We are all out school now for the rest of the year - Yay!!! My last week went pretty smoothly with final exams, reading through the last reports that were due, and entering grades. Julia, Ethan, and Christian all said that their last week was really tough and that their teachers wanted to make up for the time that they were going to have off. But then on Friday they had a huge school-wide -party. Sounds like they got to travel from class to class in the morning making different crafts and then play games and watch movies in the afternoon. This weekend we have been making plans for all the fun things we want to do together over the next couple of weeks.
The past three weeks we have been getting a ton of snow! Maybe 2-3 feet or so. It seems like every time I have cleared the driveway we get another snowfall the next day. Sometimes I have thought about just waiting and only clearing the necessary part of the driveway, but if I don't get to our driveway and sidewalk quick enough our 70 year old neighbor comes out to do it. I think he has done it 3 or 4 times already this season. He does have a snow blower, but I still feel bad every-time I come home and see that he did it.
On Friday we got our biggest snow fall. It started off with rain in the morning. Rebecca and I planned a temple trip for that day and was glad it was just raining so the roads wouldn't be bad. We got abut 30 miles out of Pocatello when the rain turned to snow. Instead of 80 miles per hour, we had to slow down to 40 for the rest of the drive. There were cars off the freeway all along the way. Rexburg looked like it had been hit really bad. The snow had slowed down a lot on our way home, but there were still tons of cars off the road, a few accidents, and even some semi-trucks that had crashed. IT took us an extra hour or so, but we made it home safe. That evening the snow really started to come down and the next morning there was probably a fresh foot on the ground.
On Saturday evening I had my work party and it was at our house. Some of my co-workers were worried about trying to make it up our hill. I spent two hours that day just clearing our driveway. Luckily a couple hours before the party the plows came through and cleared our roads. The party was lots of fun. It was just for the faculty, department staff, and family members, but there ended up being 50 or so people that were here. We did cram everyone upstairs for eating, but for the most pqart the kids all played downstairs while the adults where upstairs. There was a lot of yummy food. Rebecca found some homemade chicken nuggets that she loved, Julia at almost half a ham on her own, I really liked some Asian noodles that one of my co-workers from China brought, and the children drank between 2 and 3 pops and a couple capri-suns each. After the eating the children had a gift exchange. Our children were so excited all day that they were going to get presents. Julia and Christian got drawing sets, Ethan got the game Clue, Elliott got some nerf guns, and for Agnes we just wrapped up some of her old blocks instead of entering her in the drawing. Then the adults had a white elephant gift exchange. Of the 22 people, Rebecca got number 5. When it was her turn she stole an immersion blender from someone, which was great because ours broke a while back. I was number 13. Nothing had caught my eye earlier so I opened a new one. It was toilet paper with Donald Trumps face on it. Luckily Rebecca got to keep her blender throughout the exchange. I thought I was going to have to keep mine too, but then number 21 was super excited to get mine. I then got to steal a rubrics cube which we will probably re-gift to Christian and some Lindt chocolates. Rebecca and I shared a couple in church today, they are really good, especially the dark chocolate ones.
Rebecca, Julia, and Christian are off at a Messiah sing along this evening. I thought it would have been fun for us all to go, but it didn't start until 7 and Agnes and Elliott needed to get to bed so we let Julia, Ethan, and Christian choose whether or not they wanted to go. It will be fun one day, maybe ten or so years down the road, when we can all go together.
The Swift Family Blog
Sunday, December 18, 2016
Sunday, December 4, 2016
First Presidency Christmas Devotional
We watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional this evening. I am so glad that the church does that every first Sunday of December. This year the final talk was by President Eyring on having peace in our lives. It was especially good. We had been talking about some of his comments on that earlier in church today, so the topic had been on my mind throughout the day. Rebecca and I have also been working on helping the children have peace in our home. The Savior definitely set the perfect example of this. I like how He was able to be at peace no matter what was going on around Him.
You can watch a rebroadcast of it here (www.lds.org or https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/categories/christmas-devotionals?lang=eng) if you would like.
