December

can i just say, it was super hard to find pictures from this month that didn't have to do with christmas or disneyland? well it was. because that is basically all we did! lol

seth LOVES books! he feels jipped if i don't read him at least three before nap time and he corners me to read at least a couple other times a day. it is adorable how he backs up to sit in my lap =o]

natalie loves books too!! i find her like this- left behind with a book when we have all moved on to the next thing, and i think it is adorable. 

caleb and jenna love books TOGETHER =o] i find them snuggled up and reading (because it is "so cold") almost every day and it think it is just as adorable as the other two. *sigh* my dream of raising book lovers is coming true! and these aren't even christmas books people! which we spent hours reading daily in december- not an exaggeration!!

random but cute and i wish i had gotten caleb in the picture. this is what i posted on fb about this memory i wanted to capture:

Today I feel so much gratitude that we are a homeschooling family. I am grateful that I get to see my children PLAY together in an unstructured, unhurried way just randomly during the middle of the day. We just finished lunch and as I cleaned up a bit they excitedly ran inside to show me their "junior geologist" notebooks filled with sketches and descriptions of the rocks they are collecting. They are so creative and free to wander and wonder here! I know every family is different and what works for one wouldn't work for another, but today I feel assured that this is what is best for our family right now and I couldn't be more grateful for that confirmation. Happy Friday to you all!! 

i got to go to the temple with one of my best friends sarah and it was a beautiful peaceful night. i'm so grateful for my AMAZING friends!!

we cleaned out and reorganized the kid's rooms. i let them each have 100 things in their rooms. no art supplies! and only a few select toys. as you can see most of natalie's 100 things are decorations lol

they each have 25 stuffed animals. yes EACH. and it was like WWIII to get them down to that number. i swear these things multiply while we sleep! the girls' are in these baskets under natalie's bed and the boys' are on a shelf under the bunk.

natalie advanced to master white belt in her red dragon karate class! 

here she is with her favorite teacher sensei thomas

she was so proud! and we are so proud of her!!

we had our family best friends over for dinner and had a great time making little pizzas and laughing the night away. they are the coolest!

we got sick =o[  

(on the up side, see the sweet cards kent gave to me for our 10 year wedding anniversary? he also made an AWESOME itinerary for our hawaii trip! i gave him a thank you card i had saved from our wedding with some gift cards in it =o])

jenna fell asleep on the couch in the middle of lunch. if you know her you will understand just how sick she would have to be for that to happen!

we had the missionaries over for dinner. the kids gave them WAY TMI about our family lol poor guys ha ha ha

and the kids congregate by the heater vent because our house is freezing every morning. go ahead and laugh if you want. kent does! i have this theory (that he also laughs at lol) that people who live in california feel the seasons more than people who live in humidity or snowy places do because we try not to use our heater/AC. so instead of having a range of maybe 10 degrees inside our house, we have at least a 25 degree range! seriously! it is 58* F when we get down stairs in the morning! and it was 85*F every afternoon this summer in my kitchen while i made dinner! wah wah blah blah i know i know. but it is true even if you laugh at it. so we fork our the dough to pay for running it a couple critical hours when i can't take it either way.

and there you have the other parts of our december =o]

Christmas in November...

are you one of those sticklers about "no christmas until after thanksgiving" people? we used to be... but no longer!! my online shopping and gift making and christmas book writing isn't even the half of it. christmas music is the main culprit... we just love it too much!

since we had been scratching that christmas itch for weeks anyway, as soon as we got home from madera it was full blown Christmastime!

we busted out the nativity sets and the kids were in heaven!!

it kept them distracted while kent dealt with the tree lol (he is so particular, it is adorable lol)

and of course all the christmas books were a huge hit! just this morning i read our board book version of "who is coming to our house?" per seth's request/demand =o]

and of course setting up the kid's trees was a huge event!

and then the piece de resistance... christmas pajamas!!!

on sunday we let them wear their christmas church clothes because caleb begged to get to wear his suit. and i can't really blame him. i mean, look at the kid!! 

