Christmas Break

We had a GREAT Christmas break. No sickness!!! The last two years we've had pretty miserable Christmases with the stomach flu ruining our holidays and the time surrounding the holidays while the kids are out of school and Greg is off work. This year was different. Thank you, Lord! We truly were thankful for wellness this year. We enjoyed the holidays themselves, times with friends, playing games, doing puzzles, reading, watching movies, and just enjoyed being together and having down time.

We gave this plate to Grant for Christmas, and we are loving it and so is he! He's been a very picky, finicky eater, and right around Christmas time, he finally started trying some new foods. This was BIG news, a very big deal. Dinner time has not been pleasant around here. We got the face plate, thinking it might make meal times a little more pleasant, and you know, it has helped! He thinks it's so funny to give the man food hair, a food mustache and beard, to taste some "hair," some "ear," and some "beard." We'll see how long the novelty lasts. It's still going strong right now, and we're going to milk it for as long as we can. Eventually, he will eat. The other kids have. That's what we keep telling ourselves.

One of the fun things we were able to do over the break is go see a movie in the theater together--all six of us! This is something we'd never done before because 1.) It's expensive! and 2.) Grant has been too little to sit through a movie.  We used some Christmas money from Great Grandpa and Grandma and went and saw Disney's "Frozen," even splurging to get popcorn and soda. We all enjoyed the movie and enjoyed the experience of going together. It was fun! I'm liking this new phase of life we're entering.

It's a terrible phone photo, and no one looks happy, but they all were. :)



 

It was sad when Greg had to go back to work the day after New Year's, so the kids and I took a trip to the zoo. It was cold but dry and a good outing for us.

 The sunset was beautiful one night after Christmas  (the photo doesn't do it justice), and I think it is fitting to end my Christmas break post this way. It was hard to send the kids back to school that Monday, which surprised me because I'm usually ready for the kids to go back to school and for us to get back to routines and schedules after a couple weeks off. But not this time. We'd had such a good break and a good time together, I wanted a little more.  I'm thankful for a wonderful Christmas this year, though, and hopeful for more like it in future years.



Christmas

I was terrible about taking pictures at our Christmas celebrations. I didn't take one photo at our Moffat Christmas a few days prior to Christmas day. It was a nice time together, relaxing, playing games with the kids, and just enjoying some time together. We missed Ryan and Michelle, as they stayed in Sisters for Christmas this year, but it was still a good time with family.

We were with the Arnolds for Christmas Eve for birthday cake for Jesus and reading of the Christmas story and for Christmas day and Mom's birthday, too. Once again, not very many pictures, though. Next year I'll make sure we get some group shots. Blake and Lindsay were with us over at Mom and Dad's in the morning, and Brian and Emily came over with their kids later in the afternoon. We celebrated Mom's birthday that evening. The kids entertained themselves with all the new things to do and play with, which made the day relaxing for us adults. Joel worked on his big, new Ninjago Lego set all day long and finished it by evening.

I love this picture of Aubrey and my mom.

I like this one an awful lot, too. Aubrey in a gift bag, playing with Grandpa.

Christmas Morning

Christmas morning was a sweet time with the kids. I woke up super grumpy, but that dissipated as the morning unfolded, and I watched our kids enjoy their gifts. They opened their stockings first, of course, all at the same time. Grant was so cute in his excitement over everything. As soon as he pulled something out of his stocking, he went around showing it to everyone else. We opened presents one at a time, starting with the gifts the kids gave to each other. We didn't plan for them to give each other gifts (need to plan a little for that next year), but they did it on their own, and it was just so precious. Grant and Aubrey worked together making artwork for everyone in the family. They wrapped them themselves, too. Aubrey drew a family portrait for Greg but forgot to include herself. :) Grant's drawings were crayon scribbles, and his sibling all showed sweet appreciation for his gifts of scribbles. Joel made/put together gifts for his siblings--all very sweet, thoughtful gifts (Grant was VERY excited about the Skylander cards Joel gave him), and Kari made two of hers and bought one with her own money for Joel when she was out with Grandma for her birthday. Their gift exchanges were my favorite part of our morning.

