Christmas 2023

Christmas Camp with Taylor and Grandma… Kayli got to be a helper this year. The kids look forward to this every year! Their favorite part is when the Mad Hatter (Taylor) shows up!

Gingerbread houses and funny games with friends…

We celebrated Christmas on the 23rd with the Eliasons while Taylor and Addison were in town. Taylor had lots of games for the kids to play. We went caroling, did the Nativity, and all the Christmas things!

Christmas Sunday… we had a beautiful choir program that we were all a part of.

We had a fun Christmas Eve with the Englands. Kim, Austin, and Reef were in town and Emily and Scott came too! Emma and Kayli ran the talent show and the kids and Austin did the Nativity for us. We had fun opening presents and playing with cute Reef! He loved running around with all the big kids this time. He is so adorable!

Christmas morning…

Fun presents and happy faces…

But the best surprise and present was our fun new addition… meet Rudy! We surprised the kids with Rudy first thing Christmas morning. He was only 8 weeks old and is a Cavapoo. The kids were sooooo excited- even Kayli who has always been afraid of dogs. They have been so good with Rudy. They have helped with him and play with him whenver they can. They are learning to train him and love showing him to people.

We surprised the kids again when they found out that their best friends got Rudy’s siblings for Christmas! We’re all new puppy families together which has been nice to do this with them. We are all learning together and have had lots of puppy play dates which is fun!

Others meeting Rudy for the first time…

The guys drove up to Utah on the 23rd to pick up the puppies… then they stayed two nights with a neighbor so that we could surprise the kids Christmas morning.

Lots more Rudy pics…

The week after Christmas is always so much fun to me. We stay up late watching Christmas movies and playing games. We went to a couple of movies. And this year the kids played with Rudy lots. And I love enjoying the Christmas decorations those last few days before they come down!

Beau played in a hockey tournament with his Minions tournament team. We love this team from the coaches, to the kids, to the parents so it’s always fun to play with them. They took 2nd place.

We stayed home for New Year’s Eve (my favorite way to spend it) but Tate and Lindsay and their kids came over to play with the dog and we celebrated early New Years with them. The kids hung in there until midnight and so we celebrated again.

Kenny took the kids and Rudy off-roading on New Years Day and Kayli and I stayed home to clean and organize which we enjoy doing together!

Trey and I went to California for Michele’s wedding! We had so much fun and I loved taking Trey with me. We flew to Sacramento (Trey’s first time flying!) He was so cute and he loved it!

We met up with other family at Aunt Leslie’s house, had dinner, went to the park, sat in Leslie’s sunroom which Trey loved so much. It was fun visiting with family!

We drove up to Yuba City where we were all staying in a hotel. Then Trey and I drove up to Smartsville to meet Emily at Joe and Dawn’s house. We got there and the whole wedding party was there and Trey had a blast running around with Colton and the bridesmaids. We played games with them and had fun visiting everyone. We went back to the hotel and Trey loved having his own queen size bed. The next morning we all went back up to Joe and Dawn’s and Joe took us all around thier property. He had Trey help him with the chickens, bring in the eggs, he helped Trey ride the horses, and Trey loved playing fetch with their dog! Trey was in heaven running around all around and playing with the animals!

That night was the wedding ceremony at a beautiful place by Joe’s house. The wedding was so fun and so nice! We had the best food and Trey danced his heart out all night. Rachel and Russ made it in time for the wedding so Trey had his cousins there for the wedding.

We stayed at the hotel again and Trey loved meeting everyone for breakfast in the mornings. We headed to the new Feather River temple for the sealing. After the sealing we had a luncheon at the church and Trey had so fun playing with cousins and the bridesmaids again and was sad that was almost over and people would start heading home.

We had a couple of hours to spare before our flight so Trey and I headed to Old Town Sacramento, drove by the Sacramento Kings Stadium and the capitol building super fast and then he navigated me out of dark, maybe sketchy, downtown Sacramento and to the airport. He was the cutest helping me make the right turns and getting me to the airport. We ate dinner at the airport and although it was a super fun trip, we were excited to get home to see everyone.

Fun with dad while mom is away…

Beau was ordained a Deacon! His grandparents were able to come for that and he is excited to be in young mens! He went to his first combined young mens/young womens last week and loved it. And they are excited to have all the new, fun Deacons! I got them all in my Sunday School class and we had a blast yesterday. I still have Kayli’s age as well and we had 16 kids yesterday which we love! Beau will get to pass the sacrament for the first time this Sunday.

Josh and Mandy spent Sunday and Monday morning with us on their way back from Utah. We love any time we can get with them and they were so excited to meet Rudy. We did our traditional Santa pancakes!

Sami is a reader! She reads like one chapter book a day right now! She is very motivated by the Accelerated Reader program and is racking up with points! She is missing lots of teeth! She still loves playing Barbie’s with Audra and recently moved to the top bunk which she keeps very organized and tidy!

Trey’s favorite thing to do these days (and Beau joins them lots) is roam around the neighborhood with the other boys their age. Sometimes they’re playing hide-and-seek, sometimes riding bikes, and sometimes without me knowing have set up hot chocolate stands or cookies stands and are out selling to the neighborhood! They also have nerf gun wars, play football, and whatever else boys come up with. They’ve been caught on cameras doorbell ditching too which luckily nobody has cared. Yet anyway. Part of me thinks it’s great the boys are out being boys and part of me wonders when I’ll get a talking to about them haha! Luckily, they are all good boys and don’t seem to be causing trouble!

Beau just started on a volleyball team and they just had a very exciting first game! His team is made up of all boys and they’re a lot of fun. He ended the semester with all A’s and one very high B… so that was a bummer but also I’m very proud of him because it was a lot of work to get those grades. And I’ll take credit for them too… Beau and I BOTH worked very hard this semester haha. It was definitely an adjustment figuring out this middle school thing- but he did well. And socially, he did very well! He has made lots of friends and seems to know just about everyone now. He is really enjoying it.

Kayli also finished the semester with all A’s and one very high B! She was definitely bummed about that too but she also worked so hard. She has lots of great friends too and has fun at school and with her volleyball team. She also babysits a lot and has saved up a lot of money!