Mom and Sons Night

 Zander, Lucas, and I got to attend their school's mom and sons movie night last week. We spent the night in Paris watching 'Ratatouille'. We ate lots of snacks and snuggled until they got bored and started finding friends to play tag with in the back, but we had a good time together.

Ice Castles

We took a trip to the ice castles again, but this time we had Grandma and Grandpa come with us. The kids were so excited to have them there. It was fun to get there while it was still light out, but then it got dark so we could have fun with the snow all lit up with lights. They had a lot more ice slides this year and reindeer, and a snow princess. Even Grandma and Grandpa went down the slides! Then we had dinner dessert afterwards.

 

More Little Moments

During Christmas break Zander and Lucas broke the tv. So they have to do chores for the next several weeks to pay for a new one. I asked Lucas to shovel the driveway one morning after it had snowed. I looked out the window and saw him in his pjs and boots. One thing about Lucas, when he is asked to do a chore he might whine about it sometimes, but he does the job and he does it well. He's a good little worker. 

"Mom, can I hold Jesus Christ?" Any time Grayson wanted to hold the doll we use as our baby Jesus under the tree this is what he asks me. It is the cutest thing because he'll ask using his whole name.

Hannah cut her own hair....again. I took all the scissors out of the basement the night before because I was tired of finding them and picking them up every day when I would go down there. So I decided to take them away. Unbeknownst to me, Hannah had a pair of small scissors in her bed that night. And those are the ones she used to cut her hair and Grayson's. So we had to chop her hair and give her some bangs to try and mask it the best we could. Grayson needed a hair cut anyway, but boy did he throw a tantrum at he salon. It took me 10 minutes to try and calm him down so he'd sit still. 

Zander and I finished the third Harry Potter book during the winter break, so we got to watch the movie. He finally admitted that the book is way better than the movie! So we started on the fourth one. We're trying to read as much as we can before we go to Harry Potter World at the end of the school year. We probably won't make it all the way through the seventh book, but I really look forward to reading with him every night. It's one of my favorite things. I like reading with all of the kids. 

 

Little Moments 2022

 Between Thanksgiving and Christmas last month Hannah had her Christmas dance recital. She worked really hard on it. I wasn't so sure she'd actually dance, but she did phenomenal! Way to go Hannah!

Grayson wanted to try out baby Jesus's cradle for himself. It didn't work out so well for him.

The boys had been at the table for hours that Sunday playing Risk together. It was glorious. There was minimal fighting and when there was a disagreement they were able to work it out without yelling. I just loved how great they were getting along.

Oh Hannah, what am I going to do with you? I took her to school that morning dressed in pants and a shirt. I picked her up from school dressed like this in her dress up dance clothes. Apparently she snuck her dress up clothes in her back pack and changed at some point during the day. She is not even wearing shorts under her dance suit!

I asked Hannah to make a Christmas list. Here is what she wrote. She showed it to me after asking me what I wanted for Christmas and Dad. Dad replied  with "I don't know" so he got nothing. She drew pictures instead of writing it down. I asked for earrings and bath towels. And then she told me she added some things to my list she thought I'd like: peace and love, children listening to parents, and having the kids sharing and playing nicely as a family. I have to admit, I wanted all those things more than bath towels, lol. Hannah asked for her own computer and printer so she can print off all the coloring pages she wants, and a unicorn with wings.

The boys earned their orange belts! Way to go Zander and Lucas!

Pop tart gingerbread houses!

Hannah and I spent two hours cleaning up Zander's room for him as a Christmas gift to him from Hannah. We did it all before he got home from school. Hannah wrote a note to him on his chalkboard: "Merry Christmas, I love you. From Hannah. I hope you have a merry Christmas."

2022 At a Glance

February

 -Grayson got a big boy bed!

March

-Lucas lost his first tooth

April

-finally took a camping trip to the Dugway Geode beds—some 9 years in the making. It turned into one of the worst camping trips, but memorable. I achieved one of my childhood dreams of finding my own geode. 

-Grayson turned two

May

-went to the tulip festival with all the Washburn women

June

-Lucas turned seven

-Stephen finally got to go back to work at the office after 2.5 years of being home since the pandemic hit. 

July

-spent a week at Mount Rushmore with mom and dad, Joseph’s and Adam’s families. That was such a fun week! But I also had one of the biggest scared of my life with Hannah almost getting hit by a car.

August

-Hannah turned five and had her first birthday party

-went to Bear Lake

-Zander and Lucas started karate  they both have earned their orange belts

October

-Zander placed first in his first karate tournament. Lucas placed third. They both did amazing!

-We were one of the first ones to stay at the cabin after it had been completed. 

-Grew my first rainbow corn crop!

-Hannah’s first dance recital

November

-Zander turned nine

-We took the two older boys with us to Costa Rica for Thanksgiving. They both got to play in the ocean for the first time. Zander learned how to surf. I got to walk and swim through the rainforest  Another childhood dream come true for me.

It was a fun year with two really fun big vacations we got to go on. We have been so blessed to live the life we have. We all have our health and are happy. 

New Years

 Ringing in 2023! 

Christmas Continued

 We stayed at the cabin overnight to have the Pettingill family Christmas party. We had lots of fun, but I felt like it was so short. We played games, had dinner, and Stephen won the pot this year. There was $53.40. I was off by exactly $1.00. Them Joseph did the nativity. We played a “pass the present” game with the nativity story. I’m pretty sure every one of our kids ended up with a present. Scott and Sydney gave us homemade cookie dough, puppy chow, and several loaves of sweet breads. It was awesome. The kids got to go sledding the next morning with uncle Brad towing them around the pasture behind the four wheeler. I wish I had taken pictures. 

When we got home Stephen and I did our annual scavenger hunt for the kids so they could find their new pjs. They got Spider-Man and Frozen Jammies and a new book.

This is the best I could get Christmas morning before heading to church, lol.

This was my favorite gift. Lucas gave me an envelope with a quarter and a slip of paper in it that read, "Dear Mom, I hope you have a good Christmas. Love, Lucas"