Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Thanksgiving

This year, mom and dad came to visit us for Thanksgiving. This weekend seemed more calm because we weren't traveling and taking our kids outta school. There was a lot of playing as you can see.
 It's hard to tell in this picture but dad and Jeff put Christmas lights on and the rest of us decorated inside for Christmas and getting ready for our free SNO day the following week.
 Sydney helped make the rolls.
 This is Macie's pouty lip. It's a good one. Don't think I've ever captured just the right picture of it.
 Thanksgiving day while Macie was sleeping and dad and Jeff were watching football we played Aggravation.
 Then Jeff took a nap and we went to our park to pick up a whole bag full of trash.
 I love when they get along!!


Everything turned out yummy and it was so calm. We mostly prepped in the morning and had the rest of the morning and afternoon to relax and enjoy one another.

 After dinner we played a little game....a gratitude photo scavenger hunt. Boys vs. Girls. This picture below was "something that makes you strong...."
 "Someone you love that isn't in the group".....Jeff with our Bishop's wife
 "Something that is bright..." a sunset
 "Something older than you..." we're all older than Macie.
 "something that is patriotic" Levi is with the Bishop.
It was such a great day and week with mom and dad here.

Violin

These are just some great pictures that were taken of Sydney. Sydney was asked to play a violin for our ward CD. She recorded a song at church, "I am a Child of God." The ward orchestra also recorded a song to put on the CD too.




 These two, above and below, are my favorite. In a few weeks the ward orchestra will play a christmas song in sacrament.

Some fun family moments

 One morning before school started, we went to a church to vote. The kids got a little lecture about the voting process.
 Macie giving lovies to Sydney. She gives everyone kisses before bedtime.
 She loves going to the park and going on the swings. It's a good time to play at the park, right before we pick up the girls from the bus stop.
 Now that it is "winter" we can play outside ALL the time. Neighbors are outside playing so it's just a big party....until someone gets hurt. haha.
Jeff took Levi to his first basketball game. Jeff said the first 10 minutes he was watching the game and then he lost interest. He loved his foam finger though and getting a little bite to eat at the game! He's starting basketball in January.

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

LASIK

On October 30th I got LASIK! I've been wanting it for years. The idea never to wear contacts or glasses, or lose my glasses, or have my kids break my glasses, or scratched my glasses, or buy prescription sunglasses, etc. is so exciting. It's been a week now. I love that I can do everything without glasses like running, driving, watching TV, and more. It was a little uncomfortable, the surgery, but it's worth it. Lizzy picked me up from the office; Jeff was home with the kids and Jordyn who stayed home since she had the flu. I slept for 4 hours when I got home and I had to keep my eyes closed for an additional four hours. I'm still putting lots of various eye drops in my eyes but I LOVE IT!!!! The results are amazing. On Halloween, the morning after my surgery, I had an appointment and my vision was 20/20.

halloween

 The week before Halloween, we went to a halloween party. It was a rock-n-roll theme so we went with the Perkins dressed as the Village People. I was a cop and Jeff a construction worker. Fun to dress up and go out with our friends.
 On the 29th, we carved pumpkins. Levi chose a haunted house.
 Sydney chose the word creepy and actually did a lot of the carving too.
 Jordyn chose the witch's hat and broomstick. She was feeling sick, even throwing up a few times and had a fever.


 Levi wanted to be a pirate this year. He made a great pirate and even had the facial expression down.

 I dressed Macie as an In-N-Out worker. She wouldn't keep the hate on or the name tag on so I only got a few pictures before she was just plain-old grumpy. I got a drink thinking she would be distracted holding a cup, and she was for about 20 seconds before she realized something was on her head.
 See...hat and name tag are gone.
 Jordyn wanted to be snow white. She loved twirling around in this dress that Aunt Tricia made for her daughter years ago. It's hard to tell but I spray painted her hair black.
 It was fun this year because their school had a parade. I remember having a parade when I was in Elementary so I was happy for them that they could have that too.
 Sydney decided she wanted to be a dead bride. We bought this costume.
 I spray painted her hair white and black too. They both were pretty excited for their classroom parties and the parade. I helped out with the parties and of course stayed for the parade before going to Levi's school for his party. There was a lot of driving around that day.
This is Jordyn's class. There were so many Elsas and Annas from the movie Frozen.
 Levi's school had games to play and then they performed a little dance to the song, "Ghostbusters."
The day before halloween, Sydney had her first big school project. She had to pick a book, do a book report, writing a 5 paragraph essay, and make a pumpkin into one of the characters. So she read Charlotte's web and made a pumpkin to look like Charlotte.
 That night we had several families over: the Rigby's, Steele's, and Moncurs. Everyone brought over soup. We ate outside in the driveway with our fire pit and then the kids were off. Some of us walked with all the kids while the others stayed on the driveway passing out candy.
 Here's the party. The kids had fun walking around with their friends.
 After walking around the neighborhood, they came in the garage, dumped their candy and started comparing and trading. By the time the kids finally went to bed, I was pretty excited that the day was over. It's fun celebrating but also exhausting.

Pumpkin Patch Time

 We went back to Vertuccio Farms again this year. I love how Macie's eyes are looking to the left.
We went right after school during the week. It wasn't busy at all.
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The kids had fun on the huge teeter totter...
pumping water and watching the water move the ball to the other side,
looking at the pets,
play on the giant spider web,
jump on the big balloon thing (this is Jordyn),
go down the big slides (Macie loved it and wanted to go more and more),
jumping from bale of hay to bale of hay and climbing on them,
riding the pedal cars,
more jumping and leaping,
riding on the grain train,
making silly faces,
enjoying time together,
taking lots of pictures,
acting like scarecrows by the corn maze,
in the corn maze. The corn maze was a lot of fun. They make a game out of it. Sydney won with 1200 points. Another fun time at this farm.