A Minion New Year's Eve

We don't do much for New Year's Eve around here.  Not big partyers, only with the kids!
The kids had fun in the tub with glow sticks.  Guard and Kate thought it was the best thing ever!  (looks a bit creepy in the picture!)

We watched our new Christmas movie, Despicable Me 2 and ate popcorn.  The kids absoultely love this movie and Greg and I enjoyed it too.  A win on both sides.

 To finish off our minion night, we ate Twinkies.  Twinkies are about a once every three years purchase at our house.  Kate and Guard didn't even know what they were!  Didn't take them long to discover they really liked them.  I think Guard likes squishing and playing with his more that eating them.

2013

• Earn my Eagle Scout - Gavin (Jun 9)
• Build my own Computer - Gavin
• Learn to speak Welsh - Gavin
• Have a Spy Birthday Party - Enoch & Kate (Feb 8)
• Get my Learner's Permit - Gavin (May 3)
• Make Ice Cream - Tresa
• Build an obstacle from Brik-A-Bloks - Enoch (Sept 21)
• Shoot a BB gun - Enoch (Jun 11)
• Read a chapter book out loud to my kids - Tresa (Nov-Dec)
• Sleep in the Backyard - Enoch
• Get control of my happy bladder - Coal (getting better, but still working on it)
• Take my wife on a date (and not go to Costco!) - Greg
• BYU Gymnastic Meet - Kate (Feb 23)
• Remodel Laundry Room - Tresa
• Build a Lego Village - Enoch
• Go to St. George - Tresa (Nov 24-26)
• Use our Motorhome - Greg (May 24-27)
• Go to Jamboree - Gavin (Jul 13-28)
• Go Camping - Tresa (Aug 30-Sep 1)
• Mini Golf at Trafalga - Kate
• Bowling at BYU - Enoch (Feb)
• BYU Football Game - Gavin (Sep 7)
• Game Day - Gavin (Dec 21)
• Go Swimming - Kate (Nov 25)
• Geocaching - Greg
• Go to Lake Powell - Enoch & Kate (Aug 5-10)
• Remove Microsoft Windows from my LIfe - Greg
• Finish the Book of Mormon - Tresa

Our Early Bird

All of our kids have been early risers as babies and small children.  I was always baffled by kids who would sleep past 7am.  That is completely unheard of in our family.
Gavin will now sleep in, but he is not a teenager who sleeps past noon, he is usually up by 8:30-9am on weekends.  Enoch struggles to get up at 6:45 am on school days, but once he is out of bed, he wakes up quickly.  Kate is both a night owl and an early bird.  I'm not sure how she gets enough sleep.
Baby Guard is an early bird.  He loves to get up early on weekends, before his siblings, and snuggle in Mom's and Dad's bed.  Mom and Dad let him because we are still tired, he is spoiled and he is so cute!

Christmas 2013

Here goes....
Greg and I still weren't feeling great on Christmas morning, but we pulled it together enough to put on smiles and make it a fun morning for the  kids.
We always do stocking first.  Santa left everyone a stuffed animal, some games and books and a chocolate orange.

We made it through breakfast.  Barely.  We put baby Jesus in His manger and remembered why we were celebrating Christmas.

Finally!  Downstairs to open presents!  The kids were so excited!
Greg:  a hand knitted scarf (bought from Etsy, shipped from Canada), Lego De Loren, a new phone.

Tresa:  KitchenAid mixer, slippers, calendar.

Gavin:  fedora, Studio C DVD, suit, shirt, tie, shoes, smart phone.

Enoch:  beekeeper suit, bow and arrow, hovercraft, Legos (with a Lego bag).

Kate:  new room (quilt and swing), Spirograph, gymnastic team jacket, Legos (with Lego bag).

Guard:  Book of Mormon quiet book, balancing boat game, Rockin Rider horse.

After opening presents, we kept the rest of the day low key.  We played with toys, visited family, watched movies and enjoyed being together.

