Best of 2010

Bret's 10 Favorites of 2010:

Traveling to new places: Sweden, Copenhagen, Moscow and Ukraine

Going wake boarding for the first time

Hearing Gavin find his words

Seeing each of my children find joy and excel in the individual activities: ballet and swimming for Abby; soccer for McKenna and t-ball for Zachary

Still being able to wrestle all four of my children at once to the ground (this may be the last year)

Finishing 3 of 4 semesters of course work for my PhD program

Learning to enjoy being Elders Quorum President

Hiking in Virginia

Learning interesting ideas about organizations and leadership

Watching movies in Blue Ray

Emily's 10 Favorites of 2010:

Favorite book: The Book Thief

McKenna getting baptized

Going to Copenhagen and Sweden with Bret

Working with Gavin to find his words

Serving in the Primary Presidency

Homemade wheat bread in 1 1/2 hours

Finally convincing Bret to get a family dog

New hobbies: sewing

Favorite restaurant: Fem Sma Hus (Five Little Houses) in Stockholm Sweden

Going skiing for the first time in 9 years

Abby's 10 Favorites of 2010

Finishing the Harry Potter Series

Starting and finishing the Fablehaven series

Swim team

Starting piano lessons

Best Friend: Evelyn

Favorite dinner: Maple Glazed Pork Tenderloin

Favorite color: green

Going to Wicked in Richmond

All the orange juice and raspberries at Grandma's house

Getting a dog

McKenna's 10 Favorites of 2010

Soccer

Favorite dinner: Swedish Pancakes

Getting Baptized

Getting a dog

Spending the summer in Utah

Best Friends: Emilie, Ashley, Kate, Molly, Mae, Hunter and Kelly

Favorite colors: blue, white and black

Getting an American Girl doll

Beating Mom on Ticket to Ride

Going to Wicked in Richmond

Zachary's 10 Favorites 2010

Playing t-ball

Lego's

Starting Kindergarten

Best friend: Alex

Favorite dinner: Sausage Pasta

Favorite color: black

Favorite TV show: Tom and Jerry

Favorite animal: Zebra

Getting our dog Sadie

Daddy adventures

Gavin's 10 Favorites of 2010

Carrie and Jessica, his speech therapists.

Fighting Darth Vader

Playing in the back yard with Sadie

Finding his words

Favorite food: anything sweet

Jumping on the trampoline

Trains, trains and more trains

Story time at the library

Wrestling with Daddy

Going to the bus stop to greet his siblings

Christmas

In all our Christmas mornings we've never had the kids wake up super early to open presents. Some years I'm the one waking them up! Usually we don't get started till around 7:30 or so by the time they wake up.

Until this year.

In came the patter patter of excited feet at 3:30 a.m.!!!!

All three of these guys wanted to start opening presents right then.

Back to bed they got sent with the complaint of..."we can't sleep!"

But back to sleep they fell until they heard me clamoring in the kitchen at 7:15 with the turkey breast I forgot to pull out of the freezer the night before.

So we woke up Gavin...

And came downstairs to find all that Santa and left.

Abby asked for her own bag of chips...Santa delivered on this one!

Gavin's list consisted of chocolate, suckers, candy and Lightening McQueen car.

He started in on the chocolate even before wanting to open anything else!

Zachary's Christmas consisted of lots of Lego's and Mario Kart Wii

Gavin loved this big truck that towed a trailer with two motorcycles on it and played with it most of the time we were opening presents.

McKenna loved what Abby got her...a giant teddy bear.

Abby was ecstatic about a camera that Santa left

...and McKenna cried

...but not for long because under the tree Santa had left her a camera too!

The aftermath....

While we were opening presents it started snowing. It didn't last long and nothing stuck but it was still magical.

The rest of the day was spent building Lego's...

...playing Just Dance 2...SO FUN by the way...

...eating a yummy dinner...

...the girls making barbie videos on their cameras...

...and Nerf gun wars all through the house.

Abby of course found some time to read her favorite present of Christmas...Fablehaven 5

That night we got an inch of snow and church was cancelled. It was wonderful!! I know, I shouldn't say it was wonderful that church was cancelled, but we had such a great day as a family! And with two members of the primary presidency out of town, and it being the last Sunday of the year, I was dreading primary just a little. It was like Christmas Day all over again, minus the opening presents part. We played, ate, played some more, stayed in our PJ's all day, built Lego's, played Clue. It was great.

And now as McKenna has pointed out only 365 more days till we can do it all again!!!

Christmas Eve

One of my favorite things we've carried over from Bret's childhood during Christmas is ice skating on Christmas Eve day. It is so much fun and the kids know it's something we do every year and really look forward to it. Last year Zachary and Gavin were sick so I stayed home with the boys, the year before that Gavin was too little so I stayed home with him, and the year before that I was pregnant! It was great to all be able to go this year and enjoy it with my family!

We attempted Gavin on ice-skates, but that didn't last too long. And then he assumed this position on the buckets...

