A Family First

Some friends invited us to go Ice skating last night.  I was reluctant at first because I didn't feel up to it, and it was a school night, and John didn't want to go.  But with a bit of persuasion I changed my mind, and then I changed John's mind for him.  :)  And Syd happened to be at my house through all of this, so she came to.  We headed to the rink because it was family night so we were all going to get in for a discount.  We were pleasantly surprised when we showed up and a bank had sponsored the rink for the night so it was free!  And there was free hot chocolate!  It was super busy, but it was a good trial run for the kids.

Despite the above picture of Owen on the ice, the kids actually did really well.  I was impressed!  Ains and Owen gained confidence as the night went on.

 Emmie was a different story.  She showed little to no improvement all night long.  I took her around the rink a few times.  She just kind of kicked her little skates around while I carried her.  My forearms were killing me.  But I'd say she had a fair amount of fun.  Although I think she was most interested in the hot chocolate.

 

John was the only one not to fall all night long.  I blame Emmie for my fall, she tripped me and we both went down.  Ains only went down twice (once she got knocked over by a boy) and Owen fell about a million times but it didn't phase him at all. 

We were all smiles on the way home.  Even if Syd's smile borderlines on creepy :)

I'm glad I changed John's mind for him, it was a great night as a family.  Something I definitely want to do again, even if we have to pay next time!

Holiday Festivities

We spent our weekend checking a few items off of our holiday "must do" list.  We spent some quality time in the car driving around town looking at Christmas lights.  (With minimal fighting I might add.)

The brief "milkshake intermission" was nice too. 

We made lots of goodies and gave out lots of treats to friends and family.  And not to brag, but I killed the holiday sweets this year.  Seriously, I might make myself a #1 ribbon to wear.  If I'm feeling cool next year I'll make the same thing again.  But if I'm being honest with myself there is a good chance that might no happen, goodies for the neighbors has become kind of hit and miss for me :)

Owen was a super good helper.

 We also celebrated my Mom's birthday.  It was yesterday.  While it was fun to get together I still am of the opinion that Sunday birthdays are lame.  John, Ains, and I all have Sunday birthdays this year.  Yay!

Notice Rachelle and Michael are in the picture.  They moved here!  Last week.  Michael starts BSU next semester.  I think it's going to be fun to have them here, and you can tell by the picture that they are really excited too.

Sunday John and I also celebrated our 12th anniversary.  A dozen years together. Anniversary's on Sundays are kind of like birthdays on Sundays in my opinion, a little lame. But we got to eat cake that some one else made us!  Because of the severe shortage of pictures of John and I together and the severe laziness of me to go dig out wedding pictures, I will post this beauty to convey the love that has blossomed over the last 12 years.  A lovely shot of us at Lake Louise.  Are we adorable?

So as not to be completely lame, we celebrated our anniversary a few weeks ago.  My parents took the kids for us for a night and we even got to go to lunch today.  We really know how to live it up!

Santa

We've seen Santa twice this year. First at the ward party. That Santa sighting was a little weak since my kids immediately declared it wasn't the real Santa, they eventually declared that is was "Sadie's dad".  They were right. And that's about all I have to say about our ward party.

Fast forward a couple days....

Ainsely's primary teacher is the owner of our local Kneader's.  He told her that Santa was going to be at his store on Monday night.  So we took the kids for french toast and a visit with Santa.  Owen was skeptical again, and even had Emmie telling everyone that it wasn't going to be the real Santa.  Boy were we surprised when he walked in the door and it was the REAL SANTA!  The real Santa sat at our table.  Jealous?

We are sure he was the real Santa mostly because of his real beard.  That thing was not a fake. 

He also had a knowledge of toys that no grown man should have.  He knew that the La La Loopsy dolls don't have additional changes of clothes for purchase. 

There was no line of kids waiting to see him and so he took time to talk with each kid.  He asked them questions and made sure he knew exactly what they wanted.  He and Emmie had a lengthy discussion about the needs of ponies after she requested that of him for Christmas. Emmie is actually asking for chickens and a farm as well...she might be disappointed Christmas morning.  But Santa told her he might be able to do a My Little Pony instead.