We started a new family tradition for the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. We had nachos for dinner while we watched and then everyone got to suck on a candy cane after they were done with their dinner. The children all liked it and they agreed that we should keep doing it every year. I think the candy cane part is especially good because it gives them something to do with their hands and their mouth so the rest of their body has to just sit and listen. They were all pretty attentive throughout the whole thing. It was also fun watching Julia and Ethan eat their candy canes. They both tried to make theirs as sharp as possible. But then they started poking each other. I had to smile though because I remember doing that same thing when I was young.
You can watch a rebroadcast of it here (www.lds.org or https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/categories/christmas-devotionals?lang=eng) if you would like.
We started a new family tradition for the First Presidency Christmas Devotional. We had nachos for dinner while we watched and then everyone got to suck on a candy cane after they were done with their dinner. The children all liked it and they agreed that we should keep doing it every year. I think the candy cane part is especially good because it gives them something to do with their hands and their mouth so the rest of their body has to just sit and listen. They were all pretty attentive throughout the whole thing. It was also fun watching Julia and Ethan eat their candy canes. They both tried to make theirs as sharp as possible. But then they started poking each other. I had to smile though because I remember doing that same thing when I was young.
Sunday, November 27, 2016
Start of the Christmas Season
We decided to start our Christmas activities a little earlier this year. Usually we wait until after Thanksgiving to pull out any of the Christmas stuff, but last year we didn't get to move into our home until mid December, so we felt a little cheated.
So Monday of this week we decided to put up all of our Christmas decorations. Of course, since we were putting up the decorations, Rebecca suggested that we also listen to Christmas music. I resisted, but she and all of the children ganged up on me so shortly after the Christmas tunes were playing.
We had a lot of fun putting up the tree and our stockings. We also have a couple smaller decorations throughout the house, but no lights on the outside yet. We have a bunch of lights, but I still don't have a tall ladder, so that is my excuse for this year at least.
This week we also watched Home Alone and Home Alone 2. The children just laughed and laughed throughout the whole movies. They are at that age now that they just love that type of hummor.
On Saturday we did our annual decorating of the Christmas gingerbread men. You can see that in addition to gingerbread men, we also had some gingerbread women and a few gingerbread monsters.
We have been singing our Christmas hymns as well for nightly devotionals and in church today we even sang Christmas hymns. This Thursday we will also have our ward Christmas party. We are all really excited for this long Christmas season.
So Monday of this week we decided to put up all of our Christmas decorations. Of course, since we were putting up the decorations, Rebecca suggested that we also listen to Christmas music. I resisted, but she and all of the children ganged up on me so shortly after the Christmas tunes were playing.
We had a lot of fun putting up the tree and our stockings. We also have a couple smaller decorations throughout the house, but no lights on the outside yet. We have a bunch of lights, but I still don't have a tall ladder, so that is my excuse for this year at least.
This week we also watched Home Alone and Home Alone 2. The children just laughed and laughed throughout the whole movies. They are at that age now that they just love that type of hummor.
On Saturday we did our annual decorating of the Christmas gingerbread men. You can see that in addition to gingerbread men, we also had some gingerbread women and a few gingerbread monsters.
We have been singing our Christmas hymns as well for nightly devotionals and in church today we even sang Christmas hymns. This Thursday we will also have our ward Christmas party. We are all really excited for this long Christmas season.
Thanksgiving
We had a fun Thanksgiving this past week. In Pocatello the children get the entire week off of school. We did too at the university, so we had a ton of time together as a family. It was great. Monday and Tuesday were pretty low key - we did some shopping, went to the library, had a read-a-thon, played a bunch of games, and just spent time together. We also got to watch a few new movies for the children throughout the week. They watched Nine Lives which is a newer movie and we all thought it was pretty good. They also watched The Never Ending Story for the first time. They really liked it, which Rebecca and I thought was cool because we had liked it a lot when we were growing up.
On Wednesday we tried to do as much of our cooking as possible. I think we got all of the food either done or prepped so on Thursday we just had to heat things up. By the way, having a double oven just made the heating up go so much more smoothly than in previous years. We had our turkey going at one temperature and then the rolls and other things going at another temperature at the same time.
