Christmas Break

Christmas break begins...Lily got this cute hat at her friend gift exchange.

The girls choose to make cookies for the Toys for Tots event for their Dame Grandkids service project.  They each made a batch of cookies and I made two.  

We bagged up the cookies and delivered over 8 dozen cookies to the event in Boise.

We also did the 12 days of Christmas for the Wind's complete with notes everyday from people in the ward, neighborhood, and Kingsbury ward.  We also invited everyone to come carol to them on the Sunday before Christmas and delivered a special blanket Mindy Draper put together.  It was so cool to see how many people came to carol.  The spirt was so strong and you could see how much it meant to John.  

We also did our annual caroling to Bro. Hill and Lea.  It is sad to think that one of these years they may not be around when we show up.  We sure love them.

Baby Shai took to biting holes in a lot of the Christmas presents.  This one was for Greg and I had to put packing over the holes multiple times to prevent damage to the gift.  When Greg finally ripped off the paper you could see all the holes Baby had chewed away.  

Emily showing off all of her gear.  Jungle clothes, dress boots, and ski goggles - what a look.

Lily showing off her oversized Kitty Cozy.

We opened presents early, on the 22nd, and then headed up to McCall the next morning.  We met up with Mack's girlfriend, Sophia, and her dog up at the condo then spent the next days skiing all together.  Sophia wore a bunch of Andrew's old gear so it felt like he was there 😉.  She had never skied before so she and Mack spent the day on Easy Street.

The skies were beautiful.  It was a bit chilly but a great ski day.

Ended up skiing three days - one with Sophia and two with the Wilfords once Greg and Sophia had headed home.  We enjoyed our days up there playing lots of games, watching Christmas movies, playing in the snow and going through our stockings Christmas morning.

We came home in time for Greg to make his New Years Day feast.  He made far too much, but all his guests loved the feast.

Girls joining Natali's BeReal while they were walking to Chick-fil-a to meet me for lunch.  They had been doing some exchanges at Target while I bought groceries.

Jean Luc lay in the box while we played 7 Wonders and Lily declared her the 8th wonder of the world.  

On Natali's last day home we were able to go do baptisms at the temple all together.  It was pretty awesome to be in the temple with all my girls. I may have teared up a bit...

Lily in her happy place.

 Greg took Emily and Lily ice skating after baptisms while Natali headed to Provo and Kate headed to work.  They loved the time with him Greg and they always like to ice skate.

And the cats…🤦🏻‍♀️

Since 80% of the pictures on my phone are of our cats (taken by kids - not me) I figured I had to post some of the cat highlights from the last few months.

There is a cat in the basket - Jean Luc was totally okay being covered up and being pushed around in the basket.

Baby playing the piano.

One Monday night I walked into the kitchen from dance in the dark and could tell there was someone dead on the floor.  I got closer and the shear size of the thing looked scary so I opted out and called in Greg and the kids.  None of us could believe what we saw when the lights came on - one of the kittens had killed a coot!  Not sure how those little cats caught the coot or brought it inside but there it was.

A week or so later Baby barfed up a bunch of black feathers and a little investigation found another dead coot in the backyard.  Worried that the neighbors, who feed the ducks, might get mad at the kitties Emmy made these lovely, bright, bird distracting collars.  Her intention was to make them large and bright enough to warn the birds.  The collars have definitely been amusing at home.  We call them clown collars or Elizabethan ruffles and they just look silly.  I'm not sure how well they are working but we haven't had more dead coots yet, although we have had one dead little bird post clown collars.  

Christmas parties, Tip off and Light the World

All the girls attended some fun Christmas parties this year - but I only have pictures from Lily's parties.

Kate went to Tip Off with Spencer.  The group made pizzas and paintbrush cookies at our house.

I was asked to sing at Indian Creek Plaza to help Light the World this Christmas.  Our Stake was asked to provide music by the giving boxes for one night.  I sang one song alone and then Val and her kids joined me and my girls to sing "Baby, What you Going to Be?".  Grandma was in town and braved the cold to play for us.

After our song we each picked an item to donate from the boxes.  It was a fun way to kick of the Christmas season.

 

Thanksgiving in Mesquite

For Thanksgiving we drove down to Mesquite to celebrate with the Easton crew.  Neelie planned a Thanksgiving day relay race that had activities for everyone.  It was a lot of fun to watch everyone participate.

Mack and Lily were on the winning blue team - thanks in part to Mack winning the 400 meter portion of the relay.

The yellow team came in a close third with Emmy rocking the 400 meters, inspire of not being a runner.

Greg was an enthusiastic leader for his team.

Winners running across the finish line.

The watermelon eating contest was pretty hilarious and messy.

Kate and Hazel rocking the wheel barrow race...

and Greg and London..

and Mack and Talon.

Kate and Beth with the beanbag toss.

Emmy passing on the yellow team's baton after her exhausting run.

Mack leading the pack thanks to his early start because Lily found her baton first.

Lily ready to start the race.

I forgot to take any other pictures of our time at Whitney Pockets, the kids going to the movies, all the food at every meal, games, and cousin time but I did get this bad picture of all the pies.  I believe there were 23 total not including the Marie Callendar ones in the freezer just in case.  Those women don't mess around when making pies.

It was a lot of driving for one weekend but it was nice to all be back in Mesquite together for quite possibly the last time in that house since Nani is probably going to down size.  Lots of goo memories in that house.

Fall Happenings

 

Unfortunately, Lily got a lot of bloody noses this fall 😢.

She also graduated from Primary 😢.

We took a field trip to Scheels and they each got one dollar to spend on candy,

took advantage of the photo opps,

and Emmy and Lily rode the ferris wheel.

Lily had to try potatoes with molasses because of a silly show we watched called, Over the Garden Wall.  A boy in the song sang a song about potatoes and molasses being better than algebra classes.  Lily wasn't sure.

Lily got the service award for the Middle School monthly value - she is growing up.