 

John and I even got a turn...

Caroling

We were invited to go caroling with some friends at a local retirement home.  So we headed out one evening and had a great time. 

Emmie with her best little buddy Elsie.  Aren't they adorable.

I always want my kids to have experiences like these but if I'm being completely honest, I'm not super comfortable around old people.  I don't like that about myself.  When I was little my mom worked with several elderly people and I remember going into their homes with my mom when she was taking care of them. She was always so comfortable around old people and so kind and loving towards them.  I always wished I had that skill.  I tried my best to hide my awkardness that night for Ainsley.  After we sang we had some time to mingle with a few of the residents.  I noticed Ainsley was a little nervous and so I sat and talked with a lady with her.  And it was actually enjoyable.  Turns out she was a teacher, and although she told us the same story at least four times, she was so happy that she was really a pleasure to talk to.  Ainsley didn't remember that she told us the same story multiple times, she just remembered the cute story that we heard about this woman getting to teach two of her grandchildren.

 

The evening was a nice reminder of the reason for the season.  Hopefully in the future I'll be better about planning opportunities like this for my family.

And Now on to Christmas!

And nothing says Merry Christmas like decorating the Christmas tree...

and having a good wrestle.

I can't say for sure because I didn't take the above picture, but I'm pretty sure the kids were actually fighting.  Nice.

Special visitors

Thanksgiving break also brought us special visitors.  We got to see Shelly, Hailey, and Carson.  It was  nice little visit and catch up time.  We haven't seem them in way to long.  I'm excited for them to move closer so that we can see them more than once every few year.

And this picture is only to show Emmie's crazy face.  She's in a new phase where every photo opp means an opportunity to show off a crazy face.  She's becoming quite skilled.

I'm Back!!!

A while ago I sat down to blog and my pictures wouldn't upload, apparently because I've used up all of my picture space....I didn't even know there was a limit!  So then I thought that would push me to finally get my blog turned into a book and clear up some space.  But it didn't.  I finally paid the fee and now can blog again.  You win blogger!  And while I have tons to catch up on, I'll start today with a few pictures from thanksgiving, which was great!

It included bacon covered turkey...mmmm bacon.  It was super greasy though.  Who would have thought bacon would make something greasy?! Owen was captivated.

We also had lots of pie.  I made the most delicious pie.  This is mostly a big deal because I am the world's worst pie maker. Seriously.  Yet my pies this year were delicious!  Way to go me!

We ended the night with some black friday shopping.  We killed black friday this year. Just Sayin.

A Moment of Peace

Often times things in my home feel chaotic and out of control.  There is often someone watching TV, someone fighting, someone playing piano, someone fighting, someone yelling, someone crying, someone singing, and probably someone else fighting...unless of course no one is home.  But the other night we had a moment of peace.  It was actually on Emmie's birthday.  I had made the kids turn the TV off because I just couldn't handle the noise any more.  What happened next was almost magical.  Emmie and Ainsley started playing a game at the table.  Quietly.  Owen headed outside to rake leaves.  And I just sat and watched.  As I watched I just had a moment where I thought, everything really is going to be okay.  Owen causes us quite a bit of trouble and sometimes heartache, but as I watched him work and problem solve on his own I felt at peace with all of it.  He is actually a good kid when he is engaged.  And he is a hard worker when he wants to be.  He has so many good qualities that he will be able to develop over his lifetime.  My moment of calm that night was very short lived and also very welcomed.

Emmie's 3rd!

Emmie celebrated her 3rd birthday on Friday.  She is officially all grown up.  I tried to interview her.  I only got silliness.  But I can officially confirm that her favorite color is "sparkly." 

 

She lucked out this year and scored 3 days of birthday celebrations.  Appropriate I suppose since she turned three.  However if we continued the tradition I would get a full month of parties this year, and thats just a bit excessive I think!

 

On Thursday we did a mini-party with my family.  Michael and Rachelle happened to be in town and so the whole Welch clan (minus my parents because they are bums and left for Hawaii) gathered at our house for dinner and cupcakes.  And a couple of presents.

