Christmas at the Cabin

 This photo captures the essence of our family pretty well

Now we're somewhat ready with a few more forced smiles

Jaidin was the big winner this year. There was around $85 in the pot this time. Probably the biggest its ever been.

These two were having a fun time teasing and talking to Adam all night.

Hannah got stuck on top of the fridge playing hide and seek. I had to go rescue her

Washburn Christmas Party

 

December Happenings

Grayson drew pictures of Grandma and Grandpa Pettingill. 3 years old

Hannah's turkey. 6 years old

Hannah and Grayson found some treasures on the floor at the store while I was shopping. Hannah brought them home and immediately went to work using her treasures in a picture with the paints she got for Christmas. 6 years old

Lucas and Zander aced another belt test! Lucas is now in the youth/adult class after earning his brown belt, and Zander is now a blue belt. Way to go boys!

We took the kids out Christmas shopping for their sibling gift exchange, then took them to the Ogden Christmas village to see the lights. This place was really neat. Lots of stuff to see including furries roaming around the park, lol

Zander had a spotlight done on him for a whole week at school in his 4th grade class. He put this poster together about himself and his family. He is such an awesome kid.

And look at Grayson's cute curls!

Craft Day and Store Party

 December craft day came and went. We did a cookie exchange and My Favorite Things party. It is always so much fun to be surrounded by family! 

The night before craft day I was honored to present a Kinetico water softener cake to the employees of Kinetico of Magic Valley in Twin Falls. I planned and thought out how I was going to do it for a month, and it took me at least 16+ hours of work to complete it. I have never done a realistic cake before so it was throwing my for a loop! I stressed over it for a whole week. It ended up being crooked because some of my cakes were probably not baked through all the way. I was not happy about that at all, but there was nothing I could do to fix it at that point, so I had to keep going and hope for the best. Even my decorating was subpar. I had never used modeling chocolate before and made just enough to cover the top of the cake. Anyway, There were so many flaws; I wasn't entirely happy with it, although it turned out better than I thought it would despite it's lopsidedness. Getting it to Twin Falls was another feat in it of itself. I hoped and prayed I could get it to the party without it falling over in the car because of how much it was leaning. I had the AC blasting with the kids cuddled in their coats and blankets all the way, haha! 

Quentin's and Devin's Ballgame

 Right after Thanksgiving Joseph's family came to stay with us for a night. Quentin and Devin had a basketball game at the Delta Center, so I took the older boys to watch them play. Scott and Sydney came too, and we went out for a late lunch afterward to Crown Burger. We didn't get enough seats for everyone so Scott's family had to sit behind us. Kimberly beat Wendall by 5 points. Later that night Joseph's family went to the Jazz game. I took Linley home with me so she could play with the boys.

I parked at Stephen's office so we had to walk a few blocks to the gym. On the way there we were passing by a business woman and she randomly stopped us as she was walking in the opposite direction if we wanted some treats. She was pulling them in a wagon. Looked like maybe she was running some kind of promotion or office party and had extra snack bags, so we each got one. The bags had chips, trail mix, chocolate bars, and hi-chews in them. Perfect for watching a ballgame!