New Year's Eve

Layne and Tiff invited us over for New Year's Eve.  They were having a party at their house.  We went over at 8:00 and ate dinner.  Then we just hung out at their house playing games until 11:30.  Then we went over to Layne's dad's shed and played a really fun game with pvc pipes and a ball.   We stayed their until 1:45.  Tanner was almost asleep in my arms when we left.  But when we got home, the older boys said that we still needed to have bubbly.  So at 2:00am we busted out the bubbly and celebrated New Years.  We drank two bottles.  The kids loved drinking it out of the bottle at the end. Luckily everyone slept in the next morning.  

Shantelle and I always send each other pics of us drinking out of the bottle.  It was too late to send them to her, so the next morning I sent these pictures to Shantelle.  It was a great night.

Special Day

One of my sweet Laurels, McKenzie got baptized today.  She's had to wait until she's 18 and that day has finally come.  I've know her for a year and she's amazing.  I've loved her since I first met her on our temple day trip.  We had an instant connection.  I'm impressed with her testimony and her faith.  She is so genuine and has such a kind heart.  She is a strength and an example to me.  I love this sweet young lady.  I'm so proud of her!  I know if she stays close to our Heavenly Father, she will do amazing things in life.

Winter Break

Maddie and Chase conspired and set up a night for them to sleep over.  I met Mylissa in BC and picked up her kids (December 29th).   It actually worked out really well for both of our schedules.  They really wanted to watch a movie in our theater room so we watched "Despicable Me 3."  It was so cute to hear them laugh.  They slept over and then played for half of the next day.  The younger kids loved playing the Wii in the theater room.  Then we had to head down to AF for a wedding.  So they almost got 24 hours together.  We were so happy to have them come up and stay with us.  Tanner loved playing games with Caleb.  I made Maddie and Chase get off their electronics and play some games.  They were sweet about it.  I love the relationship my kids have with the Ws.  They get along so well.

When we were down in AF on Friday night, we picked up Easton to come back and stay with us for a few days.  I love that Chase and Easton have stayed friends.  (Bridger was super sad because Brody was out of town.)  So Bridger invited his friend Jagger to come with us.  They've become really good buddies.  He's such a nice kid!!! On Saturday, we decided to go bowling.  They almost couldn't fit us in, but then we begged and it looked like Tanner was going to cry.  We bowled a couple of rounds and had a fun time.  It was Tanner's first time bowling.  He LOVED it! We haven't been bowling since we moved up here so it was a great family outing.  Easton stayed with us over the New Year.  We love having him because he's just one of my sons.  He's so easy going and helpful.  I hope they can stay friends.

Sophie's Bed

 I think Bridger and Tanner lay in Sophie's bed more than she does.  They love how soft  it is.  Sophie will only lay on it if I yell at her to "go to your bed."  Then she acts all sad.  I'm sure she'll adjust to it eventually.  But in the mean time, the boys can enjoy it.

Merry Christmas

Christmas morning the boys woke us up around 8:00.  We told them to wait at the bottom of the stairs until we were ready for them.  They woke up around 7 and just quietly stayed in Bridger's room.  Christmas morning was magical!  Bridger got a desk to go in his room.  He's been wanting one since we started building.  He wants to put it in front of his window.  We found a desk that matches his bedroom set.  He was so happy with it!!!

Tanner was thrilled because Santa brought him the Lightening McQueen Florida race track.  It's huge!!  It spits the cars out and keeps them going around.  He would have been perfectly happy just getting that.  He and Bridger got some more mini "Cars."  Tanner was super happy with his super hero figures, Spiderman and Hulk.  Since we don't do Barbies, these super heroes are awesome!!  Chase was very surprised to get Madden 18!

Sophie even got a couple of presents.  She got some "tough" chew toys.  Within 15 minutes, she was pulling the stuffing out.  But she was so happy with it!!  Bridger got a model airplane and a model car.  Chase wanted clothes, clothes, and more clothes.  He was very surprised when he opened up some wireless Beats headphones.  His smile made it all worth it.

Tanner got a Leap Start learning pad.  Chase got some flannel shirts.  Tanner really wanted a Lightening McQueen watch.  He was so happy with his watch.  I have no idea where he got the idea about wanting a watch but he's been dead set on asking for one this whole month.  He got a Star Wars ship and a Playmobil go cart set.  Bridger was in desperate need of socks so he received nine pairs of new socks.  Hopefully they'll last more than a few months.

Because Bridger got a new desk, he got a cheaper pair of wireless headphones.  He was still happy with them.  Sophie got spoiled with a new bed that Grandpa R picked out.  Tanner and Bridger seem to like it more than Sophie.  She just needs to get used to it.  It's super soft!

 Halfway through opening presents, Mom's breakfast casserole and sticky buns were ready.  So we paused our opening of the presents and went and ate some breakfast.  She's so sweet to provide us with a delicious breakfast!!  I asked the boys what they thought of the breakfast and they gave me a "thumbs up."  I sent the pictures to mom and told her thanks for the great breakfast.

Bridger gave Matt the Star Wars movies, 4, 5, and 6 because ours were so scratched you couldn't watch them.  Plus, these are in blue ray too.  Tanner gave him some slippers.  And Chase picked out an air-pop popcorn maker for our theater room.  He knows that Matt loves popcorn so this was a great idea.

 Marilyn was giving away some brand new drinking glasses so I told her we would love them.  So I wrapped them up for Matt and told him they were from Marilyn.  He's always complaining about how gross our other glasses look so he was happy about these new glasses.  I gave Matt a new Eddie Bauer navy coat.  Tanner got his first xbox game.  It's the Lightening McQueen race car game.  Tanner made a special gift for Matt and I in preschool.  It's a little tile that has a Christmas tree on it and then he's decorated the tree.  He's been so excited to give us the gift.  It was really sweet.  Around noon we headed down to the A's.  Bridger was so excited to show Mike his BB gun.  They took it outside and worked on the scope but it's not very accurate.  Mike was teaching him how to use just the regular target on the gun.  He was so sweet with Bridger.

I didn't think that we were going to see Amy and Mike but after an hour of being at the A's, they surprised us and showed up.  We even got to see Ashtyn!!  I love this picture of Matt and his Dad...priceless!

 Around 4 we headed over to the R's for a few hours.  We ate dinner at the R's and just enjoyed each other's company.  We had opened presents the night before but Mom and Dad had a few gifts for us.  Mom wanted to play bingo, so Dad went to the store a few days ago and bought a ton of little presents for the kids.  He did a great job picking out some fun things for the kids.

 Mom, Dad, Kaye and Allan surprised Marilyn with a fancy new apple desktop computer!!!  Marilyn was very emotional and overwhelmed by their generosity.  She was so happy with her new computer!

Mom had this towel hanging in her kitchen.  It cracked me up!  I gave mom an instant pot cookbook because she's always saying that she doesn't know how to use her instant pot.  I also gave her some "Le Cruset" accessories.  We were exhausted by the end of the day but it was a wonderful day with our families!!