Dreams of Olympic Gold

So... I was very brave.  Well, I guess it wasn't actually that brave.  But I felt brave.  Abe and I went shooting at a shooting range with the Schramms.  Camille has said that I make her get out of her comfort zone and do fun things.  This is debatable, but what is not debatable is that Camille and Keith brought me along with them to do a scary thing.

I had never fired a gun before.  Well, I mean, I'd fired Nerf guns... and laser guns, but I don't think those really count. 

Keith was an awesome teacher and I don't want to brag or anything (read:  I totally want to brag), but I was a pretty good shot.

Abe was pretty good too.  I won't say who was better-- mostly because I don't know.  He tended to hit lower and I hit higher. 

I don't know that I will become a shooting enthusiast, but I will have to practice if I'm ever to achieve my goal of winning a medal in an Olympic biathalon:)

Sledding is the Best

It is there anything more wonderful that happy children sledding on a beautiful, clear winter's day?

I'd like to take this moment  to celebrate that I got our entire family, minus Clark, outfitted in complete snow clothes.  Count it:  That's 9 pairs of snow pants (that all fit), 9 pairs of boots (that all fit), 9 pairs of gloves (that all fit and were waterproof!), 9 hats, 9 winter coats.  CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT ACCOMPLISHMENT!?   Now, I'm just saying, you can't feel that bad about how you're doing in life if your entire family has complete snow clothes.  I feel very rich, indeed.
We have a couple extra boys in this picture that we brought along for the fun.

We also met up with the Lee family-- they are only about our favorite people in the world!  But a lot of people feel that way about the Lees.

Big sisters with their little sisters.  Lucky girls-- them all!

While not the world's biggest sledding fan, Elinor had fun somewhat against her wishes:)

What a nice big sister she was to pull Peter up the hill.

Love.

We need more snow so we can do more sledding!

Weird and Wonderful Week

The week in between Christmas and New Years is weird and wonderful-- just like these two! 
Seriously, it is about the best week of the year.  We play a lot and eat a lot and waste a lot of time.  By the time it's over everyone is starting to lose their cool and is ready to buckle back down to the beautiful grind of regular life. 

We enjoyed a night out to eat with the Utah Fox siblings. 

We invited ourselves over to the Schramms to play games with them and their family from out of town.
Good friends can always invite themselves over:)

Friends on a double date downtown.

Kids played with neighbor friends almost every single day for hours and hours and they were all so happy.  George and his friend made this robot with Christmas box trash.

Peter and his best friend playing Bey Blades.  \

Greta moved out of her crib and has not been very good about staying in her bed.  I found her sitting in Faith's closet eating Faith's M&Ms without even a snitch of remorse.  

We spent way too much time working on a ridiculously huge 2000 piece puzzle.  A couple times it was just Abe and I listening to music and puzzling together and it was delightful!

VICTORY!

Another New Years Eve with our wonderful Johansens.  I think we figured this was our 11th year on a row of New Years Eve game nights and it is hours and hours of games and junk food.  We both have missionaries out right now and it was so fun to talk about our recent Christmas phone calls with them and how they are doing.  It's fun that Clark and Kara are good friends who regularly write to each other.  We'll look forward to both of them being home next year.

Michelle has been one of my homeschooling mentors and I am so grateful for their friendship.

Peter was so cute on New Years trying to stay awake.  He came to us and showed us how he could prop his eyes open to stay awake.  From the look of this picture, his plan didn't work.

They introduced us to a really fun new game called "Sushi Go".  Thank goodness you don't have to like Sushi to enjoy the game:)

Elinor will shortly be turning 16 and she recently asked a boy to an upcoming school dance with this geeky chemistry code.  It's just so Elinor!

He answered back with a gingerbread volcano, complete with gummy dinosaurs.  It's a match made in heaven!  

What kind of homeschooling family would be if we didn't attempt to erupt the gingerbread volcano.   It was fun.  You know what else is fun?  The week between Christmas and regular life.  I dare say it's almost too fun.

Oh Christmas! Oh Martha!

It's the day they've all been waiting for--- It's Christmas Morning!!!!!!

Blogging about Christmas morning is rather daunting to me-- so many kids, so many pictures.  I think I'll just go person by person.

We'll start with the good-looking guy on the TV screen.  We got to talk to our missionary and it was wonderful.  He called just before 7 AM to tell us he'd been calling later in the afternoon.  The funny thing is, he totally woke us up!  He said, "Aren't you guys in the middle of opening presents?" 

I said, "... Uh, no.  The kids are all asleep"

Clark said, "WHAT?!?!  Tell them I am very disappointed in them!"

We're usually pretty early risers for Christmas morning.  

The funniest moment was when Cannon help "The Cat" up to the camera to prove to Clark that the cat still lives.  As you can see, Clark got a kick out of that.  I like The Cat's face on the screen at the bottom right.

I guess you can tell we were more than a little happy to see his face.

For Greta, it was like nothing had changed.  She was completely enamoured by Clark.  Clark specifically asked to put Greta up to the camera a couple times and couldn't believe how much she had changed since the Mother's Day video call.  Greta sang "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" to him.

 He told us stories and it was marvelous to have that hour together.  He was well taken care of by the members in Texas.

And I admit, I like that he'll only be gone for one Christmas.  Next Christmas we will all be together again!

Bethany got a Karaoke machine.

And character shoes for her theatrical endeavors.

This was my favorite moment of Christmas morning.  Bethany gave me a framed picture of her and me at her senior violin recital.  Clark gave me a similar picture of he and I hiking together before he left on his mission.  This was very meaningful to me and it quickly brought forth the tears.

A love this picture of Elinor wearing her new swim deck coat, wearing her Tokyo shirt that Faith gave her for Christmas, and eating cream puffs with chopsticks.  It's just so Elinor. 

Elinor also introduced us to her Asian dramas she likes to watch and we binged watched some over the break.

Bethany gave Elinor a threat wallet and it was... shall we say... very well received.

Clark sent us "Texas-opoly" for Christmas.  Abe is channeling Donald Trump and Elinor is flicking money to everyone.  I don't know what Bethany and Faith are doing.

A new swim suit.

Faith and her University of Utah gymnastics season tickets.

Faith and I working on her cat puzzle.

Poor Faith- I got her the wrong size of pants she requested and the wrong size dress.  Tomorrow we'll head out and see if we can find the right sizes.  Sorry, Faith.

It was a Green Machine Christmas for the boys.

These don't take up as much room, but they take up every possible moment-- Bey Blades. My boys are obsessed! 

They got loads of them and they all got stadiums in which to "battle".  They play them together and there are no screens or electricity involved.  Yes, please!

Seriously, where have these toys been all my life?  

Abe won this little baby at work... so yeah.  We don't really need, nor do I want any more video games.  Oh well.

The moment when Cannon unwrapped our already owned Nintendo Switch (another work prize) and realized Abe had downloaded Super Smash Brothers.  Cannon was overcome with joy!

Peter really wanted a gumball machine.

Greta had an all PJ Masks Christmas.  

A meeting of the Foxy Ladies on Christmas morning.  This picture reminds me that I am the luckiest woman I know.

She tested out the karaoke machine to sing the PJ Masks theme song.

Abe opened our family gift from Clark-- the Texas-Opology game and a envelope filled with little papers he wrote to everyone in the family with 5 things he loved about each of us.  Very sweet and a highlight of the morning.

Abe got me this very comfy lounge wear.  Christmas break is all about the lounge wear.

He cooked us his traditional and delicious British fried breakfast.

Merry Christmas 2018!