Christmas Eve 2013

I love Christmas Eve - even more than Christmas morning.  I like the fun activities and anticipation.  I had so much planned.  Getting the stomach flu was not part of the plan.
Our family had been struggling with the flu for about a week.  I though we were past it because it had been a few days and no one else got sick.  So much for optimism.  Greg started throwing up on the night of December 23.  I went to bed feeling yucky and starting throwing up the next morning.  We both spent all day in bed.
Thankfully and luckily for our family, we had Uncle Jarom.  My brother was spending Christmas with us and he was wonderful.  He took over and made Christmas Eve fun for the kids.  Thank you!  Thank you!  Thank you, Jarom!  I can't say thank you enough.  He saved Christmas for us!
He fed the kids, played with Guard, took the kids sledding at the church and made sugar cookies and frosting and decorated cookies with the kids.  He's awesome!

Greg was starting to feel better by the evening, but I was still struggling.  We always open presents on Christmas Eve and I was able to at least sit up in bed to watch the kids.
Since we got pajamas at Grandmas, the kids got quilts this year instead.  I had so much fun making them for Enoch, Kate and Guard.  Gavin requested a blanket to take to Marching Band and Drumline and didn't want anything too nice that might get dirty (he got a soft, warm blanket from Costco).  The kids loved their quilts.  I think it was Guard's favorite present.  He loves his I-spy quilt!

Everyone also opened a book.  The kids love getting book to read on Christmas Eve to help take the edge off.  Uncle Jarom got an Amazon gift card to buy a book for his new Kindle Paperwhite, Gavin got the latest Ranger Apprentice, Enoch received a book with all the Snoppy comics, Kate got the book, Kate, the Cowgirl, and Cocoa, and Guard got an animal book.
It was a fun night.  Extra prayers were said that Mom and Dad would be better and no one would come down ill that night.
Even though we were feeling great, we all were looking forward to the morning.

Christmas at the Randall Cabin

Christmas at the cabin!  With the entire Randall family!  So much fun!
We drove the motor home down on Friday afternoon, ready to stay overnight and have a lot of fun.  We ate dinner, laughed, opened pajamas that Grandma made for all the grand kids and celebrated Uncle Jarom's birthday with a globe cake.

It was a really fun night!  Some of the big boys stayed up late and played games.  The rest of us headed to bed, ready for more fun the next day.
We had a great breakfast the next morning before opening presents from Grandma and Grandpa.  The kids all got games, plus a movie and snow toys to share.

After presents, the kids bundled up and went out into the snow.  They had a great time and stayed lot longer than I thought.

Guard had no interest in being cold until Grandpa got out the snowmobiles.  Then he had to go out!  Greg took him around on the snowmobiles and he loved it!

We had a great weekend.  It was the perfect way to get ready for Christmas!

Eaglecrest Christmas Sing

It's so much fun to see the kids singing their Christmas songs.  Unfortunately, Enoch was sick today and missed the Sing-Along.  He didn't seem too torn up over if, so I tried not to feel too bad either.
Kate was excited!  She looked so cute and did a great job.  If I could only keep Guard still enough to enjoy it!

Christmas Activities

Helping in Kate's class
Guard and I were able to help the Kindergarteners decorate Christmas trees.  We had so much fun - especially Guard, who pretty much his body weight in candy.

Visiting the Reindeer
I think Guard enjoyed this as much as anything we did this season.  He was fascinated by the reindeer at Thanksgiving Point.  Enoch and Kate liked them too.

Homemade Hot Chocolate
This was probably Enoch's favorite thing we did.  He adores homemade hot chocolate.  We got out all the fixings - three kinds of marshmallows, whipped cream, ice cream, etc.  The kids had a great time building their hot chocolate.

Snow Shoveling
All the kids love shoveling!  It's a chance to play in the snow, spend time with Dad and have fun with each other.

Decorating Gingerbread House
What would we do without Costco, pre-made gingerbread houses?  We love them and all their candy.  This year they had fondant, and Gavin took over that job.  The kids did great and the house looked wonderful.  It lasted almost three full days after decorating it.

Decorating Gingerbread Cookies
I made cookies earlier in the day, but ran out of time and energy and the frosting didn't get done.  No worries!  We pulled out the whipped cream and candy and the kids loved it.  In fact, we might do it again next year.

Guard making his favorite sign, 'candy'.  He's done that sign a lot lately.