We had our usual family New Year's Eve party. We watch a movie (being sure to end by 9:00 so Dylan doesn't fall asleep), play lots of board games, and eat lots of yummy junk food (including our favorite, chocolate fondue.) My sister Kim and her family were going to join us from Tennessee, but her baby was sick and they had to stay home. We sure missed them.


Making our party hats.


Plenty of board games to get us to midnight.






Dylan's happy dance when he wins a game.


Good food is always required.


Looks like a party!



The sparkling cider is ready to toast in the New Year.


Countdown, then popping confetti balloons at the stroke of midnight.


We love a good New Year's Eve party. Come join us next year.

The day after Christmas was a really nice sunny day, cool but not cold. We needed to get out of the house and decided it was a great day to spend outside. Perfect day for a bike ride.

Bruce spent a couple hours getting the bikes ready, with 2 trips to the store for some parts. We got them loaded into the trailer and headed out.

Our first stop was Harris Lake. They are supposed to have some nice bike trails, one is really short, perfect for our 6 year old rider. As we pulled into the park, we saw signs saying the bike trails were closed. I don't know if they are always closed this time of year, or if they were just too wet. We had gotten a few days of rain. So now what?

Bruce thought he remembered an entrance to the American Tobacco Trail not too far up the road. So off we went. We had never used this trail, so we weren't sure what to expect from it. Sure enough, it was right where he thought. And even better, as we pulled into the parking lot, there were a few other families unloading bikes. As we began unloading the bikes, we found something bad. Dylan's bike had shifted during the drive, and his tire was up against the trailer's tire. He now had 2 huge holes. It was already getting late in the day, no time for another trip to the store for a new tire. I guess bike riding just wasn't meant to be for us that day.

Since we were there and it was such a nice day, we decided to just head down the trail on foot and see what was there. It's a great trail, very flat and pretty, with lots to see. There were plenty of bikers and a couple of horseback riders. We even spotted an otter swimming along in a swampy area. We made it 1 mile, and then headed back to the car. We'll have to try bike riding it another day.

We had a nice quiet Christmas with just the 5 of us. It was our first Christmas alone, without extended family since Courtney was 1! We had a great day together.

Of course we started with presents. The kids woke us up at 6:45, not too bad. I try to get them to take it slow and let us see each gift, watch each other open them. But they always want to rush through it and open the next one. So it always goes too fast for me.







In the afternoon, we decorated a gingerbread house. The kids loved this, of course eating it was even better.

It was nice to relax, enjoy a day together with nowhere to go and nothing to do. I made a nice but super easy dinner to end the evening.

Only 365 left until next Christmas!

We have been having a merry month of Christmas fun and activities.

Our favorite Christmas tradition is to read a Christmas story almost every night. At the beginning of the month, I wrap up all of our Christmas stories, some nice, some fun. I've been getting one new one each year to add to our collection. The kids get very excited when it's their turn to rip that paper open.

I've also been trying to record a bunch of Christmas shows that are on TV. So the kids have had their fill of Rudolph the Red-Nose Reindeer, Polar Express, and many more!

On Christmas Eve, we did our family Christmas program. It's a combination of scripture, songs, and pictures. It's so nice to sit and read the Christmas story from the scriptures and sing some great hymns. It always fills me the Spirit along with a chance to reflect on Christ and why we worship him.

This week, with the kids off of school, I've kept them busy with crafts. And they've come up with few of their own activities as well. Here are the highlights:

Courtney helped Dylan and Travis dress up as Santa and Rudolph. They did this in the garage while I was making dinner, so I had no idea what was going on until it was done. It made me laugh so hard. Hope you enjoy it also!



We made some ornaments out of Perler beads. They did a great job, even Travis getting into it.










On Christmas Eve, we made sugar cookies. Yum! Yum! They each chose one to leave for Santa, then promplty gobbled up the rest.
















Spreading out reindeer food in the front yard. It's almost time!!!






I love Christmas and what it means for my family. May your home be filled with peace and love and the spirit of Christ this season.

