New Year’s Eve

Every year for as long as I can remember we have gone up to the cabin for New Years. Even as teenagers Josh and I and our friends went up to the cabin to celebrate. But this year Brayden's bball schedule and the girls dance rehearsals made it too complicated to make it work so we stayed home. Which meant for the first time we had to come up with something to do. The kids had no problems making plans. Brayden and Brooklyn both found friends to be with so they were gone all night. The other 3 girls made plans with the Jensens and they had a blast going to the movies and sleeping over at their house. They stayed up way too late, had plenty of food, sparklers, and celebrating.  The left Josh and me at home. Alone. It was amazing. We ended up going to dinner and watching a movie at home. It really was so great to just spend time with each other.

 

Christmas Break Fun

Here are a bunch of random pics of all the fun things the kids have been doing while on break! And yes one of the kids snuck my phone and got a pic of me napping in front of the fire on a giant unicorn. I mean...who doesn't want to do that?!

 

Cake Pops!

Brooklyn got a cake pop maker for Christmas and was excited to try it out. So she and her friend became little chefs for the day and had fun experimenting with all the fun flavors and toppings she got.

 

Heading to BYU

I was able to go to dinner with Lindsay one last time before she heads down to BYU next week. We went to a little Brazilian restaurant nearby and it was fun to talk about Brazil the whole time. I love how many memories it has brought back. She is such a special girl and I love the relationship we still have.

 

Brewer Christmas Party

The Brewers came over for our Christmas party in the afternoon since we all had church in the morning today. We always have so much fun when we are together. The adults don't seem to ever stop laughing and we barely see the kids bc they are all having so much fun with their cousins. It's fun that this side of the family is done with the baby/toddler stage so the adults get to spend more time together now. 

 

Christmas Sunday

I had to snap a pic of us all dressed up on Sunday. We had a nice service at church where all of us were involved at some point...the primary sang and Josh sang with them, the youth sang while I accompanied, Brynlee sang a solo, and I played a piano solo. The spirit was strong and it was a great way to remember our Savior during this holiday weekend.

 

Christmas!!

I have to say we have the best kids. Like the absolute best. They always have a sleep over on Christmas Eve and in this house they do it in the basement. They all set up camp in the ball pit room and hallways (I wish I had taken a picture.) 9:00 has been our "wake up" time for years and our kids have always respected that and let Josh and me sleep in til then. But the second the clock turned 9:00 I got a slew of texts from them. Lol They were good for us, though, and continued hanging out in the theater room so we could get up and ready for them. We finally went down and gathered the kids for a Christmas prayer then got started. I love the tradition of the pic on the stairs and lining up backwards. The kids started with the family gift from Santa...a new Mrs. Pacman arcade game! Then they moved on to their individual Santa gifts. They all got boxes the same size so they lined up on the couch and opened them together...new iPhones!!! They were all very surprised and excited! Santa did good this year. Since the phones for the youngest two girls don't have cell service they got an extra present from Santa...legos for Britney and a fairy garden for Brielle! She is very very excited about it! We then finished opening presents and enjoyed hanging out. My parents came and visited and gave the family another arcade game! The Simpons! This one was already put together and the kids haven't stopped playing it. We enjoyed our blueberry French toast casserole and relaxed. The Ericson's all came over early evening to eat dinner, spend time together, and exchange gifts. It really was an amazing day and I truly am overwhelmed with gratitude. We are so blessed.