Rainforest

The Rainforest was one of the January activities on our Christmas activity calendar.  We got it in just under the wire.  We went Friday afternoon which seems to be the time to go. We saw one other couple in one section.  Other than that, we had the place to ourselves.

As usual, they were way more excited to climb on rocks than they were to see most of the animals.

Ellie found her Christmas present for this year!

Week 3

We're half way through her gymnastics class and she's still loving it!

Game night

We made up an activity calendar for the kids for Christmas.  Each month we planned out 3 activities to do as a family.  Some are pretty basic like going swimming or a movie night.  Some are a little more "exotic" like going to a baseball game or rock climbing at the light house.  Between Bible study, Royal Rangers, errands and every day things, we spend a lot of time with 1 person out trying to get everything done or we're split 3 and 3.  This ensures we'll slow down at least 3 times a month to enjoy doing something we all like and enjoy doing it together.

Friday night we crossed off one of the activities on our January list of pizza and game night.  Corrie came over and we made some home made pizza.  We had an exciting game of Headbands, Hi Ho Cheerio, Sorry and Trouble.

The kids did a great job of taking turns and suggesting games everyone liked to play.  I think everyone had a great time!

Presents

Ellie got some money for Christmas and her birthday from Momo and Papa, Gram and Pap.  She finally got to spend most of it today.  She picked out a Sophia the First vanity and a puppy stuffed animal.  The vanity was one of the first things she saw and she didn't forget about it the whole time we were in the store, which was a really, really long time! So far she is very happy with her purchase and I am very happy that daddy neglected to tell her that the vanity actually talks!

Gymnastics, week 2

Wordless Wednesday: Silly

Date night

One of our Christmas presents from Gram was a date day/night.  We left the house for almost 10 full hours...with no kids!  We had lunch and dinner out, did some shopping, went to the lake (and froze) and ended the night by seeing Elf the musical.  I can't remember the last time we were away from the kids for that long.  It was awesome!  Thanks for babysitting and the tickets Gram!

Gymnastics

Ellie has been asking to take a gymnastics class for a couple months.  I've been hesitant because when we signed her up for a class after we moved it didn't go well. My parents got her a session for her birthday and we went for it. This one started slow.  We had a lot of folded arms and the teacher had to hold her hand and walk her around for a while.  Half way through it seemed to click and she went for it.  She tried everything her teachers asked her to do and she had a blast.  She's been talking non stop about the class and she's counting down the days until we go back next week.   

Jump Yard

Ellie also wanted to go to the Jump Yard for her birthday.  Here are some of the highlights:

Cake

We ended Ellies birthday with the dinner of her choice, steak and asparagus and cake.  Aunt Corrie decorated a Lambie cake from Doc McStuffins.  It turned out adorable.

One of Ellies presents was a Doc nightgown thats just a tiny bit too big!

Happy birthday baby girl!

Happy New Year!

We ended 2015 by celebrating Ellies birthday.  We bundled up for a morning at the zoo.  

The kids showed off the hats and scarves aunt Corrie made for Christmas.

We all picked an animal we wanted to see, but the highlight was the tram.  Its the little things!

It was cold, but I think everyone had a good time.

5

Our fabulously, feisty Ellie is 5 today.  Shes the sweetest thing you've ever seen, until shes not.  She takes feisty to a whole new level!  She loves to dish it out, but needs to work on taking it.  Ellie still loves anything Frozen and Doc McStuffins has become a new favorite.  She eats anything and everything especially if dad likes it. Its even better if we're eating out.  She loves Charlie and sometimes treats him like her baby. She still loves everything girly.  Pink, purple, sparkly and twirly are her favorite words.  Ellie loves to dance around the house, climb on every piece of furniture and scale the windows in her room.  Ellie loves to be the baby when Gram is around, but has a fit when anyone implies she isn't a big girl.  She loves to "play" Minecraft with the boys even though we're convinced she doesn't have a clue as to what shes doing.  She loves to cuddle and be tickled and she has the best laugh.  She keeps us on our toes, but we wouldn't have it any other way.

Merry Christmas

We had a great Christmas!  Gram, aunt Corrie and a "Christmas orphan" friend came over on Christmas Eve. We watched A Christmas Story with the kids, took some pictures and read The Night Before Christmas.

The kids loved the Christmas pj's and looked pretty darn cute in them.

They did a decent job of calming down and going to sleep while the adults broke out our traditional Christmas Eve dinner of snacks and watched White Christmas.  That movie never gets old.

The kids woke up Christmas morning to a tree full of presents.  Everyone got some great stuff.  I can't wait to get a picture of the kids in their new hats and scarfs. However, Corrie got the best gift of all, the Purdum eagle. I'm sure it will enjoy a long life in her condo!  Love you Corrie!

We had our traditional Christmas breakfast of a little of everything.  We spent the rest of the day in pj's, relaxing and enjoying each other.  It doesn't get much better!

Green

Gram brought some hair dye for the kids and we decided the week of Christmas is the perfect time to have green hair.

Ellie only wanted 1 picture so you can't see her hair well, but the boys were all about showing off the green.

Cuddlebugs

Even when they're zoned out with the kindle, they still love to cuddle!

Nutcracker

The three oldest and I went to see the Nutcracker last Friday.  They really liked the first half, but got pretty bored with the second half.  Ben and Sam managed to make 2 friends and are coordinating a play date so I guess it was a win!

2 out of 3

The kids sang some songs for us at church yesterday.  This was the first year Ben got to be a spectator and not a performer.  Sam went in the back row so we didn't get a great view of him, but Zach was front and center and all smiles.

Ellie started crying and pouting the minute the kids walked on stage.  She hid in the back row with her pouty face and her arms crossed the entire time.  She's awesome!

Cookie Day

We had our annual cookie day on Saturday.  We made sugar and chocolate chip cookies as well as oreo truffles, buttons and Jon made us some chex for a snack.  

Jon got his traditional "dirty snowman."

All the kids got to help roll the dough, cut out cookie shapes, frost some of the cookies and taste test, of course!

Santa

I think this is the first year we have 4 smiling kids with Santa and no dad!

Snap circuits

I love watching the kids get a small taste of science.

Wordless Wednesday: Divas

Reindeer Run 2016

Corrie and I did the annual Reindeer Run at Lakewood Park this weekend.  The kids also participated in the Dasher Dash.  They chased a reindeer around half the park.  Ellie was excited until she saw the reindeer and couldn't be convinced it was just someone playing dress up.  She cried the whole time. The boys took off and had a blast.  It was really cold, but the hot chocolate afterward made it all ok!

Natural History Museum

Jon had a day off yesterday so we headed to the Natural History Museum.  Its been a while since we've been there and the kids had a lot of fun.

It only took a tic tac to get them both to smile!

Ben was very excited to fill out his map book.  He had to find and name a few items in each section of the museum.

"The digging part" was the highlight of the trip.  They loved finding fossils.  Sam told us he now wants to be a paleontologist then he grows up!

Play dates with dad on a Friday are the best!

We went to see the Wizard

Corrie was able to get some free tickets to The Wizard of Oz and invited the boys and I to go with her.  They've never seen the movie, only a Veggie Tales version so they weren't sure what to expect.

I think Sam was a little scared of the wicked witch and monkeys, but he was a trooper.

Ben said his favorite part was Toto!

We had saw the lights, checked out Corries office and had a great night.  Thanks Corrie!