Easter Fun

It was fun to dye Easter eggs together and then have the kids hunt for them on Saturday morning.  Having older siblings is pretty awesome for the little ones.  I love to watch them all work together and get excited when the little ones find eggs too.

Annual Cupcake Wars

One of the kids' favorite traditions is our annual cupcake wars.  Each year the anticipation and planning builds.  This year they baked their cupcakes one day early so they had more time to decorate them.  It's fun to listen to them work together, and work through disagreements, and learn the arts of cooperation and compromise!

  

New Year's Eve & Gingerbread Houses

We decided to continue our new time of making gingerbread houses on New Year's Eve Day.  Again, the kiddos decided on boys vs. girls.  Rebekah had her first taste of sugar during the making of the houses, and Jacob continued as our seasoned taste tester!

The rest of the evening we played games.  We were all actually really tired this year.  Josh and Mary were the only kids that made it up to midnight.  The rest decided to just go to bed earlier.  Joel and I tried to convince Mary and Josh to head in early as well, with no luck, so we stayed up with them as well.

Christmas Season Memories

We went to visit the John Johnson Farm in Hiram, Ohio the day after Christmas.  They had a gingerbread house display and then we were able to go on a tour.  We've been here many times, yet each time the Spirit touches me in a new way and I learn and have my testimony strengthened each time.  I am so grateful we live close enough to experience these amazing church history sites.

Joel was able to take vacation for almost the entire 2 weeks the kids were out of school.  We didn't go anywhere big or do anything major.  We just enjoyed being together as a family.  I'm grateful Joel loves to be home with us.  He tells me one of his favorite things to do is just be home and experience the day to day routine of family life that he misses when he is at work. The kids love when Dad is home, almost as much as I do! ;)

We played lots of games together...lots of late nights with snacks, fun, and laughter!

Christmas 2017

Christmas fell on a Sunday this  year.  We decided we would get up and do stockings and exchange gifts the kids bought each other.  Grandma and Grandpa Powell facetimed with us again in the wee hours of the morning.  We were able to open the gifts from them as well.  Then we had breakfast of homemade sweet rolls and got ready for 9:00 am church.  After church we came home, the kids got back in PJ's and we finished opening gifts.  IT was really nice.  It made the day a lot longer and we just relaxed and slowly went about the day.

One of my favorite parts of Christmas day is just all of us being together.  Lots of games are played, sharing of new toys, lounging around, and just focusing on our family and the spirit of Christmas.  It is also great to have the opportunity to talk with all of our extended family members.