Nathanael and his family joined up Wednesday afternoon. We were so glad that they were able to come. For the rest of Wednesday night we mainly played around and spent some time catching up.
Nathanael and I thought about going to find a turkey bowl game on Thursday morning, but we decided against it. I hadn't heard about anyone in the ward getting together to play and we could have searched around I am sure and just found some random guys playing, but it was pretty cold out and so we just played a game downstairs with the children. Some of the children opted for Lego building instead, but for those of us who played it was pretty fun.
Caleb arrived that afternoon and he did a great job at occupying the children while we finished up with the meal. Lets see, we ended up having turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, a corn and bacon dish, rolls, a green jello dish, cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, stuffing, pumpkin pie, apple pie, oatmeal pie, and Caleb brought these amazing drumsticks that were covered pretzels with rice crispe treats on top. It was a real feast.
For the rest of the evening we played a few more games and looked at all of the Black Friday ads.
On Friday we woke up and went out shopping. We are not the type to try to get all of the doorbuster deals at 2 am, but instead we like to go at 8 or so and just experience some of the frenzy and see if there are any amazing deals left.
That afternoon we went for a hike in the hills behind our house and played some basketball and had some fun with a new nerf gun that Ethan purchased. Our children just loved hanging out and playing with their cousins as well as their Aunt and Uncles.
We are all sad that the long break is coming to a close, but it is only three more weeks until we are off again for Christmas!
We have so much to be grateful for. Last year our house was still being built and although I was able to go back to Washington for a visit, it was hard being away from Rebecca and the children so much. All of the years before that in Alaska we were so far away from all of our family. This year we were all together in our own home and we were close enough to have family come and visit. We have wonderful children, a great job, and testimonies of our Savior Jesus Christ and the restored gospel. Sometimes Rebecca and I talk about what we have in our time compared to 200 or so years ago. When we think about it, we imagine we may be a little embarrassed when we meet people from all the different generations of the world - just because we have so much and still we are sometimes not satisfied with what we have. It really motivates us to do the best we can given our blessed circumstances.
On Wednesday we tried to do as much of our cooking as possible. I think we got all of the food either done or prepped so on Thursday we just had to heat things up. By the way, having a double oven just made the heating up go so much more smoothly than in previous years. We had our turkey going at one temperature and then the rolls and other things going at another temperature at the same time.
Nathanael and his family joined up Wednesday afternoon. We were so glad that they were able to come. For the rest of Wednesday night we mainly played around and spent some time catching up.
Nathanael and I thought about going to find a turkey bowl game on Thursday morning, but we decided against it. I hadn't heard about anyone in the ward getting together to play and we could have searched around I am sure and just found some random guys playing, but it was pretty cold out and so we just played a game downstairs with the children. Some of the children opted for Lego building instead, but for those of us who played it was pretty fun.
Caleb arrived that afternoon and he did a great job at occupying the children while we finished up with the meal. Lets see, we ended up having turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, sweet potatoes, a corn and bacon dish, rolls, a green jello dish, cranberry sauce, deviled eggs, stuffing, pumpkin pie, apple pie, oatmeal pie, and Caleb brought these amazing drumsticks that were covered pretzels with rice crispe treats on top. It was a real feast.
For the rest of the evening we played a few more games and looked at all of the Black Friday ads.
On Friday we woke up and went out shopping. We are not the type to try to get all of the doorbuster deals at 2 am, but instead we like to go at 8 or so and just experience some of the frenzy and see if there are any amazing deals left.
That afternoon we went for a hike in the hills behind our house and played some basketball and had some fun with a new nerf gun that Ethan purchased. Our children just loved hanging out and playing with their cousins as well as their Aunt and Uncles.
We are all sad that the long break is coming to a close, but it is only three more weeks until we are off again for Christmas!