Joel insisted on getting Greg the red thing he's wearing on his head. It's called "Basket Head." He saw it somewhere and was persistent in asking me to get it for him. Pretty silly, but it sure made Joel happy. :)

 

Christmas Program

I helped with the Christmas program this year at church. Dad wrote it, and I, along with a couple other ladies, directed it. It was a lot of work, but it was fun, and I really enjoyed being a part of it. We had a great team of people working together on it, and the kids did a really good job. A couple people laughingly said afterwards that it looked a little like herding chickens at times, and they were right! We had a lot of little kids, and when they're 3 years old, they're a little unpredictable. Even when they're 5 years old, they can be unpredictable, as evidenced by little Drake's impromptu performance. Here's the video and some photos others posted on FB. Kari was one of three narrators, Joel was "Daniel," as in Daniel and the lions den, and Aubrey and Grant were lions, and Aubrey said one of the 10 Commandments. Dad's program was unique, starting the story at the beginning of the Old Testament, weaving stories throughout, and leading up to the nativity, and it was great. The kids are what "make" these programs, though. They were so cute!


2013 Children's Christmas Program from Barry Arnold on Vimeo.

Gingerbread Houses

Wishing I would have written about Christmas in December. It feels strange to be writing about gingerbread houses in January. Oh well! I have to start the Christmas posts sometime!

I almost nixed the gingerbread house-making this year due to the busyness of the season but decided to do it after all, and the kids decorated small houses (just made 4 little ones this year--a lot less work, image that.) on Christmas Eve. I'm glad I did it, and the kids were glad, too.

 

Recent Piano Song

Kari piano from Andrea Moffat on Vimeo.

We're proud of Kari's hard work. She's doing great!

Switched from Pink to Blue

Kari's new blue room with new bedding.

Still has lots of pink, just branching out a bit.

Kari's 10th Birthday

I think this is the longest I've gone without posting on the blog! December got away from me. We were busy with Christmas preparations, birthday celebrations, and school parties and projects. Kari Lynn turned 10 on December 17th. She is officially in the double digits. We celebrated with family the Saturday before her birthday and had a birthday brunch.






She made and hung these snowflakes as decorations for her party. We were impressed!




On her actual birthday, Greg surprised her by taking a long lunch and showing up at school during lunch with Arbys for them both. She loved it. 

 

She had a great day until just after our dinner of chicken pot pie (her request), when we realized Tiger Lily (the kitty she picked out) was missing. We had Oreo but no Tiger Lily. We couldn't find her in any of the usual hiding spots and, after a couple hours of searching inside and out, determined that she was not in the house and was gone. The cats are inside cats and have never been outside. We walked the neighborhood with flashlights, twice, with no sign of our kitten. Kari was devastated, just sobbing. Her birthday evening was ruined. She couldn't enjoy her birthday cupcakes and ice cream, and we didn't even try to sing to her. She was up way too late, finally crying herself to sleep at 10:30pm. It was a very cold night, but we left the garage door open just a crack overnight anyway, hoping the kitty would come home. It was a rough night. I prayed that God would bring the cat back to us, begged him, actually. It was awful seeing Kari so heartbroken, and I wanted so much for her prayer to be answered, but there was no sign of the kitty in the morning.

 

I took Kari to school early the next morning for a jump rope practice before school and came back home with the other kids. Just before it was time to take the other two to school an hour later, I checked the garage yet again, calling for the kitty, and this time I heard a "mew." I could hardly believe it. I kept calling and kept searching, and the "mewing" continued. I made my way closer and closer to the sound, and saw a little paw poking out of a hole behind the furnace where a heating duct went down under the house. I was so happy, I cried. I ran into the house screaming to the kids, "I found her!" The kids came out, and I tried to get her out, but she was stuck, wedged in the hole between the wall and the heating duct. I was about to go in the crawl space under the house to get her out when I decided to try one more time to lift her up so she could get out, and this time, it worked. She was able to squeeze her way out. I never thought I'd be so happy to see a cat. Aubrey and Joel couldn't wait to go to school and tell Kari we'd found her kitty. I wish I could have been there to see that cute little scene.

 

We had a birthday night "redo" and ate cupcakes and ice cream and sang to her that night instead.

Happy girl with her kitten.

