just a few photos

Whitney and her team won their school's battle of the books, they were undefeated and will move on to compete at the regional level against kids from different school.  Whitney is almost smiling in this picture.

And a bonus of something we thought that was cute that happened the other night during family scripture study.

Finishing Up Christmas Break

Since it is already February, I figured I better just finish up with our Christmas holiday.  So here are the last couple things we did while in Pasco with everyone.

We painted rocks one afternoon.  The kids thought this was neat.

Some of our rocks were painted so much they ended up looking like the brownish-gray they were originally.

Adam wore one of my dad's old shirts to avoid getting his dirty.

Another day we went to the children's museum in Walla Walla. This water station was a hit.

Proving their climbing abilities.

And their cooking abilities.  I was "fed" a lot of food that day.

It was warm enough to spend some time with the toys outside of the museum.  Hannah sits in the big fire truck.

I think Whitney really enjoyed dressing up and running around with the long hose putting out 'fires'.

Another day we went to the Ninja course in Kennewick. This was really awesome.  My kids loved it.

There were a bunch of obstacles to practice for that TV show - American Ninja Warrior. The littles just had fun climbing on everything.

We had some races to see who could get through the obstacles the fastest.  It was extra tricky with all the children everywhere.

Walking across so carefully.  It was fun.  My brother-in-law just creamed us all at the competition.  I need some more practice.

Goodbye cousin time.  Hannah and Annabelle (and all the great grandkids) were given MnMs from my grandma.  These two sat under the table eating them together and smiling.  (And possibly shaking them all over the floor, eventually).  It was really cute.

We had such a fun time over Christmas break.  Thanks for letting us invade your house mom.

It's Christmas!

As tradition, we acted out the Nativity story for 'Christmas Eve'. Here everyone gets ready for their part.

It was just slight chaos.

The brothers were the three wise men - with their fancy hats.

And Rachel dressed up like a beautiful angel. It was a successful rendition. 

And the bounty of Christmas morning.  It was great seeing the kids get all excited searching for presents with their names.

Hannah liked the bracelets she found.

Adam was an expert at present opening.  He also did a good job just opening his presents.  Adam got a lot of Paw Patrol gifts.

Whitney with her new nerf guns.

Will was especially excited about the weed whacker.  He doesn't like cutting around the fence. So this will be really helpful in the spring.

Rachel getting Harry Potter Clue.  Thanks for all the fun presents.

Later we opened the family time capsule.  It has been closed for the last 10 years so it was really fun to hear everyone's predictions.  I had some good guesses but some things were way off. We all wrote ones again to be opened in January 2030.  It will be weird to see what my kids are up to in ten years.
Anyway, great times were had by all in Pasco for Christmas.  I'm glad everyone was able to be there.

Hannah Turns 2!

We celebrated Hannah's birthday while we were in Pasco.  It's hard to believe this little girl is already 2.  I think she had a fun day.

I kept everything pretty simple.  Just a regular yellow cake with whipped cream and butterfinger pieces.  Hannah liked being the center of attention.

She liked her cake, even if the picture doesn't look like it.  Hannah just doesn't like her hands being messy.

Then we opened presents.

More presents.  This was good preparation for our late Christmas celebration.

Also that day we went to McDonalds and the kids all got ice cream.  They had a lot of fun playing on the toys.  Hannah is partial to slides now and went on it over and over.

We also went to the coolest Lego village ever.  This huge table was set up in the Caziers house.  She had a scavenger hunt of little things to find.  This was incredible.  So much detail.  Hannah had a little trouble not wanting to play with the Legos, so she and I sat and read books.

We also did our classic WalMart trade gifts that you bought for a little over $3.  It's fun to see what bargains you can find.  The grown ups did it a little differently this year by making it more white elephant style.  That was a fun twist.

It's so crazy that this little girl is now 2!  She likes to tell me that she isn't a baby.   :( They grow so quickly.

Making Gingerbread Houses

I use "gingerbread" but they were really graham cracker houses.  Most of my kids don't care for gingerbread, but Megan really wanted to decorate a house.

There were lots of yummy candy decorations.

Some of us were sneaking pieces of candy while decorating.

Hannah wasn't even trying to be sneaky; she just sat there eating candy and licking frosting. Best Day Ever!

Rachel spent a lot of time on her house.  It looked really cute.

Adam showing off his creation.

Megan was all proud of her work.

Then we needed to work off all the sugar crazies.  So we bundled up and went on a walk.

And spent some time jumping on the trampoline.  Everything was more fun too because there were cousins at grandma's house.

More Christmas-y things to come.