Christmas 2017

Aaron told the boys that they couldn't come out of their rooms Christmas morning until 7am. They said they wanted to eat breakfast before they opened presents. Does this tell you how important food is to these kids?

That morning was freezing. I woke up to go run and there was a frostbite warning...it was like 7 degrees with the wind chill. I still ran outside and it was not a fun run and I was the only fool outside...I think the whole week since it was cold the whole week. 

I had cinnamon rolls ready at 7am. The kids woke up around 5:30, but played in their rooms. They were really excited. We ate breakfast after waking up Aaron, then we opened presents.

We have a tradition in our family called Ninja Service. (By the way both my kids told their teachers about this tradition and both teachers asked me more about it because they love the idea and want to do it next year.) Each Sunday during our FHE we draw a name of a family member. For a week we do acts of service for that family member, but are secret about it...like a ninja. We then put a tally mark on our ninja service chart. The following Sunday we guess who had our name and then we draw a new name. The person who has the most tally marks gets to open the first present on Christmas, then the person with 2nd most goes next, etc. We watch everyone open gifts..one at a time because I think it is ridiculous when everyone opens all the gifts at the same time and no one sees what everyone else got and doesn't get to see their facial expressions when they open the gifts. The kids were super pumped this year to get the most tally marks so they did great on doing acts of service. They did tie this year, so they opened (an by open I mean pick up from the chair since I didn't wrap them) the scooters from Uncle Robert and Aunt Sarah.

Dylan got brain flakes from Uncle Trevor and Aunt Meesa and family. If you haven't heard of brain flakes..check them out...they are a lot of fun!

They gave Blake a ton of books. He was in heaven. He was so impressed that they knew the exact books that he wanted.

The boys buy one gift for their brother. Blake bought Dylan red legos.

Dylan bought Blake an Imaginext Batman.

Uncle James and Aunt Shannon got a book for Dylan

and one for Blake. They love these books. Superhero books...can't go wrong with those.

My Grandma sent them some money.

Aaron's folks also sent all of us money.

My parents got the boys this remote control car that goes in water too. That wanted to go check it out in the pool until they realized how cold it was outside. We played with it inside the house instead.

They also gave them this cool lego set. This was the first thing they played with.

Uncle David, Aunt Kristi and kids gave them these Dude Perfect games. They love DP so this was perfect. They play with these all the time.

Robert and Sarah also sent this cool lego set for the family.

Our big family gift is a ski trip to Colorado for Spring Break. The kids were really excited.

They got changed and then realized they hadn't looked at their stockings.

Love having a playroom for them to play with all their new awesome toys.

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was nice. We woke up and it snowed a tiny bit. The boys were kind of annoyed. If it is going to snow then why not dump snow to make it fun?! Oh well...it melted a couple of hours later.

Church was only an hour. We came home and then went over to the Neumann's house for a little party. There were just a few families who came over...the families who didn't have family in town.

Fun Saturday

December 23--we didn't have any basketball games. We made some cookies for Santa and for a Christmas Eve party.

Then we went to the park because it was pretty nice outside.

Then we came home and watched a movie. I think the favorite Christmas movie that we watched was Home Alone. Man, it had been awhile since I saw it, but it is pretty good. Classic.

Christmas Parties Continued

This is Dylan's table at school. Hudson, Dylan, Max, Cannon and Jake.

Here is Blake's class.

And Dylan's class.

Hudson's mom is one of the other Kinder teachers. She is super sweet and a Kinder teacher is totally her calling in life. I went in her classroom to take some pictures for the yearbook and she gave me a big hug. She loves Dylan and is so happy that her son is friends with him. Hudson is a really good kid. I guess our kids can pick some good friends. :)

Both his teachers said Merry Christmas to us as we were leaving the class. I picked up Blake first and took him to Dylan's class. Mrs. Robsinson was soooooo happy to see Blake. Blake is almost as tall as she is. Anyway, then when we were leaving the school, the principal said Merry Christmas to us. I love, love, love that we can still say that here in Texas in our public schools.

We just got the kids' report cards this week. They are both doing really well academically and socially. Mrs. Robinson said that she feels blessed to have Dylan in her class. Mrs. Gullickson said that Blake is such a blessing. They both said other things as well, but Aaron and I both thought it was awesome that teachers use the word Blessed....once again, I love, love, love that our teachers can say that. As a side note, it is very common to hear "Have a blessed day" here in Texas, but that is at the store, etc.

Christmas Class Parties

Friday, December 22 was their last day of school before the break. They have the parties in the morning so that you can take your kids home after. I had to take pictures of both Kinder and 3rd grade for the yearbook and the parties are only 45 minutes long, so I didn't get to see much of either of their parties.

