Basketball

Katie and Nicole are playing basketball on the 7th grade team, they really love it. They had a game last week that they won.  They had their second game on Monday night, I was able to go and watch, it was so fun to watch them, they lost by a lot, but had fun.

 Katie

 Nicole

 Katie

Katie

Katies art

Katie just finished up her art class, and brought home some of her projects. 

Nicoles art

Nicole took and art class this semester, the class is ending so she brought home some of her work. She loved the class and hopes to be able to get an art class again next year.

Student of the Month

Lydia was awarded student of the month by her teacher, I got to go to the assembly when she got her award.

snow

We finally got a little snow, Tuesday in snowed most of the day, we ended up with about 4 inches, the kids thought it was great.  All of the after school practices were cancelled so the kids all came home and played in the snow until dinner, Wednesday morning there was a 2 hour delay so Katie, Nicole and Lydia were back outside playing until it was time to go.  Im glad we got the snow, winter just isnt winter without it, and it sure is pretty.

 They like to shovel all the snow into a big hill to slide down

Christmas Vacation

We had a great couple of weeks off of school.  It was so nice to sleep in and not have everyone doing homework all the time.  We stayed busy, but also found lots of time to relax and enjoy the vacation.  After Christmas we had new carpet put in upstairs, so we had to move all the furniture and take off all the baseboards, and then when they were done with the carpet we had to move everything back.  It was a busy couple of days, but we got it done and it is so nice to have the new carpet.  Kyle stayed busy with basketball practice and games, he also spent time with friends playing lots of tennis and ping pong.  Hailey finished up drivers ed, she had several drives over the vacation,  she also hung out with friends a couple of times and got in some good reading time.  Katie and Nicole had several get togethers with friends, their favorite was ice skating they really thought that was fun.  Lydia loved having everyone home, they all played dolls, and barbies and lots of Legos, they did crafts, played lots of games, and watched movies.   Saturday before school started back up we went to the temple, the older kids and Marc did baptisms, Lydia and I hung out in the car waiting for them, they enjoyed their time in the temple, and then we all went out to breakfast together.  After breakfast we did a little shopping in the mall, the kids got gift cards for the bookstore, they loved picking out new books to read, it was a really nice way to end our vacation, and now everyone is back in school, and as busy as ever.

 One more piece of Christmas artwork by Lydia

New Years Eve

We had quite the party this year.  My parents made a trip over for a quick visit.  My Dad and the kids spent some time at the gym playing sports and then we started our little party, we had yummy party food, and Italian sodas.  Then of course we had to have our cake walk, we danced around until the music stopped and then picked a number and if it was the number you were on you got a treat.  Next up was some ping pong, we played the run around the table game, everyone took their turn winning, it was especially fun when Lydia beat everyone, she was pretty excited.  We had to race our Christmas cars, everyone gets a hot wheel car in their stocking and then we race them, I happened to be the winner this year.  This year our stake put on a big party for all the youth 12 and older, the 4 kids got ready for their party while Lydia watched a movie.  Marc and I drove the girls to the party, we ended up staying and helping.  It was pretty fun watching Katie and Nicole at their first dance.  They had dancing going in the gym, Kyle and his friend Tyler were the DJs, they also had 3 large blow up toys that were a lot of fun, they had several game rooms, and an escape room, the kids all had a lot of fun.  Marc and I got home after midnight thinking everyone would be asleep but Lydia was still up hanging out with Grandma and Grandpa.  We stayed up until the older kids got home so we could hear all the funny stories.  2018 was a great year, it is hard to believe it is over.

 Kyle and Tyler doing the music at the dance-they did a great job

 Nicole dancing with a cute boy

 Katie dancing with her friend Cooper

 It was a quite a party 300 kids

Nicole dancing with her friend Heber