December Part 2

Benton's school had a really fun Winter Festival that I took the older 2 boys to.  

A local realtor brought this bus and the boys that it was awesome.

 Building ginger bread houses.  I took Ethan to Benton's classroom while I was volunteering earlier that day because Ethan was out of school and Benton wasn't.  Ethan got to help assemble the kits for these houses with the help of a few junior high kids.  He also got to play a fun game of soccer at recess.  I'm hoping to make him a little more comfortable with Paseo Pointe because we want to move him there next year.

 Benton's school starts early, so in December it was dark on our way to school

 Lauren told us about free Minecraft books on Amazon.  We put a bunch on Amazon and Ethan stayed in this position for hours.

 We took our friend Alec to the LegoLand Discovery Center.

 We had to get our big shade tree chopped down because the roots were lifting pavers and our back wall.  It was also close to our pool. Mike had trenched and cut the roots going to the pool a few times, but it was just too destructive.

 We hosted our annual cookie making party.  This is the older group.  The younger group would play in the basement while the older made cookies and then we would switch.

 Everybody eating lunch at the same time.

 Popping all the shipping air bags.

 One of Mike's coworkers sent little gifts home for the boys.  This paper crown was in one of them.  I like this picture of Mike because it looks a lot like the picture I took of Mike in the car when he was driving me to the airport on my way to New Zealand.  I kept that picture on my camera to look at the whole time I was there.

 Christmas Eve hike.

 Grandpa Joe and Grandma Dianne got the boys a trampoline!  We set it up on Christmas Eve.  It took us about 4.5 hours to assemble.  The temperature with windchill was in the 30s, so we did a lot in the garage.  When it was getting too heavy to carry, we took it to the side yard to finish.  I mentioned that "at least it isn't raining" and within a few minutes it started sprinkling (my fault of course).  One of the light bulbs burst because it was an indoor bulb, but it kept working.  I tied a thread to the back of the Christmas tree for the boys to follow around the house and through the yard to the trampoline the next morning.  They were so excited!  Asher, especially, is on it any chance he gets.

 Christmas morning!

We bought Rock Band Wii accessories from a friend.

 And, apparently, we enjoyed the morning too much to take any other pictures.

Nana and Papa got the boys POGO Passes again.  We got an email saying that on January 1st the amusement park would no longer be on the pass, so Mike took the boys on New Year's Eve while I got the house all cleaned up and decorations down.

 Our Christmas card.

 I ran another race with my ComTrans Team.

Three of us got 3rd place in our age groups.

 Ugly sweater party with friends at the Tueller's.

 I planned a Noon Year's Eve party and we had about 7 families come.  We played PE games I got from my friend Steffani.

 We ate pizza and had a bubble machine.

 Then, at (about) noon, we did a count down and balloon drop and drank sparkling cider.

 As the wind picked up, the balloons started blowing across the field.  We had to run fast and far to gather them up.  There were about 140 balloons!

The kids were excited to bring some home.  We jumped on the trampoline with our balloons.  And on New Year's Day we did sparklers and poppers that have been sitting in our kitchen drawer forever.

December Part 1

We got to see the Johnsons at the Grimm's house after church.  It was so fun to see them again!  The boys decorated cookies and went for rides in the ATV type car Jack had.

I couldn't narrow down these pictures anymore.  I am really loving hiking.

 Nana got the boys a Lego Advent Calendar and it was the highlight of their morning.

 Per tradition, after Benton's first report card he got to go open a college savings account (with money for his A's) and visit ASU.  It was hard to find a time for Mike and I both to take him, so he went with just Mike.

 I flew to NY to watch Lisa's kids while she and Dan went on a trip, so I got to see a little snow.

 I took the kids to pick out candy and then we built gingerbread houses.  They worked really well together and were very focused.  It was a lot of fun.

Left to right: James, Claire, Rosemary, Ruth.

 I love having a few days to play with hair.  I did sock curls.  Rosemary's was curly on one side, but the other side fell out before it got curly.

 Claire's turned out pretty well though.

 We also went glow golfing.

 There was a laser maze that was their favorite part.

 Quick selfie before I left for the airport.  I'm amazed we got such a good picture!

Amazingly, the weather didn't delay my flight, but maintenance issues did.  I stayed the night in North Carolina.  I'm so grateful for having such a strong network to help out with the kids when I need it.  I intentionally work to build a support group since we don't have family support, and it is heart warming when they really pull through.

I tried to get right back to hiking, but it was rainy and Asher had been diagnosed with pneumonia, so I "hiked" at the gym.

 Fall came to AZ!

 Another picture from the Grimm's.

 Benton's first "book report".

 Christmas is coming!  Check out the stack of boxes in the corner as well.

 Ethan loves running club at his school.  This was the awards ceremony at the end of the season.  The kids had a .8 mile race. Asher wanted to do it too and actually ran most of the way.  At about half way through he started complaining about his side.  I asked if he had a stitch in his side, and he started saying, "stitch in my side!" At about .6 miles, he insisted I carry him for a minute.  Then Ethan came back and encouraged him across the finish line.

With all of Asher's bike riding at playgrounds, he took a fast tumble going down a hill.  He smacked his head, popping the cover off his helmet and gave him a bloody lip, but he bounced back quickly (as soon as I showed him the video of his fall).