December gets busy fast, but I feel like this year we did a good job of keeping things as low key as possible and that we just enjoyed any down time we had being together!
I always loved driving home...especially when I was by myself and I knew my family was all inside. I loved seeing our lights and our tree in the front window. I had to pause and take the picture above! I love the lights and the cold and hurrying inside to cuddle up where it's warm. I LOVE this time of year!
I really love walking through the school at Christmas time and seeing the kids with their friends and classes! We can't see them very well in the school sing...the videos are better...but I thought I'd still post these pictures for the blog book. (top left picture: Kaylee is 5th from the right in the 2nd row from the top. top right picture: Taylor is kinda hidden on the bottom row, 4th from the left. bottom left: Emily is in the white shirt on the bottom row. bottom right: Kierra is in a green shirt, about 6th from the right on the 2nd row) And then the picture below all of that is Thomas and I enjoying the Christmas concert together....while Matt was most likely walking a fidgety baby around! :)
At the end of the year a lot of school projects come home. We hang them up for a little while, but we are really good at taking pictures of them and "kindly" throwing them away. :) The girls are all pretty good about it.
(left to right: Kierra's, Taylor's and Emily's)
and then below is Taylor's Indian project:
And School Christmas party gifts for Kierra
and a book gift exchange for Thomas!
Taylor had set a goal to memorize the 13 articles of faith by the end of the year. Kaylee had done it before she turned 12. They both got a BIG cookie from the Primary President!! :)
Then vacation and relaxing began! We anxiously anticipated the TV version of the musical the Sound of Music! We loved it!
I love that the kids had so much time together! The girls are way too cute with their brothers!
The ward Christmas party was a blast! I wish I had taken more pictures! Our ward is the best! The kids, the teens, the adults! We have the greatest time with everyone!
And seeing Santa was an added bonus!
A new family moved into our neighborhood this fall and we had a blast getting to know them and hang out with them a ton over the break. The kids also got to go cruising the neighborhood with the help of other friends! This video was too long to put on the blog....so here is the youtube link: http://youtu.be/4ATSz74HF5M
My next post will be about actual Christmas day, but here are a few pictures from the rest of the relaxed vacation! We didn't really go anywhere...we found a lot to do around here.
We did take a day trip to Wyoming though...well...stayed one night. The skies were beautiful! When we live in the inversion for so long sometimes we forget how yucky and gray it really is! While driving up to Kemmerer I had to take this picture (and yes....I might have been the one driving AND taking the picture...it was just too beautiful!) We loved playing games with Grandma and Grandpa Gardner!
Then to end the year off our great friend got Matt and I a gift card to the Homestead Resort in Midway. We only drove by the official Midway Ice Castles, but the hotel did have some that we decided to take pictures next to instead. We went on a sleigh ride, out to dinner and even stopped by Bridal Veil Falls on the way home while said friend had all of our kids! Her family was so great..the kids had a blast! We picked them up the next day and spent the first day of our new year walking around IKEA looking for ideas for some room rearranging. We went right home that day and moved some rooms around and decluttered a ton! It was the perfect start to a new year....hopefully we can keep the decluttering going!
We really did have the best vacation! We missed being able to travel a ton and see family that we would normally see, but sometimes it is just really nice to stay put and be us!
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