingerbread houses. The kids, predictably, enjoyed eating the candy more than anything.

 I had a lot of fun spending time with Abi. She's a wonderful, mature, laid back girl who is a lot of fun to hang out with! She taught me how to play a gard game called Teli (sp?), and showed me what online seminary is all about, and let me braid her hair! And she stole my phone for a selfie!

 Katie asked Rus to bring stuff for shooting skeet. I haven't done that for a long time and forgot how hard a big gun can kick! But it was a lot of fun...right up until Jacob jumped over a fence and twisted his ankle really badly on a rock.

 Sadie, Beau, and Ben. These three kids were born within weeks of each other. They are silly, goofy kids, although Sadie does bring a little grace and stability to the three!

 Beau and Abi really clicked. I think it's because they both like the color orange. And they're both awesome.

 Claire also stole my phone for a selfie...I love how unique this girl's personality is! She is clever and fun!

 Nana really wanted a picture with all of the grandkids on their playground (nicknamed "OSHA"). We were only missing Claire because ??? Fifteen grandkids!!

I love spending time with Rus' family! I feel happy and blessed and grateful when I am with them!

Jacob's Birthday

 Jacob is officially DOUBLE DIGITS! He turned 10 on December 20th, a Sunday. My sister Amy and her family came to visit that weekend and they were gracious enough to indulge Jacob in his birthday wish of eating breakfast at IHOP on Saturday morning.
I think Jacob had a good birthday - first breakfast, and then time playing with his cousins (Mikey, 8, Luke, 13, and Joshua, 15 - pretty much the coolest boys outside our own family), and then the dads took all of the kids except Marianne and baby Leo to see the new Star Wars: the Force Awakens at the theater. The movie had just come out that weekend and it was a major conversational topic everywhere, so it was a big deal that they could go. I was perfectly content to stay at my mom and dad's house with my mom and Amy and work on making little crates for her to give away as gifts to her coworkers and friends.
On Sunday, Jacob's actual birthday, he was able to open up his present first thing - a compound bow. Fits him well, huh?!

 He also received a survival handbook from the coolest uncle ever, his uncle Jacob. He poured over it for hours, trying to decide what kind of trap he wanted to use to catch a rabbit and what kind of fire starting method he wanted to try.

 We went to church, hung out with Amy, Mike and the kids, played some really silly games, and ate hamburgers with bacon (Jacob's favorite). Marianne was so happy to have her most favorite person in the world visit that she almost never let go of him the entire weekend!

 Jacob asked for cream cheese brownies instead of a cake, so I made them but I dyed the cream cheese part blue and then put some of his plastic animals in to make it look like a river scene.
I honestly cousins are God's gift to childhood. It is always fun to spend time with cousins, and things just happen when they're around! (Marianne is sad in this picture because Cutesy just told her that she has to go soon, and Marianne doesn't want her to leave!)

 I'd like to add just a few things that I really, really love and adore about my oldest son:
Jacob eye's sparkle. They are full of questions and curiosity about the world: exploration, animals, science, technology...He wants to take things apart, carve animals out of rock, cook meat over an open fire, go where no one has gone before, and live in a world with no mosquitoes. (Famous quote from this year: "How much mosquitoes are there?") He daily walks up to me and gives me a hug for no reason. He's super ticklish, which I love taking advantage of. Jacob never tries to hurt my feelings or be intentionally mean. He's the best big brother, especially to Beau (they are good buddies). He has the greatest deep voice. Thinking of Jacob's future makes me really excited and happy; it's going to be entertainingly fantastic!

Santa's Woodshop

I have wanted for many years to do a Santa's Woodshop with my kids for their friends...and this was the year it finally happened!

A lot of planning and preparation went into making this a reality. The kids and I searched the internet for craft ideas and they helped me pick out the most fun ones. We knew already that we wanted to make an m&m dispenser, and a friend had mentioned that she wanted a wooden camera for her daughter. Jacob wanted to do a catapult so we found a simple design and modified it to our own liking. The whale box is made on the bandsaw and is a miniature version of one I found at a thrift store for Jacob years ago. Finally we picked the crayon dispenser because we thought it would appeal to younger participants like Marianne.

