Merry Christmas!

Christmas was great this year. We spent a few days in Rigby with family and then headed to Oakley on Christmas Eve to spend the rest of the week. Barry and I celebrated our 7th anniversary while we were there. We also went sledding in Rexburg with Shari and Barry's niece Kimber and her husband Davin. 

Clara

Warren was not a fan of the snow at all. He cried if we set him down on it, so I sat in the car with him most of the time. I'm sure next year will be better!

Making sugar cookies at Grandma Packer's.

Here are all of the kids snoozing at the slumber party. They were exhausted every night after playing together.

Our favorite Santa came to visit on Christmas Eve before we left for Oakley.

Warren wasn't too impressed with Santa, though, and tried his best to get away.

The nativity at Grandma Jenks' house on Christmas Eve. We also kept with tradition and went caroling that night.

The kids slept in until eight Christmas morning, but they were excited to start on presents when they woke up! 

A few days later Barry took the kids with Charles and his family, Grandma Jenks, and Ammon and Nolan to go sledding up near Pomerelle. There wasn't much snow, but they still had a lot of fun. We had a wonderful time visiting family, but were exhausted and glad to make it home a week later.

Clara's 5th Birthday

Our little princess is growing up! We love her so much and had fun celebrating her 5th birthday.

For breakfast she requested pink crepes.

She had a Christmas party at preschool that day with lots of treats and fun things to do.

She opened presents from us - she and Quinton got new PJs. She also got a mini Lalaloopsy doll, a barbie, a bead kit, a poodle, and Fancy Nancy books. We had a movie night that night and milkshakes with candy in them for a treat.

A couple days later we were in Rigby so we had a party at Leos Place with the Packers, Bybees, and Lanes. It was a lot of fun and Grandma made a lot of beautiful cupcakes!

Warren liked the tractor until we turned it on, then he cried to get off.

Here are 5 things I love about Clara:

1- She has the sweetest smile.

2- She is always willing to share with those around her.

3- I love her quirky sense of humor.

4- She's very girly, but her tough side comes out when she wrestles with her brothers.

5- She is very detail-oriented, especially when she's coloring or doing crafts. She takes her time to make it pretty!

Missing Tooth

Quinton lost his first tooth! We were driving home from school one day when out of nowhere he said, "My tooth came out!" I didn't even know it was loose. He was pretty excited!

Giving Thanks

We made some Thankful turkeys this year. The kids wrote or drew what they were thankful for on the feathers.

 

We went to Grandma and Grandpa Packer's house in Rigby for Thanksgiving this year. We had such a fun time there. Grandma always has lots of fun things planned for the kids. They made these fun houses out of Rice Krispy treats.

Clara's held up strong against all the weight of the candy!

I spent a lot of time making these nifty advent calendars with my sisters. They were a lot of work, but I love how they all turned out!

That Saturday we went up near Kelly Canyon to find a Christmas tree. Triston and Connor came with us.

It was so fun to see a lot of snow! We didn't have sleds, but that didn't stop the kids from plopping on their bellies and sailing down the hill.

Our tree has two tops this year!

Photo Shoots

My sister, Jeni, is so nice to take some pictures of our family when I ask her to. She took some of the kids when we went to Utah in October and some family pictures on Thanksgiving. Here are some of my favorites.

Quinton turns 6!

Six sure seems old! I can't believe how big my little guy is. To celebrate, here are six things I love about Quinton:

1. He has the most incredible imagination ever. He can play for an hour with an orange without even batting an eye because he has some story going on with it. He makes up games to play with Clara and his friends all the time.
2. He is a loyal friend. Basically, he can beat on his brother and sister all he wants, but you'd better not mess with them!
3. He has the best laugh when he really thinks something is funny, or he's being tickled.
4. When he wants to be nice and helpful, he is such a sweetheart.
5. He puts his whole heart into pretty much anything he does. He is very passionate.
6. He is very thoughtful of others sometimes. He even saves his gumball that he gets in class on Fridays and splits it with his sister.

We celebrated his birthday a day early since there was no school or work due to Veteran's Day.

He got to eat his blue crepe breakfast on the couch while watching cartoons.

We opened presents early so he could play with them.

Here he is excavating his T-Rex that he got. (He's really into dinosaurs lately.)

We all took turns playing his new Super Mario game. 

Then we went to the Boise Zoo. It was just warm enough to still enjoy it, but we had the place pretty much to ourselves. It was a lot of fun.

They fed some meal worms to a sloth bear through that tube.

There's a fun prairie dog exhibit where the kids get to pop up from a tunnel.

Quinton wanted to spend some of his birthday money to buy food for the goats.

Guess who didn't like the goats?

Barry made Quinton's awesome cake this year. He used rice krispy treats and candy to make a volcano. And there are frightened sour patch people fleeing the scene!

This is a picture from a hiking trip he took with Dad on November 9th.

We're so glad to have Quinton. We love him lots!