december in review

calendar quotes:
each family prayer, each episode of family scripture study, and each family home evening is a brushstroke on the canvas of our souls. -Elder Bednar
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we were able to go to the temple with kent's littlest sister, kari for her endowment (all kent's siblings were there-how neat) and then we had dinner at red robins, i had to get a picture because koy always sings the little advertising jingle...red robin-yummm!

then we all got together for a fun family party, we played some minute to win it games...the kids had a blast. here a few are seeing how many m&m's they can suck up and put in another bowl...
then we had a wild and crazy version of pictionary...
and then a silly white elephant gift exchange, here are a few of the fabulous gifts being modeled...
koy was the only one to sit on santa's lap this year, brooke has never been a fan and chooses to just stand by him and kaden informed me he was just to old...
we also got to enjoy the kids cute christmas program-brooke was an elf and so cute with her pointy shoes---the rest of my kids could probably do without a christmas program but brooke absolutely loves it, the whole thing...she sings all the classes songs and tries to learn everyones dances, she never tires of the practices and sings all the songs for us. koy on the other hand was a little disappointed that instead of PE he had to practice for the program, he would much rather play hockey...
we also got together with our pingel cousins and made ginger bread houses again this year---i love seeing the creations they come up with and lets face it...there is just no ruining a ginger bread house, they always turn out cute. kaden even made an outhouse complete with santa and a mysterious brown blob? :)
kelsi had been bugging me for a long time to get together with Aunt Christy and her kids...they love to play outside and i am not the best at that. so of course they didn't disappoint and made an 11 foot snowman, i'm sure it will be standing in july...
kaden had to test drive the ski bike, an invention of our cousin, tyler...
and then of course we had christmas, here's a view before all the kids woke up. it's pretty hard to miss that motorbike right in the middle of the living room but we have the most hilarious video of kaden running right past it to his stocking, not even noticing it...
kent had been working for months on this bike, he got it all cleaned up and running. i'm sure it will get lots of use this spring. here are a few of my favorite christmas morning shots...
i love when i get this kind of reaction (even from a 14 year old)...
and kent had to get his traditional fit everyone and their junk in a picture...
and my best christmas present was kent being home and having fun with us for 2 weeks...love that!
and of course the celebration doesn't stop there for us, we had a party for kelsi that night. she was so excited to get her own snowboard and all the gear that goes with it...
i love christmas time---spending time with family, giving gifts, beautiful music, good food, reflecting on our saviors birth and just the general happy feeling of the season!