(The boys wore handsome shirts. I convinced  them to wear them since they weren't staying at school all day.)

Doesn't he look thrilled about their craft?

They were excited to come home early from school. 

It was a busy week. I didn't think I would work much that week, but I worked 3 days that week. I taught the 4 year olds, which I had done that class before. Then on Thursday I taught in one of the 2 year old classes, which I had also taught in before. One of the teachers was having surgery. We are now weeks after the surgery and the teacher is still out--I taught for her this week and possibly next week and for awhile. We will see.

Christmas Ornament

December 20--the kids got a gift bag from the primary. Inside was this cool ornament. You have to write items down in a sharpie, then you put it in the oven for a couple of minutes and watch it shrink to the size of an ornament that you can put on your tree. They told the kids to put down things that they were grateful that Jesus created.

This shows the size difference.

Basketball and Parties

December 16: In the morning, Dylan had his basketball game. He did great.

He scored.

He did great on defense.

We came home and had lunch and made some food for our party later that day.

Then Aaron took Blake to his basketball game and I took Dylan to Cannon's birthday party. These boys have so much fun together.

This is Max and Garrett.

Dylan's current favorite buddies at school were all at the party. Hudson, Cannon, Jake, Max and Dylan. He also plays with Garrett and Lucca. They are all alike--crazy boys, but really well-behaved during class time. His teacher says they are the best group of boys...she puts them all at the same table because they work so great together.

Cannon , Max and Dylan.

We left a little early and then went home, got Blake and Aaron and then went over to our friends house. The Ririe's moved here in August from CA..they are a Toyota transfer.  There were 4 other families there. We had food and did a white elephant gift exchange. It was a lot of fun. Here is a fun thing--just this past Sunday Jaren Ririe told us that his brother is dating a person who we know from CA....(they were out in CA for the holidays). Both his brother and the lady were recently divorced so between the 2 of them there are 9 kids. Crazy. 

The next night we went and looked at more Christmas lights around our neighborhood. We were down the road where there is a pond and my lights on the car shined on an animal so I stopped the car. It was a beaver. What?! I have never seen a beaver in the wild. It was the slowest animal ever. They are also much bigger then I was thinking. There were cool houses, but the beaver was the highlight for the boys.

Having Fun

December 15--I came upstairs to read books and this is what I found. Dylan was serious about reading...hmmm. He makes me laugh.

Gingerbread House

Sunday after breakfast we made our gingerbread house.

We had a cub committee meeting, then church (passed out our goodies), then came home and the boys played with the Playmobile Nativity set that my mom sent the boys. After dinner we went and looked at Christmas lights. Dylan right now is obsessed with Christmas lights. He goes outside every night after dinner to just look at our lights on our house. We like to one neighborhood that goes all out. They did not disappoint. I didn't take any pictures because I was driving, but trust me...it was good. I have a feeling we will be going around to another neighborhood soon because Dylan loves it so much!

Yesterday after school Blake went to the ortho. He has 2 wiggly teeth, but Blake hates to pull out his teeth. The orthodontist told him it is his homework assignment to get those teeth out so the other teeth can come in so that they can get brackets on the adult teeth at the next appointment in February. Then he could get his expander off. They said that the teeth are looking great and that he is doing a really good job with brushing. Good job my little rule follower.

Basketball Games

Monday nights are nice because we don't have practice or scouts, etc. So we started "Home Alone" and finished it later that week. The kids loved that movie. Why hadn't we watched it together as a family? Great question.

I also helped at the school for 3rd grade. I work at the preschool about 2 days a week, so it was fun to go over to the boys' school. It had been awhile, but it is always the same group of moms that help, so it was fun to catch up with them before we helped out. 

Saturday morning we had basketball games. Dylan's game was 10am and Blake's was 12....much better. 

Dylan did the same thing where it took him a little bit to remember what to do, but once it clicked again, he did great.

He took a couple of shots. There really aren't too many shoots at this age and even fewer go in.

He also rebounded, which was awesome.

And he made a basket!! So much fun.

They had Blake play post. He is tall, but not aggressive. Although it is making him be more aggressive and he is a lot more aggressive in basketball then in soccer. He is really good at seeing people open and passing them the ball. He didn't make any baskets, but he got some rebounds which is great.

They did great. It is fun to watch them. Each week they are improving. 

We came home and made bread for their primary teachers and for our VT and HT families. Then we made dinner because we had our friends, Cindy and Jon over. Aaron and Cindy worked together in CA and then they moved out here. They came to Blake's baptism. They have one grandson who lives in CA, so they love to be around the boys. Blake especially really likes them too. They are a great couple. Blake was chatting up a storm with them.