New Years Eve

On the to do list for when we got back home...build Preston's Lego Fire station. Kyle helped him with the big parts and Preston built the vehicles. He was so excited to have it finally built. Legos are so cool. There are doors on it that roll up like a garage door...genius!

After we got back and started opening up presents, we were overwhelmed with boxes and stuff. Stuff everywhere!  We are busting out of our house as it is so we were wondering how we'd find a place for everything. It took a couple days to sort through everything and take down the Christmas tree and decorations and lights and get the house back to normal. That's kind of the bad part of Christmas...dealing with the aftermath and making room for new things. The fun part for me is shopping for the gifts and giving them. We also had to make a few returns so we did that on New Years Eve. Kyle took off a few days so he had a little over a week off between Christmas and New Years. He enjoyed the time off and he deserved it. New Years Eve was laid back. We got Thai food takeout and all the kids were in bed by 8pm. Kate was going to stay up until midnight, but was not feeling well (come to find out she had Strep Throat). Kyle was watching a movie and I was reading a book. We watched the countdown and then went to bed. Pretty exciting! We have big hopes and dreams for 2014 so hopefully they come true!

Second Christmas

On Thursday, we played basketball up at the High School with most of the adults. My Mom, Jeni and Aubree were nice and stayed home to watch the kids. We played for an hour and that was long enough. Man a college size basketball court is big! :) It was a lot of fun though. After lunch, my Dad, Jeff, Sadie, Kevin, Marci, Derek, Kyle and I took most of the kids and went on a hike up on the mountain through the sagebrush and up to a rock cave. It was a beautiful sunny day so it was nice to get some fresh air. Then the boys went on a motorcycle ride later that day. It was a busy day!

Jeff and Sadie packed up and left after breakfast. Jeni and Kevin took their kids to go visit Gma and Gpa Sabin in Ellensburg. Then Marci, Sara, my Dad, Kyle and I played the Farming Game in the morning for a couple hours. We have played that game for years. Fruit is always the best yet my Dad always sticks up for hay. haha. It's because that's what he mainly farms in real life. :) My Dad took Sara and Zane to meet Derek in George to go back home. Jeni and Kevin had dropped off their kids after lunch for my parents to watch them so they could go celebrate their wedding anniversary. Friday night was the big bowl game of University of Washington vs BYU. My Dad and Kyle were rooting for UW and Marci was rooting for BYU. haha. It was a good time and UW ended up winning. 

We celebrated Christmas with Dee Ann, Melanie and her kids on Saturday afternoon in Tri-Cities. We ate lunch with them, exchanged gifts and played more games.

Pictures with Gma Dee Ann

Kyle went outside with some of the boys to see their new Christmas presents and Lindsey was testing out her new scooter from Gma Dee Ann (or tooter as she calls it). 

Chelsea got a play castle from Gma Dee Ann and Lindsey was checking it out. 

While the kids were playing games Melanie got this picture of Reed and Preston sharing a chair and playing together. Adorable picture. 

We went and visited Arlene at the hospital in the rehab area. She had fallen and cracked a rib and her pelvis so she had been in the hospital for a bit. Then Dee Ann watched our kids and fed them dinner while we met up with my parents, Marci and Jeni & Kevin at Texas Roadhouse for dinner. That place is so good. Love their rolls. 

On Sunday, we went to Church in Mattawa and we were the only one's still at my parent's. Everyone else was gone by then. Marci had left in the morning to get home in time for her Church. We ate a yummy Pot Roast dinner after Church and then relaxed. After naps, we packed up and left. We stopped in Ellensburg to see my grandparents and my Uncle Larry and his family were all there. That was fun to see them especially since his son, Brook, had just gotten married right before Christmas so we were able to meet his wife, Amy, and see everyone. We got home around 8pm and since the kids slept some in the car we let them stay up for a little bit and play with their toys from Christmas morning that they had to leave behind. They were excited to see everything again. The house was still a mess from Christmas morning with all the presents, stocking stuff and boxes. So we cleaned things up a bit and then put the kids down. What a fun Christmas week we had though. A lot of driving and being in the car for the kids, but they did really good (probably because they are used to it). We are thankful for all our blessings, for the good times we had with family and all the nice gifts we were given!

