The Actual Birthday

Em's actual birthday fell on a Sunday which was perfect because it meant all the local cousins could come over and make it a huge party.   

 She wanted a bunny cake - her birthday was weeks after Easter but this cake looks a lot like an Easter Bunny.  She was happy with my handwork so that is good enough for me.

 She got a bunch of stuff for her doll, plus some new clothes and shoes, and of cource, books.

The Big 7 Year Party!

My kids all get one big birthday party.  Each year they have a family party but the friend thing is usually pretty small (or non existent) but for their 7th birthday I let them plan whatever they want.   So Emily turned 7 this year.  She only wanted to invite a few girls because she wanted to be able to play with all of them.  She had a ton of different games picked out and she changed themes several times but in the end we had an animal themed party.

First the girls made their own binoculars. Then they went all over the house on an animal watching tour.  They had a list of animals to find and Mack and I had hid a bunch of Andrew's animal figurines in different areas of the house.  Emily picked out the animals beforehand and divided them into geographical regions.  The tour went to the Ocean, Jungle, Yellowstone, and Africa.  Kate and Emily decorated each of the regions and Kate led them on the tour.

Then they had snacks like goldfish, Teddy grahams, and pretzels with chocolate drizzled on to look like lions (all Emily's idea's)

Next they did animal relay races where they hopped like kangaroos, crawled like crabs, snakes, bears, and other creatures.

 It never ceases to amaze me how much kids like to watch each other open presents.  So fun to see how much they love it.

 The birthday girl chose Oreo Ice Cream Cake and loved it.  We also played other games some of which Emily had created to fit the party theme.  Like "Zoo Basket" a game she made up based on "Fruit Basket".  We had so much fun.  She loved being involved in all the details of the party.  I had  a blast putting it all together with her.  Love this girl!

I Can't Believe She's 15

No great pics but she did enjoy her classic almond poppy seed cake and all her new clothes and books.    She has her permit now - so hard to believe but she is doing awesome.  Honestly, I can't wait till she can drive - it will be so freeing for me to have another driver available.  She is a great girl.  Can't imagine what our home would be like without her.

She's 10!

 I love this face.  She got new clothes and shoes.

She got to pick what ever she wanted for her birthday cake - Cheesecake Factory Chocolate Mousse -smart girl!

Billy Goat is 4

Our baby is growing so fast.  It makes me sad sometimes but we sure love this little bug.  Since her birthday she tells everyone we meet, "I'm 4."  This year she had a star shaped Hello Kitty cake all planed out till her "Trolls" obsession took over and last minute we had to make it a Poppy cake.  I think I did pretty well - in fact I'm confident I draw better with frosting than pencil.  

Here she is with her Hello Kitty chair, her light up rain boots, and her favorite pair of pants.  She also got a bunch of new stuffed animals, a lot of little troll dolls, play dough, and some other stuff that I can't remember any more.  This year she was old enough to pick out all her favorite foods for dinner and she got her own little container of mango ice cream.  This little girl loves her brothers and sisters and no matter how much I plead otherwise, they give her whatever she wants.  She especially loves Emmy.  At least once a day she asks if we can go get Emmy from school.  She is my realist that says how things really are and makes sure I am always going the right way to peoples houses.  We couldn't love her more.

This picture shows off the bangs she cut for herself Christmas morning while I was getting ready for church.  Could have been much worse.

Never Ending Christmas Break

December 22 was the kids first day of Christmas break.  We never would have believed that they wouldn't officially go back to school till January 18.  The kids had 9 snow days plus Martin Luther King Jr. Day.  There was one day where school was "optional" but other than that we were home.  The snow started falling after new years and it just didn't stop.  By the end of January over 35 inches of snow had fallen and most of it had stayed due to such cold temperatures.  You know you've had too much snow when your kids stop hoping for snow days and are praying for school.  We all got tired of shoveling snow.

On our first snow day I decided not to let the day pass us by so I ventured out in our van to visit my brother's new house where I got totally stuck and had to be pulled out onto the main road by a kind neighbor with a truck.  Then we got stuck two more times in our neighborhood- thank goodness my kids are finally big enough to get out and push.  After that adventure we didn't leave the house very often.  Luckily, we got a lot of board games for Christmas and they were put to good use.

In the middle of all the snow we had a few days of high temperatures and rain which led to leaks going down both sides of our dinning room while Greg was out of town.  My kind neighbor climbed on the roof with his ax and cleared the ice damns- twice.  At least while Greg was gone we had access to a car with 4 wheel drive.  When we got crazy from being home too long we would load all 7 of us in his 5 person SUV and get out.

Once Greg got home he spent several days on the roofs at work shoveling off the snow.  They had even more snow in Fruitland than here.  Crazy winter, but we had some fun times.

Emmy's first day skiing at Brundage before Christmas.  She was awesome and skied all day while the snow came down and loved it.  We've got a skier on our hands.

Christmas morning with Lily's tramp

The Wilford's spent a few days with us after Christmas while their parents went to a wedding.  Fun times!

Emmy playing minute to win it games for New Years

Barn owl we spotted a few times off of Kingsbury

We went skiing at Bogus.  The valley was covered in thick clouds so the mountains looked like islands in a sea of clouds.  Loved this waterfall of clouds.  So beautiful.

December - Light the World

For Christmas this year our family took part in a challenge to light the world by giving 25 days of Christ-like service.  We had so much fun and it really put "Christ" in Christmas for us.  We took pictures of the different things we did to send to both sets of Grandparents as their Christmas gifts.  Here are some of my favorite pictures...

A girl on the bus was bullied -
Andrew and Kate helped repair the damage

Kate reading to Lily

 

 Donating food to school food drives

 Visiting and Caroling to our friend Lea from Nampa

 They picked out gifts for kids at the Children's Hospital

 Donating winter clothing to refugees

 Thank you notes to teachers

 Christmas Caroling 

Rembering Christ by putting on the Nativity

Can you tell they are really into the dab?  Andrew has taught the younger girls and now someone is dabbing in every picture.  It makes me smile.