December Happenings

 

We have had a wonderfully busy December.  

The kids finally made it to finals at a Robotics tournament.  I am proud of their hard work.

Joshua has had a few swim meets.  He is continuing to improve and I am impressed with how far he has come.

The last meet he beat his personal record in the breaststroke.

Michael got himself some model boats.  He has had fun putting them together.

Aaron lost two teeth on our road trip to North Carolina.  

These kids sleep so weird.  This was in the hotel room.

This was pretty lighthouse we got to the explore the outside.  

The kids had a blast at the beach.

The water was freezing!

They had so much fun anyway.

We took family photos.  Everyone looked so nice.

The kids loved spending time with cousins.

We had fun at the sand dunes.  The kids loved running and jumping off of them.  

The little ones loved digging for fossils.  Aaron found a few.

We had fun at the aquarium.  

We decorated cookies.

Time was spent in the hot tub after the freezing temps of the ocean.

We love the beach!

We saw dolphins and even had a whale spotting.  It was so amazing.

We loved spending time with the West Family.

North Carolina was beautiful.

We had fun in the hotel pool. 

We also had Christmas before we took off to North Carolina.  We got lots of fun games.

We loved all our gifts and spending time as a family.

It was a fun Christmas!

We had a Ward Christmas party.  We ate yummy tamales and enjoyed good company.

Aaron had a sweet dance and sang.  I love watching him grow and learn.

Joshua's band sounded so good.  I enjoyed listening to them.

Dallin also sounded great!  It is amazing how much progression happens between 6th and 8th grades.

My work had a party as well.

We went out to the farm and played with the animals and ate yummy food.

Evan and I at a robotics tournament.

Kira and I ran the Dallas Marathon 5k.  We loved it!  I hope to do it again this year. 

This was at packet pick up.  Jenny and Kira competing in basketball.

Pajamas with with Principal.  We enjoyed In and Out burgers and Hot Cocoa.  We listened to the Principal read stories.  

I completed my second marathon!

It was so fun to run with Jenny and my Aunt Karin.

I loved the course.  I improved dramatically over last year!  I would even be willing to run another one!  I love running.

I have a 15 year old.  He has grown up so much!  I am so proud of him.  He is loving and kind.  He works hard and tries hard.  We are so glad he is in our family!

November Happenings

 

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving.  We fed around 30 people.

I was too busy enjoying myself to take pictures but the food and company was excellent.  

Evan and Leah had a robotics tournament.  There controller was malfunctioning so they didn't do well, but they learned some lessons.

Joshua had a good swim meet.

He is doing great and has improved so much.

This was yummy jello that took a long time with all the fancy layers.  

The kids did a turkey trot on Thanksgiving morning. 

It was cold and we had a great time.

I love seeing everyone run and accomplish goals.

Dallin beat everyone in the family.  He is considering track this year.  Emily placed in her age group.  Kira had an awesome PR.  Thiago and Rylan ran their first ever 5k and did great.  I was a great cheerleader. ha ha  

We learned about fire safety and roasted marshmallows for activity for primary.  It is fun to hang out with these kids. 

Over Thanksgiving break we checked our the new playground in our area.  

Aaron had been raking leaves.  He is so proud how high he can pile the leaves.

Aaron learned about indigenous people and had a cute feast at school

He was all tuckered out after school one day.  We have to pick up Joshua from swim and bring him back to the high school and by the time we got home he was out.  He hasn't done this since the beginning of the year.

Aaron was hiding his turkey.  He painted it to look like Pikachu.  

He also disguised himself.  

November was a great month.  The older boys tried out for regional and district band.  We celebrated Thomas's birthday with the Clark family.  Joshua has his last football game of the season so that frees up some time.  He has started in with robotics.  Michael is still really busy with Work, Crumbl, and Church.  

Halloween, Band, Robotics, Soccer

We carved pumpkins this year.  Michael was gone and he is a way better artist then me, but we got it done.  Aaron's pictured above we just make a dragon without carving  

Evan and Leah had a robotics tournament.  They had to dress as Avengers as a team so we have Scarlett Witch and Captain America.  

Joshua's band made UIL Area competition.  

The competition is tough.  They have 3 of the top ten bands in America in their area.  They did a wonderful job but didn't make state.

Halloween we have Carmen Sandiego

Aaron was Captain America for the Church Trunk or Treat.

Evan was so much more interested in the light saber than trunk or treating.

Joshua and Dallin were anime characters.

Aaron also dressed as a storm trooper.

Evan also did skeleton

Sunday we had dinner with the neighbors and hung out.

The kids played yard games.

Ward Trunk or Treat photo booth.

Leah and the girls in her class.

Aaron also dressed as Flash for another trunk or treat.

We had our last soccer game of the Fall.

All the kids did so well.  I am so impressed with how much they have grown and improved.

Marching band is over and now onto all district band.  I am also so impressed with how much their band improved.  They worked so hard and I really enjoyed their show.