Merry Christmas 2013!

Christmas Eve!

Kyle had to work until noon on Christmas Eve. I was packing bags and cleaning up so the house would be clean when we got back after Christmas. Then in the afternoon, after Chelsea woke up from her nap, we opened our Christmas Eve gift. It was pajamas, treats, games and Sound of Music DVD. We played the games together. The games we got were Operation and Sequence for Kids.

We had a Christmas Eve dinner by candlelight (the kids like to do this) and they were excited to drink out of fancy glasses. We usually do french dips, but the kids don't really like them so we did an Olive Garden meal- alfredo and noddles with olive garden salad and breadsticks. I don't think they ate that very good either! 

The kids in their new pajamas from Gma Dee Ann. We put out sugar cookies, milk and carrots for Santa and his reindeer. They picked out their spot on the couch to put their stocking and then off to bed they went.

Merry Christmas!!!

Kate came in to wake us up at 7am. We got everyone up and went downstairs together to see what Santa brought. They were all excited for their gifts. Kyle and I were excited to see their reactions.

Chelsea got a new baby with a new stroller, high chair and crib.

Kate got a DSi and she was very excited.

Preston got a Lego Firestation and he was so happy since that is all he's been asking for.

Lindsey loved her Doc McStuffins doll, medical kit and outfit. Oh and the umbrella was a hit too. We had to hide it after a while so eyes didn't get poked out.

We ate breakfast, opened presents under the tree then got dressed and loaded up the car. We left by 10am. We had to be to our parent's house before 1pm for when Jared was calling. We got there around 12:30 and ate appetizers for our lunch. We had our big Christmas dinner that night. 

The view going over Snoqualmie Pass on Christmas morning. The view was so pretty. It made it seem more Christmasy seeing snow. The roads were good and the traffic was great so it made the drive faster. 

Jared!!! I love how everyone hovered around the TV when he called.

He was wearing this vest that said, "I love my Mom". Awwww! My Mom was on cloud nine talking to him. She loved it.

He was going to call around 11am, but moved it back to 1pm so we'd be there. I'm so glad he did that. He was SOOO happy and excited to talk to us. It was good. He thought the kids looked so different and grown up. Other missionaries were in and out of the room when we were talking to him so we were introduced to some of them. The sister missionaries wanted to eat the cheeks of Zane and Baylor b/c they were so chubby. haha. Jared is doing well and zone leader right now. He already is past the half-way mark and we are excited to have him come home next year. :)

We opened up gifts after talking to Jared. It took us about 2 hours to do this and it was so fun. We do it one by one so everyone sees what everyone got. We like it orderly like that. :)

The aftermath!

Getting pictures of the grand kids all together is quite the chore! Getting them to look at the same time and smile is craziness. Zane and Baylor in front weren't having it. They were done. Chelsea didn't have shoes on so her feet were freezing and you can see Preston taking off Hailey's hat in the first picture and her hair is full of static. My Mom gave them all stocking hats to match. Funny memories.

Nativity

We tried acting out the nativity while Kyle read the story from the scriptures. It didn't last too long without the Angel aka Chelsea coming in and stealing baby Jesus. 

We also watched the Joy to the World video the Church made, which is the nativity story of Jesus' birth. We are grateful for His birth, life, death and promises he makes to us so we can return to live with Him again if we follow His commandments. December has been fun as we've been able to do activities as a family and to remember why we celebrate Christmas. We are excited for Christmas and excited to spend it with family. We get to talk to Jared on Christmas since he is in Brazil on a mission and we are excited for that too. We have been blessed this year as a family and are grateful for all that we've been given. 