 

On Friday, her actual birthay, I invited the little girls in Emmie's weekly playgroup over for a playdate and cupcakes.  The girls were all so cute.  I've seriously never seen a group of 3 year olds get along so well.  They actually play together and we rarely have issues.  They are adorable.  Emmie was super excited to have her friends come over.

We had Susanna, Molly, and Elsie.  Emmie was actully a stinker that morning.  She only talked in baby talks and grunts.  It was kind of sad that the first time she was a stinker with her friends was on her birthday...but, what do ya do?

 On the afternoon of Emmie's b-day it even snowed a little.  And by a little, I mean a teeny, tiny bit.  As demonstrated by this picture.

That night we ate Emmie's dinner of choice.  Pizza, broccli with ranch, cupcakes, and ice cream.  We rented a movie and had a laid back night at home.  It was nice.

On Saturday the birthday festivities continued!  John's parents were in town to be apart of John's brother Dan being called as a bishop.  So we quickly took over the day and made it about our child :)  Everyone came over for dinner and more presents and more cake and more ice cream.  Emmie insisted that John take a picture of her with each and every one of her presents.  How cute is that?!  Good thing there weren't that many!

 I'm including these pictures just because John got some of the adults and none of us look very happy.  I'm not sure who is the recipient of my nasty glare, but I apologize whoever you are. I forgive you.

Dan and Paige don't look super happy either. 

The only one semi-happy is Steve. But I must admit his smile looks a bit fecicous.

After an acoustically amazing round of Happy Birthday we had the last of our cupcakes...

 And then the older children promptly took over the birthday girl's new toys. 

But we'll forgive them, because let's face it, the drawing is awesome.

Odds and Ends....

The month ended in a whirlwind. John and I realized on the Sunday before Halloween that we still hadn't set aside time to carve pumpkins.  We then realized that he wouldn't be home any evening before Halloween to help carve pumpkins.  Since I was in no mood to carve 3 pumpkins by myself I finally convinced the kids that this year we could paint our pumpkins instead.  Some how that seemed much easier.  And it was.  They eventually conceded (Ainsley waaaay before Owen, in case you were wondering) we pulled our all of our paint an craft stuff, and this is what we came up with.

I swear that we did indeed dress up on Halloween, attend school classroom parties, trick-or-treat at John's work, trick-or-treat relentlessly in the neighborhood, and came home with more candy than we know what to do with.  But I didn't take a single picture. It was fun :)

 

 We also began the festivities of Emmie's birthday. My parents will be in Hawaii for her birthday (poor them) and so they brought her gifts over before they left.  The appropriately named "Pony" and "Barbie" have yet to be out of her sight.

We are also approaching the re-opening of the Boise Temple.  We've been without a temple nearby for over a year now.  I've missed it. But the rededication stuff has been kind of fun. John and I were called and asked if we could clean the temple last Friday.  John ended up being sick so I called a friend and she went with me.  It was a great night for me because they actually had too many people from our stake volunteer so my job ended up being dusting all the gold and crystal in the temple with a feather duster.  I felt very "Downton Abby-esque" all night.  I wandered and explored every nook and cranny of the temple.  Kind of cool, since I'm sure I'll never have that opportunity again. 

We wanted to take the kids through the temple when it wasn't so busy.  Saturday's they have literally of thousands of people they are shuffling through tours.  I've been told over 1000 people an hour.  I wanted the time in the temple with the kids to be calm and special.  So we took the kids out of school a little early and headed over on a weekday when things were a little calmer.  We got to go on a talking tour.  I think the kids enjoyed it.  Well, actually, maybe not Emmie so much.  Ainsley was impressed with the bride's room in particular.  Strange to think that the next time I'm even near that room with her could be when she's getting married.  We also had a moment to look into the eternity mirrors in the sealing room as a family.  It was touching.  The sweetness of the moment only lasted for about 2 seconds. There I was contemplating my eternal family when Emmie hopped up on a chair and nearly sent it smashing into the wall.  And then the moment instantaneously ended.  All in all it was a nice afternoon with the kids and we're excited for the rededication in a couple weeks.  Our excitement may or may not be due to the fact that there is no church that day.  Just a dedication and then home.  Nice :)