December Memories

We packed a lot of fun into December this year. Starting off the month in our co-op preschool I had the kids make beaded candy cane ornaments. It's fun to have Declan, Essie, and Booker at our house each month.

Ethan and Lydia enjoy going to the library and playing with the gymnastics foam shapes. They usually build slides and such but today Ethan designed an airplane that they enjoyed flying. We also happened to find Santa visiting the library as well one day this month.

We went to a very random but very fun birthday party for Mason. Because of some mix ups with the invitations we found out about it an hour before it started and didn't know Mason or his family. We ended up going anyway with Lydia to the party at Classic Skating and they both had a blast. Such a fun party and great activity for Ethan and Lydia.

I helped out on the Family Committee for a Polar Express activity that turned out so cute. They created a train and then watched part of the Polar Express movie while having chocolate milk with marshmallows. They also had a craft and sugar decorating tables as well as a visit from Santa. The kids loved it!

Ethan also had a really cute Kindergarten program in the middle of the month. They learned at least 12 songs, most of them new. He still sings them and knows all the words to Jingle Bells, Up on the House Top, Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer, and I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas. We also found out when we went that the son of one of Jason's mission companions also lives in Springville and has a son McCoy in Ethan's class. Small world.

We also enjoyed a fun family dinner and games at Jeff and Sally's home in Provo. The food was Indian themed and we played a fun Christmas song charades game.

We also introduced our kids to the BYU racquetball courts and a BYU basketball game. Ethan especially loved it!! And we were even given a chance to meet Cosmo.

We also visited University Place Mall in Orem where we played with some fun outdoor glow blocks, drank hot chocolate, and also visited the Giving Machines inside. We were able to donate 3 chickens and some school supplies to children in need.

We don't have a picture here, but we also enjoyed making gingerbread houses with our friends the Coopers. It was fun to work together and decorate to our heart's content!














We enjoyed going to the temple one last time in Salt Lake before they close the temple for a 4-year restoration project. We have a lot of memories connected with that temple including getting engaged and married there. My parents were so nice to watch our kids while we went and then brought them to us so we could see the Christmas Lights on Temple Square. They were beautiful. I have lots of memories growing up and going to see those lights around Christmas time. Jason and I were also able to sneak down right before his finals to see the Tabernacle Christmas Concert. The concert of course was amazing and magnificent and the Spirit so strong in the Conference Center. It was memorable to walk out of the concert to pouring rain that turned the sidewalks and streets into streams and even let down hail briefly before letting up. Fortunately Jason brought our large umbrella that really saved the top half of my body even though my feet and shoes were completely soaked!

We loved setting up our Christmas tree and decorations in our new apartment and Ethan and Lydia were cute to pose for pictures.

We celebrated Christmas Eve at my parents home. In fact we loaded all of our presents into the car and took Christmas with us. We enjoyed dinner and acting out the Christmas Story complete with costumes and watched a video about it. Then ate Cinnamon Rolls and put the kids to bed, full of anticipation for Christmas in the morning.

The kids were excited for their gifts and enjoyed playing with them. We also visited the Eliason for brunch, the Riverton Rogers for games, and Jason's brother Steve and his family for dinner that day. It was a full, busy, lovely day.

After Christmas we enjoyed several days with Jason's parents in Nevada. We enjoyed wonderful company, food, games, movies, and activities with them. We celebrated the New Year there and then returned home.We were all sad it had to end.

Riding on the Boulder City Train

Some of our activities were playing Spikeball, going on a 5 mile hike through the old train tunnels, dinner at Red Robin, playing at a bounce house.

We also received Christmas jammies and games as part of our gift Grandma and Grandpa Burningham and we put both to good use while we were there.

We played some Christmas music on the chimes, played games, and ate lots of Christmas cookies to celebrate New Year's Eve.

We had a wonderful Christmas break with friends and family.

July Craziness

When thinking back on July, I still don't know how we managed to survive and get done everything we needed to get done. We were truly blessed!! At the beginning of July we didn't know where we were moving or have our house under contract. Both of those happened the third week of July and then we packed up our house and were ready to move on Aug. 1st. Somehow we also fit in a week of vacation/family reunion in Florida. We had so much help from so many people!! I'm grateful it's not July anymore, that was a crazy month. Here are a few pictures documenting our crazy month-- minus the vacation in Florida which will be it's own post.

We went to our last Moms Club activity at the Erlanger Train Park. We enjoyed seeing friends and saying some goodbyes, although it seemed a little unreal to say goodbye.

Emma and Lydia

We celebrated another fun Independence Day at Coney Island Park, which has become a fun family tradition. We went with our friends the Huxels and Clores. We enjoyed carnival rides during the day, ate a yummy picnic dinner and then listened to the Red White and Boom concert put on by the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra. I love patriotic music! And they had a really cool fireworks show afterwards that was really fun to watch, especially with friends!

Gavin and Lydia

Lydia with a doll in her shirt...another example of how much she wants to be a mom. :)

Ethan worked hard everyday on a kindergarten level book to earn money for a Lego kit he wanted. And here it is!

A yummy pie night to celebrate Charlotte's birthday. She sure knows how to do it in style!!

Lydia loves doing these sort and snap pictures and then running in to show me each new picture.

A tower of bricks they built together in our basement.

We also threw an early birthday party for Ethan just days before we moved. We invited friends to our neighborhood pool on Saturday and had an absolute blast. The weather was perfect and we pretty much had the pool to ourselves. The kids all loved it and it turned out so well thanks to the help of our friends the Huxels. Charlotte made these custom camouflage cupcakes to order just for Ethan. They also picked up pizzas for us and helped everything run smoothly. We are so grateful for them and the many friends we have in Kentucky!!

Don't those look amazing? They tasted amazing too!!

Claire

Rachel and Saylor

Just 3 days before we moved they finally finished the new Hebron Library that we watched them build as we drove by daily for over a year and a half. We were sad that we never got to actually use it, but we did stop by on it's opening day just to say hello and good-bye. That visit to the library was also when I discovered gum stuck in Lydia's hair that required an emergency haircut the next morning from my friend Emily. Man, I sure have the best friends!