Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas this year!  I didn't take near as many pictures as I have in the past, but we still had just as much fun!  

We went to go see santa at the mall and the line was so so long.  In fact, Adeline fell asleep in my arms because she was so tired.  At first we just decided to not put her in the picture.  But then I decided that I could just put her in Santa's arms.  He was so sweet and was on board.  It was so sweet, Adeline slept through the whole thing.  We got the pictures and I took her back and she never woke up.  I could feel everyone in line watching us and there was an audible sigh of relief when I was able to pick her back up and she stayed asleep.

One of the fun family activities that we did was building gingerbread houses at Jake and Angie's house.   They were genius and superglued the houses together before we all got there.  Then each kid got their own frosting and bowl of candy and went to town.  It was so much fun!

We tried several times to get an awesome picture in from of the Christmas tree.  We eventually gave up, but this was a pretty close one.  We love our silly annual Christmas picture!

I didn't get any pictures on Christmas morning.  Actually, I know I did take pictures, but they are no where to be found.  Just imagine the joy on their faces when they each found a super soft sleeping bag/pillow pet thing, and hot wheels and babies and strollers.  It was magical and I think it's safe to say that we all enjoyed it completely.

Service Elves

Meet Kinley and Bennington.  They came to stay with our family for the month of December to help us remember Jesus and serve others in his name.  Each day they have a special service challenge for our family.  We don't always remember to do it, but we have loved being able to have daily reminders to think of others.

Teagan  has loved the challenges and has worked to do them all.  Some were as simple as smiling at a stranger or inviting a new friend to play at school.  Others were bigger like delivering presents to a family in need or donating books to the library.  

I think the two favorite things were writing a thank you note and giving goodies to a teacher and taking in the neighbors garbages for Teagan.  

Eloise loved delivering presents to another family, it was really hard because she wanted the toys, but I could tell she really felt good and felt the spirit when she saw that they had a bare house and these might be the only toys they get.

Addy loved snuggling the elves and treating them like her babies.  

This morning Teagan was out waiting for the garbage man at 7:30 so he could make sure to take all the garbages in before the neighbors had a chance. He has such a giving heart.

The elves have really brought the true spirit of Christmas into our home and brought us closer together.  

Thanksgiving at Bear Lake

We had such a fun time in Bear Lake with the Daniels family.  The drive there was really scary.  It was definitely a blizzard and I was so scared.  We luckily were behind a truck who turned on their hazards so that we could see and follow them.  We couldn't even see the side of the road.  That truck must have been an answer to our prayers for safe travels!  We finally made it and had the house in view, but the road was so slick and our tires were so bald that we couldn't make it up the hill.  Luckily Grandpa Daniels was watching out the window and came to the rescue.  He hooked us up to the truck and pulled us up the hill.  It was all pretty comical at that point. It was so nice to come in to a warm cozy cabin.

The cabin was great and we all had a blast.  Teagan is turning into a real boy and said that all the yummy food was his favorite part of the weekend.  Grandma made him a pancake as big as the whole plate.  He made it about ⅔ of the way through before he was stuffed.   

The Thanksgiving feast was definitely a feast!   There was so much food and it was all so amazing and delicious.  There are some good cooks in the family! 

The three littlest girls had so much fun playing together and getting spoiled by grandma and grandpa. They sure are lucky!

 There was a lot of laying around watching movies, eating gumballs, snuggling, tickling, game playing and laughing.

There was also a lot of sitting on our phones, unfortunately, I didn't have service so I just took pictures of everyone else.  haha

Addy finally got acquainted with everyone and had fun going between everyone and being cute.  She followed around the big kids and tried to steal their candy too.

It snowed all weekend so the kids spent lots of time outside.  I was so proud of Teagan, he noticed when grandpa went out to shovel and hurried and got dressed to help him.  He didn't need to be asked, he just wanted to help.  He sure loves his grandpa.

All the other kids were close behind.  Addy loves to be in the snow and doesn't seem to get cold as quickly as I'd expect.

Teagan and Taylin had a blast running around, taking turns pulling each other on the sled and just being kids.

Eloise isn't a fan of being cold (she gets that from me) and didn't last long out in the snow with the other kids.  Luckily grandma had lots of fun activities inside.  She loved making her turkey cupcake.  It's pretty darn cute.

We took a day and went over to Logan and partied.  We went to the theater and saw "The Good Dinosaur" and then went out to eat at "The Element."  The restaurant reminded us why we don't take our kids to nice restaurants...wow.  Broken cups, spilled water, huge tantrums, bad manners.  It was downright embarrassing.  Somehow we got this picture of me looking very serene, this must have happened early on, haha.  I think that it is so fun to go out with our kids, but it only works if the food is kid friendly (not homemade mac n cheese, kraft), we aren't with any other adults so we can chat with them, and it is fast service.  

Overall, it was a great weekend.  The kids love to play with their cousins, and we love to play with the adults.  I wish I had more pictures, but as usual, we were too busy having a good time.

Halloween

 Halloween was so fun this year!  We really got into the make and costuming which makes it even better!

Eloise was rapunzel again and Teagan was a zombie.  When I told Teagan we were going to cut up some of his clothes for a costume he was half shocked and half ecstatic.  He was so so excited!

