Pine Wood Derby 2017

Pine wood derby was last Tuesday.  I had a fun time watching these great guys in my life work on their cars and they had a blast spending a lot of extra time with Bo too.  Tuesday ended up being a snow day and it was a good thing because they spent the whole day at the warehouse working on their cars with Bo. He thought they were almost done but, nope. I'm not sure they would have finished their cars in time if they hadn't.

These two worked together smoothing out the nails for their cars.

Bo spent hours on the wheels to get them lighter.

Conrad got 4th place and had a great time.  His car tied with his best friend Brian.

Jackson had an awesome time and ended up getting second place.

I wish I would have gotten a picutre of all three of them together....duh!

Christmas 2016

Isn't Christmas the best?!  I just love the feeling in the air this time of year.  The kids are almost bursting with excitement (which of course can be a bit obnoxious at times) but it's fun to see them so excited. Everywhere you go, people are more kind and generous.  It's easier to see the needs of others and help out where we can. It reminds me to take some extra time to think about the reason we celebrate and take note of our many blessings we have.  There are many blessings that we see and maybe take for granted, but I'm sure there are countless others that come without me even realizing it because I haven't taken the time to look.  I've learned a lot this year that when we truly seek to see the Lord's hand in our lives; we will see it. When we don't see Him there it isn't because he's left our side. It's because we have become to busy to take the time to look....    

Christmas morning started out too early. :) A little before 6.  Usually while I make crepes, the kids check out their stockings. But, I was not feeling great and this year many of us had the flu so we skipped the crepes and just checked out the stockings.  Then went downstairs to open presents.

I loved being snowed in with nowhere to go.  My parents stopped by for a few minutes to give their gifts but didn't stay long because the snow was so bad.  The kids had a great time playing with their new toys. My siblings had fun texting pics of the snow at their houses all day. Hailey put together a huge lego set for at least 6 hours and the boys had fun with all their new stuff.  All in all I think it was a great Christmas.  It's always fun to spend time together with everyone home and no responsibility.

This picture is too sweet.

Random pictures from the morning: 

Pre Christmas Fun!

We had such a great time in December.  We've gotten loads of snow and we are loving it and how it just continues to come our way.

The kids got out on December 16th for Christmas.  We had many fun activities planned for the time they were off but things were cut short.  Many of us ended up with the flu and weren't up for doing too much.

We did see Santa (Hailey said she was too old this year, haha).  There was a lot of playing in the snow.  We also made it to the Museum of Idaho gingerbread and nativity display and made some yummy treats.  We were bummed we weren't able to drop any treats off to friends and that we didn't get to go see my Grandma Irene.  It's one of our favorite things to do.  The kids just love her.

Here are some highlights:

Some pretty cool gingerbread houses

The kids made these while my Mom and I made treats.

Brayden thinking really hard about what he wants.

Jack was getting a kid out of himself as he teased Santa with a silly joke.  I can't remember now what it was.