We have so much to be grateful for. Last year our house was still being built and although I was able to go back to Washington for a visit, it was hard being away from Rebecca and the children so much. All of the years before that in Alaska we were so far away from all of our family. This year we were all together in our own home and we were close enough to have family come and visit. We have wonderful children, a great job, and testimonies of our Savior Jesus Christ and the restored gospel. Sometimes Rebecca and I talk about what we have in our time compared to 200 or so years ago. When we think about it, we imagine we may be a little embarrassed when we meet people from all the different generations of the world - just because we have so much and still we are sometimes not satisfied with what we have. It really motivates us to do the best we can given our blessed circumstances.
Sunday, November 20, 2016
Rebecca's Parents get their Mission call
Rebecca's parents got their mission call this week. I don't know how they did it, but they waited all the way until today so that they could do an opening with family around and those of us at a distance on the phone.
They will be serving in Samoa! They will report to the MTC to start their mission in April.
Congratulations Bud and Karen!
They will be serving in Samoa! They will report to the MTC to start their mission in April.
Congratulations Bud and Karen!
Sunday, November 13, 2016
Weekend Trip to Las Vegas
This weekend we made a family trip down to Las Vegas. Rebecca's brother Ryan, who has lived in Las Vegas for the past few years, was getting married. His wife, Monica, had been living in Pocatello, and so we got to spend some extra time with Ryan as he made frequent visits up here while they were dating. Monica's previous husband had passed away a little bit ago. They had three children together (two girls and a boy). They match up in age with some of our children so our children got to become friends with them and they are super happy to have some additional cousins to play with. Unfortunately, now they live in Las Vegas instead of just 10 minutes away.
We picked the children up from school on Thursday and started with the drive. The drive took about 9 hours (should have only taken 8, but there was some traffic around the Salt Lake City area). It all went pretty smoothly. There were a few disagreements, but overall the children got along well. They listened to the final book of The Book of Three series. I haven't really been a fan of the series, but the children seemed to like it. They also got to eat some more of the Halloween candy along the way. A couple of them were not feeling very well, but we made it the whole way without having to clean up any car sickness messes. We got in at about 10:30pm, so it was straight to bed for them when we got there.
The next morning the children woke up at about 6:45am. It was kind of early, so I tried to keep them quiet, but evidently not quiet enough. A security guy knocked on our door informing us that there was a noise complaint. We tried very hard to be quiet after that, even tip toeing around, but about 30 minutes later he was back saying that they made a complaint again. We decided to get out as soon as possible for the day so as not to bother the people below us any more. Really, I don't know how we could have been quieter. Turns out that Nevada is in Pacific time and so it was really 5:45 when the children woke up.
With our extra morning time we made a trip to the strip. We started off walking through Caesar's Palace. I think the children really enjoyed that place. Then we made our way up the strip to the Mirage and Treasure Island (the kids weren't very impressed with the pirate ships and it wasn't a show time). Then on the way back we hit the Venetian and saw the gondolas.
After that, we rushed off to the wedding. Because Monica was sealed to her first husband they had a small ceremony right at the base of the mountains. The red rock mountains and rock formations were all very pretty and it was a nice ceremony.
After the ceremony, we hit the pool back at the condo where we were staying. And then we had a party for all of the November birthdays. There was Agnes, Julia, Rebecca's mom, Rebecca's grandpa, and one of our nieces. The party included pizza and a pinata by the pool, then cake back in the condo.
The next morning we got up early and hit the rest of the strip. We made it to the New York casino, Excalibur, the Luxor, Chocolate World, M & M World, the Paris casino, and the Bellagio. The children were all exhausted by the end of that, but I am glad we got to take them to see all of the hotels. I think it helped tire them out for the long ride home. There was a little more crying and disagreements on the way back, but overall pretty uneventful. We made it in just a little after 9 pm. Again, we hit some heavy traffic right before Salt Lake City. I am so glad we do not have to deal with traffic on a daily basis. It was a fun quick road trip. We enjoyed seeing the sites, but most of all we were really happy for Ryan and Monica and being able to see them start their new life together.
