Visiting Santa

We had a fun church Christmas party. The theme was Christmas morning, and those in attendance could wear their pajamas if they wanted. For dinner we had breakfast casseroles, muffins, fruit, milk and juice. We sang the 12 days of Christmas, had some musical performances, and a short skit that talked about the symbols of Christmas. Some of our girls participated in that. It was a nice evening and so fun to celebrate Christmas.

 Laurel and Santa

 Santa with Bethany, Katelyn and Samantha

Mackenzie and her friends with Santa

 Even Derek posed with Santa

 Bethany wanted another turn. It was likely the candy cane at the end that brought her back

Laurel in the Christmas symbols skit

Love Christmas time!

We love Christmas season around here. We enjoy hearing and singing christmas music. We love to visit a popular creche exhibit in our area. Christmascreche.org. Hannah sang and played with Zion Choir there this year.  (see videos below)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_5JI2idxNE&feature=youtu.be

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSPpzXjRYsQ

We enjoy decorating our christmas tree. This year we cut down a tree from the mountains. It's always fun choosing with the kids. They get so excited about it all, they put Christmas lights in their rooms too.

Bethany

 Katelyn

 Laurel

Next week we'll go to Bethlehem, the one in Santa Clara, CA. A wonderful Bethlehem village is created and a live nativity happens every night for five nights. Comes with great costumed characters, music and hot chocolate!  http://bethlehemsc.com/ We also have upcoming parties at our church and homeschool co-op to look forward to.

Of course, much of our time is spent making lists of what gifts we want to give and to whom, and then shopping for the. I find that part a lot of fun. This season also brings many opportunities to help others and donate when a need is presented. Those are more anonymous gifts and I almost prefer that over the gift tag with names. I love this Christmas time that reminds us of the most important gift any of us has ever received-Jesus Christ.

Enjoy this great video with that very message. Merry Christmas!
http://www.mormon.org/christmas

Prom

Hannah went to her first Prom this year. It was an LDS Prom (put on every year, and located at different church buildings each year) which can be attended in lieu of or in addition to a local high school prom. She was asked to go with a young man in our ward, and they went as a group with many other friends. It was held in Monterey, CA and the theme was A Night at the Oscars. She had a fun time. Derek and I spent the evening in the area since we drove our van full of 5 couples to and from the dance. Here are some pictures before and during the dance.

Preston and Hannah

 Hannah and Preston with two other couples they were going with

Hannah and some girl friends who came over before the dance to get ready

 the girls posing

 Hannah with Bethany (who did not want to smile)

 at the dance, taking pictures with props

Easter

This year the girls decided they wanted to join with some church friends at a park for their Easter Egg Hunt. In years past we've done it in our own yard. While the older kids went climbing and rapelling with Dad on the Saturday before Easter, I took Bethany, Katelyn, Laurel and Samantha to the park for the hunt.We had a potluck lunch before hand and some playing, and then the Easter Egg Hunt began. I spent most of my time with Bethany, who needed some guidance. Once she got her basket filled, she didn't need any help at all.

 Bethany has learned to love the surprises inside Easter eggs

 Samantha enjoying the hunt

 Laurel with a mouthful of candy after gathering eggs.

Katelyn, Bethany, and a friend

All of the kids enjoyed some fun gifts from Grandma Taylor on Saturday as well. Sunday they received a basket with "spiritual" Easter gifts(books, cd, dvd)  for to help them celebrate Easter. We also enjoyed a wonderful ham and potato dinner with the elder missionaries as our guests.

April Birthdays

We've now hit the time of  year when the kids birthdays begin (April to October) and I watch them keep growing up. It's so fun to see the older (and hopefully wiser) each year, but I also wish I could hold on to their little selves forever.

Jamie started it off with her birthday early in the month. She turned 11. Jamie is a lovely girl with a beautiful smile. She has a lot of energy for life and is quite confident in her ability to do many things. She loves reading, playing and listening to music, acting, outdoor activities of all kinds and spending time with family and friends.
It's true she doesn't care for chores and certain foods, but she is a happy, adventurous girl who is a lot of fun to have in our family!

Red velvet cake and ice cream for her birthday. Yum!

Adam's birthday came a week after Jamie's. He turned 15. Of any of the kids, I think he will win for most growth in the past year. He added some inches in height, some deepness in his voice and a lot more appetite. Also a good amount of maturing.  Adam continues to enjoy computer related anything, but is also into reading, scout outings, and playing with his sisters. He even has little "brothers" who love to spend time with him programming the NXT robot or shooting nerf guns. He has been working on his Eagle scout project and hopes to finish that soon. He's our one and only boy and we're glad he's in our family!

 Strawberry cake and dark chocolate frosting. Mom's favorite too!

Adam enjoying a birthday gift--remote control helicopter. He loves it. His other favorite gift was a large bog of Fruit Loops! (food is always a winner with him)

St. Patrick's Day

I love this holiday. It's main color is green, which is my favorite. My maiden name is very Irish--O'Dwyer. Growing up near my O'Dwyer grandparents and extended family, we celebrated our heritage on (or near) St. Patrick's Day each year.  It was fun to get together and eat food, enjoy chocolate coins from grandma's black pot of gold, sing Irish songs, hear stories about ancestors, and sometimes watch silly leprechaun movies. I love having memories like that.

I'm sorry to say that I haven't done well at keeping up with fun traditions like that in my only family. I think in the last year or two, as I've had a break from years of pregnancy and nursing, that I can earnestly make an effort to do some fun things with the kids and get some new traditions established.

The last couple of years we have had Bangers and Mash for dinner on St. Patrick's Day. A super delicious meal of sausage and mashed potatoes is certainly fun. And a few times we've had green cream of wheat (farina) for breakfast. Though today, our two little girls wouldn't touch it. I think the color spooked them.

However, I finally added something new this year. This morning I told the children that I caught a leprechaun, and he had shown me a pot of gold. As they did their chores they would find shamrocks, that they could then redeem for something from the pot of gold. They loved it! Chores were done diligently this morning that's for sure, and even now that chores are done, they continue looking for shamrocks. It's likely they'll find them here and there throughout the day.  :)

 One of the many places a shamrock could be found

 Katelyn (4) showing a shamrock she found when getting ready for the day

The pot of gold!

And for Derek, who is missing all this fun, I've got a fun treasure hunt for him later tonight. I found it on http://www.thedatingdivas.com/, an awesome website with ideas for dating and showing love to spouse and children. Happy St. Patrick's Day!

The little girls

Now that Bethany is no longer sleeping in a crib, we are now using the trundle bed under the bunk bed. The girls love to play on it together. Here are some pictures one night at bedtime.

 Katelyn and Bethany

Katelyn, who is 4, has long bangs that continually fall in front of her face. One day I kept moving them over and tucking them behind her ear. After doing this a couple of times I said to her, "We should put a barrett in to keep the bangs out of your eyes."  She then replied, "I like my bangs in my eyes, it looks cool." I had no idea being cool started so early!

Laurel and Katelyn

 Bethany-- 2 1/2years

Bethany loves to sing, either on her own or with others who are singing. With the Frozen songs being so popular in our home right now, she's finally picked up the tune and some words of Let it Go.  One Sunday I learned that she was singing Let it Go, while the other kids in her nursery class were singing the regular primary songs.

 Derek reading a story to Laurel

Laurel was so excited to have loose teeth finally. She is 6 and 1/2 years old and has been anxiously waiting. Recently her first one came out and she was very happy to show it off and put it under her pillow for the tooth fairy. It was great to see her so happy about a quarter the next morning.  :)

These little ones are wonderful!