December 2016

Just as in past years, December went by quickly.  We tried to keep it simple and spend more time as a family not trying to fit in every crazy activity we could.  Nate and the kids got some skiing in. Gavin got some merit badges at the scout court of honor. Nate finally crossed paths with his Dad while traveling (something they knew would happen eventually with both of them traveling frequently) and we had some beautiful sunsets.  

Ready for church!

Out my back door! Beautiful!

Ashlyn fell asleep before she made it to her bed.  Ashlyn Santa! :)

Skiing!

Twinners ready for church.

We let Hazel try some apples.  She loved them!

Nate and his Dad at the Denver airport! They just happened to be at the same place and took the same flight home! :)

Scout court of honor! Gavin got tons of merit badges from scout camp! 

More Skiing!

Hazel Santa!

Christmas Church dress!

Hazel loved the Christmas tree.  She really wanted to get the lights and pull them off the tree.

Ready for a party! The bow headband was way to big.  She could hardly keep her head up, but it was sure cute! :)

We had Christmas parties with the Kohl family and the Hess family.  Sadly I didn't get any pictures of either party but I did borrow some pictures of the Hess party that my sister took. :)

My parents 45th anniversary!

Hazel as sweet baby Jesus for the Nativity. 

Christmas Eve pajama pictures.  We drove around and looked at lights as it was snowing.  It was beautiful.  Then came home to our pajamas from the Christmas Elf! 

The kids were up at 6am Christmas morning which was NOT the plan.  We managed to stall them until closer to 7 but I sure would have liked more sleep. :)  Santa dropped way too much stuff at our house but the kids seemed pretty happy with all of it. We enjoyed being able to go to church on Christmas.  The program was beautiful.  

Christmas Dinner was made from Thanksgiving leftovers! It was awesome and simple!

This is a picture of the snow we got on Christmas day.  It was a wonderful white Christmas!

The end of October and in to November 2016

Getting home from a wonderful vacation was hard because we had to get right into Halloween mode.  Our Hawaiian vacation made October fly by so before we knew it Halloween was here and we didn't have pumpkins!! We managed to get some carved the night before Halloween.  The kids all went trick or treating.  Hazel and I tried to tag along with Ashlyn and Nate, but it ended up being too cold so we stayed home and handed out candy. 

 Sadly, I never got a picture of all the kids in their costumes.  Such is the life of a mom of 4.  Hazel was a pumpkin.  Ashlyn was a cute bat.  Liam was a creepy black hooded guy and Gavin was a BYU football player.  The boys went out trick or treating with friends, but didn't stay out for long.  (getting too old I guess).  Ashlyn brought home the most candy. A first for her! :)

Those cheeks!

November came quickly and is big birthday month for us.  We started out with my birthday.  I serve in the YW as the sports specialist so I got to have the fun Happy Birthday sign from the YW on my lawn for my birthday.  So glad we could let EVERYONE in the neighborhood know that I am a year older! (By the way, green grass in November! So weird!)

Birthday with my kids!

Liam received his Webelo and arrow of light awards to finish off his run in cub scouts.  It is hard to believe we are done with cub scouts.  Our boys have had the best leaders who have helped them get all their awards!

We had our annual Hess Family Talent night.  It is fun for our kids to share their talents with their cousins and to see all their talents as well.  Ashlyn, Liam and Gavin all played the piano and Liam did some magic tricks! 

We had a wonderful garden this past summer and we finally had a good freeze in November and harvested our winter squash.  We grow 'Long Island Cheese squash' every year and Nate uses them to make pumpkin pie and other yummy things.  We were very proud of the size of this one so we had to get pictures to remember it.  Hazel is adorable!

I didn't get any pictures of Nate's birthday celebration this year.  He was out of town on his actual birthday so we celebrated the weekend after.  It wasn't too exciting but that's what happens when you're old!

Next we had Liam's 11th birthday the day before Thanksgiving.  He was happy with his presents and enjoyed having the day off from school. :)

We hosted Thanksgiving at our home for all the Kohl family.  Nate smoked 2 turkeys and they were awesome!  It was a great day with lots of yummy food, but I didn't get any pictures! Sad.  I guess when you are busy trying to take care of 7 month old and host a large group of people, you just don't have time to take pictures. Oh well, It was a great day!