Justin loves His new Helicopter!

Each of our children were allowed to open one gift after we had a Christmas eve morning nativity. Justin was really excited to get his coveted Helicopter from Grandpa and Grandma Egbert.

Christmas Fun

The girls being silly while their house fell to pieces. Hans made their house. He was making jabs at me about how his house was better constructed then mine. Mine, as usual, proved to be sturdier. Ha.

Justin and Mia with their house that I put together. They were a great team decorating this.

More silly faces while Hans tries to save the house.

My cute girls working well together on their house.

Mia spent most of the time eating frosting.

Justin decorating his gingerbread house.

Having a lot of fun. This is a tradition we really look forward to.

Singing to Hans on his birthday. He worked all day on his birthday and came home around 8:00. We did sing to him at breakfast and give him his presents. I also went to lunch with him while all the kids were at school. We love him.

Eating a birthday breakfast - a waffle from the waffle iron the kids gave to him.

Cordera Dental Staff at the bowling party.

Justin and his friend Cannon. Justin wrapped up his broken remote controlled boat to give to Hans for his birthday. So thoughtful.

Katelyn sitting on Santa's lap. She asked for a mazin hamster. I'm not even sure what that is.

Mia was a little hesitant to sit on Santa's lap. These pictures are blurry since I took them with my phone. While she said she was going to ask for a mermaid tail she asked Santa for a stuffed dog instead.

Justin on Santa's lap. He asked Santa for a new remote controlled boat. Then he came home and wrote a letter to Santa asking for a basketball hoop instead. It's hard to decide.

Here I am shooting.

We have been keeping busy this Christmas season. We decorated the house. We put up lights outside without a ladder, which was quite exciting. We delivered home made jam to our friends, teachers, neighbors, and gymnastics coaches. We mailed out all of our Christmas cards. We sent off presents to Family and finished buying gifts for each other. We celebrated Hans' 35th birthday. We prepared for, set up, and cleaned up the Ward Christmas Party. We went to breakfast with Santa. We had a bowling party for Cordera Dental and planned presents and cards for Hans' staff. We attended school parties, one of which was Pioneer day for Katelyn. We made Christmas crafts and gingerbread houses (which I made from scratch - I'm pretty proud of that). And I interviewed for and got a job working part time as an RN at an endoscopy center. I started training for the Boston Marathon. It's been a warm December. We were able to go shooting, which was my first time shooting anything. We hiked around Garden of the Gods yesterday and went on a nice long bike ride as a family today. This week we are looking forward to skiing at Cooper and having a few more holiday parties. Should be great.

Odds and Ends

Justin played his first season of basketball at the YMCA this year. He loved it. He especially loves the end of season party and medal. At his turn with his coach he said his favorite part of basketball was how well the team worked together. My jaw dropped.

He is not a big person. These boys around him are so tall. He loved it anyway.

We did four free swim lessons at LifeTime. Justin and Mia had one teacher to themselves. They loved it. Justin got way more comfortable getting his face wet. Mia learned how to swim 25 meters on her own.

Her teacher gave her these goggles. A highlight. She loves the water. All she wants from Santa is a mermaid tail and a triangle top to cover her nickles. She makes me smile.

I took Ashley on a date to color me mine. We painted a dragon and talked. Ashley's not much of a talker so I love this time with her when she can open up.

Ashley had medieval day at school. She dressed up like a lady. They did all sorts of activities, ate a feast, and performed a dance. It was fun to be able to be there for a small portion.

She is far away in this picture. She is performing her dance. She is dancing a good distance away from her boy partner.

My gymnast. Check out her arms. She sprained her wrist on vault. She is so much like me. Stoic with certain things, like she was with this, and ridiculous about others. She has come so far with gym with her 7 hours a week. She is impressive to watch. I can't wait to see her compete in the spring.

My cute kids and our Christmas tree we crammed into our small living room space. It was very fun and exciting to set up Christmas. I love their joy. It really is contagious. I hope the season meets their expectations.

Hans reading stories. These girls definitely favor his side of the family.