We picked the children up from school on Thursday and started with the drive. The drive took about 9 hours (should have only taken 8, but there was some traffic around the Salt Lake City area). It all went pretty smoothly. There were a few disagreements, but overall the children got along well. They listened to the final book of The Book of Three series. I haven't really been a fan of the series, but the children seemed to like it. They also got to eat some more of the Halloween candy along the way. A couple of them were not feeling very well, but we made it the whole way without having to clean up any car sickness messes. We got in at about 10:30pm, so it was straight to bed for them when we got there.
The next morning the children woke up at about 6:45am. It was kind of early, so I tried to keep them quiet, but evidently not quiet enough. A security guy knocked on our door informing us that there was a noise complaint. We tried very hard to be quiet after that, even tip toeing around, but about 30 minutes later he was back saying that they made a complaint again. We decided to get out as soon as possible for the day so as not to bother the people below us any more. Really, I don't know how we could have been quieter. Turns out that Nevada is in Pacific time and so it was really 5:45 when the children woke up.
With our extra morning time we made a trip to the strip. We started off walking through Caesar's Palace. I think the children really enjoyed that place. Then we made our way up the strip to the Mirage and Treasure Island (the kids weren't very impressed with the pirate ships and it wasn't a show time). Then on the way back we hit the Venetian and saw the gondolas.
After that, we rushed off to the wedding. Because Monica was sealed to her first husband they had a small ceremony right at the base of the mountains. The red rock mountains and rock formations were all very pretty and it was a nice ceremony.
After the ceremony, we hit the pool back at the condo where we were staying. And then we had a party for all of the November birthdays. There was Agnes, Julia, Rebecca's mom, Rebecca's grandpa, and one of our nieces. The party included pizza and a pinata by the pool, then cake back in the condo.
The next morning we got up early and hit the rest of the strip. We made it to the New York casino, Excalibur, the Luxor, Chocolate World, M & M World, the Paris casino, and the Bellagio. The children were all exhausted by the end of that, but I am glad we got to take them to see all of the hotels. I think it helped tire them out for the long ride home. There was a little more crying and disagreements on the way back, but overall pretty uneventful. We made it in just a little after 9 pm. Again, we hit some heavy traffic right before Salt Lake City. I am so glad we do not have to deal with traffic on a daily basis. It was a fun quick road trip. We enjoyed seeing the sites, but most of all we were really happy for Ryan and Monica and being able to see them start their new life together.
Sunday, November 6, 2016
Julia's Birthday
We celebrated Julia's 10th birthday this weekend as well. Her birthday isn't until the 12th of this month, but we will be spending all that day in the car driving home from Las Vegas.
I am always excited to see what the children pick for their meals on their birthdays. This year Julia picked an apple streusel pizza with bacon on the side for breakfast, mini pita pizzas for lunch, and then homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner. They were all yummy. And then Rebecca made an amazing German chocolate cake for dessert. After a long day of fasting I am looking forward to having another big piece of it tonight.
Julia decided that she wanted to have a friend birthday party this year. It has been a long time since she has had a party with friends, so we thought that was pretty cool. She decided on a tea party theme and everyone was supposed to bring a doll or stuffed animal. I drafted up two party invitations for her to choose from; she gave me a exasperated "daaaaaaad" after I showed her the first one, and quickly gave her approval when I showed her the second one.
I think there were about 9 girls that showed up, plus her siblings. We started the party by having everyone introduce their dolls. Then we sat in a circle and everyone closed their eyes and they had to pass around the dolls with their eyes closed until they thought they had their own one.
After that, we made paper tea cups. This turned out to be a great activity. It took me an hour or so to get everything ready for it, but the girls all loved doing this and it took up about 45 minutes of the party time. I found the idea for this online, but the person who demonstrated it had card-stock and all these punch things and other craft tools to make all of the cuts and decorations. We just did it with regular paper. I did some of the main cuts ahead of time and drew lines for where all of the remaining cuts or folds had to be. Here is the template I came up with based on the one I watched online.
Before doing all of the final folding and taping the girls all got to color their own designs on them. Here is Ethan's finished product. They did look better, but his had been smashed up in the garbage this morning.
They were somewhat difficult, but perfect for the 9-10 year old range and I think they all liked it.
