New Years Party

The Woodwards, Swint and Church families put on a fun family New Years Party this year. They were very brave to invite several families over for a party. It was a very full house of kids running around, but so much fun. We all met for food, and then headed out for a picture scavenger hunt. Here are a few of our pictures that didn't work out so well, but we had fun running around figuring out the clues. We almost won but the Church family got back first because they didn't even get out of the car. They didn't understand that the family needed to be in the pictures, but that's ok. We know who the real winners were. hehe

The kids ran around together while the adults played a fun game, and then we all counted down to the new year about nine o'clock. Perfect for all the kids.

Sparkling cider, hats and blow horns made it super fun celebration.

Cute, cute friends!

Cheers to the New Year!

They even had a fun backdrop for everyone to take their family picture by. We had a great time, and lets hope 2013 treats us all well.

December Ice Skating

We were able to go to Lake Las Vegas while the kids were on winter break. It was so warm outside that there was a water puddle in the middle of the rink. At first they stayed away from the water, but kids will be kids and they all ended up with wet clothes by the end. It was a cold, wet ride home but hot chocolate from Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory saved the day.

Micah gets the father of the year award for going out with Aliza. She has had to just watch the other girls skate that past few years because they didn't have ice skates small enough for her. She was ecstatic when she found out that they had her size. It was the smallest size they carry, but they were finally able to fit her.

There was a very good ice skater showing off while we were there. I could tell Abbie and Avery were watching her very closely. Soon they were trying all sorts of twirls and tricks themselves. I was impressed that they tried and did pretty well at them.

At first Aliza was hanging on to the side railing, but it didn't take long for her to catch on and take off on her own.

Nice catch Micah. Notice even falling she had a big grin on her face.

Avery is standing in that lovely puddle in the middle of the rink. The kids were just flying through it and of course all took a turn falling in the cold water. BRRRRR

I don't know if you can see it, but right by Micah's face is a snow ball Aliza is throwing. Since we don't see snow too often anymore it really is a novelty that just was too tempting to gather up and throw.

The girls kept begging and begging to stay longer which leads me to believe that they had a great time. It was a fun day.

We tried a new place to eat called Nacho Daddy before ice skating. It was fun that they have a photo booth in the waiting area. Here are our silly little ladies.

Christmas 2013

It's January 16th and I'm finally sitting down to document Christmas. December is always such a whirlwind with so many practices, performances, parties, shopping and so on. Avery alone had two choir concerts and three violin performances. It was a lot, but I also loved every minute of it. Her choir performance at the school was hilarious because she was placed right behind the piano. My girls are always placed on the front row due to being short, but all we could see was the top of her head. The choir did a great job and were actually asked to perform with the LAV arts academy across town. I was somewhat hesitant to take her to the LAC choir performance because it was so far away and on a school night, but it was worth it. We were able to listen to these choirs perform and they were AMAZING! She even mentioned that they were recording these concerts to turn in for the Grammy's and have won for several years. Wow. It made for a long night, but it was worth it. These high school kids treated Avery's choir so well and even gave them a standing ovation when they finished. They ended the program singing a song together which is the picture below.

Avery played her violin at the mall (picture below), the nativity, had an orchestra concert and played a solo recital all in December. She did a great job, but we were all ready to take a Christmas break.

I love being Aliza's room mom at school. Kindergarten is seriously such a fun place to be. I have always wanted to teach, so being in her classroom is just fun for me. We made these gingerbread houses at her Holiday party. She wanted me to take a picture, so here it is.

Christmas Eve we made special cookies for Santa. Luckily we had a few tubes of frosting left over from Aliza's school party which made frosting so much easier.

Micah looks crazy in this picture, but I love it. I love that Aliza is throwing a surprise peace sign in the background and Abbie and Micah were posing silly together.

The girls wanted to Skype to see Santa at the Phillips family Christmas Eve party in Utah. I guess it's always fun to see the big guy on Christmas Eve. No one seemed sad that we were at home and not there so that was good. After visiting with Santa we invited our friends the Lewis family over for a yummy turkey dinner with all the trimmings. It was a great night that ended with watching videos on our Saviors birth and my favorite Mr. Kruger's Christmas.