Justin's Thanksgiving program. Here he is with his teacher Mrs. Ladd. I love his smirk. He gave me a picture and a rose to tell me he was thankful for me. He sure is sweet.

Christmas Pajamas

I got ambitious thanks to the help of a friend and actually bought fabric and made pajama pants. My kids, mainly Justin, thought I was a rock star for being able to sew these together. He thought it was SO cool. Now we are buying Hanes t-shirts and ironing on the letter of their names. Exciting stuff going on here.

School Days

School is in full force. I can't believe we've completed 2 full months. The kids are learning a lot and doing really well. Parent Teacher conferences are always fun since the teachers all love our kids. Ashley's teacher said that if all her students could be like Ashley her job would be really easy. Katelyn's teacher said she could skip 2nd grade altogether and go on to 3rd. Justin has gone from not being able to even identify all his letters to writing small words like do and go. Mia is in pre-school and doing great as well. She loves the activities, show and tell, and having something of her own. Justin and I do school every morning. He is not where the girls were at his age and I'm trying to fix that. He is a willing student and has come a long way from when we started. He is a lot more patient and is starting to understand that school takes some focus. I am proud of him. Mia and Justin and I have a lot of time together in the mornings before they go to school and we enjoy it.

Mia is ready for ballet. Justin is wearing his basketball jersey. He just started playing and he loves it.

Justin doing his school work.

The kids with their pajamas on backwards and inside out. They also flushed ice cubes down the toilet, did the chicken dance, and slept with spoons under their pillows. I'm not sure where they got the idea that this would help with a snow day from school, but they had fun trying. It didn't work this time. They still had school.

Halloween Fun

Halloween is so much fun. The Ward Trunk or Treat was more of an actual Halloween dress up party for the kids. We painted Ashley's face white and crimped her hair and she looked a lot more like the vampire she was supposed to be. I didn't take a picture that night. It was a crazy day and I was rushing girls to and from gymnastics and then to the party and Hans was working late. The Trunk or Treat was a great time. There were carnival games and a cake walk. One of the carnival games was throwing a ping pong ball into a glass of water. If the glass of water had a fish in it then you got to take it home. We came home with two fish. Then the kids got to trick or treat inside the Church building since it was freezing. Good times. Actual Halloween night we did in shifts. Hans and I took Justin and Mia around the neighborhood while the girls were at gymnastics. I put Justin and Mia to bed while Hans took the girls trick or treating after their gymnastics. Ashley is sad in this picture since she was worried about missing out on candy. I really hate that candy makes us all so sad. Justin ended up taking all of the candy I was handing out to trick or treaters and lying about it so I threw all of his candy away. He was really really sad, but seemed to understand what he had done. I figured it was a small price to pay for learning the importance of honesty. I was also happy to have all his candy in the trash.

A vampire, although people thought she was little red riding hood without the face paint.

A gymnast.

Spiderman and a unicorn.

The weather has been up and down here. Some of the Halloween activities were done at 65 degrees and some where done at 30. Katelyn wears a tank top and shorts if it's above 60. Hans carved the pumpkin with the kids while I was supervising a Relief Society activity. I was sad to not be there, but happy to have it done. The kids are so cute.

Fall Break Fun

We had a lot of fun for our week off of school. We went to the pumpkin patch, rock climbing, the zoo, and lots of parks. We went for bike rides, did halloween crafts, and played a lot of games. It was great fun. No one wanted to go back to school.

The zoo has a bird house. We bought sticks with bird feed on them with hopes that the birds would land on the sticks. It worked a few times.

The zoo has a fun park with things to climb.

The spiderweb. They are good climbers. They've had a lot of practice rock climbing at the gym.

More bird house fun. We also bought a crimper, which the girls love. Mia and Justin keep asking me to "crimple" their hair, but chicken out when I put it close to their heads. I think they're scared of the heat.

The giraffes are the best part of the zoo. We feed them lettuce and get grossed out by their long tongues. We were underdressed. It was chilly.

The pumpkin patch in Black Forest is windy. We went on a tractor ride, down the slides, through the mazes, and picked out our pumpkins. Great fun.