Children's Museum

For one of the 25 days of Christmas activities we went to the Children's Museum. It was on their free night they have. It was so much fun. The kids loved it. It was the day it all snowed, but by the nighttime it was mostly melted, but I think the weather and/or the Christmas busyness time kept people away because it wasn't busy at all. It was great. We even got to go on a transit bus ride for free (the kids were excited to ride a real bus) and a man played/sang Christmas songs with his guitar on our ride. They had carpet skating downstairs in a dark room with a disco ball and Christmas music playing. You were these carpet skates over your shoes to slide over the floor easily.

Driving a tractor

Preston loves the train table.

Lindsey's ready for take-off! 

Queen of the castle

Waving from the library

Row, row, row your boat...

Kate's reading Little House in the Big Woods books so she said this is Laura Ingall's house.

Preston built an even bigger cabin.

Snow Party

We got snow!!! Yay! The kids were so excited to go play in it. Preston was hesitant at first, "Can I just look at it?" he asked. haha. Once he got dressed up and went outside he loved it. It was fun to all be out there together giving them rides on the sled. Chelsea's gloves fell off after a while of being out and her hands were freezing so her, Lindsey, Preston and I all came inside while Kate played outside longer with her friends. We got snow on Friday, the last day of school before winter break, and so school was cancelled. It was just a half day anyway. They usually cancel school here with any type of snow probably because they don't have the equipment to remove it and the drivers here aren't familiar with it so it's a bad combination. It started raining later that evening so it turned into slush. It was fun to have while it lasted.

All these blow up toys and decorations are in front of a couple apartments near where we live and drive by. It makes us laugh because how many more can they fit in?!

Kate's friend Alyssa came over for a playdate and we invited the neighbor girls over to decorate Christmas sugar cookies. They had fun.

We were invited to an Ugly (homemade) Christmas Sweater and White Elephant Gift party last weekend. It turned out to be fun and Kyle even won the trophy for best sweater! It was a stocking that played a song from the Grinch movie and we printed off a picture of the Grinch to put inside the stocking. I got my sweater from Goodwill and was going to add stuff to it, but ran out of time. We almost didn't even wear sweaters because it was stressing me out trying to figure out what to do or make. But I went out the morning of looking at Goodwill again and found the stocking so I went with it. I put some ornament balls in my ears to be festive. haha. We are thankful for good friends we have made since living here and for the fun parties and activities we do with one another. 

5th Position and Jump Shot

Kate started ballet this year in September at a different studio. She is in the same class again as her friend Alyssa. We had stopped ballet in Feb/March of this year because of lack of students at the other studio. So far this new studio has been better. The teacher is more strict so Kate misses the other teacher. ha. But overall, she likes it still. They had a winter recital this year, but it was on a Sunday so Kate didn't participate. We've been having to tell a few people about what we do and don't do on the Sabbath Day...like no birthday parties for friends or no shopping or no going to events. We keep it as a family and Church day. Since we didn't go to the recital the owners let us parents come in and watch them perform it in class last week. It was good to see Kate dance with the other girls. I have no idea about ballet technique so I think she did good. haha! She has her final recital performance in June and thank goodness it's on a Saturday.

Kate is also doing basketball this winter. It's been crazier than her basketball schedule last year because it's 2 practices a week and games either on Friday night or Saturday. We are doing it through the Boys and Girls Club since it was longer playing season and cheaper than the YMCA. But now with overlapping ballet, basketball and activity days for Church it makes for crazy Tuesdays and Wednesdays. I'm glad it's temporary because I'm going nuts on those two nights. Kate likes basketball, but the first game they had was hard. It was hard for me to watch too! I love playing basketball and I know the rules so it's different watching her do basketball versus ballet. The other team they played was amazing (all the teams she plays are 3rd/4th grade girls) and the coaches were intense. Our team looked so ill prepared and most of the girls had no clue what to do, like they didn't know the basic rules of basketball. It was painful. I was in a bad mood watching it so I had to call my parents to calm me down and ask how they watched our sport teams when we would lose all the time. ha! I need to lower my expectations and realize these girls are only in 3rd/4th grades. And I want Kate to have fun doing it.