December 2014

The kids are out of school and we have been having a good time being all together...every day...all the time :) No actually, for the most part, it has been a lot of fun. One night we decided to stop at Wendy's to grab some dinner and found Santa there. He was the best Santa I have ever seen! He even played a song and did a puppet show just for Emmy! 

We donated 75 cans of food to get movie tickets and went and saw Big Hero 6. We all loved it! We would like a Baymax of our own. 

We hit up the City Museum again on Christmas Eve day and wore ourselves out. We especially love the 3 story slide! It's always so much fun to hang out with our ward family and act like kids.

Grandma and Grandpa Anson sent the kids gift cards to Toys'R'Us so we decided to go shopping before Christmas, while the toys were still on sale. We spent 2 hours wandering around and looking at everything in the store. Emmy and Jacob eventually decided on the same Sea Lion stuffed animal and Caleb picked Nerf Gun. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa!

Christmas Eve we started a new tradition and had a Pajama Formal. We opened our new Christmas pajamas and had a fancy dinner by candlelight. I loved it and it was so nice to not have to cook for a few days afterward because we had so many leftovers. 

The kids slept well after running around all day and it was actually daylight when we started opening presents! Caleb was the first up and I finally let him wake up the other two. Santa was good to us and it was exciting watching the kids open up their presents.

Caleb received a rubber chicken in his stocking and laughed so hard! It was pretty DARN funny! He also received a fluffy down-alternative comforter, a leatherman and some speakers to go to the kids' computer.

Jacob received a Razor scooter, Legos and some porcupine puppets. He had fun riding his scooter outside, as it was a whopping 57 degrees outside on Christmas day!  

Emmy received ballet shoes and a pretty, pink tutu. She also got a matching doll who has the same outfit! She spent the rest of the day dancing around the house. (pictures below)

Thank you so much to all those who sent packages and cards! We miss our family and friends so much and felt so loved each time something fun arrived in the mail. Love you all!

Also, earlier in the week, Jacob received his 2nd degree orange belt. We are so impressed with how much he has grown and improved! He is also seriously mastering the bow-staff. Way to go Jake!

Pretty ballerina! How precious are those little shoes?! Love it!

Missouri's state bird, the Eastern Bluebird, sitting on our tree in the front yard. We love all the vibrant birds that are around in the winter time here! Papa Tregaskis hooked us up with a bunch of feeders when he visited, so these birds are set for life!

Thanksgiving

We had a really nice Thanksgiving this year. We invited our wonderful friends, Travis and Amy Thompson, and their kids to come and spend the day with us. It was full of delicious food and good friends. It was so nice to just eat and relax and let the kids play. I am so thankful for my many blessings this year. I am, however, looking forward to the new year. I have had a bit of a hard year trying to find a good medication to help with my anxiety and depression. I just recently had a test done to see what drugs I will me more receptive to, so hopefully that will help narrow things down. David and the kids have been so amazing, loving and understanding with all of my mood swings and side effects. I am so blessed to have my family to support me. 



Sour cream lemon pie. OOOOh!



The Faces of a Wii tournament! It was so entertaining to watch everyone play. They get so into it! We decided to have a day-long Wii tournament (after watching the National Dog show, of course) and it was a very popular choice! We mostly played Wii sports and the boys' practicing paid off. They creamed us all in boxing and sparring but I am still the Katniss of archery.

Tower Grove 5K

David and Caleb recently ran another 5K. They ran down in Tower Grove Park on a freezing morning. David had been sick the week before but he still did better that he thought he would, and Caleb got another personal best. I love that these two have something that they both love to do and can spend time doing it together. I love that we could all go and cheer them on. Way to go boys!

How to peel an orange

She does a really good job!