2016 in a nutshell (except for NY which deserves its own post)

Boys club

Livi going to a bday party as Rey

Watching a movie with 4H on the red carpet

Alyssa and ballroom

Amber and Livi in The Emperors New Clothes

Dads and Donuts

 Daddy got a trip to Phoenix for his birthday.  And got to enjoy the sunshine and golf.

Crazy Hair!

Fun times at the cabin.  We went up for the weekend and played foosball, pingpong, pool, watched movies, had the Henlines over and enjoyed Conference.  Loved it!

Amber turned 12!

 Amber's first time at the temple.

My cute kids

Christian playing soccer

 Scott's Christmas present to me--ziplining!  It was scary.

Alyssa turned 16!  We had her birthday party at the cabin and gave her a trip to L

First date with Dad

 Chilling in Salt Lake at the Jive Retreat.  We did a mystery escape room, watched Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, went to the temple and ate tons of food.  It was a perfect weekend.

We all made it!  I did the 5k and everyone else did the 1-mile fun run.

Helping at the school field day

End of summer party.  I think we had almost 40 kids for hotdogs, games,  an outdoor movie and night games.

Our exchange student Kazune.

Alyssa and Christian got to go to EFY this year.

Summer fun at the park

Thompson reunion 2016--floating down the river

NVP summer party.  It was a beautiful evening.  

We went to another escape room in a van. It was super hot but we had fun solving all the clues.  Good time

For our end of summer family adventure we went on a mystery hunt and the kids had to use clues to discover where we were going for dinner.  We ended at a Nigerian restaurant. Different food and lots of fun.

Alyssa's first school dance--Homecoming with Christopher

Hiking the hot springs

Amber in A Comedy of Errors

Uncle Matt's wedding

 Christmas choir, band and orchestra concert

 Pics with Santa at the Seven Peaks north pole

Holidays

I am getting so bad at taking pictures.  But we had a good Thanksgiving.  We went to the church and played broom ball, which was a lot of fun, and then had a delicious lunch.   Then Scott and I went shopping at Walmart and got almost everything we needed for Christmas.  It was nice, because when school is in session I can barely keep my head above water.  And add to that all the recitals, performances and parties there is no time in December.  The next evening we went over to the Thompsons and had crackers and meat and began our Star Wars marathon, since Gator got us all tickets for Christmas. 

Christmas was really good.  The week before I was just busy buying food and odds and ends, but Christmas day was relaxing and nice.  Alyssa got a new pair of headphones, an iTunes gift card, and money.  Christian got a raspberry pi, clothes and a mini drone.  Amber got an electric scooter, clothes and a sewing kit.  Alivia got a star lantern, a projector, and a Narnia book.  Soran got a new bike, some shopkins and art stuff.  Grandma and Grandpa Reece did the 12 day of Christmas and I think we all got thoroughly spoiled.  Scott and I got new phones, I got a zipline tour, and Scott got new boots.  The Massengales came and spent the night and we went sledding and played Mormon Mouthful and watched a movie.  We went to the Henlines for New Years and played games and watched the Pirates of the Caribbean marathon.  We went to the cabin a couple times and relaxed.  It was a great holiday.

Chef Amber

Amber is getting to be such a pleasant girl to be around, and so helpful!  Whenever I want something baked, I just tell her and it's done.  And she loves to try hard things.

Fall break in Kanab

Scott hadn't seen Mike since he got back from Anguilla, so we decided to head down to Kanab for fall break.  We went hiking and found some dinosaur tracks, although I think the kids' favorite part of that trip was riding in the back of the pickup truck on the way there.  Then we went to the pink sand dunes and played in the sand.  We took Mike out for his 50th birthday that night during a crazy rainstorm.  It was so good to see them.

 The challenge was who could get down this hill with the least amount of steps.  I think Amber won with 5.

 The boys were boring and just stood around talking about their computer games.  But we finally made them run down the hill.

Horan loved this little chair just her size.