Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

On Christmas Eve we spent some time wrapping gifts and then we went out to The Village to see Santa and meet up with Grandma and Grandpa to watch a movie and have dinner.  The line was pretty long and we had tickets to see Sing, so we decided that we would see him after the movie. When we got out, Santa had already left but we did run into The Grinch which to our kids is almost as good as Santa.  We then went to dinner at the Twig. We wanted to do a Random Act of Kindness like someone did to us last year on Christmas Eve so we checked out tables around us and asked our waitress to help us.  It was so fun!  After dinner, we went to visit  Sarah's refugee family and brought them some gifts.  We came home and the kids opened their traditional Christmas Eve present of pajamas, read the story of Christ's birth and put cookies out for Santa.

Nonnie gave the kids a pizza box with "dough" inside. They all loved thinking of about 50 ways to spend their "dough"!!

Aunt Katie and Uncle Rob gave all of the kids Colorado hats and so we sent them a "Thank you" picture!

Nathan got new Hunter rain boots for Christmas and this is Sarah and Andrew trying to help him take them off.  

Our fabulous sister missionaries came over for lunch and to be able to call their families.  We played a few games with them and loved having them.

We had a very memorable Christmas!!

November

At the beginning of November we had our family pictures taken for our Christmas card. Sarah's friend Brooklyn took our pictures and I was pretty happy with how they turned out. We took them in a field on Pierce Park road near our home. It always feels good to have the Christmas card photo done before the busyness of the season!!







We decided we needed a change in our home, so we put in a couple of windows, put up a brick wall and added some shiplap to our family room and entry. Everyone helped with cutting the hundreds of bricks, gluing them to the wall, getting the shiplap sanded and prepped to paint, painting shiplap and moving everything so we could get new carpet. It was a lot of work but we love the finished look!!

One evening Levi and mom went to a Harry Potter party at the library. Levi loved being able to wear his robe, cast spells and hang out with other wizards.

We went to Bend for Thanksgiving. We went on a hike along the Deschutes river, shopped Black Friday sales and hung out with family. It was a wonderful week of fun, relaxation and yummy food!







We went out to pizza one night. This is a picture I took from our car following Sophie driving hers with our boys in the backseat. So silly!

TEN

Benjamin hit the double digits this year as he turned 10! He got an iPod Nano, Splatoon Wii game, a ton of Infinity guys and money from grandparents, Nonnie and cousins. He asked for pancakes with buttermilk syrup and sausage for breakfast. Since his birthday was on a Sunday, it was a pretty relaxed and quiet day. He asked for soup for dinner and we were lucky enough to have the sister missionaries over. Benjamin requested a donut cake with cookie dough ice cream for dessert.









Ten terrific things about Benjamin...

...he loves electronics!!

...he has a kind soul!

...he talks all the time but we found out that he doesn't at school, so that's good!

...he loves listening to music!

...he is a hard worker! He always gets his Saturday chores done first.

...he LOVES any type of soup!

...he is a talented piano player!

...he is a great basketball and flag football player!

...he is SUPER tall!!

...he is ALWAYS happy!!!


Happy, Happy Birthday, Benjamin! We're so grateful you're a part of our family!

October

The first of October had our family in Utah attending General Conference. We were fortunate enough to get tickets for Saturday morning for Nathan, Sarah, Benjamin (his first time) and me. Nathan, Andrew and Spencer were able to go to the Priesthood session.







We stayed with our fabulous friends, the Burkets. We loved spending the day catching up and playing with their children!!





Sarah was DYING to go the grand opening of one of her favorite online stores, Piper and Scoot. It was especially exciting since they had the Waffle Truck right outside and she's always wanted to try one!







We went to Disneyland and had a MAGICAL time!





We also went to Universal Studios to see the new Harry Potter world! It was equally as MAGICAL!!!





Nathan let the two youngest boys cut his hair.





Our Halloween decorations went up so we could feel the spookiness of the holiday.







Spencer finished up his Tennis season. He learned so much and really improved! Next year, he plans on playing singles as he learned that not all double partners are as serious about the game as he is. So proud of him for trying something new!!





Benjamin finished up his flag football season. Benjamin pulled many flags, caught an interception and made a touchdown!!






We went to our neighborhood Halloween party. It was super fun as always!





The two younger kids didn't have school one Friday, so I took them and some friends to Planet Kid.



We ate yummy soup in pumpkin bread bowls, carved pumpkins, went in the hot tub and frosted sugar cookies at the Ramey's house this year. It's always so fun to get together with the Ramey's for this yearly tradition!





We enjoyed walking down Harrison Blvd. the day before Halloween to see all the fun decorations. Can you believe this house???



Levi and Benjamin had fun school Halloween parties.





It was a beautiful Halloween evening in our neighborhood! Spencer and Benjamin were wizards and Levi was a scary morph suit. The kids loved knocking on neighbors doors, saying three words - Trick or Treat, and then being given candy. Truly a kids dream!









Benjamin went back out again and was very pleased with his big pile!



Sarah, Andrew and their friend, Olivia went to a party dressed as characters from the movie What About Bob. Andrew is Bob, Sarah is Bob's doctor and Olivia is Bob's goldfish.





October, you really were amazing this year! I think this was my favorite Fall in Boise, EVER!!!