Dinosaur Dessert Party

Xavier and Gavin have had the honor and privilege of being taught by Sister Batman in primary.  Gavin had her as his nursery teacher and Xavier had her as his CTR teacher last year.  She is the most AMAZING teacher!  She loves her kids so much and it shows in the time, love, and effort she put into teaching her students every single week.  She even sent post cards when she was traveling.  She'd drop off notes if the boys weren't at church one week.  I could go on and on.  I just hope I can be half the teacher she is some day.  It wasn't just about the teaching you knew she loved those kids as if they were her own.  I am so grateful they were able to be taught by her and have her influence in their lives.

As one final party to end the year she hosted a Dinosaur dessert night for her class and their families. It's a tradition her family has done for years and she wanted to share it with our kids too.  She had dino books, model magic, and sculpting tools for the kids to make dino footprint with while we waited for everyone to arrive.  Then onto the dessert.  They had a big bowl with dinosaurs on the sides of the bowl.  Bishop Batman scooped up everyone's favorite ice cream flavors and made an assortment of those flavors in the big bowl.   Then they added bananas.  Once the scooping was done each child told Bishop which flavors they wanted in their bowls.  

Next the toppings.  This screams sugar coma for sure!

Talk about the best night ever for these kids.

Connor, Xavier, and Sebastian.  The fabulous trio that have grown up together and learned the gospel together.

Gavin and Bethany enjoying their delectable treat!

Reid wasn't into the ice cream, but he loved the animal crackers.  Sister Batman will be remembered in our family for years to come.  We may even have to adopt this tradition in our house.

Christmas Eve + Christmas Day

This year I kept teacher gifts simple.  The boys helped me make the gift bags which were Reindeers with a tag that said "Thanks for making my future BRIGHT!"  Then I filled the bag with some decorative stuffing and a gift card.  I also made cards that were stamped with snowflakes and said "To the coolest teacher"  Xavier and Gavin wrote notes to their teachers inside.  

As for Christmas Eve we usually have our friends Karina and Sebastian over, but they spent Christmas in New York this year.  During the day we visited the Crayola Factory with our friends the Oringdulphs.  We ate lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant La Pearla.  

Five boys running around, creating, and learning. 

Then we came home and baked cookies for Santa, watched Earth to Echo, and opened our pajamas.

My snuggle bugs....aren't they adorable?

Feeling goofy excited for Christmas.  Once we were in our pj's we read Luke II and got the boys tucked into bed.  

CHRISTMAS MORNING

The kiddos were up bright and early today!!  Boy do I wish I had a couple more hours of sleep.  Tim and I had a bedtime of 3 am.  The Christmas movie marathon kept us awake.  Then the kiddos started climbing into bed around 7 am. So we kind of just had a nap before the excitement began. 

The boys sporting their Tigers jerseys.

Gavin's top gift this year was a skateboard.  

I got another piece to my village.  One of my favorite gifts I look forward to each year.

Xavier got daddy a tape measure.  

Gavin made us a Christmas wreath ornament with his picture in it.  His face was pure joy to see how much we loved opening his gift.

Reid had to try on daddy's new basketball shoes.  It won't be long before he's dunking his own basketballs.

In school Xavier had a robot project in his Enrichment class.  He wrote a report as well as drafted plans on a robot he would build, so we wanted to get him a robot kit to build a robot.  This robot is solar powered.  He loved being able to put it together and operate it when the robot was complete.

Reid trying out the skateboard.  He was into everything and is always trying to keep up with his big brothers.

We decided we didn't want to do the traditional ham for Christmas this year.  We chose to do steak instead.  The weather was very mild so Tim cranked up the grill, found an amazing marinade for the meat, and grilled it up!  We made roasted potatoes and carrots, rolls, and a pear and pomegranate salad. It was yummly!

We have indeed been blessed in so many ways this past year.  We are forever grateful for our knowledge of our Savior, His humble birth, and His extraordinary life.  We are grateful to celebrate Him and realize all we have is because of Him.  This beautiful Earth has been given to us by Him and it is through His sacrifice that we are able to learn, live and serve those within our reach.  We hope our thoughts can turn to our Savior throughout the next year and that we may find ways to be more dedicated to His will.   Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year!