The ever cautious Abby. She spent the first hour of skating holding on to the wall and the second hour speeding away not holding on at all. She just needed to get the hang of it.

Zachary...man oh man was he a trooper. This kid fell down so many times his entire body was soaking wet. Yet he never complained, never cried, and always got right back up. He spent a third of the time pushing the buckets around, a third skating next to the wall, and another third falling down or getting back up.

I love the smile on his face in this very blurry picture.

And then there is McKenna...the ice skating queen of our family. No surprise that from the get go she is speeding away, skating on one leg, doing spins and even attempting jumps.

That night we went over to our friends the Quinn's house for Christmas Eve dinner with another family from the ward. We had an array of yummy appetizers for dinner, had a nice visit, and then ended the evening with the nativity and a talent show. Abby was Mary, McKenna the donkey (of her own choosing I might add), Gavin was Joseph and Zachary was a wise man.

Joseph was the one wanting to hold the baby, not Mary.

Then it was home to make one more stop for caroling, read our final two Christmas books, make a secret delivery, and open Christmas PJ's. The kids all sleep together Christmas Eve and they were so exhausted we didn't even hear any talking or giggling coming out of the girls room. Bret and I spent a few nice relaxing hours by the Christmas tree and didn't even have to wrap a single present!

Catching Up

I'm on a roll! I guess this is what happens when I have access to the Internet again! :) (And Gavin is happily playing with his siblings!)

9 blog posts to catch up!

But lets be real, not that I think anyone cares other then a few select members of family.

But just in case you do, I back posted them for the sake of my blog book...check out the dates, 10/22, 10/27/, 10/28, 11/1, 11/5, 11/6, 12/11, 12/21, 12/23.

Coming soon....CHRISTMAS!

Christmas Eve Eve

Phew....going down as one of the most jammed packed Christmas Eve Eve's ever!!! Good news is the next two days shouldn't be as busy, leaving me more time to spend with my family and doing things that matter most.

wrapped a batch of camels with help from the kids

grocery shopped for the next 5 days

cleaned out fridge to make room

made Stew for our shepherds dinner

assigned out cleaning jobs to kids

4 loads of laundry

made roll dough for Christmas day dinner

made Tahoe Brunch for Christmas morning breakfast

made Challah bread for shepherds dinner

cleaned kitchen for the third time today

payed bills

enjoyed our shepherds dinner with the kids...one of my favorite Christmas traditions

read our daily Christmas book

watched a few minutes of a Christmas movie with the kids

worked on Sharing Time for Sunday

started on a few things for Christmas Eve dinner with friends tomorrow

finished a Christmas present for Gavin that is probably the gift I'm most excited to give

Bret emptied and loaded the dishwasher for the third time today while I sewed....THANK YOU HONEY!!!

Taking a few minutes to sit and then on to wrap a few presents. Probably wont get that many wrapped because it's 10:00 and I'm ready to crash!

Merry Christmas!!!

Shepherds Dinner

The night of the 23rd we always have our shepherds dinner. I make stew, challah bread (a Jewish Sabbath bread) and latkes. We dress up as shepherds and eat on the floor by light of the Christmas tree. We talk about the significance of the shepherds, why the angels appeared to them, and why Christ is called The Good Shepherd. It's a wonderful evening...one of my very favorite traditions.

Four very cute shepherds!

Bethlehem Village

We started a new tradition this year. A local baptist year puts on a live nativity in a Bethlehem village they create that is true to the time the Savior was born. They have different shops where you learn about basket weaving, weapons, cooking, blacksmiths and cooking among other things.

You walk in and there are Roman Soldiers collecting taxes and taking a census.

McKenna walked into the Inn and asked if there was room...she was told they were all full.

Angels appear to shepherds in a field watching their sheep and tell them of the birth of Jesus Christ and the star. We followed the shepherds to a barn where Mary, Joseph and a baby were. There was even a donkey and a cow in the barn. Wise men from the East came and told of their experience. It was a great night. I loved how all the people that were manning the different shops each took the opportunity to testify of Christ and prophets of old who testified of His coming.

Meanwhile, Back At Home...

We left the kids in good hands with a young married couple in our ward that are in law school.

I left them with a novel of a five page instructions print out...and unexpectedly they had two snow days!!!

Sarah and Kellen did everything we would have done with them. They made a good big breakfast drank lots of hot chocolate, went sledding, watched a few movies, and built a snow man! Snow day number two they even had homework time where the kids did flashcards and had reading.

Friday night they got them dressed in Christmas colors and took them to the mall to see Santa.

Apparently Gavin was a little scared of the guy in the red suit, so from standing a few feet a way he yelled out the items on his list: candy, chocolate, suckers, toys and Lightening McQueen car. :)

Saturday and Sunday Sarah had to work and Kellen was on his own. Sunday He got all the kids ready for church and even did the girls hair. They were only a few minutes late and we came home to a clean house and extra dinner for us!

Nice to know the kids are so well looked after and having fun while we were gone.