A couple extra Goodies

Just a couple little snippets here!  

Carson decided to cut his hair.  It is very suave, though he'll need to put gel in it.  Otherwise it looks something like a toupee!   He seems to love it though.  Dillon is in the process of growing his hair out.  It suits him and he looks kind of like a surfer boy.  I'm excited to see what happens in the summer when his hair starts to highlight in the sunshine.  I love that they both have such unique tastes!

We had more snow in early February!  Of course they had a blast.  Snow ball fights, snow men and a sledding "hill"!  The can't seem to get enough.  Neither can I.

We were able to meet up with Aunt Ayana and Clara for lunch one day.  Carson and Dillon lost interest after they realized she wouldn't climb up and explore the tunnels with them but Kayda loved taking care of Clara.  She followed Clara everywhere and helped her play.  By the end Kayda was worn out!

Dillon Turns Nine!

Dillon turned nine this year!  This boy just keeps getting better.  He is such a sweet kid, he is so selfless and loving.  He cares about everyone and wants to be friends with everyone.  He is incredibly easy going and doesn't take anything personally.  We have to take extra care to make sure sometimes that he puts himself first.  His laugh is one of my favorite sounds in the entire world and it's readily available.  He is full of energy and joy!  I love this boy so much!  It makes my heart ache to know he is growing up (as much as I love watching it); he is only a few years from the teenage years and the separation it will undoubtedly bring.  

 We started out the morning with gifts! All our kids crack me up.  The three of them will shout and jump around every time a gift is opened and it's a box!  One of these days I'll have to wrap one with nothing in it just for kicks.

 We did cupcakes kind of early in the day.  Since we were going out to dinner it makes cupcakes impractical as everyone is too full.

Note the snow... It snowed a decent amount on New Year's and it stuck around for well over a week.  It was all ice chunks by his birthday though. 

We went out to dinner with Grandma and Papa H.  

It took almost another week for the snow to melt so he could play with his new soccer gear.  Of course Kayda and Carson were shooting from really close... Dillon ended up being nailed in the face and his enthusiasm was greatly diminished.  He bounced back later in the day though.  He has recently gotten really interested in sports.  Really any sport, he wants to play them all and he wants to watch them all.  I love watching him play soccer so I'm encouraging that a little more than the others.

Awards for Kayda and Carson

Way back before break there was supposed to be a special awards assembly.  It snowed and school was cancelled.  That turned out to be good since I didn't get the letter about the assembly until the day it was supposed to happen.  They rescheduled and it snowed again with a 2 hour delay so they had to cancel it again.  Well, it finally happened today.  Almost a month later.  Both Kayda and Carson got the same award.  These awards are new and will be given once a trimester to one or two kids from each class.  There were two types of awards.  The first was about setting goals and working really hard to reach them.  The second was about being a leader in the classroom.  Guess which one both Kayda and Carson received?  

They were both award the Compass Award!  Daddy was able to be at the assemblies to watch.  It was two separate assemblies to be able to accommodate parents being there. 

4th and 5th grade

K-3rd grade

New Year's Day

New Year's Eve we let the kids stay up until midnight.  The plan was to watch the Space Needle fireworks but we couldn't find a way to watch it with the music and everything since we don't have (or want) cable.  We are lucky enough that we live in a community that LOVES fireworks so we were able to just go to the windows upstairs and watch those.  The kids thoroughly enjoyed staying up that late!  When we woke up on New Year's Day we had SNOW!  We have had 3 separate days with snow so far and it is pretty rare for us to get any at all.  It was a special treat!  As soon as they had someone else willing to go out Kayda and Carson headed out.  It was perfect snow for snowmen and snowballs!  They built a snowman with Daddy (which Carson destroyed soon after), attempted to sled down the neighbors driveway (which is short and not very steep) and had a mini snowball fight with Daddy.  Dillon wasn't very interested in the snow.  After two nights of less sleep than normal he really just wanted to rest. 

Eventually I went out back to play with them.  Carson and I made a huge snowman.  The bottom got so big I had to ask Daddy to help me roll it.  Then we had to work together to lift the middle on.

Of course, shortly after we made that Carson was destroying it too.  They couldn't get the bottom to do anything and we've pretty much been below freezing since.  Since the snow hasn't melted they'll periodically go outside and take a shove to the lowest portion to try to break it apart. We still (4 days later) have snow on the ground which is odd for this area but I'm enjoying it!  Even if it's all just ice at this point.  The kids are back in school and back to the regular routine.  They seem much more content again.

