February Leeds trip

 So Grandma and Grandpa bought a little place down in Leeds, Ut so in February we took the kids down to see it.  John and I have been there to work but this time was just for fun.  And it was so so so fun.

 We checked out snow canyon

 

 

 

 Lava tubes

 And the sand dunes

 We also hiked around the Red Cliffs.

 We also just hung out at the cabin.  This place is so amazing.

 Going on family adventures is hard and exhausting and stressful but it is such a special thing to be able to do.  These are memories I hope these kids will hold onto forever.  I know I will.  We also stopped at Cove Fort on the way home.  Very cool!

Christmas 2014

 This may have been the best Christmas yet for us.  The weather was amazing and the kids are getting more and more fun.  On Christmas Eve we went for a walk down by the Spanish Fork river with Astro the pony.  We even got to play with the brand new calf of Grandpa's.

 Then we all came home and got into our new Christmas jams.  We had dinner over at my mom and dads and exchanged our gifts to each other and we got home and had all the kids asleep b 8.  That's the easiest bedtime of the year.

 The kids got up at about 6 to open presents.

 They were all pretty pleased with how everything worked out.

 Santa always brings individual size cereal for everyone in their stockings but around 10:30 or so I usually make a big breakfast.

 Then there is food out for the rest of the day.

On Christmas Day it snowed all.day.long.  Such a fun surprise! We played in the snow every day the rest of the kids break from school.  It was really a magical Christmas.

December

The first couple of weeks in December was so crazy warm this year.  It made getting into Christmas a little weird for me but I'm not complaining because it was so fun to be able to spend our mornings at the park or on walks or just playing in our yard.

We still tried to do all the Christmas stuff though.  Like writing our letters to Santa. 
We never did get to the Riverwoods mall to send them off but I think they found their way somehow.

Of course most of the kids need help writing their letters but Ivy wrote her own name on her letter.  We didn't even know she knew how to do that!!  Also, Jack was being really secretive with his letter.  Making sure no one could see what he was writing and sealing it up in a hurry.  I was really curious because I figured he was asking for something extravagant so after he went to bed I really carefully opened it and read it.  He had written that for Christmas he wants: "for no one to fight and to have an amazing Christmas".  That's pretty adorable.

Also, this was the Christmas of gingerbread cookies.  I swear we made these at least once a week. 
I stumbled across the most incredible, perfect gingerbread recipe.  We love them!!

We had our traditional Bethlehem dinner. 

I think this may be one of the kids most favorite Christmas traditions.  They love putting all the costumes on (except Charlie who insisted the entire night that Darth Vader was most definitely at the stable that night).  We ate roasted chicken and naan bread and dried fruit and olives.  With Martinelli's to drink of course.  Afterwards we watched the nativity movie we made when Charlie was a baby.  We've got to make another one of those one of these years.

We made our gingerbread house.

And our neighbor gifts.

Johns mom organized a family service day where we all gathered supplies for hygiene kits and Christmas presents for a local shelter.  That was a cool day.

Then of course we went to the Ward Christmas Party.  That was a fun night, for some of the kids.  Wren and Lottie had both caught a little bug and where pretty miserable that night.

Jack is struggling a bit with Santa this year.  Asking lots of questions and trying to figure him out.  This may be the last year he wants to sit on the mans lap...we'll see.

We read The Polar Express one afternoon with some hot chocolate and then got our train out.  This train has been going strong for 10 years now.

Then we had the Knowlton Talent Show.  This thing just keeps getting better.  It's so fun to see all the crazy stuff everyone come up with.

This was a karate lesson about how to get out of chores and bedtime by using karate moves on your dad.

Bronte and Savanah lip synced a song about being sisters.

Mom and Dad sang silent nigh with Dad strumming the chords on his guitar app.

We even skyped in Alie's family and projected them on the ceiling above the stage.  It was pretty cool.

We had planned to sing a Christmas song but by this point Jack, Charlie and I had caught whatever Lottie and Wren had.  So we just recited a poem we had memorized.  (not sure what I'm doing with my hands here).

By the Sunday before Christmas 6 of us were sick.  Only John escaped whatever we had.  John and I desperately wanted to stay home from church but we had to sub for a Primary class and John had to teach his Elders Quorum class.  Plus the girls had these cute matching dresses to wear.  I like looking at this picture though because we all look so tired and puffy.  Especially me.