Then we did the tea party part. Rebecca and Julia made them a bunch of snacks, including apple puffed pastries that looked like roses, lemon flowers, finger sandwiches, fruit skewers, pink lemonade, and chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting.
After the tea party Julia really wanted to do dodge ball. Some of the girls were more into that than others. There was one little girl who wore a tutu and each time she just stood there close to the line and didn't even try to jump out of the way when the ball was thrown at her. Other girls were more into it, but I think the roughest player of all was Ethan. He just loved throwing the ball at the girls and he throws it pretty hard now.
We had a game of musical chairs after that, and then it was about time for all of the girls to go home.
Julia said that it was a great party and she had a really fun time.
One of the girls gave her Apples to Apples Junior so we played that for a little bit before dinner. And then after dinner Julia picked Little Women for the Saturday night movie.
Julia's big present this year was a sewing machine. That seems to old for our little girl, but she was super excited. It has been a few years since we have had a sewing machine in our home, so that counted for a present for all of us I guess.
I am always excited to see what the children pick for their meals on their birthdays. This year Julia picked an apple streusel pizza with bacon on the side for breakfast, mini pita pizzas for lunch, and then homemade macaroni and cheese for dinner. They were all yummy. And then Rebecca made an amazing German chocolate cake for dessert. After a long day of fasting I am looking forward to having another big piece of it tonight.
Julia decided that she wanted to have a friend birthday party this year. It has been a long time since she has had a party with friends, so we thought that was pretty cool. She decided on a tea party theme and everyone was supposed to bring a doll or stuffed animal. I drafted up two party invitations for her to choose from; she gave me a exasperated "daaaaaaad" after I showed her the first one, and quickly gave her approval when I showed her the second one.
I think there were about 9 girls that showed up, plus her siblings. We started the party by having everyone introduce their dolls. Then we sat in a circle and everyone closed their eyes and they had to pass around the dolls with their eyes closed until they thought they had their own one.
After that, we made paper tea cups. This turned out to be a great activity. It took me an hour or so to get everything ready for it, but the girls all loved doing this and it took up about 45 minutes of the party time. I found the idea for this online, but the person who demonstrated it had card-stock and all these punch things and other craft tools to make all of the cuts and decorations. We just did it with regular paper. I did some of the main cuts ahead of time and drew lines for where all of the remaining cuts or folds had to be. Here is the template I came up with based on the one I watched online.
Before doing all of the final folding and taping the girls all got to color their own designs on them. Here is Ethan's finished product. They did look better, but his had been smashed up in the garbage this morning.
They were somewhat difficult, but perfect for the 9-10 year old range and I think they all liked it.
Then we did the tea party part. Rebecca and Julia made them a bunch of snacks, including apple puffed pastries that looked like roses, lemon flowers, finger sandwiches, fruit skewers, pink lemonade, and chocolate cupcakes with pink frosting.
After the tea party Julia really wanted to do dodge ball. Some of the girls were more into that than others. There was one little girl who wore a tutu and each time she just stood there close to the line and didn't even try to jump out of the way when the ball was thrown at her. Other girls were more into it, but I think the roughest player of all was Ethan. He just loved throwing the ball at the girls and he throws it pretty hard now.
We had a game of musical chairs after that, and then it was about time for all of the girls to go home.
Julia said that it was a great party and she had a really fun time.
One of the girls gave her Apples to Apples Junior so we played that for a little bit before dinner. And then after dinner Julia picked Little Women for the Saturday night movie.
Julia's big present this year was a sewing machine. That seems to old for our little girl, but she was super excited. It has been a few years since we have had a sewing machine in our home, so that counted for a present for all of us I guess.
Agnes' Birthday Celebrations
Agnes' is turning 3 on Tuesday. However, because I have to work later that day and since it is a school day, we decided to celebrate on Friday.