This was at the ward trunk or treat.  Adeline is a lady bug, Zac is Flav-O-Flav (a rapper?), and I am a witch.  The kids got so much candy it was silly, Addy pretty much just ate hers as it came in.  Notice the girl in the back of our picture with the blue bath robe.  she was dressed as a crazy cat lady!  There were cats all over her costume.  That was so funny!

Teagan in full Zombie character.  He was so into scaring everyone!

Addy was so adorable!  That little lady bug outfit was pretty much the cutest ever.

Grandma and Grandpa Daniels came up and went trick or treating with us, the kids loved that!  Then they came back to our house and we had soup and birthday cake for Grandma.  Her birthday is the 29th so we decided to make her a cake.

I know I always claim that I do not like Halloween, but it was actually so fun this year.  Kids make everything better!

Fall Family Pictures

My cousin Sara Peterson Brown took our family pictures and they turned out so great.  The fall colors were to die for and she has a wonderful way with photoshop.  We can up with the colors because I wanted Eloise to wear her special favorite blue dress.  she actually has two of the exact same dress and she wears them all the time.  I feel like a picture of her at this age in any other dress just wouldn't be right.  

 I can't even stand how beautiful and handsome they all are.  I love these kids to the moon and back!

I was so happy with the way they turned out.  Thank you Sara!

The Sunflower!

Teagan brought home seeds to grow a sunflower right around Mother's Day weekend.  He planted several along the front of the house as a surprise for me, he is so sweet.  He knew that I would LOVE more flowers.  This particular plant had the will to be a giant!  It is enormous! I have no idea how we are going to get it out of the ground.  The trunk is the size of Teagan's leg!  Teagan has loved watching it grow; measuring it against himself, then us, and then the house.  

Drama

"Mom, can you please get me a drink of water or I will probably die."

So Naughty and so Cute

Adeline has discovered the toilet.  If the bathroom door is open she is in there playing in the water.  I almost can't write this because it makes me sick, but her favorite thing to do is, gulp, dip things in the toilet that will absorb the water, like a doll or towel or blanket, and then suck on them.  Gross!!!  Last time she came walking in the living room sucking on her doll hair and splattered with water, I about died and had a very serious talk with the family about shutting the bathroom door.  

Toys in the toilet, water splashed on the floor and tracked down the hall, wet baby, wet toys; these things describe life with a 16 month old.

But she sure is cute, it's hard to stay mad for too long.  And she loves apples and says "apple" so clearly.  And her eyes are so beautiful they'll stop you right in your tracks.  And she tries to make jokes and she will eat anything.  I think we'll keep her.

Our "Fair"

We decided that since we don't love the fair and the kids only like the rides and we only like the food we would do our own "fair" this year.  We started out at Fun Land by Tautphus park.

They all loved the rides, Adeline was definitely sad that she couldn't ride on more of them.  Teagan wanted to go on the airplane multiple times and Eloise loved the merry-go-round.

We went home and made jalapeño poppers, onion rings, fried cheese, fried pickles, and fried cream cheese apple empanadas.  The food was delicious and affordable and exactly how we liked it.    

It is nice to know that just because everyone around us loves the fair, we don't have to love it too.  We can make our own fun traditions that the whole family can enjoy without spending a ton of money.  It was a huge win for the Daniels family!

First Day of Joy School

Eloise was so excited to start school.  She loves the songs and the friends and the coloring.  Everything about school is wonderful to her.  She especially loves to wear a dress to school.

I made Eloise a doll out of a butternut squash, she has grown rather attached.  She loves dolls and purses and plays house all day long.  Usually, Adeline is the mom and Eloise is the sister.

Eloise is growing up so fast, she makes me laugh so hard.  I'm grateful to be her mom!  

City of Rocks Camping Trip

We had such a fun time at the City of Rocks with the Durtschi Family Reunion!  We did a lot of exploring and hiking.  Adults and kids had lots of fun.

This picture made me laugh, we Durtschi girls love our blue!  

There were so many cool rock mountains to climb.  Teagan was in heaven and loved exploring with his cousins.

Brian and Zac decided to do a cool, "hanging from the rock" pose. 

Photo bomb!

The guys each had to prove their manliness by scaling the wall and climbing up this ledge.  The picture makes it look like no big deal, but it was actually pretty high up there!

Addy loved to be in the safety of the backpack.  There was no danger of anyone trying to pick her up, but she still got to be a part of the action.

Zac helped Eloise climb the rocks so she could be like the big kids.  She loved having her daddy by her side.  She would go from petrified and whimpering and crying to laughing and running when Zac was by her side.

These two are pals and I love them.  Eloise and Ty.

The days and evenings were loads of fun!  Hiking, exploring, cards, food, swimming, eating...the nights were not fun.  Adeline decided that being in the tent with everyone was a lot of fun and she decided to keep us up all night.  I took this picture so that we could always remember the time that we put Addy in our bed to keep her from waking up Teagan and Eloise and she thought it was hilarious to sit on Zac's face.  Zac ended up driving her around trying to get her to fall asleep.  We all woke up determined to leave that evening and abandon ship, but we ended up making it work and enduring to the end.

It was worth it, we had a great time and loved spending time with family!