When Christmas morning was finally here the smile on Aliza's face says it all. They were very excited.

We were very spoiled by both sides of the family this year. I think the best part was that we just stayed home all day in our PJ's, and just played. We have never just sat home on Christmas before. Most years we spend running from house to house to visit family. Last year we stayed home, but I think we had church or something. It was very relaxing and just fun to play with the girls.

Abbie and Avery both wanted Ukelele's for Christmas. We have enjoyed getting them out and playing them together. We have figured out a few songs.

Avery loves anything to do with Bethany Hamilton or surfing, so she was in heaven with a few new things to decorate her room with.

Micah was rocking out with Aliza's new guitar.

Santa left us a scavenger hunt this year for a big surprise. The girls ran all over the house collecting clues which ended in our spare bed room with new swim suits, sun glasses and tickets for a CRUISE TO MEXICO. Our kids have been begging to go on a cruise for quite some time, so they were very excited. Santa was very good to us this year.

Adventure

Aliza's kindergarten teacher mentioned to the class that they should go on more adventures. I'm not sure if they read a book about someone on an adventure or what, but it stuck.

She took it very seriously and right when she got home created an adventure in our back yard.

It was cold but she was out there for hours doing homework, and just enjoying doing something new.
Love this girl!!!

Christmas Fun

Christmas is in full swing at our house. We have our presents wrapped and under the tree, Christmas cards are almost ready to be put in the mail, and we have been running around like CRAZY all week. It seems like our calendars get full so fast this time of year it's hard to take time to really enjoy the Christmas Season. Here are are a few things we have done this week:

There is a Christmas light street not to far from our home that we love to visit each year. It reminds me of the street in Utah with the twelve days of Christmas, but this streets theme is cartoon characters. Most of it revolves around Disney, but Spider man is swinging across the street along with some Charlie Brown and others too.

My phone didn't take the best pic's, but you can see some Madagascar.

Last Tuesday Avery was able to participate in a Live Nativity put on by the Red Rock Stake across town. This is the first year we have gone, and it was amazing. They had a large room filled with nativity display's from across the world that was beautiful, and Avery performed on this stage with her violin group between each performance of the Nativity.

They let us sneak out and watch the last performance for the night, and they did such a beautiful job. I was so grateful that we were able to have that special evening to feel the spirit and really remember why we celebrate Christmas. I also loved that there are very few at her violin studio that are LDS, but everyone stayed to watch and had a great experience. What a great missionary tool.

The Elders Quorum was in charge of the ward Christmas party last night. Micah has a great presidency that he is able to work with, and they did a fantastic job. I do have to admit that the Sunday prior to the party I was a little nervous. They had the great idea of making graham cracker ginger bread houses and it was such a hit. Everyone at every table young and old were very involved in making a house, and they all turned out so well. It was fun to see everyones creativity.

The Primary sang a few Holiday songs, and there was more than enough food for everyone. It's always better to have too much than not enough I suppose. Abbie was mentioning to me that this was her last time singing with the Primary. So crazy that she is growing up so fast. They did a great job.  This next photo is random, but Aliza is always making us laugh so I wanted to include it.

This week alone I had a Holiday book club dinner at our home, did a Student of the Month luncheon, and then preparing for the the ward Christmas party and service project it has been a crazy week. Adding Avery's performances and our regularly scheduled lessons, meetings and youth activities I'm so glad this week is over.

Our Elf on the shelf Fredrick Hansel came to visit for the month starting on December 1st, and our holiday count down box is in full swing. It really is a wonderful, but crazy time of year.

Thanksgiving 2012

Wow time flies, and now we are into the business of the Christmas Season. Right before Thanksgiving we were able to go out with my sister and her husband to a fun dinner as they were heading through Vegas. It was the week before Thanksgiving, and we were not even aware that they were lighting the tree at the District near our home, but they were. Every year the tree lightings and Christmas music creeps its way in further and further away from Christmas. We will soon be setting up our Christmas trees in September if it keeps up. We did have a fun time with them, and it was fun to see the lights.

Through the month of November we decided to keep our Thankful chart simple this year and just had a Thankful Jar. It was fun to watch is slowly fill with these little papers of everyones Thankfulness.

