Happy New Years! Goodbye 2019

Brooke and Steve invited us to their house for New Years!  It was a perfect way to ring in the New Year.  We ate food, played games, and toasted at Midnight with our sparkling cider.  Our kids are at the best ages!!  

Fun with Friends

We never tire of having Nathan around.  He's part of the family!  

Ivy threw together a tea party for Sofie and Anniston.  Cute girls!  

Meg went to the butterfly museum with Emma and her mom sent me this picture.  I know Meg, and even though it was just a butterfly, holding this was not an easy thing for her.  

Way to be brave Meg! 😂

Bishop Dehner in the house!

Good thing Mike flew home from the Fiesta Bowl early Sunday morning because an hour after landing, the ward sustained him as the new Bishop of our ward!   

The ever supportive Kurt and Shawn drove in for the occasion and my parents came too.  We had a lovely day at church and then had dinner together at our house.   Then on Monday my parents took us all out for dinner at Red Robin..  Mike felt very loved and supported.  He will be an amazing Bishop! 

The Fiesta Bowl - OSU vs Clemson

For Christmas I gave Mike, Morgan, Miles and Will tickets to the Fiesta Bowl.  We need to keep their love of Ohio State burning!  They flew in the day before the game and were close enough to grab dinner with Kate and Chad.  They made the very, very poor decision to eat at White Castle.  I don't think any of them enjoyed that experience, but it had to be done.  I still remember my first (and only!) experience eating at White Castle.   Very traumatizing!  

Don't worry, Mike made up for the White Castle experience by taking them to lunch at Carolina's.  Much better choice!  Then they went to the game a few hours early and took in the whole experience.  They may have been the very first people in the stadium.  

While they were all at the Fiesta bowl, I partied with the little girls at home!  We went to see Spies in Disguise and ate popcorn and made ourselves sick!  Then the next day we went to Pizza Pie Cafe and ate pizza and soda and made ourselves sick again. 😂 We sure know how to party!

Merry Christmas!

We had another great Christmas.  Santa was at the ward Christmas party again!

Meg got to wear her Christmas attire to school and she learned about how they celebrate Christmas in other countries.  

We had our traditional Danish Christmas Eve at Grandma and Grandpa's house.  The Julenisse came and left the kids each a pass to Cherry Hill.  We are going to have an awesome summer now!

The Julenisse also brought the girls these cute stuffed animals.  They haven't put them down since!

The cousin gift exchange is always a hit!

We came home to William's jammies.  Mike told Meg that William isn't real so Mike was immediately put on the naughty list.  He didn't receive any jammies since he's a non-believer.  Thank goodness William still brought the rest of us jammies!! They are perfect for snuggling and watching Christmas movies!  Thanks William!

The kids are always sad when it's time for William to leave so we let them hold William on his last night. We snuggled William in with us for our Christmas Eve movie.

This year our Christmas Eve movie was Jingle All the Way.  It was cute.  We also watched Christmas with the Kranks.  Good picks this year!

Christmas morning - time to run through the wrapping paper wall!!  The day was a hit!  I was all wrapped up in the fun and didn't take any pictures... Meg and Ivy got Hatchimals (llalacorns), Will got Apple AirPods, Miles an upgraded cell phone, and Morgan got new clothes.  The 3 older Ohio born children also got a plane ticket and game ticket to go with Dad to the Ohio State Fiesta Bowl in AZ.  They were pumped!  It was a fun Christmas.  The kids are all at great ages... I know our time of having all 5 of them home is getting shorter and shorter.  I'm enjoying these last few years before college and missions.  I love the stage of life we are in right now!  If I could freeze time, I would!  Merry Christmas!

Frozen Fingers

Today Will came with me on my run.  I tried to tell him he'd be cold, but he insisted on coming.  I like his determination, and I liked having company since we've had a few mountain lion sightings in our area lately! 😱  We got about 3 miles down the road and his hands got really cold. Good thing we were getting close to Grandma's house.  We stopped at Grandma's and she warmed up a bean bag to warm his hands.  We visited for awhile and then headed back.  Grandma to the rescue! Will biked 7 miles in the freezing cold.  What a champ! 

Will gets his Arrow of Light

With scouting coming to a close for good at the end of the month, I'm so grateful Will had such an amazing cub-scout leader, Emily Thiriot.  She worked so hard and helped all these boys earn their arrow of light just in time.  

Way to go Will!!  

The month of giving!

December is the best.  I love the excitement of Christmas and all the opportunities that come up to give to others.  We took the kids down to the Giving Machines at the Joseph Smith Building and they each used their own money to buy something.  They loved it! 

Will bought: One Pair of Glasses $10

Morgan bought: Polio Vaccines for 100 kids $19

Miles bought: Meal for a child $5

Meg and Ivy both bought: Mac and cheese - food pantry donation $5 

Mike and I bought: Baby resuscitation Kit $30

I was so proud of them for being willing to use their own money to buy something for someone else.  It was fun for them to use their card and watch the item fall down into the big pile of donations at the bottom.  People in general are good and generous!  

Meg's class collected 409 pounds of food for the food pantry!  Then they delivered it and got to tour the food pantry and see where all their food was going.  

Fun with Ivy

Ivy went with her preschool class to the Fire Station.  

The older 3 kids have been using a naughty word lately (shhh... it's frick... naughty! we don't say that word).  It's gotten bad enough that Mike and I decided to take $2 from them every time they say it.  So Ivy and I went and bought drinks one day and sent this picture to Morgan, Miles and Will thanking them for having no self control with their language so Ivy and I could go out to Swig.  They weren't very happy with the picture, but the use of the word has gone down dramatically.   

Ivy has been begging for brocolli lately.  I think they talked about it at school. So I finally bought her her very own stalk of brocolli.  She was so excited until she took a bite and decided it wasn't something she wanted anymore.  😂 . Ivy also found this eye mask in Meg's room and wanted to sleep in it.  I didn't think she would leave it on for more than a minute, but she actually fell asleep with it on.  😂 She's so funny!