 Jacob, Beau, and Bekah helped me make the prototypes (we worked out a lot of bugs with those first tries!). All of the kids helped me assemble the kits.

We decided to make a sign up on Sign Up Genius (LOVE) and we invited several families from our ward and neighborhood. I wish we could have invited more, but we capped out at 32 kids.

On the designated day for Santa's Woodshop to be open we had the garage set up with tables with red and white striped plastic cloths, an extra table with hot cocoa, sugar cookies and wrapping items, and all of the tools primed and ready! My parents got sucked into the project - Dad brought his big drill press and Mom was assigned to Marianne

The kids were scheduled to come in half hour increments, four kids per half hour. Each of my kids was assigned to help with one of the crafts, and sometimes it varied what craft they would help with based on what the kids had signed up for. Jacob loved helping with the crayon holder, Beau was an expert with the catapult, and Bekah loved helping with the camera. My dad manned his drillpress, mainly helping with the m&m dispensers, and Rus and I took turns helping out at the other drill press, the sander, or the pneumatic guns.


 
It was a very busy 3 1/2 hours, but all of the crafts were made, tummies were filled with cookies and hot cocoa, and a few children even had the heart to wrap their creations up as gifts for someone else. Rus and I enjoyed visiting with parents as they dropped up and picked up their kids, and above all we just enjoyed having our woodshop opened up for the benefit of our friends!
It really was magical - we felt like Santa's elves making toys!
At the end of the day as we were cleaning up, I made everyone stop and pose for a picture. I realized that Marianne was asleep on her bed and decided she had to be in the picture too, even if she did look like she was still asleep. This is what we used for our Christmas card this year! I love all of the junk and clutter, and the "Explosive" sign in the background and each of the different expressions that the kids (and Rus) have. I think it's totally us.







I am so grateful that my dad was a part of this experience! He is so wonderful and charitable and I love him to pieces.

Did I tell you that our elf Timber got to be part of Santa's Woodshop? He hung out in a large m&m dispenser in the garage. Marianne got a huge kick out of that!

Merry Christmas from one of Santa's Official Woodshops!

Snow!

I love a good snowy day. The kind that comes when you weren't planning on doing anything anyway or you need a break from your routine. Our last two snowstorms happened Saturday night through Sunday morning; that gave the kids and I a perfect amount of time to play around and enjoy the powder followed by a hot cup of cocoa!

I take a picture like this every year and it's fun to see how my kids have grown! (Even if I can't really see their faces Marianne.)

 We are lucky to have a berm right in our backyard that offers minimally reasonable sledding. Jacob discovered it for us. I even tried it and it was a fun little rush!

 I love their faces!

 This picture happened right before we tried to sled down the street by our house...FAIL! It wasn't enough of a slope to generate any speed...but it did give my legs a workout pulling them!

 I love these kids! My favorite part of the morning was when Beau realized he could be a human sled. He enjoyed sliding down on his belly or hitching a ride behind someone else's sled much to my amusement and the other kids' annoyance!

Christmastime

With the start of this Christmas season our family quickly found itself with a full schedule of events. We decorated our tree the weekend after Thanksgiving; Bekah wouldn't have it any other way. She practically unloaded all of the Christmas boxes from the shed herself. Rus had his required eggnog, and after setting up the tree he sat comfortably to watch and drink while we put on the ornaments. 

 I wish it was really as peaceful an experience as this picture depicts...but unfortunately the promise of a merry Christmastime is not enough to magically make my kids be super kind to each other...at least not for very long. There were a few grumbles, for example, when Marianne was allowed again to put the star on the tree.

In addition to our own self-imposed events, we also had a slough of cultural entertainment provided by our children's hobbies and commitments:

We went to Bekah's orchestra concert, Beau's Jammin Jaguars (choir) concert, and Marianne's Christmas program at her preschool. Marianne got to dress up in her prettiest dress (provided by Cutesy) and sing beautiful songs about God's love and Jesus' birth. I loved it.

 We also went to a "Breakfast with Santa" at her preschool. It was a lot of fun to spend time with her and her classmates and their families. Grandad and Cutesy came along for the fun; my dad sported for some raffle tickets which he gave to the kids, and Jacob won two tickets to the rock climbing gym! Here are my kids with Santa: I maybe should have been pickier about what they wore...

Merry Christmastime!