I haven't updated the blog in a while. I don't have too many pictures of recent events, but here's a few things that have been going on.


1. Here's my latest project. I painted the dining room (it's hard to see but there are stripes on the blue), and we added a chair rail and molding at the ceiling. I still need to do work on the chandelier and do some paint touch ups. But it's nice to have this much done. We were hoping to have it finished in time for Thanksgiving and a visit from Bruce's parents. I got the painting done, but the molding had to wait until after the big dinner.



Next will be the kitchen and half bath, then I'm done with the downstairs.


2. Just a few fun pitures. Courtney needed some shots of family for a school project and I thought these came out too cute to pass up sharing on here.




3. My sisters came to visit for a weekend in October. It was so fun and we laughed and ate and had a great time as only sister can. I didn't have my camera with me, so I'm counting on their pictures. You can check out Kim's blog for a great recap. (Her blog is private so sorry if you can't see it.) This is the only normal picture we have of all 3 of us. We (Jill) can't take a picture without being goofy!




4. I ran my first race on Halloween, a 5K. Some friends and I trained together in our attempt to lose some weight. We had a great time. I actually did a lot better then I thought, taking almost 1 minute off my mile time. My goal was to not walk at all, and I accomplished that, so SUCCESS!






I did an 8K charity race on Thanksgiving morning, but didn't run the whole thing. A friend and I walked about half of that one, but it was fun. We're going to keep entering these shorter races hoping it will keep us running regularly. If I could just stay away from all the yummy food that is so so bad for me, I wouldn't have to worry about this. But for now, where's my running shoes?

Dylan played soccer for the first time this fall. He loved it. Just like with T-Ball, he had a smile on his face the whole time. There were a few kids that were really good and had obviously played a lot. Dylan couldn't keep up with them, but he never quit running the field. He even got a goal during his last game!!

As always, the kids had tons of fun this Halloween. Our holiday lasted all month, which made this post quite long.


During their track out time at the beginning of the month, I let them decorate the house. We also went to the Dollar Store so they could each choose one new decoration. Then we made this really cute craft.

We had a fun ward Fall Festival at the church. The kids got to dress up in their costumes, we had a yummy chili cook-off, (mine never wins!) and a trunk-or-treat in the halls of the church. The exciting moment of the evening came when the youth's spook alley set off the fire alarm because of their fog machine. The alarm system automatically notifies the fire department, so before long, the big truck came. All the kids thought it was great, the leaders not so much.
I didn't get any pictures of this night, so on to the next.

On Friday the 30th, the Kindergarten and 1st grade classes had a book character parade. The schools don't allow kids to come in their Halloween costumes, but they got around that rule by incorporating reading into dressing up. The kids were supposed to bring a book and dress up as a character. Of course, most of the costumes were just their Halloween costumes, and some kids didn't even bother with the book. But it was still a fun event. We had a fireman costume from a previous year, so I found some firemen books at the library and let Dylan choose one to use. Courtney's class also dressed up. They had been doing some fun dress up things all week to celebrate Red Ribbon Week, (pajama day, wild hair day, crazy sock day, wear red day.) Because their Kindergarten reading buddies were dressing up, her class also got to dress up as a book character. Again, I just found an old costume, which happened to be a Little Red Riding Hood cape she had worn when she was about 4.



And finally, Halloween day. I told the kids I wouldn't buy costumes this year because we had plenty of things they could wear. Courtney chose to go as a ninja again, just like last year. Dylan decided to save his own money to buy a power ranger costume. His favorite guy is Green Ranger. It was going to cost $40 from online. After saving and saving, he only had about $18, and not much time left. We found Red Ranger at Walmart for $20, so he chose that one instead. Travis used his ninja costume last year at our Ward Fall Festival. Courtney wanted him to go as a cowboy and got the outfit all ready. Each day, if you asked Travis, he would have a new answer as to which he would dress up as. But Halloween day he decided on the cowboy outfit.