 

Kari has entered a pretty fun age. Nine was great, and I think ten is going to be great, as well. She has grown up so much in the last year. She started piano lessons a year ago, this week, and is still really enjoying the piano. Her teacher said, of all her students, Kari learned the most Christmas songs. She was motivated and has at least eight of them under her belt now. :-) She's doing really well. There are some frustrating times, when new songs are difficult, but we rarely have to remind her to practice, and she's advancing quickly!

 

She likes soccer a lot and is starting to get into tennis and will be taking some lessons (birthday present) this spring. She likes school and is very much a self-motivated learner. She's in the jump rope club at school this year and, even though she's nervous about performing, is excited to do her routines in a couple months at the school assembly and at Barlow, during half-time at one of the high school basketball games. She still really likes the color pink but decided she wanted a blue room, so that was our birthday gift to her this year--redoing her room. We painted it a bright sky blue and got new bedding that should last her a while, well into the upcoming teen years. I'll have to post a picture later. She is still ridiculously organized and never has a thing out of place in her room. She is not really into clothes or fashion. She'd much rather keep things plain and simple, very practical and all about comfort. :) She is maturing, learning how to be more flexible, learning to think about others more, helpful to us around the house, and is just growing into a delightful young lady.

 

We decided not to do a big friend party this year, and instead, planned a little outing with her good friend, Ellie, who has a birthday two days before Kari. We had a mother-daughter tea time after Christmas to celebrate their birthdays. The girls had hot chocolate; we mom's drank "fireside orange" tea, and we all shared some sweet treats. The lemon tarts were amazing. It was fun. :-)

 

 

Tooth Fairy Visits Aubrey

Aubrey lost her first tooth! Looks like she's lost two teeth, but she hasn't, just the one. The one next to the lost tooth on the bottom is leaning sideways and about to fall out soon. Not too much drama, according to Greg (I wasn't home for the big event). It literally fell out of her mouth and onto the floor. She seems too young to be losing teeth, but she IS going to be six in a couple months, so I guess it's time. The tooth fairy had double duty that night because Kari lost a molar that day, too. Greg put a reminder in our google calendar because the tooth fairy has been known to be a no-show on multiple occasions. Gold coins were discovered the next morning under the appropriate pillows.

 

Snow Day

I opened the playroom blinds for the kids the see the snow this morning, knowing they hadn't looked outside yet, and I got the reaction I was hoping for. SO EXCITED! The big kids already had the day off from school because of a scheduled curriculum day for teachers. I let them go out at 8am, not knowing how long the snow would last. They came in for a quick breakfast and some hot cocoa and then were out again for most of the morning. A bunch of neighbor kids were out, too, and a couple of moms, as well, so I got my snow gear on and joined them. We pulled kids up and down the hill on our street and just played for a long time. If we gave them a running start, they could go pretty far on their sleds. We have some great neighbors. It was a really fun time, even thought it was cold and windy. Grant didn't last as long as the rest of them. He and I came inside to warm up while the rest of them stayed out and played with their friends until I called them in for lunch.

After lunch we made Christmas cookies together, frosted and tasted them, and took plates of cookies to the neighbors we'd been playing with earlier in the day. The kids had a blast running from house to house delivering their goodies. Their "buckets" were filled to the brim today. Love days like this!

 

Tree Fetching

We went to a new tree farm this year, since the one we've gone to the last couple years is no longer in business. This new one was great, not quite the $10 deal we've been getting, but that was ok. Twenty dollars seems to be the going rate. They had lots of pretty trees to choose from, and they even gave us all hot chocolate and chili for free and had craft supplies for the kids to make an ornament. We also liked that they used a blower to dry the tree and get rid of loose needles--very smart. The kids had a blast running around, searching for the "perfect" tree. This was it! Ta-da! Greg was finishing up sawing our tree down, and the kids were having run running through the trees when they saw Grandpa and Grandma Moffat who also just happened to be there, at the same tree farm, in search of their own tree! I was glad I had my camera out when the kids found them. We had just seen them the day before on Thanksgiving, but you'd have thought it had been months, from the greeting they received! Greg sawed their tree down, too, once they picked one out, since he was already dirty from getting ours. :)

The kids decorated the tree pretty much by themselves. It was kinda cute, and they were having fun, but it was difficult to watch my ornaments (and theirs) placed precariously on the edge of thin branches, all in the same clumps. I'm thinking they might need their own tree upstairs next year.