Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

We had a really nice Christmas Eve. We started out early going to the Mall to visit with Santa and put in any last requests. Levi understood that Santa would be bringing him toys, but he still didn't want to be close to him so this year we all got to be in the picture.

We all went to the movies to see Wreck-it Ralph and really liked it! We were invited over to the Merchant's again for Christmas Eve and had a wonderful dinner. The kids loved acting out the Nativity.

Afterwards, we went home and all of the kids opened one present. This year, they got pajamas for their Christmas Eve present.

Then, we put cookies and milk out for Santa and the kids hurried off to bed.

The kids must have made it on the "Nice" list as they all received an iPad mini and a case from Santa and other fun things in their stockings. They got books from each other. Mom and Dad gave them earphones, games, crafts and toys. It was a very relaxing Christmas day playing with their new electronics, playing games and doing crafts. Grandma and Grandpa came over to see what the kids got and we have a yummy dinner. We later Skyped with Nonnie and family in Oregon.












It was a wonderful Christmas!!

December Festivities

I love the month of December! There are so many fun things to do! We began our month with going to the Capitol for the tree lighting. We had never been and we were really glad we went.

Boy howdy, did we have a lot of band, choir and music programs this month!!
Andrew had a solo in his choir concert at both the school and the Capitol.

Can you see Andrew playing his clarinet?

Sarah's choir concert was really nice.

Benjamin and Spencer has a wonderful Christmas music program.


We had never been to the Nights-A-Glow at the Botanical Gardens and really enjoyed our evening there!

The three youngest boys and mom went to the Merc one afternoon to paint Christmas tree ornaments.

We all helped our dad decorate the barn for one of him MANY work parties. Levi is definitely NOT afraid of heighths.

We went looking at Christmas lights one night.

Weekend in McCall

The first weekend in November we decided to head up to McCall with the Allen family for a long weekend. As always we had a wonderful, relaxing time. We played games, went down to the lake several times, went on walks, made s'mores, ate at the Pancake House, shopped in town, watched a Hockey game, laughed a lot and ate too much!
Here is a beautiful panoramic view of the lake.





We saw fresh bear tracks in the sand.

Benjamin and Spencer got sling shots and had so much fun shooting rocks into the lake.



Rebekah got a little too close to the lake.

Nathan is retrieving Levi's pacifier from the lake. Nice!!


All of our tummies were STUFFED after eating lunch at the Pancake House.

Celebrating TWO birthdays at the Pancake House.

"Hot Dog Bob" was seen often at the cabin. I think she is an absolutely beautiful fox!







Jason decided to take it to a whole new level with feeding Bob. (I'm still trying to get a picture of Jason feeding Hot Dog Bob. He tried it first.) After he did it, everyone had to have a try.


Even Levi tried to be adventurous with feeding Bob.

We had SO much fun that it was exhausting!!

SIX

It was Benjamin's GOLDEN birthday, he turned SIX on the SIXTH of this month! He opened presents and got so many fun things. He got a fuzzy blanket from Nonnie, money from Grandma and Grandpa, a light up Penguin from Spencer, the movie Madagascar 3 from Sarah, Andrew gave him a Mario Galaxy Wii game, Levi gave him Giants to go with the Wii game mom and dad gave him, Skylanders - Giants.




Benjamin got to bring treats to school to share with his classmates.



Benjamin had a friend's party this year. We took five friends to the Zoo and had a GREAT time!!




We sure do love this fun and energetic boy!!!!