Hylie's School Pics

These pics were taken at the beginning of the school year, but we didn't receive the prints until just before Christmas break:

Hylie continues to love school, is a rock-star reader, enjoys writing, and her teacher: Mrs. Peterson sings her praises every time I have contact with her.  We are grateful for all of this and hope Hylie will always find fulfillment in learning and trying her best.

Happy New Year 2019

We decided to celebrate the New Year a little differently this time around...staying up late with these little ones would bring a pretty grumpy first day of 2019.  Geoff had New Year's Day off, so we decided to party all day on January 1st instead of staying up New Year's Eve.  The kids didn't seem to mind!

I found a fun idea on Pinterest where you put activities inside balloons and pop them throughout the day--it turned out to be a fun and fantastic celebration welcoming the New Year!

We started out making party hats

Played games

Had a dance party

Created and ran an obstacle course

Got some crafting in

Made some yummy pizza for dinner

Had an epic parachute dance party while dinner baked

And enjoyed some delicious pudding parfaits for dessert!

Thanks to YouTube, we even had a countdown complete with fireworks!

Only 8 weeks to go until things change quite drastically around here!

2018 definitely brought us many blessings and wonderful memories.  We are looking forward to 2019 and hope to spread love, help, and kindness as we navigate through this next year!

Christmas Day

Santa stopped by and surprised the girls each with a gift and then later in the day, Mom and Dad gave the kiddos the gifts we put together for them.  The excitement still has not died down from all the fun!

I was happy to see that the girls loved the "Seek-and-Find" book I put together with their pictures hidden in each page

as well as the "Scoodies" (Scarves with Hoodies) I made for each of them.

Decorating the Tree

At the beginning of December, the girls could not WAIT to decorate the tree.  So needless to say when I pulled it out they were bouncing off the walls until I plugged in the lights to find that only one of our three strings worked!  Our decorating was delayed just a day so we could replace our dud lights and everyone thought it was well worth the wait.

Family Gift Exchange

At the beginning of December Geoff and I took the girls to the store and let them pick out gifts for each other.  It took quite a bit of coordinating and swapping so gifts could be selected without the recipient seeing--but it all worked out and it was so fun to see how excited the girls were to watch each other open their presents.

Gingerbread Houses

As you can see, I totally 'cheat' when it comes to Gingerbread houses.  Growing up, making these candy creations was a way more involved and elaborate event--(I don't know how you did it, Mom!).  One day I hope to create our own structures and decorate with an unending assortment of candies...but while we have little fingers and a huge need of parent help...I'm sticking with the prefabricated kits!

Christmas 2018

With a busy year of moving and family visits, we ran out of vacation days which meant our holidays would be spent in Chicago.  We have missed being with extended family, but we're blessed with technology that keeps us close, and are extremely grateful for all the family time we did have throughout the year.

Geoff and I have been making extra efforts to keep the focus of Christmas on the Savior and what His life means to us.  We are grateful for the scriptures that testify of Him, the modern resources we have to better understand His mission and how we can be enabled and strengthened through Him.

It was also wonderful to see how much the kids enjoyed learning about the Savior.  We had a devotional each night about His life using "The 25 Days of Christ" gift Dean and Andrea gave us a few years back.  The girls LOVED finding out what the ornament would be each night.  Each item represented something about the Savior and it was lovely to hear Hylie and Eliana talk about what they thought the ornament was portraying. 

Hylie asked if she could do a presentation on Christmas Eve and Geoff and I were touched that it was all centered around the birth of Christ.  She included Eliana and Lillian with everything and ended her message by playing the Christmas songs she has learned on the piano.

We're grateful for the reflection and family time this season can bring.  We have been truly blessed because of the Savior's life and pray to understand and do more of what He has asked of us in our mortality.