January and other news

Mark's birthday was January 7th.  He's 47 now, and handsome as ever!  We had a fun quiet birthday party.

Daniel made this great Duplo guy one day, he's so creative!

Daniel also took it upon himself to decorate the wall the other day, so funny!  Luckily it came off pretty well.  And Mark has some touch up paint for the rest.  The touch-up paint is also coming in handy as we get our house ready to sell later this year.  A few months ago, we signed a contract to build a new house by Black Cat and McMillan.  We're not quite sure yet when it will be done (we should get the build schedule soon) but hopefully it will be done by the end of the year. 

We were busy in November and December choosing some design options for our new house.  It was pretty stressful, but we're happy with what we came up with. Here are some of our selections.  

Here's our lot on a frosty day a few weeks ago.

Here's the official drawing of our house.  The big garage is for our big van and for storage.

We took this picture at sunset the other day of the view across the street from our lot. Directly across from our lot there is a path and in the distance you can see Squaw Butte, which has been a favorite view of mine for years.  Eventually there will be houses over there, but it's a beautiful view now.  

So that's our exciting news, for our friends who haven't heard yet.  We still have several months here, so we're not ready to say our goodbye's yet, but we're excited for our new adventures to come.

 

Christmas Eve and Christmas!

I really wanted to get matching pajamas for the kids this year and luckily I found some.  I had to alter some women's pants for Andy because they were out of his size 😂, but it turned out.  

It is hard work to get a good picture with all the kids, but they are super cute and getting so big!

Christmas Morning!  Ready for presents!

Andy got lots of Legos this year

BethAnne got a 3D printer and she was so excited.  We ended up having to send that one back, but we got another, better one and she has been making some awesome things.  

Grace's friend, Lexi (our next door neighbor), dropped off a present on Christmas and Grace was so touched.  She has really missed social activities this year, so this meant a lot to her.

Daniel and Joy got lots of fun presents too!

The boys and the family got lots of Lego presents for Christmas which meant that Mark and I spent a lot of time on Christmas (and the following days) doing Legos!  I made the castle below over a couple days and Mark made the Quidditch set.  I wish we had saved these sets for when we didn't have a 3-year-old 😆(they only lasted intact for a few days), but now the kids have so many Legos to play with every day and they often play with their Lego table for hours every day.

So, Christmas was a success!  My favorite Christmas moment this year was on Christmas Eve.  We celebrated with just our family and it was fun, but kind of quiet (and a little lonely).  As we were watching Home Alone, the door rang and standing in front of our house (socially distanced) were my parents and my siblings (Chrissy, Rick and Carl) and their families.  They came to carol for us and I was so touched.  I didn't realize how much I would miss our big Christmas Eve party, until the day came.  But they brought some of the party to us and I'm so grateful.  We are hoping that in a few months life will get back to normal and we'll never take big gatherings for granted again. 

December!

December was quiet this year, as we were isolating due to the pandemic. But we still had some lovely times together as a family.

One of our favorite December traditions is making Gingerbread houses.  Daniel especially loved it this year and kept asking to decorate them again.  He loved to eat them too!

The whole family made houses

This little buddy is still attached at my hip and I love it (usually)!  He's such a sweetie, though he's been a bit more busy and mischievous lately.  

Here are the final houses!  It's getting harder to tell whose is whose, the kids are getting quite talented.  

Daniel's house was pretty funny because it looked like a crime scene 😆

I was in charge of our Ward's Humanitarian Project in December. We collected all sorts of items for the City Light Home for Women and Children in Boise.  The ward really came through, and on the collection day they brought enough items to totally fill our big van (all the seats in the back were out).  We even had to put a few boxes in the minivan.  

We collected items at the church on a Saturday morning (December 12th) and it was freezing and I kind of overdid it, but after a day in bed I felt much better.  

Then the next day we had our first snow and Daniel was so excited!  He said "It's Noing!!" (how he says snowing).  We've had very little snow this year, better luck next year. 

Our dogs get groomed every 4-6 weeks.  This was right before Christmas, they're so cute!

Next post- Christmas!