Pinewood Derby

Daniel had so much fun at the Pinewood Derby!  I think Andrew was pretty bummed that he is no longer a Cub Scout, but he was right there cheering on his little brother.  Daniel got third place this year.  Isn't the trophy cool?  A family at church makes them from real pistons.  Great job, Daniel!

Christmas Break

Tomorrow the kids go back to school.  Christmas break this year was different that normal, because after Christmas they still had two weeks of vacation.  It was nice, though.  They were able to have fun playing with each other and hanging out with friends, and I was able to finish some projects.  I have printed out the best pictures up through the end of 2015 and put them in the photo albums and written all of the captions.  I have also chosen the best ones from 2016 and ordered prints of most of them, and I can add those to the photo albums later.  Anyway, here are some of the highlights from Christmas break: 

 

Andrew and baby Sara

Zoo Lights
We loved the Zoo Lights, but it was crazy crowded!  Including our long walk from our car (the Zoo lot was full), walking around the Zoo, and walking back to our car, we walked a total of four miles!

The Lego animal sculptures were awesome!

Daniel loves this stone.  It says, "Mommy loves you, Daniel" and has a picture of Thomas the Tank Engine.  The first time we saw it, we almost had him convinced that I had it made for him, lol.

More Zoo lights

On New Year's Eve, we went to a big lunch at our favorite Chinese buffet, and then to Castles N Coasters.  Their mini golf courses are fantastic!  Nathaniel had plans with friends so he went home after lunch.

I have re-started my goal of teaching the kids to cook on Sunday evenings.  It was difficult to do last year when church ended so late, but now we are home by 11:15am!  Here is Nathaniel making baked chicken.  Jonathan was his little sidekick.

We went to a baptism Saturday morning. As soon as we got home Jonny said, "We're not going anywhere today, right?" Then he immediately changed into his new Mickey pajamas. It was 11am. 

I will miss sleeping in, but it will be nice to have life go back to normal.  The kids were really good so I'm not especially anxious for them to be gone.  It will be quiet here tomorrow!

Christmas 2016

The kids' first day of Christmas break was on Friday, Dec. 23.  My sister wanted to go to the mall, so the kids and I joined her.  It was pretty crazy there with nine kids!  We had fun, though.  We had lunch at the food court and tried rolled ice cream.  Yum!

I love watching the kids play games together!

New Christmas jammies!

 

Ready to open presents!

Daniel is beyond thrilled with his Nintendo 3DS

 

 

Andrew loves a toy he can assemble by himself!

Jonny and his tsum tsums

He was dying to get this Nightmare Before Christmas set

 

Everyone got their favorite snack this year.  Jonny wanted cheese balls!

My dad helps me wrap gifts every year (thanks Dad!), and we ended up with an extra Justice gift box.  We figured Nathaniel would be a good sport about it, and he was.

Wheat Thins for Daniel--again!

 

Emily loves getting new clothes!

 

On Christmas morning, we opened all of our presents, cleaned up, had aebleskivers for breakfast, cleaned up again, and went to church.  After church, we came home to prepare dinner--steak, chicken, shrimp, etc.  Michael's mother and sister Erin came over for dinner, as well as my sister and her family.  Erin wasn't feeling well, so they left early.  Here we are at the end of the day: 

Baby time!  She always wants to stand up.

 

I thought I'd throw in the picture of Michael and I out to our fancy dinner for our anniversary. 

21 years!