Christmas festivities

This year amongst the many parties, events, and activities we have scheduled as well as the regular Christmas preparations I can't help but seek those quiet moments each day (sometimes early in the morning, sometimes during a quiet second during Reid's nap time, or late at night when the kids have been tucked in) to remember the reason we are doing all of these things.  Remembering to focus our energy on our Savior is my primary goal with my family.  After all that is what Christmas is all about.  I have an advent where the boys open a Christmas book each day and we read it together.  I've also attached a challenge for some kind of service to perform each day.  Sometimes it was simple like helping a family member for the day, gathering books to donate to our local library, gathering old coats to donate,  choosing old toys to give away, or seeing how many people they could smile at that day.  Other times it was bigger service opportunities like shopping for toys for tots, donating money to the Bishop to help families in need, or making a tithing settlement survival kit for the Bishopric.  As the kids performed these acts of service we placed a heart on a paper that said "Our Gifts to Jesus".  By the end of the month our paper was full of hearts.  It was such a simple thing but seeing the accumulation of their service shows that little by little we become better.  Each time we serve we can dedicate our lives more to our Savior.  I am truly grateful for my boys and the excitement they had each time we did something for someone else.  We truly learned how much greater it is to give than to receive and through that we have drawn closer to the Savior.  

Below are some of the other ways we celebrated this magical time of year.

This was right before we headed to our ward Christmas party.  The boys are wearing their Christmas sweaters.  Forgive the bracelet in Reid's mouth.  That's the only way I could get him to sit still long enough for a somewhat decent photo.

The boys with Santa Clause!  Brother Niko is the best Santa ever.  This year he suffered from what the doctor's think was a stroke probably a few weeks before this picture was taken.  It's quite amazing and a blessing that he was able to come to our ward party this year.  The boys were so grateful to see him.  He loves the children that much that even his health didn't stop him from coming.  We sure love this man. 

The second grade hosted a gingerbread house making party instead of a traditional class party.  All parents were welcome to come and help.  Of course I jumped at the chance to go and be a part of this activity.  The kids had a blast decorating their houses.

Xavier wanted to add a chimney so he could put Santa inside.  Then he created a snowman with a snowboard.

The back was complete with a sunroof and solar panels.  It was definitely the most environmentally friendly house in the room.  

Me and my X-man had a blast creating his gingerbread house.  

That evening we invited friends over for our traditional gingerbread house making night.  So we definitely had a sugar filled day and night and gingerbread fun fun fun!

Travis and Hayden working on their house.

Karina and Sebastian making a lovely house too.

Tim and I sported our Christmas sweaters that were handmade by THE Tim Richardson.  They were originally supposed to be ugly sweaters, but mine was definitely not so ugly.  It was fun to wear them in honor of our fun night.

Xavier and Gavin made a red and white peppermint house this year.

Sebastian's completed house.

Mary and Cye definitely had a professional looking house.  They made a great team.

The following day was my baking day.  This year I made melted snowman sugar cookies, peanut butter reindeer cookies (which were so easy and fun to make), peppermint brookies, which if you haven't heard of these they are a combination of a brownie and a cookie. They were also super easy and soooooo delicious.  I also attempted homemade caramels, but they didn't work out so well.  I was a little  sad about this fail because I love caramel, but I've never made any type of candy before and realize it's definitely something that takes precision and know how which I do not have.

Reid was my little helper (or cookie snatcher).  He was eyeing the cookies the entire time I was wrapping them.  Don't worry he was rewarded with a cookie of his own for being such a good helper.

Once the cookie plates were all wrapped and labeled it was time to hop in the car and deliver them to neighbors and friends.  This is one of the boys favorite activities we do every year.  The boys feel like they are Santa delivering presents.  

Rewinding back just a couple days.  This was Tim's sweater in progress.  He made it for a work ugly sweater party.  He got to repurpose an old sweater he didn't like wearing.  

He didn't win any prizes but got many comments on how creative it was.  So not ugly enough, but definitely creative enough.

Since I had a little bit of sweater envy Tim stayed up late the next night to make me a sweater too.  What a wonderful husband I have.

My favorite part were the wings on the back and the three wise men in the corner.