(this isn't jenna's actual christmas dress, we just didn't want it to get stained or ruined before it was even december lol)

after church we decorated the tree while listening to christmas music and just revelling in the season's magic!

seth is in heaven with all the containers to open and hide things in! =o]

we got a christmas book from grandma and grandpa mackay so we got to open one that night even though it wasn't december yet. (and even though it was about santa instead of jesus) it was so fun to start this tradition with kent this time around! last year we opened the book at quiet time and read from the binder at night, but kent felt left out so we decided to switch it up this year. it is working just as well and i'm glad he spoke up about it because it is so fun to see the kids all excited each night and snuggle up all together to read books about the story of christ's birth and the spirit of christmas. treasured memories for sure!!

merry christmas!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

we had a great time in madera for thanksgiving!

one of my dad's farm dogs just had 11 puppies! getting to see and play with them was definitely a highlight of the trip!

another highlight was getting to spend some quality time with jenae. she is usually SO BUSY with all her activities that we don't get to hang out much, but this time was different and we loved it!

also a major event was grandpa jamie jumping on the trampoline with the kids. i honestly don't remember ever seeing my dad jumping on the trampoline like this! my mom even took a video!

seth LOVED queenie! for me, this trip solidified that we will have a dog someday!

we enjoyed the beautiful weather in our old stomping grounds =o]

and of course busted out all the favorite grammy toys!

the kids worked for hours "building" a "magic tree house"- classic! i swear i spent half of my free time as a kid constructing clubhouses of one kind or another so this was fun to see. 

sleep deprived seth LOVES his blanket!!

jenna just being her silly self! 

and seth joined her =o]

the kids went to the library with grammy of course, and got a ton of cool books to read. 

we also brought all our favorite thanksgiving books to read and share and this one "balloons over broadway" was the hands down favorite. 

on tuesday caleb went to the farm with grandpa jamie for the morning. 

and then caleb and i went to chowchilla for the afternoon. we tried to work with grandma hansen on her childhood book, but didn't get very far ;o]

but we were a big help to grandpa hansen in helping him put up his reindeer decorations for the front yard. i LOVED these as a child up on the roof, and now i will always treasure as an adult the memory of talking and singing with my grandpa as we set them up on the lawn. i just love this humble, hilarious, unbelievably strong old man!!

grandpa told caleb that if he was a good helper he would give him a special surprise. and true to his word caleb received a package from grandpa hansen a few days ago with a little wooden gun he had made for him, with "CALEB" inscribed on the side, which caleb proudly wore in his belt loop for the rest of the day and called to thank him for it that night. =o] priceless! 

wednesday was full of baking and playing and talking with my mom. 

jenna got to go on an adventure with jenae and her friend virat (pronounced verrawt) to the grocery store all by herself!

they said she was pretty quiet so she was probably nervous lol

natalie got to have maren over of course. i am so grateful for her sweet friend! we love the hyers!

more seth with puppies. he could not get enough! he signed more dog every time he caught a glimpse of them!

wednesday night we made pies!

i also started making my pumpkin cheesecake but then had to abandon my mom to finish it AND put my kids to bed to boot because i had to go pick kent up from the airport. he had been on a business trip all week. anyway, so we got home and my mom was finishing up some stuff in the kitchen so we talked for a minute and then we went to bed. come to find out the next morning that she still stayed up to not only take out the pies but made the rolls that night too!! the poor saint slaved away until after 2am. i felt SO BAD! she is so selfless it is incredible to me! 

we were happy to have dad back!!

the main event of the morning was the parade. it wasn't ever a huge tradition for either of our families but because of the book the kids were all worked up about seeing it. at first it was a HUGE disappointment (like natalie cried!) because it was just a bunch of people talking and some weird musical numbers. being novice parade watchers, we didn't realize that the real parade was on it's way! finally we paused it for like 30 minutes while we got ready for the day, so we could fast forward through stuff and then we found out the schedule. so it all turned out in the end!

it was so good to have kent around to play with! did i already say that? 

the kids helped to set the table and make place cards.

here we are waiting for grandma and grandpa hansen to arrive =o]

hooray for the hansens!!

the kids checked out some books while the adults finished eating. 

after we all went around the table saying things we are grateful for, my grandma gave the sweetest little speech about family and eternal life. 

more book reading while waiting for dessert =o]

a picture before bedtime- we are so thankful the kids get to know their great grandparents!!

on friday morning the kids played outside while kent and i packed up. it was hectic as usual! but at least they knew they get to come back after christmas =o]

natalie has her heart set on a dog the second we let her get one!!

hooray for madera! hooray for thanksgiving with family!