Winter Break!

The kids had 2 weeks off of school for Winter Break and we had a great time. Which is good because the first 2 days they were supposed to head back to school got cancelled because we were having the coldest weather we've had in years, and the coldest weather I've ever experienced. Only - 41 wind chill. Yikes! We didn't do too much besides hang out at home and play, but the kids all got along really well for the most part and I wasn't anxious to send them back to school. 

Here are a few things we did:

Went to our favorite Ice Cream Parlor, Ella's Deli. We had coupons expiring so we went there on New Years Eve. Although we couldn't actually find the coupons before leaving, we had already told the kids we were going, so we still went. Later the coupons turned up under Nora's bed...

Nora loves to snuggle up with Scooter on the couch and hold him while he naps. It's pretty cute and Scooter loves the attention.

This is our friend Chia, he is a college student going to BYU-Idaho and comes home in the summer and winter break. He's good to our kids and took the older 3 to McDonald's and the Dollar Store before he drove back to Idaho (he didn't quite dare take Wesley and really, who can blame him? 3 year olds are tough!) I'm not sure why Miles is looking so surprised in this picture, but it's funny.

The boys spent plenty of time looking at cool stuff on the computer, mostly playing pbskids or looking at all the lego sets they want to own.

The girls spent plenty of time goofing off, crafting, doing their rainbow loom and reading.

We have to try to wear Scooter out since it is too cold to walk him right now. Wesley loves playing with that green toy and keeping it away from Scooter.

Wesley got a good bump on his head during a dad and 4 kid high dog pile. Ouch! But the fun never stops until someone gets hurt, right?

 

The last night before heading back to school the kids got a little stir crazy so Brian sat and read a Roald Dahl (one of our favorite authors) book to them.

Considering all the time we spent cooped up together in the house, the kids did so well and we had a lot of fun. A few other things we did with no pictures are: built snowmen (before our cold front came in), went to see Frozen (LOVED IT) and played the Wii (we got one for Christmas!) And the most shocking part of the vacation, my house wasn't completely trashed when they left for school today! I'm still not sure how we managed that. What a great winter break!

Christmas!

Christmas Eve started out with new jammies for everyone!

Then we had a little program where everyone got to choose something to do. Sophie and I both read stories and Nora played a song on the piano while Miles sang it and Wesley was the moral support. :)  We sang more carols together while Brian played on the piano and then ended with reading about the birth of Christ from the scriptures.

The kids get to sleep together on Christmas Eve so we pushed the girls' beds together and let them watch some Christmas movies before they all fell asleep at about 10.

Surprisingly they all slept in until about 6:30! The girls came down and then Wesley and then we let them wake Miles up at 6:45.

Even Scooter got a toy and a new bone.

Wesley loved his chocolate Santa, it didn't last long.

One of my favorite things about the girls is that they spend a lot of time making gifts for everyone in our family (even though we draw names...) Sophie spent a long time making this rag doll for Nora.

Nora was excited about her camera!

Daddy really wanted to get the kids all Nerf guns this year.

In our family name draw Brian and I got the boys names so I bought an assortment of costumes at the after Halloween clearance. The boys love dressing up in these and thinking they are invincible. Nora drew Sophie's name and got her a new pocket knife with her own money, Sophie lost hers on a hike this summer and was pretty excited. Sophie had Brian's name and made him a really cute "newspaper" with news all about him in it. Miles had my name and gave me some bath salts (which I may have bought myself...) but he did draw a cute picture for me :)

We had a great Christmas morning together. Sophie got a football and a pillow/arm chair from Santa and boots, a nerf gun and lego set from Brian and I. Nora got a ukelele and care bear hat from Santa and a camera, legos and nerf gun from Brian and I. Miles got some superhero action figures from Santa and a hotwheel set, nerf gun and lego set from Brian and I. Wesley also got superhero action figures from Santa and legos, a nerf gun and a Bullseye (from Toy Story) from Brian and I. Brian and I got new pillows and a fancy kitchen mat that's really soft and cushy. Later that day we were supposed to go have dinner with friends but around 2 I got sick and was throwing up the rest of the day. No fun. But I'm glad it was later in the day when we were just relaxing so I could enjoy the morning. Brian cleaned up Christmas, fed the kids and put them to bed and cleaned some more!

December fun!

 Our community does a "Breakfast with Santa" that we took the kids to last year, so of course we had to go this year as well! We had a fun time eating breakfast, visiting Santa and doing crafts.

 We also decorated Gingerbread men, I mean people.

 We are having fun in the snow so far!

This is a fun "sledding hill" Brian made shoveling our long driveway. It's also a cave on the other side. It is really fun for now, but come March I'm really gonna hate it!

Thanksgiving Weekend

We had Thanksgiving dinner with our friends, the Allee family. They were in our ward in Michigan and ended up moving here a year after us! I didn't get that many pictures, but we had a great time and lots of yummy food!

The kids table (minus the Allee's two little boys) I'm not sure what Wes is doing here, hopefully not wiping his mouth off on their couch! :)

Ellary and Miles

 

Nora made her and Teddy matching turkey shirts and matching capes for the day. The Saturday after Thanksgiving we went to get our tree! Growing up both Brian and I always went up the mountains and cut our trees down. In Michigan we found a tree farm and we knew we wanted to find another tree farm here. The last 2 years here we haven't loved where we got our trees so Brian and I looked on-line and found two Tree farm options that we were debating between. I wanted to go to the one that had the fancier website but Brian thought this other one would be more up our alley. So I agreed to try this one out and we were so glad we did. It was on a beautiful farm out in the countryside of Wisconsin and it was perfect.

Santa was sitting in the barn and the kids were excited to tell him what they wanted for Christmas. Sophie: a pillow with arm rests, Nora: a ukelele, Miles: a video game, Wesley: batman

There were two sets of these gorgeous Belgian Draft horses that pulled everyone around the tree fields. You could choose which field you wanted to get out at, find your tree and wait for the next trailer to come pick you up.

We got out at a field with different kinds of trees and it didn't take long to find the perfect one!

We had to make it back to a friend's baptism so we carried our tree up to the farm instead of waiting for the horses again. While we were being pulled around the different fields there were some trees that had blue ribbons on them. Our driver told us they were just for marking the fields but back at the farm there was a sign that said those trees were only $10 because they were getting cut down this year anyway!!  It took me a while to get over the fact that we paid $37 and we could have paid $10 for a tree. But we had a great time and we love our tree. Next year we'll know!

We bought some fresh and yummy kettlecorn there and took our tree home. Such a perfect time, and definitely a new Wisconsin tradition!