Broncos Robe

 Ollie asked for a Bronco's robe for Christmas.  We got him one.  It's for a grown man so he will be loving this thing for the next 40 years...unless he decides he is not a Bronco's fan anymore. 

Christmas Afternoon

After our Christmas morning we headed down to Papa Bob & Grandma Shari's.  We took a quick stop at Great Grandma Joyce's to drop off school pictures and to say a quick hello.  We also said hi to Uncle Butch and Aunt Delight. 

Christmas was definitely quieter and I know my kids missed their cousins but we are thankful we know this is only temporary and look forward to the day we get to see them. 

 

Christmas Morning

Our Christmas mornings are one of my favorite things.  I hope the kids will look back on these mornings with great memories....even if they don't get a ton of presents.  

We usually start with reading the Christmas Story from the bible.  Then we take the family picture in front of the tree.  Why do they look so big?  Then it's time for presents! 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Winter Hiking

Last week I forced the kids to go on a hike.  They tried to come up with lots of different alternatives and reasons for not going.  I didn't cave.  

We drove up to the top of Cougar Mountain and found snow!   The kids were excited about this and then we hiked for about 45 minutes.  It was a good break and got us all outside for a little bit. 

This is from the Million Dollar View. 

 

 

 

Gingerbread Houses - Final Phase

Our dining room table has been covered in powdered sugar and candy for the last week.  I finally gave the kids a deadline of finishing up their gingerbread houses otherwise some of them would still be working on them.  

These are the final results and I am so impressed by how well they did.  

Top:  Ollie.  He made is very quickly and used up most of the candy. 

Bo's is very impressive including the bridge he made that goes over the little pond.  It's hard to see in this picture. 

Darby started by being on a team with Brody but then she quickly realized that Brody wasn't going at a fast pace so she went off on her own.  But she was also distracted by going outside and doing other things so she never got a roof on hers. 

Brody was very meticulous with his house.  When he decided he was very patient with the "glue" and design of everything.  It doesn't have a lot of decorations but if he had another month I'm sure it would have been amazing. 

These last two are Colt's two story gingerbread house.  He did such a great job with it and even when he got frustrated with the hole he poked in the side he was able to get some help from Brad.   Brad suggested adding a deck onto the house so it looked like the window was open. 

 We have since decided this is the way we are going to do gingerbread houses every year.

Gingerbread Houses - Phase 1

Last week I went to Michael's to buy some gingerbread houses. I was shocked when they were all gone, even the really lame ones. I sent a message to my mom to see if she had seen them around. She thought there might be some at Winco. I didn't make any more of an effort to find them. So, my mom came and dropped off lots of graham crackers and powdered sugar and candy to make our own gingerbread houses. Our kids got to work. 

 

Some of them are at a stage where they take more time to actually be creative.   This is phase 1 of our Gingerbread making.  And it's a giant mess. 

 

Christmas-Covid Style

We celebrated Christmas (Covid-style) with Fafa & Grammy and Uncle Brian, Aunt Angie, Abi & Andrew. It was fun to kind of do something normal.

 

 

 

Light Inspiration

 We went looking at Christmas lights again.  This time we made all the kids go with us and we ended up in Klahanie.  We were inspired by this house with its bright green and blue tree.   Watch out for our lights next year.  

 

 

Stuffy Day

The kids had another spirit day for school.  This one was Stuffy day and Bo & Ollie brought down all their stuffed animals.   

 

Michigan Chugger

We have a family friend (Greg) who went to Penn State so he and Brad always talk about the Michigan and Penn State rivalry.   He had this big Michigan chugger at his house and finally decided to part with it.  Since he knew we were Michigan fans he passed it on to us.   Ollie wanted to have a drink (sparkling cider) with it. 

Wear it well Wednesday

The kids' school had Spirit Week this week. Sometimes my kids embrace it and other times we just forget.  For some reason Wear it Well Wednesday sounded appealing to them.  The good thing about this year is they only had to wear it well on the top....they could still be in shorts on the bottom.

Darby also dressed up but I forgot to get a picture. 

 

There were 3 in the bed

 It's hard to tell in this picture but there are three in the bed.  Brad, Darby & Colt.   When I left it was only Colt & Brad.   :) 

Drive Thru Nativity

One of our favorite Christmas activities is the drive thru nativity put on by Calvary Chapel in Bellevue.  It is right up the road from us so it doesn't take too long to get there.  Last year they didn't have it so I thought for sure they would skip it this year but they didn't.  It was a great activity to get out of the house and we LOVED it again.  

 

We did have to wait in line for about 30 minutes but I pulled out some Christmas trivia and that kept the kids quite entertained.