Christmas

Christmas came!!! Funny how as a child you think Christmas takes so long and then as an adult it comes before you are ready. We have our traditional top of the stairs picture and then the rest are pretty self explanatory.  Christmas was good to us this year.  Instead of a lot of physical gifts we opted to give memories and experiences, such as a trip to Mobius, a trip to Sky High jump, Froyo yogurt coupons, Monster truck tickets, Golf lessons, and school lunches.  Josies favorite present this year was a sewing machine.  Lincoln's favorite present this year was his tow truck, Conor's favorite present this year was his long board and then they all loved the family activity gifts. 

Christmas Eve

So close!!! Christmas is almost here! We usually go skiing on Christmas Eve, but since there is no snow that was out of the question. We decided to try our luck at ice skating instead. We have to do a fun day activity on Christmas eve or the kiddies drive me crazy, so this was a good option. After the ice skating we came home for our traditional chili dinner, our call to the Norad santa tracker elves, opening our Christmas jammies and reading our new Christmas story. Off to bed so Santa can come!!!

-All of us are standing!  Lincoln only lasted a few loops around, but he did it. 

-Taj and Josie

-Kyler and Conor

-Family photo op in front of the clock tower

-A rare Kevin and Julie picture-the scenery was fun

-An Amazing sunset over the Spokane River

-The kids talking to the Norad Santa elf

-Christmas Jammies

-"Borrowing" a few of the cookies for Santa.  He won't mind right?

Christmas related family outings

December means time to go check out the trees and the lights downtown and spend time together as a family doing Christmas activities. After going to the Davenport to look at the trees we went to HuHot for dinner and had a blast. The kids didn't love the food but they loved the chopsticks and the soda. I love their faces as they figured out how to actually nab a noodle with their sticks. Fun times. We were able to meet some Kellogg's for lunch as Nicole and Nathan flew into Spokane on their way to spend Christmas with Gary and Randi. Then we took the opportunity to go downtown and look at the light displays they have in Riverfront Park.   Ready or not....Here comes Christmas.   

-The Davenport beautiful tree

-The gigantic gigantic tree at the downtown mall

-Selfies at HuHot.  Such cute little goofballs

-Nicole and Nathan and the kids. 

-Darren and Stephanie, Jasper, Nathan and Nicole and us. 

-The light displays at Riverfront Park

Gingerbread Houses

We decided to get a little crazy this year and host a gingerbread house building event.  We hope to make it an annual affair.  Our kitchen was a little crowded for a few hours but it was a smashing success!  I premade all the gingerbread houses by hot gluing graham crackers together, and I made 10 batches of frosting. We had more than enough candy, we went over board in that arena, but can you ever have tooo much candy???  We hade cookies and homemade hot chocolate to snack on and a giant bonfire outside.  I am so happy we did it.  Everyone had a great time. 

-Most of the crowd...give or take a few

-Some more of the crowd

-Maryn, Jo and Madeliene

-Charlie, Rylie, Josie and Elise  and the adults gabbing in the background (love)

-Lincoln and Cody

-Some of the finished houses

-Kellogg finished houses

Christmas parade and fireworks

Our latest tradition is to head to Coeur d'alene for the annual Christmas parade, tree lighting and firework show. We go with the Wilsons and we always have fun, rain, cold snow or freeeeezing. This year the weather was rotten. Pouring, I mean pouring rain and wind. Our umbrellas were turning inside out and we were drenched. But despite this, we had a great time and the rain subsided for the fireworks show.  After we headed to Texas Road House for some delicious eats. It was so relaxing and nice to spend the night out.

And the fun of Christmas begins

Here is a smattering of some of the fun activities that we did in December. We start out at the ward Christmas party and Lincoln and Josie were able to sit on Santa's lap. Josie asked for a sewing machine and Lincoln asked for a tow truck. The kids sang at the ward Christmas party with the primary and Lincoln was a ham.  Then we head into decorating for Christmas, Lincoln just couldn't wait for me to help decorate the tree so he did it himself.  The result is the bottom 1/4 of the tree filled with ornaments and the rest bare.  We went to the annual Wilson cookie exchange and pasta feed.  The picture is of the kids decorating cookies.   Both Josie and Conor had school Christmas concerts, this year Conor got to play the zylophone with a group of kids and he rocked it.  Always fun to see them participate and have fun with the music. 

 

BYU Volleyball

BYU girls volleyball came to town! We love it when BYU comes to play Gonzaga. This was a great game and BYU barely eaked it out in a nail biter. We got to go to the game with the Robinson's our favorite BYU supporting family.  I think these guys bleed blue.   The team was so great about signing autographs after the game and taking pictures. GO BYU!!

-Here is a not so great selfie with some of the Robinsons and some of the Kellogg's 

-Josie, Rylie and Charlie all BYU'd up 

-Conor and Josie looking down onto the court

-Getting some autographs

One of the super cute BYU players with the kids.  Lincoln and Cody are missing.