More Christmas

More Christmas! We got some group pictures right away which is always a good idea so we're not doing it at the last second when people are trying to go home! Next we had some yummy pasta, salad and rolls and then got around to opening presents. It was so fun watching Laney and Zsa Zsa experience everything and Paige hovered around them the whole time "helping."

Laney really liked Paige's Olaf and Owen's Yoda stuffed animals!

Our Christmas

Christmas morning! Owen was the first one up (just like last year) and had to wait about an hour for Paige to get up. Both kids have to walk past the living room to get upstairs so we had told them not to check out the tree yet but they both did:) Paige even gave us a heads-up when she told us that her and Owen's stockings were way fuller than ours! We took our time opening gifts and ate some scones before it was time to get ready to see my side of the family!

Pat's Family Christmas

We celebrated Christmas with Pat's family on Christmas Eve. I was still feeling pretty awful but also pretty confident that it was actually food poisoning and not the flu or something that was contagious. We had fun exchanging gifts and we ate some Cheesy Vegetable Chowder. Pat's mom had made a tray of cookies which was great because I couldn't manage to get out of bed to bake anything! We spent time together until it was time to go to church. I wasn't sure I was feeling ok to go but I managed to pull it together and we walked there super early so we could get a seat. It wasn't crowded at all!

The kids made bookmarks for everyone and needed to sort out who got what. Owen's bookmarks had a theme of school colors for everyone's high school!

Christmas Lights

We ventured out on the 23rd to see some local Christmas lights that were featured on the Great Christmas Light Fight. They didn't win the show but they were a great display and it was fun to see it in person. The owner was even hanging out in his yard! Later in the evening I got food poisoning from the Subway we had for dinner. Bleh!

These arches were the beginning of the culdesac. A lot of the houses on the street participated. 

This house had only one decoration:)

New Years Day Hike

Happy New Year! I'm going to talk about what we did on the first day of 2016 and then I'll go way back to Christmastime and catch up on all the old posts! The kids had two weeks off for break so we did a lot of stuff. We started off the day with the kids sleeping in later than every before! Owen was up at 10 and Paige followed soon after. We relaxed for awhile and then headed out for our annual New Year's Day hike! This was the 4th year we've done it and the first year we went somewhere new. We brought some hand warmers with us to stave off the cold but after getting lost in the woods for awhile our toes felt like ice cubes and we were running to the car!

We were the only ones there...

Team Photo

Owen's team just finished up their first session of indoor soccer but they just received their trophies for getting first place in outdoor last season! Congratulations!!

Fun with Friends

We started the first day of vacation off right with friends at an indoor playground. Carpooling always adds an extra element of fun for everyone too. The kids pretended the hills were a rollercoaster and then we spent 3 hours at the playground. I didn't think the kids would last that long but it ended up being the perfect amount of time.

Whee!

Picture opportunity!

Friends

We had some friends in town recently and were able to meet up with them at Panera to catch up! We realized it had been about two years since we had seen each other (too long!) so we were really glad they got in touch while they were here. The kids all picked out a treat and colored while we talked but they were also really involved with the conversation because there was no where to escape to;)

I took this picture...

Paige took this picture...

Quinoa Bark

I found the recipe for Chocolate Caramel Bark with Quinoa in a magazine and was interested but also a little leery of quinoa in a dessert setting. I made it for a small get together at my house to try it out and loved it so much I made another batch to give to the kids teachers with their Christmas presents.

Birthday Baking

We celebrated my mom's birthday over the weekend and made some holiday treats! First up was the peanut brittle. It seemed fairly easy and we were closely monitoring it with the candy thermometer until it started smelling and looking burnt. I thought we would have to throw the whole thing out but it came out very tasty! Too tasty... Then we made an old cookie dough recipe of my grandmas that turned out to be very versatile. We made three different kinds from the one dough. The kids had a ton of fun hanging out with their cousins, who are much more mobile then they were last time! Paige wanted to be in charge of them but they were having none of it:)

Owen's Class Party

I went to Paige's class for Halloween so it was time to take a turn in Owen's class for the Christmas party! They played a game where they had balloons tied around their legs and had to pop the other peoples balloons and the kids loved it! They also had tons of treats and drank hot chocolate. 3rd graders don't actually need a lot of help at their parties but I'm still glad I got to go:)

Paige's Recital

Even though Paige had two mall performances under her belt, that didn't mean her recital was any less exciting! She still had a tap number that she hadn't performed publicly and costume changes to deal with. The girls did amazing. I'd seen these songs countless times and was still impressed with their performance. Good job Paige!

Owen's Christmas Concert!

I've been waiting to post about Owen's school concert because I thought I would figure out how to add the other pictures I took to this post but this was the best I could do! This picture is from the post-concert ice cream celebration! Owen had a speaking part again this year and did great. The first line of his part  was, "And French carols are also known as noels." When he practiced it at home it kept sounding like he was saying "French girls" but he fixed it before the big night:) The other big news was that a student threw up on stage two songs from the end of the show. They paused for a cleanup before they finished! 

Nutcracker!

Pat and Owen opted out of seeing the Nutcracker (remember how it went last year?) so it was just Paige and me! A lot of the performers were from Paige's dance studio so she recognized some friends and her teachers. I was really impressed with the job they did, it's crazy to think that Paige could be participating in something of that scale as soon as next year! We also ran into some friends in the audience which gave us a chance to pose for some pictures together:)

Before!

After!

Wreathy

I told Owen I needed a picture on my phone because I had just cleared them out and this is what I got:)

Hugs!

"Mom, can we play electronics?"
"Yes, but only if you hug each other first."
"Ok!"

Cousins!

The kids got a chance to hang out with their cousins a couple weeks ago and they looooved it! Paige especially was all about helping take care of the babies, even if they didn't need it;)

Dancing at the Mall!

Paige is in a new group at dance this year and got to perform at the malls for the christmas season! That means triple the number of performances by the end of the month compared to last year! She did an awesome job and I could tell she loved all of it!