She loved having Friday be a special day, all focused on her. For breakfast she picked lemon poppy seed muffins. Then the Julia, Ethan, and Christian went off to school. I had to do some work from home, but Rebecca tried to do a lot of fun activities with Agnes and Elliott, like playing hide and seek and reading some of Agnes' favorite books. For lunch they had macaroni and cheese. Then after lunch she did a quick nap and some long waiting for Julia, Ethan, and Christian to come home from school so she could open presents. She was so excited for that all day long (actually all week long ever since people started placing presents up on the fireplace mantle for her). It was so fun to see what the children had given her. Christian and Ethan had given her some of their 30 pieces of Halloween candy, although the day before Christian had run out of his and had taken some of his back out of the present bag. Christian and Elliott had also given her some of their stuffed animals and Ethan gave her some coupons for things like a hug and reading her a book. Julia had purchased a matching set of owl necklaces and earrings (Julia's says big sis and Agnes' says lil sis) for the two of them and Agnes loved that! Rebecca and I got her some tights and bows and a tricycle and scooter that we picked up from some new cousins that were moving from Pocatello to Las Vegas.
For dinner we had pizza and then for her birthday dessert ice cream sundaes.
Fitting her Halloween costume, Agnes picked Snow White for the Friday night movie.
I think she had a wonderful day and I can't believe she is already 3! By this point we have always had another baby in the home and so it has made sense that the 3 year old was no longer a baby. But Agnes is still our youngest, until February at least, and so it is hard to make sense of her getting older sometimes.
She loved having Friday be a special day, all focused on her. For breakfast she picked lemon poppy seed muffins. Then the Julia, Ethan, and Christian went off to school. I had to do some work from home, but Rebecca tried to do a lot of fun activities with Agnes and Elliott, like playing hide and seek and reading some of Agnes' favorite books. For lunch they had macaroni and cheese. Then after lunch she did a quick nap and some long waiting for Julia, Ethan, and Christian to come home from school so she could open presents. She was so excited for that all day long (actually all week long ever since people started placing presents up on the fireplace mantle for her). It was so fun to see what the children had given her. Christian and Ethan had given her some of their 30 pieces of Halloween candy, although the day before Christian had run out of his and had taken some of his back out of the present bag. Christian and Elliott had also given her some of their stuffed animals and Ethan gave her some coupons for things like a hug and reading her a book. Julia had purchased a matching set of owl necklaces and earrings (Julia's says big sis and Agnes' says lil sis) for the two of them and Agnes loved that! Rebecca and I got her some tights and bows and a tricycle and scooter that we picked up from some new cousins that were moving from Pocatello to Las Vegas.
For dinner we had pizza and then for her birthday dessert ice cream sundaes.
Fitting her Halloween costume, Agnes picked Snow White for the Friday night movie.
I think she had a wonderful day and I can't believe she is already 3! By this point we have always had another baby in the home and so it has made sense that the 3 year old was no longer a baby. But Agnes is still our youngest, until February at least, and so it is hard to make sense of her getting older sometimes.
Happy Halloween
Monday night was definitely the culmination of our Halloween week for our children. They were so excited to go trick or treating! Julia, Ethan, and Elliott kept their same costumes for that night (Hermione, dragon, and firefighter), but Christian made a last minute switch (from a knight to a pirate) and Agnes went back to her initial costume (Snow White instead of Cinderella).
After some quick pictures we got in the car and drove to our home teacher's house. We had been talking to him the day before about whether or not he gets trick-or-treaters since he lives on a busier road. After that we went back up to our neighborhood. We may have been the first ones out at 5:45 or so, but the other children all came spilling out shortly after. It was so fun to see all of the children that we know from church just running around the neighborhood. Also, it was neat that we knew most of the people at the homes we were trick-or-treating at rather than just going to strangers homes. One of the dads hooked a trailer to the back of his truck and pulled the kids along from street to street. The streets were not very far from each other, but the children liked hopping on and off with all of their friends. One of our favorite houses was one that was giving out fresh homemade doughnuts. I know that sounds risky, but we know the family and they just invite in families that come around that they know. I think they do it every year. Ethan snagged the largest one that was about 12 inches in diameter. Everyone got to put on their own frosting and other toppings. After doing one main street with three cul de sacs on it, it was getting dark and we decided it was time to start heading home. Rebecca ended up going straight home to check on our candy bowl and I made our way back with the children. We caught the trailer one more time to the homes right around our house. As I was getting them with Christian, Elloitt, and Agnes, the trailer people announced that they were going to head off to get scones down by our church. Julia and Ethan begged to go, so I gave them the okay while we finished up on our way home. It was weird sending Julia and Ethan off with friends on their own, but there were still a lot of parents in the group.