Christmas Eve and Christmas

Our Christmas really started Christmas Eve this year.  In the morning Auntie Kina came over for cinnamon rolls and our gift exchange with her.  Somehow I managed not to get any pictures but they had a great time with her.  They are always so excited to see her and can hardly stand to give her time to breathe.  I got to spend the early afternoon with her before she had to leave and we were getting ready to head up to Grandma and Papa H's.  Christmas Eve is our standard dinner with Daddy's family.  The kids had a great time playing with cousins and we stayed as long as we could before it was time to head home and get to bed.  

We've started letting them open one present from us on Christmas Eve.  This year they all got new robes.  I was debating whether or not to do it because I didn't feel like they used them much before but so far they are spending a TON of time in them. Besides, it gives them something quick to put on and stay warm for Christmas morning!

This is a big hug from Carson saying thank you.  He has taken to jumping onto Kayda or Dillon when he is hugging them and they all think it's hilarious.  It always ends in more hugs and a lot of giggles. 

 Hu

We managed to slow the opening down quite a bit this year.  They started the morning with their Santa gifts and doing a video chat with Grandma and Papa G.  It is really neat that they can be in South Dakota and see the kids open their gifts in real time (and vise versa).  Then we paused and played with those gifts for a while.  Kayda and Dillon both got legos, Kayda had all of hers done by the end of the day.  Dillon had his done by the following day.  Fortunately they don't build them and forget about them.  They put them on display in their rooms and play with them as toys as well. 

In the afternoon Grandma and Papa H came to visit.  We made the decision to stay home for Christmas instead of going to their house with everyone else.  It was an incredibly relaxing Christmas and it was so nice for them to come to us.  We got to visit and exchange gifts before they headed home to unwind from the chaos.  I remembered to take a picture this time!

We are so blessed to have so much love and support for our family.  The kids have no doubt that they are loved!  We are fortunate enough to be able to spoil them for Christmas and birthdays.  Watching them open presents is always so much fun.  Even just looking through the pictures for the blog makes me want to do it all again.  Merry Christmas!

Warming up for Christmas!

Around here we're fortunate enough to get time off school before Christmas.  This year was different than previous years in that the kids were BORED and didn't want to go do anything.  Carson especially seemed like he just wanted to go back to school.  To try to help them we did a handful of crafts. 

They LOVED making their snowflakes but we ended up needing hot glue instead of standard glue so they couldn't do it as independently as we'd have liked.  Kayda's is the top right, Carson's is left and Dillon's is the bottom.  

We decided to try making cinnamon ornaments again and it worked out really well! The kids had a great time using the cookie cutter to cut them out and an even better time decorating them!

Carson's favorite was making the no-sew penguins.  He thought they were a blast to play with and I had to keep tracking them down around the house.

Dillon and Kayda took it upon themselves to make a nativity out of legos.  I thought it turned out pretty well!  The sheep are my favorite part!

They also colored nativities, I tried really hard to make sure we talked about Christ more this year and the kids loved talk about him.  Kayda was especially interested and wanted to read about it straight from the Bible. She was the only kiddo who didn't actually finish her nativity.  Her hand got too sore and then we forgot about it.

Of course we HAD to make sugar cookies.  I was very relieved when I brought them to Christmas Eve dinner and they disappeared!  I seemed to be the only one eating them at home!  The kids LOVED cutting and decorating.  Dillon cracked me up because he wanted to be sure there were the same number of gingerbread men as there were gingerbread women so they could all be married.

One night we went to a live nativity story that was put on by a local church.  It wasn't all lined up exactly as I would've thought but it was close enough for the kids.  They got a kick out of it, even if it was REALLY cold out.  They had a market place, King Herod, the angels singing for the shepherds, live animals at the manger and the story was told as you went from one scene to the next.

Last but not least we HAD to do gingerbread houses!  I cheated and used graham crackers and hot glued them together!  Kayda was very meticulous about her house.  Everything needed to make sense and she wanted it to have a very specific look.  Dillon made his into a fun house with a pool and everything.  Then there was Carson.  His favorite candy to use was the gummy bears, he had them sliding off the roof and falling into piles and he gave his house a mohawk.  Pretty soon Dillon and Carson were talking about the traps around their houses and creating elaborate stories about what would happen if people came to visit.  Kayda made it quite clear that she would never go to their houses and  that she didn't think they should have traps.