Snow Hike

We went down the trail to do a little snow hike.  It was a beautiful day!

New Year's Eve

This year our New Year's Eve was pretty uneventful.  We stayed up and watched a movie then watched the Space Needle fireworks at midnight.  We are looking forward to a New Year, full of new adventures!

Snow Days!

Right after Christmas we got an epic snowstorm.  It was super cold and it snowed a lot.  We got out on some walks, the kids played outside, we did some sledding, and Liam even took out "Road Warrior" to see how it handled the snow.  The only thing we didn't do was build a giant snowman, because the air was so cold and the snow didn't pack very well.  Eleanor tried, but was only able to build a mini snowman. We went over to Grandma's one afternoon to play in the snow and go sledding with cousins. It was so fun!

Christmas with the A Family

We did our Christmas celebration on December 26th this year.  Paul's family came to town and we all met up at Brad's for an awesome night.  The whole gang was there.  The entire gang was there.  Who knows when the next time will be for that?  It was a little stressful because it started snowing really hard right before and it was a little dicey getting up to his house.  But we all made it and it was a wonderful evening.

Brad made this super cool tree decoration for his yard with an impressive light show.

We did a family picture and then had a wonderful Christmas meal.  After that, we had a talent show for Grandma (her favorite!) and Corban played the erhu that Aunt Amy had lent him that week.  He actually played really well for having just picked up the instrument.  He is super talented musically.

We did the nativity and Corban was King Herod, Liam was a wise man, Charlotte was Herod's servant (according to her), and Eleanor was a shepherd.

There were lots of presents exchanged, and then of course we had to finish out the night with the family band. And of course the Newport Fight song.

There was a lot of playing in the snow with cousins and the night was so fun.  It's always a little loud and crazy, but I love it!

Christmas Day!

We had a great Christmas day.  It was wonderful to give gifts to each other and to think about the birth of the Savior.  Santa came to visit our house too!

I was especially excited to give Zaron his Christmas gift this year.  I knew as soon as he came down that he would know exactly what it was so he got to open his gift first!  I got him a pinball machine!

He has wanted one ever since I have known him and I was finally able to find one that was inexpensive enough that I could justify getting it.  I had gotten it several weeks before and it was a little crazy trying to move it and store it. That thing is heavy!  Corban was a great help and Brad and Clint were kind enough to let me store it in their garage.  After all of our festivities on Christmas Eve, Corban and I went up to North Bend to pick it up.  Then, we got home and Liam, Corban and I tried to get it into the house.  It was a little tough for us to move it, but I noticed (it was midnight at the time) that our neighbors were still awake, so I texted them and Richard came over and helped us move it.  He saved us!  I'm grateful for neighbors who are willing to help out in the middle of the night on Christmas Eve.  We are truly blessed with the best neighbors!

Anyway, I think Zaron really likes it.  He seemed very excited and very surprised.  It made me so happy, as I had worried the whole time if I had made a very expensive mistake.  He immediately had to open everything up and see how it worked.

The rest of the morning was spent giving gifts and enjoying each others' company. I got some great gifts too.  My favorite gift was a blue butter dish that Zaron made for me.  I love it so much.  It was a nice, easygoing time for our family.  Everybody seemed happy with their gifts and they were thoughtful in the gifts they gave each other.  Of course the kids had to spend some time playing video games too.

Grandma and Grandpa came over for a visit and to see how our Christmas was.

We just hung out at home for the day and it was nice and relaxing.  And then, later that night, it started snowing!

It was a wonderful Christmas day.