By the time Christian, Elliott, Agnes, and I made it up our hill, the trailer had already finished up and dropped Julia and Ethan off. They all ended up with huge bags of candy, so large that Christian, Elliott, and Agnes were no longer able to carry them. We let them do their usual gorge of all the candy they wanted while they watched Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin. Then we tried something new this year with the candy. We let them pick out any 30 pieces that they wanted that they got to be 100% in charge of (almost 100%, still no eating it after brushing teeth for bed or before breakfast/school in the morning). I know 30 peices doesn't sound like too much, but they picked out lots of full size candy bars and larger boxes of candy that had multiple peices in them. Now, a week later, Christian, Elliott, and Agnes have finished theirs off, but Ethan and Julia are still going on theirs. The rest of the candy we stocked up for our own distribution. Like usual, I made a chocolate pile, a fruity/sugary pile, and then a pile of ones to get rid of (gum, milk duds, jolly ranchers, sugar daddys) - the ones that make a huge mess when the kids eat them. (Un)Fortunately, there weren't many of those this year so we still have a ton of candy left. Oh well, guess mom and dad will just have to eat some too!
After some quick pictures we got in the car and drove to our home teacher's house. We had been talking to him the day before about whether or not he gets trick-or-treaters since he lives on a busier road. After that we went back up to our neighborhood. We may have been the first ones out at 5:45 or so, but the other children all came spilling out shortly after. It was so fun to see all of the children that we know from church just running around the neighborhood. Also, it was neat that we knew most of the people at the homes we were trick-or-treating at rather than just going to strangers homes. One of the dads hooked a trailer to the back of his truck and pulled the kids along from street to street. The streets were not very far from each other, but the children liked hopping on and off with all of their friends. One of our favorite houses was one that was giving out fresh homemade doughnuts. I know that sounds risky, but we know the family and they just invite in families that come around that they know. I think they do it every year. Ethan snagged the largest one that was about 12 inches in diameter. Everyone got to put on their own frosting and other toppings. After doing one main street with three cul de sacs on it, it was getting dark and we decided it was time to start heading home. Rebecca ended up going straight home to check on our candy bowl and I made our way back with the children. We caught the trailer one more time to the homes right around our house. As I was getting them with Christian, Elloitt, and Agnes, the trailer people announced that they were going to head off to get scones down by our church. Julia and Ethan begged to go, so I gave them the okay while we finished up on our way home. It was weird sending Julia and Ethan off with friends on their own, but there were still a lot of parents in the group.
By the time Christian, Elliott, Agnes, and I made it up our hill, the trailer had already finished up and dropped Julia and Ethan off. They all ended up with huge bags of candy, so large that Christian, Elliott, and Agnes were no longer able to carry them. We let them do their usual gorge of all the candy they wanted while they watched Charlie Brown and the Great Pumpkin. Then we tried something new this year with the candy. We let them pick out any 30 pieces that they wanted that they got to be 100% in charge of (almost 100%, still no eating it after brushing teeth for bed or before breakfast/school in the morning). I know 30 peices doesn't sound like too much, but they picked out lots of full size candy bars and larger boxes of candy that had multiple peices in them. Now, a week later, Christian, Elliott, and Agnes have finished theirs off, but Ethan and Julia are still going on theirs. The rest of the candy we stocked up for our own distribution. Like usual, I made a chocolate pile, a fruity/sugary pile, and then a pile of ones to get rid of (gum, milk duds, jolly ranchers, sugar daddys) - the ones that make a huge mess when the kids eat them. (Un)Fortunately, there weren't many of those this year so we still have a ton of candy left. Oh well, guess mom and dad will just have to eat some too!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)