cookies

Christmas is a great excuse to make cookies. I love Christmas, and I used every excuse to make these... Most of this batch were given to Paul for a work Christmas party and some were given to our neighbors.   The snowmen with the knit-looking hats were my favorites.

play date

Sometimes we have play dates with friends at the dog park... They have dogs, and we don't, but the kids still love to go there and play. So funny.  Plus it's a great place to see rainbows, it's almost always sprinkling rain there.

snuggle bug

This 8 year old still loves a good snuggle. I love you sweet Hawky.

drawing

Getting ready for Christmas, these kids helped wrap and decorate the gifts for their teachers. I was especially impressed with Solace's Santa. Pretty good!

cloudy beach day

We like beach days even when it's cloudy and the water is too cold to swim. Hanalei Bay is so picturesque. 

cub scouts

Both Matix and Hawken are in Cub Scouts and they LOVE the program here. The leaders really do a fabulous job of creating a fun experience for everyone.

The Kapuna in the area, also widows, were invited to the pack meeting to be presented with several gifts. I love the culture here of taking care of everyone. They were very appreciative.  The boys had also done several service projects for these women at their homes in the days and weeks before this night.

Disneyland and California Adventure video

And what would a whole trip to Disneyland and California Adventure be, without a video? So here it is. We had the BEST time.

Cars race!

Solace wasn't a huge fan of the fast rollercoaster part of this ride, but he LOVES the movie Cars, so of course he wanted to ride on it anyway. Love his face in it! Also, we were pleasantly surprised when we lined up to race the Kovac family! So much fun!

fun

Lullaby loves to create. These magnet blocks are a toy that will never go out of style. They are so much fun!

playing with food

Sometimes even I get caught playing with my food... The kids prefer their clementines peeled into people now. Great.

cards and crafts

Before Christmas, the MakerSpace people put on a stamping party to make Christmas cards at the library. So you know we HAD to go. The kids loved it and we made all our cards this year. So much fun!

The kids also made lots of these little peeler bead ornaments for our tree.  Lullaby prefers to use tweezers to do these projects, so you can imagine how long it took her to make these... Patience is a virtue, right?

friends

We love the Hunt family. They are more like family to us, and our kids all get along great. The tire swing in their yard might be Solace's favorite thing ever, especially when Jonny pushes him on it.

crazy cookie idea

I had this crazy idea to make a puzzle cookie. It's not a real thing, I just made it up in my head. I wanted to roll out the dough flat, cut up pieces including 6 hidden pieces (snowmen, Christmas trees, and snowflakes), and bake them. I took a picture of the cookies once they were baked, since it was crazy hard to put together. Then I frosted a big nativity scene and pieced it back together for the church Christmas activity. They loved it and everyone took pictures. I'm glad it turned out, but I didn't even get to stay at the party, since we had just got off our plane a couple hours earlier and we were all tired from our trip. I did this project in less than 4 hours, which must be a record. It was EXHAUSTING.

Dad's Birthday!

My dad turned EIGHTY in December, which sounds much older than he makes it look. They had a big party for him, and it looked like so much fun! I wasn't able to go (hence the October trip), but I am so glad so many people were able to be there celebrating with him. My dad is one of the best people, ever. He is funny, and hard-working, and loyal, and kind, and awesome. We love you Dad! Happy birthday!

Jolie and Liesl both were able to go to the party and surprised him. Can you tell he was excited to see them?

Robin hired a photographer for the event and he got some really great pictures. Here's dad with most of his family (minus the 6 of us, Jolie's kids, and Cris), big family!

Kenz is about to have her baby, which will be my dad's fourth great grandchild! So exciting!

Eighty looks good on you dad! Happy birthday!

Disney - day 3

Our third and final day at Disney and California Adventure was fun! The kids loved all the decorations for Christmas at our hotel and at the parks. We ate all the treats we possibly could, rode all the rides and saw all the characters. This day went by super fast.

Another time on the Guardians ride... The ride picture of Lullaby had us dying laughing!

Sully met Sully! It was so exciting! Kinz was a little more timid.

We saw lots of characters in California Adventure. We had started the day there since we had lunchtime reservations for Ariel's Grotto.

The Cars ride was one of our favorites! It was really fun. During part of the ride you line up with another car and race! The first time we rode the ride, we lost the race, but this time we won, and we happened to be lined up with Kipp and Krystal's car! The kids were SO excited!

We went to Ariel's grotto for lunch, for the most expensive, and totally worth it, meal of my life. It was AWESOME! The food was really yummy, plus the princesses there were the best. It was amazing. I was just as happy as the kids were. Next time, it might just be a Lullaby and mommy thing though...

After lunch we headed back to Disney to meet up with the Kovacs and ride more rides!  Tyson was the spy hiding in our Star Wars ride. He was so surprised!

We let the kids pick out toys and Solace tired himself out playing with his little remote control car.

We stayed until dark and the castle was BEAUTIFUL!

Sully and Kinzlee fell asleep in their strollers and we all took turns on Splash Mountain over and over and over again since there was no line.

We left at closing time, despite our flight the next morning at 5am! We tried to get a pictures of our whole group. Stacey, Steve, Morgan, Alyssa and Declan were with us part of the time, but mostly did their own thing, so this was our group! All 12 of us! (I missed the first picture)

We had the best time at Disneyland, and California Adventure with the Kovacs. They are the BEST people to be around. We love you guys!