Christmas Vacation

Yay.  Lincoln loved going for a ride in the baby stroller 

We spent the day after Christmas playing with our new toys and putting together a bunch of Legos.  

Dustin's nephews wife was visiting from Germany so  few of us went and got a quick pedicure and thoroughly enjoyed some down time.  However, by the time I got home there was about 5 men and 10 kids in the house plying games which meant my party was over.

Ella does a great job being the older cousin and organizing fun games for the little ones.

Alissa and I did a quick birthday shopping one morning while the rest of them slept in from their extremely late night of game playing.  Saw this giant Olaf.

New Years Eve we had yet another party.  I helped the girls make these paper headband hats for everybody to wear.  YAY Happy 2015!!

The men went ice fishing while we took the kids to Rexburg to Fat Cats and went bowling and mini golfing & arcade playing.  It was a fun time.

Dustin and the guy went to Hagerman, MT to go ice fishing.  Aparently Mikyle, the only kid who went, was the only one who had much luck.

They always have fun though and stopped for some Big Judds on the way home.

Of course with Pam and Alan's teenage kids my kids learned all about "selfies" and took about 1000 in the few days they were together.

Pam & Alan brought Lincoln this cute Ninja Turtle bib and cape with matching socks.  We love them.

Although the week is exhausting and we have to spend another week regrouping and napping whenever we get the chance, we sure love having family come sty with us and spending time with everybody.  I especially feel blessed that I have such a great in law family.  I love them and am grateful for all of them.

Christmas Spirit

I think this year was our best for bringing "real" Christmas spirit into our home.  First of all our little friend Chippy the elf showed up.  He was super silly hiding in really random places that made everybody laugh.  This year he brought a special letter that asked the kids to donate some of their toys and clothes to his friend Jingle's family because they didn't have much and Chippy told them how kind our family was.  

Within an hour the kids had 3 boxes overflowing from their bedroom of all kinds of things they were willing to part with to help another family.  Chippy took the toys to the North Pole so Santa could give them an EXTRA big delivery this year.  Alissa was particularly generous, it made my heart swell with gratitude for the lesson these kids learned.   It's just "STUFF" and the lesson is far more important.

I didn't get a picture of it but we also printed off pictures of little gifts and each time somebody did something kind they wrote it on the present and taped it up on our garage door under the magnet of baby Jesus and it was the gifts we were giving him.  On Christmas morning after the Santa surprises and before any gifts were actually opened we read through all the gifts we gave to our Savior for his birthday.  I seriously felt so pleased with our gift and felt as though the Savior was pleased as well.  It's certainly a tradition we will be keeping.

We mailed one military package and 2 missionary packages as well as wrote a note to 4 missionaries from our ward.  It felt good to do this as I know they were appreciated.   It was good for my kids to see this service too.

All the Christmas shopping was done and all gifts were wrapped well before Christmas day so we were able to spend time together doing some fun things.  Took the kids swimming since they had earned $3 doing some chores around the house.  Molly actually didn't have any money left because she spent it on gifts for her siblings and didn't want to do any more chores.  Ella felt like doing something kind and decided the gift to her sister would be to pay for her swimming.  Made me proud of her.

Ella and I practiced a duet "Silent Night"  about a million times so we could perform it for Christmas Eve.  It was so much fun for me to spend that time together with her on the piano bench.  Even though she got sick of me, I didn't get sick of her. ;)  I am sure I was way more nervous to perform it on Christmas Eve for the Braithwaites than she was.  So grateful for the soothing effect of music and the meaning of the words in "Silent Night".

9 Month Lincoln

My baby is 9 months!!  It's amazing to me to think back at the week he was born.  It's unreal that he was a struggling baby in the NICU.   He is such a big happy boy now.

Thankfully all of his sisters are pretty good with him now.  Molly is still a bit crazy with her constant picking up and packing around but I can trust her in the same room with him for a few minutes now which is improvement.  He is super fond of Alissa because she normally just sits and plays with him I believe that is mostly because he is too heavy for her to pack.  He is 22 pounds now and she is only 39.  She is the BEST of all of us at making him laugh.

 

I think it's fun when they get creative and do things like this old box and jump rope sled. :)

Or a giant circle surrounding him with his toys.

He has learned to get around mostly through rolling and doing giant stretches while pushing with his feet.  He started standing up a little bit against anything he can grab.  I loved watching him give himself kisses in the mirror.

He went swimming for the first time over Christmas vacation and the water was cold so it took a few minutes to decide we were having fun.  I spent about 2 hours snuggling him in the pool and watching the girls tricks.  Summer swimming will be better.

He had an ear infection and has struggled with not feeling well and certainly not sleeping well for the last while and it was obvious why when 5 teeth popped out within about 5-6 weeks.  He now has 3 top and 2 bottom teeth.

Such a precious sleeping baby.

His dad thinks he is his best buddy and gives his big smiles and kisses right when he walks through the door from work.  Lincoln loves him equally however still prefers mom over anybody and I am good with that.  He does say "dada" all the time now too.  I'm pretty sure he means mama though, ;)

When a blessing this baby boy is to our family.  He is such a sweetheart and so much fun for all of us.  So grateful Heavenly Father decided it was time for him to join us and can't wait for all of our fun times ahead.

Snow Globes

We had some empty baby jars so we decided to make some snow globes.  The kids had a good time.

Family Motto

When my kids came home and told me their school motto I was immediately struck that we needed a family motto.  So for family home evening a few months ago we sat down and wrote out some qualities we wanted to display and we mushed them all into a short little motto the kids could memorize.  I put a prize out there for anybody that memorized it and within the first week our family all had it memorized.  We now say it together any time it is appropriate to remind each other and before school each day.  I just love it.  We just had it simply typed and hanging on the garage door for us to memorize but I made it a little more fancy to put in a frame.

Sure love my family and that we share the gospel which brings great joy to all of our lives.  I am grateful we have direction in our lives through our Savior and his example.

4th Annual Christmas Caroling

We organized our 4th annual neighborhood Christmas caroling.  This year we did things just a little bit different.  We had our group family home evening at my house prior to going and everybody ate dinner at my house and then we bundled up and headed outside.  Each year I try to figure out a more efficient way for everybody to sing louder and more together so I had 15 copies of "books" printed and made a CD of music.  After it was done somebody volunteered to do it next year so it wasn't too effective.  But yay for somebody else doing it next year!

It was fun having my family all be there with us.  We had about 50 people.

We came back to our house for hot chocolate and treats afterward again.

I just love how the Christmas carols bring the Christmas spirit so much.  I almost always am brought to tears as we sit together and sing.  I am reminded of my love and appreciation for the Savior, for my family and friends and so many blessings flood my mind.