Brooke's 8th Birthday

This year for Brooke's birthday, since eight is such a big milestone, we booked a party room at our rec center.

 We chose the option to have a blow up obstacle course and to climb the rock wall. The girls had a blast racing each other and playing tag.

 Grant and Porter had a good time too.

 We took a break to open presents and eat cake and ice cream.

 Then it was time to climb the rock wall!

 Some of the girls, who had never climbed before, made it all the way to the top. I was so impressed! Some of the others, like Brooke, made it part way up the wall and got scared. I was proud of all the girls for at least trying it!.

Happy Birthday, Brooke! You have grown up so much lately! You are so loving and kind and helpful. You read to your brothers, love to write notes to others, love to sing and dance and be social. You follow after your mom in that you talk too much at at school, and we love to see that you have lots of different friends. You are starting to gain your own testimony of the gospel and love to discuss gospel principles. You also enjoy teaching the lesson during Family Home Evening and reading the Book of Mormon. She'll be baptized on January 7 and we are all looking forward to that.

December Festivities

 Blake decided our backyard trees needed trimming and rented a lift to reach the very tops of them. It was a super cold day, so Blake only trimmed a few of them before deciding he'd try again in the spring.

 The kids have been enjoying the Christmas tree and helping me decorate around the house. This has been a really fun year to see all the excitement and magic of Christmas through their eyes.

 Porter's preschool teacher invited all the kids and their families to her home to visit with Santa. The kids had so much fun! Porter and Brooke both wrote lists to give him. Brooke's said she wanted a sled, some clothes, and some batteries. When I asked her "Why batteries?" she said "just in case you need some then you can ask me and I'll have them."

 Porter asked for a remote control truck and some new clothes. Porter chose his own nice shirt to wear to see Santa and wanted to comb his hair so he'd look nice. He also asked Santa if he was on the naughty or nice list. Santa said nice, but he still needed to obey his parents.

 Grant didn't say much, but he wasn't scared of Santa like he was last year. He sat quietly on his lap until his turn was over. You can ask Grant "What does Santa say?" and he'll say "Ho ho ho!"

 We finally got a little snowfall! The kids were beyond excited to play outside and wanted to go out right after breakfast.

 Santa came to storytime at the library.

Brooke got to go to her first activity days event with the other 8-9 year old girls from our church. It was a mother/daughter activity where we made gingerbread houses and then sang carols at the Beehive Home.

 My mom came to visit for Brooke's birthday. The night of the 16th was our ward's Christmas party. It was a "Back to Bethlehem" theme so I made little outfits for the kids and I to wear. Blake met us at the party straight from work.

Porter made a gingerbread  house at preschool.

At his preschool Christmas party one of the activities was stacking cups.

And then he made this cute hat.

 Wrestling with dad is an every evening occurance at our house! It usually starts by Porter saying "Dad, I'm ready to get my butt kicked."

 Grant makes it so hard to exercise at home! He will come sit right by me and copy whatever move I am doing. It's so cute and hard to actually exercise because I just want to watch him.