We did head up to Utah to visit family for Thanksgiving. We ate dinner with Micah's side of the family, and then headed back to my parents for dessert. It was so fun visiting with everyone and the kids had a great time playing in Micah's parent's back yard with their cousins. It was decent weather the entire time we were there which was nice.

I must have been really proud of my turkey relish tray because it's the only picture I took of the entire day of Thanksgiving. I thought that was pretty silly of me. What did we ever do without Pinterest ideas? [Insert Micah rolling eyes here.]

One of the days while in Utah we were able to see the movie "Wreck it Ralph" with Micah's family, and then had a great time at dinner with all of Micah's siblings and his parents. It was an all adult dinner which is rare, and even more rare that ALL of his siblings were there. It was a wonderful meal with wonderful company.

We spent a day doing crafts, bowling, and eating at the Olive Garden with my parents which was wonderful too. Abbie was given the responsibility to put the lights up outside my parent's home. She did a great job and it looked beautiful. We even made it to Temple Square this trip. The lights were beautiful, and it felt good to be home in Utah.

This is the silliness I get when I want to take a picture. No one would hold still long enough for a shot.

I loved that they started to decorate in the windows of Macy's (was ZCMI) downtown again. It brought back memories of looking in those candy filled windows as a kid myself. It was a wonderful trip, and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing and visiting with everyone.

Halloween 2012

Halloween has come and gone for another year. Honestly, after three parties, ward trunk or treat, class parities, parades, and trick or treating we are DONE. I'm glad to put it all away until next year.

My mom gave us this fun jello mold, and it was amazing. We had a lot of fun with it.

The Church family put on a "Fear Factor" Halloween party. The picture above is Micah gargling zombie juice. They had to gargle it and spit it all back out into another cup before the other teams. It turned out to be pure kale juice. Yuck! She had so many fun activities that each family took turns participating in. My favorite one was she had three pumpkins hallowed out sitting on the table. On the count of three the kids lifted off the lid thinking they had to just dig in for 10 pumpkin seeds, but when the lid came off it was full of crickets. They had to sift through the crickets for the seeds. It was hilarious to watch their surprised faces. Ha! Ha! Ha!

My cute Twister,

our sweet Tinker Bell,

and a bag full of Jelly Bellies. 

We stole this idea from Pinterest, but Abbie made the whole thing herself with nutrition facts and all. At Micah's work party she tied for first place in the costume contest. Micah and I won third place with our plug and outlet costumes. I can't believe Micah talked me into wearing that costume again. I'm hoping to score us a new couples costume when all the costumes go on clearance for next years parties.

Micah helped Aliza carve this cat face with bloody eyes. (Yes, totally all Aliza's idea)

And Avery and I worked on this freckled faced lady with long stringy hair.

Abbie missed out on the pumpkin carving this year because she was on a field trip with the school for three days. She missed out on trick or treating too, but she didn't mind because she was in Catalina Island doing all sorts of great activities. She got home at 9:30 Halloween night. Totally odd timing for a school field trip, but she had a good time.

This was the only quick shot of Avery I got during the school parade. She was so distracted talking with her friends that she didn't even notice me.

I was able to plan Aliza's class party which was a lot of fun. We played Halloween Bingo, made a yummy witches hat to eat, made a spider web craft, ate lots of yummy food, and played this fun game Aliza and I made off of Pinterest. The eyes, nose, teeth, and mouth were magnets so they could mix and match the parts as they would roll the dice. The first one to make a whole pumpkin with all its parts would win. It turned out great. This was the first year that Micah and I both walked around together with the kids to trick or treat. I have always felt guilty not being home to hand out candy, but it was much more fun to walk around together. We met up with the Lewis family that live by us, and we had a great time. We left a bowl of candy with a sign that said "please take one." Knowing that kids would take more than one was just a given, but we did it anyway. Micah even scared a group of teenagers that of course took a big handful. It was hilarious. We really didn't have a lot of kids out trick or treating this year in our neighborhood, so it turned out fine. We were home and able to hand out the rest of the candy before the night was over. We picked up Abbie from the bus at 9:30, and then crashed. It was a great year. Can't wait to see what the kids pick to dress up as for next year.