New Years

 A few days after Christmas Drew and Brittney came and stayed for a night. 

The boys love to wrestle:

The next morning we went to the children's museum. 

Conner and Micah in the dig pit:

 Alan and Micah in the construction site:

 Alan and Uncle Drew working in the construction area:

 They have a new grocery area that Brooklyn and Micah loved:

 Nice to see that she wanted to buy fruits and veggies:

Legos!!!

For New Year's Eve we mostly stayed home because Conner was sick (again).  We rented the movie Turbo and watched that all together.  Then Brooklyn went to bed.  Alan was feeling fine and he really wanted to get out of the house so Alan, Micah and I went to the New Year's Eve dance at the church.  They had a big bouncy house that the kids played in for a long time.  Then we came home and played games:

I love how Alan and Conner are getting old enough to play "big kid" games with Reed and I:

 Micah stayed awake until 11:15 pm and then he fell asleep on the couch:

The rest of us stayed up and rang in the new year, then we quickly went to bed. 

A couple of days after that we celebrated my birthday.  I decided to celebrate a little early, since I would be in Mexico on my birthday (coming soon to the blog) and I knew that the kids would be disappointed if they couldn't share my birthday and cake with me.

We all worked together to blow out my candles.  Mmmm, chocolate cake!:

Christmas Day

Even though the kids were excited for Christmas they still slept until 6:30 am.  Then we all got up and went to see what was under the tree. 

Santa left Micah these little knights and horses:

Alan and Conner got the new Skylanders game for the Wii and the Lego Ninjago Temple of Light.  They are sharing both gifts:

Brooklyn got a new Potato Head:

Then we moved over to our stockings:

I love how the kids still get excited about toothbrushes:

Brooklyn pulled out a new sippy cup and immediately tried to take a drink out of it:

Conner showing off his new toothbrush:

Brooklyn checking out some chocolate.  Once she figured out that it was chocolate inside those wrappers she ate all of her treats that morning and then she started taking the chocolates out of anyone else's stocking that she could get her hands on:

Micah was so excited about his knights that they had to go with him everywhere:

After that we had some breakfast and then we went to open up our other presents under the tree.

Alan was so excited to get this Where's Waldo book:

Brooklyn was pretty good about opening her own presents this year - she didn't need any help:

New clothes!  I love how she loves new clothes.  After she opened these she walked around hugging them for a while and then she wanted to put them on:

Conner was really excited to get his Where's Waldo book too:

Alan has been asking for a remote control truck for a while and he finally got one:

Micah also got one:

And so did Conner:

All three of them with their remote control cars:

The kids drew names for each other.  Micah got Conner this science set.  Conner was really confused when he first opened it - he didn't know what it was supposed to be:

But after we explained it to him he was really excited:

I think Micah is tired of unwrapping presents, he is ready to start opening them so he can play:

Looks like Alan knew what Micah would like - a Monster truck:

Conner got Brooklyn this little hedgehog:

Alan got a new game from Brooklyn but I didn't get any pictures.
Brooklyn ALWAYS unzips her pajamas down to her waist:

Brooklyn gets really excited about new clothes.  The older boys, well, not so much.  Here is Conner's reaction to his new jeans:

Alan, Conner and Micah trying out their remote control cars:

Alan and Conner searching for gems in part of Conner's science kit:

It was a nice, relaxing day.  It was so fun to see the kids' anticipation and how excited they got about their presents.  Reed and I didn't get much for Christmas this year since most of our spending money went to our big trip to Mexico (posts about that coming soon).

Getting ready for Christmas

We went and got a live Christmas tree and I think it was the smallest tree that we have had since we started buying trees.  But that was okay because the kids could decorate almost the whole thing.

Alan putting on an ornament:

Conner helping:

Brooklyn had fun putting one or two ornaments on and then she kept herself busy by taking the ornaments off that were within her reach:

We decorated gingerbread houses - apparently I only took a picture of Conner's house:

Before the Christmas break I stocked up on activities from the dollar store.  I found this long roll of pictures of things that go for the kids to color:

I should mention that we were sick ALOT in December.  I missed the last 3 weeks of church because either I was sick or the kids were sick.  We got the stomach flu, chest colds, and random fevers.  And we never all got sick at the same time, oh no, one child would get sick and then just as they were getting better another one would get sick.  It went on like that for weeks.  We actually missed our ward Christmas party because most of the kids were sick. 

Micah relaxing on the couch while he had the stomach flu:

To make matters worse our sewer backed up the week before Christmas.  I called a plumber and they came and cleaned out our pipes.  I guess we had tree roots growing into our pipes.  I always forget how much water we use until I can't put any water down the drains, or flush the toilet. 

Luckily on Christmas Eve everyone started to feel better.  We invited both sets of missionaries from our ward to come and spend some time with us on Christmas Eve.  In the afternoon the sister missionaries came over and we made gingerbread cookies and decorated them.  In the evening the Elders came over.  We brought out all of our Legos and build the Nativity out of Legos.  We assigned one of our boys to each missionary (there were 3 of them) and they worked as a team.  It was a lot of fun:

Our finished product:  It was kind of funny looking and it included a flying manger but it was sure fun to build:

That night we left some cookies and milk out for Santa and some carrots for his reindeer:

It was a fun day and the kids went to bed really good.

First half of December

Some random pictures from the first half of December:

Conner came home from school really excited to show me this huge grapefruit.  Also his hair looks so crazy after wearing his snow hat:

At the beginning of December we had a few days of FRIGID temperatures.  Some of the days the high was -24 degrees F.  Some of the mornings we woke up to -33 degrees and with the wind chill it felt like -44 degrees.  The kids still had school but they didn't go outside for recess.  Alan is my boy who loves to be outside, no matter the weather.  So while he was waiting for his ride to take him to school at 8 am he asked to wait outside (it was -25 F).  I said "I guess" as long as he had all his cold weather gear on.  When I looked out the window to check on him this is what I see, him riding his scooter.  He seems to not notice the cold:

Unfortunately our van did notice the cold.  The pump for the power steering fluid broke on the coldest day of the cold snap so we had to get by without the van for a few days while it got fixed.

After it warmed up a friend invited Reed and the boys to go sledding with him and his kids.  The snow was too soft and sticky to do much sledding but it was perfect for building things in the snow.

Below are Alan and Hiram - it looks like they are riding a snow mobile made out of snow:

Alan, Micah, Hiram and Conner standing next to the snow men:

A random picture of Brooklyn - she loves to get dressed up and she had fun wearing that back pack for a day:

Conner had his Christmas program - he is right in the middle wearing a striped shirt and looking at the camera.  His grade sang 5 or 6 songs.  His favorite was "Jingle Bells".

Alan's program was just a half an hour after Conner's program.  Alan is wearing the green and black shirt.  His favorite song was "Hip Hop Reindeer":