Happy New Year!

We are looking forward to a fabulous 2016!  2015 was a little rough on us, but we are moving forward with big plans for an even better 2016!  Happy New Year!

Christmas Travels

 It was an unusually warm Christmas in Illinois this year when we visited, so we snapped a few outdoor pictures of all the grandkids.

 Dallin loved playing inside the giant gift bag his present from Uncle Danny and Aunt Anna came in.  He sat inside the bag during all the gift exchanging.

 Pie Face was a big hit with all our cousins this year.  It was the "It" gift this season which made it very difficult to find in stores, but after two weeks of stalking every nearby store and online sites, I managed to score our family this popular game.  Our kids never tired of playing it at each new place we visited over Christmas break.

Dallin enjoyed the game just enough to be willing to play, but he didn't love getting whipped cream on his face.

Christmas 2015

Merry Christmas!  Christmas was especially meaningful to us this year after our rough Christmas last year.  We loved finding places for all of our Christmas decorations in our new home and putting up our 4 Christmas trees since we didn't have even one Christmas tree up last year with moving.  We had fun with getting matching Christmas Eve pajamas for the first time because we thought we were going to spend Christmas Eve in our own home for the first time ever, but plans changed at the last minute and we had to have Christmas a few days early at our house again this year.  It was still super fun to have matching pajamas, so that's definitely a tradition I plan to continue. 

We opened family gifts on our "Christmas Eve" because Mom has a part time job now and had to work early in the morning of our "Christmas morning."  

 We were excited to get four new family games this year - Reverse Charades and Pie Face being our favorites!  I affectionately labeled all of the family gifts "To the TOADs" which drove the kids crazy for days while they tried to figure out who the TOADs were.  It's my loving abbreviation for my four children - Trenton, Owen, Asheigh, Dallin = TOAD!

 Dallin was so excited to open anything with his name on it.  It didn't matter if he wasn't sure what he was unwrapping, he was excited to get presents!  His best gift turned out to be a musical skipper much to Mom's surprise.  It's our new go-to gift for gift giving!

 Christmas morning we emptied our stockings filled with tons of Santa gifts.  Santa also brought everyone a new calendar and one big gift that was at the top of each of their lists.

 For Dallin it was a wheeled suitcase.  And Santa threw in a special surprise inside - Dallin's very own jean jacket!  He has been wanting one of those for months and now he finally has one.  He had been pretending that a blue button up shirt was a jean jacket and sometimes even tried to wear Ashleigh's jean jacket.  I heat that little boy jean jackets are not easy to find ;)

 Santa came through with Owen's top gift request  - a real microscope!  Owen loves anything related to science, so he was very excited to get this!

 Santa threw everyone for a surprise and must have been feeling extra generous because he brought Ashleigh a brand new blue iPod!  She was over the moon excited about it when she opened it!

 And Trenton scored a fancy Nikon camera from Santa.  He has been wanting one because he enjoys taking scenic, nature pictures while outdoors.  No more poor quality iPhone pictures for him!

 There are a lot of pictures of Dallin because he was so happy and didn't mind smiling for the camera.  Everyone else was so busy checking out their new things that we didn't get enough pictures of everyone!  Stay tuned for more Christmas pictures from our trip to Illinois and Iowa!

Trenton's 16th Birthday!

 Trenton turned 16 at the end of November.  It is hard to believe that many years have passed since his arrival, but he is an amazing young man.  He is very intelligent, intellectual, honest, level headed, thrifty, health conscious, and the most easy going young man we know!  He is a great example to us of optimism, acceptance, and kindness.  2015 was a big year of change for Trenton - he became an Eagle Scout, settled into a brand new high school landing a lead role in his first high school play just months after moving to Nebraska, discovered a passion for cycling, working out, theater, and debate team, earned multiple trophies for his hard work in debate, learned how to balance early morning seminary and school work, got his drivers license and his first car, and blessed the sacrament for the first time (with zero mistakes!)!  We could not be more proud of Trenton!

 Trenton chose dinner at a Japanese steak house for his birthday.  It was an entertaining and fun way to spend his birthday!

Grandma Borders and Aunt Katy joined us for dinner because they were in town for Thanksgiving!  The kids were not sure about the fire antics on the grill.  Dallin preferred to be as far away as possible whenever he suspected any hint of fire.

Fall Pictures

 Grateful for finding a great photographer friend to capture our children's personalities just as fall was ending here in Nebraska.  We were worried about how Dallin's eyes would appear in the pictures because his right eye is being kept dilated at all times right now with eye drops to force his weak eye to work harder, but the pictures look great!

Halloween 2015

 Ashleigh and her best friend made matching Minion costumes.  They coordinated everything down to their capri leggings!  I thought they were adorable!!  These two girls are so cute together.

 The rest of the gang.  They all went trick-or-treating together after getting together for dinner beforehand.  They were all going to wear matching costumes originally, but they couldn't agree on a costume.  Getting six middle school girls to agree on anything is a very difficult thing!

 The little boys.  It was weird not having all the kids together this year for trick-or-treating.  Ashleigh was with her friends in another neighborhood and Trenton was at a Halloween party, so that left just Dallin and Owen.

 Trenton's gladiator costume for his party.  He is almost taller than the door!

 Pumpkin posing :) 

 Counting and sorting their loot.  Owen organized his candy into small baggies labeled by candy type.  Dallin sorted his favorite candy into one large baggie labeled, "Candy."  He left a pile of candy he didn't like on the floor.

Mallory and Justin joined us for the passing out of candy.  Somewhere we got the great idea to launch the three lanterns we had left over from 4th of July despite them now being illegal here.  Luckily, they all launched perfectly!

Halloween Parties

 Dallin's kindergarten class for Halloween.

 The whole school had a costume parade outside for parents.  Here is Dallin waiting for the parade to start.  They took one grade at a time.

This is when he finally spotted me in the crowd.  He couldn't find me at first and was busy looking everywhere for me.

 At the art station during the class party.

 Dallin and his best buddy, Cody, at the school trunk-or-treat a few nights before Halloween.

 Owen's Halloween class party.  I had to help in Dallin's classroom during the party time because they needed more help, but I was grateful I was able to sneak away for a few minutes just in time to get this class photo!

 Owen during the parade.  As soon as he spotted me, he shouted, "You can wear masks, mom!"  and made everyone around me laugh.  He was mad we didn't let him take his mask to school because we thought it was too scary for the little kids.

Third grade silliness.

Pumpkin Carving

 Everyone carved their own pumpkin this year.  We were going to paint a few of them since that is a popular trend this year, but on carving night, everyone decided cutting open their pumpkins was more fun.  Nebraska pumpkins are incredibly thick.  We have never had such thick pumpkins, which meant a lot more cutting!

 Our last day of eye patching before dilation eye drops.

 I love Trenton's tall, skinny pumpkin!

 The missionaries were so happy we had extra pumpkins for them to carve.  They were very detailed in their carvings, but sadly I didn't take an after picture of their pumpkins.

 Dallin and Owen are each sitting next to their pumpkins.  Trenton's is the tall skinny one of the bottom left and Ashleigh's is the Minion on the bottom right.

Owen decided he wanted to rake leaves in our front yard.  We didn't have enough yet for a giant leaf pile, but they had fun jumping in the mini pile.