New Years Day

New Years morning I got up and ran in the Hermiston fun run.  They had different distances but I did 3.8 miles in 37 min.  That is slow for me.  But to my credit- I did stay up till like 2 the night before eating cream puffs and drinking Martinelli's.  And it was 16 degrees outside.  So I am proud of myself for going at all. Here I am getting ready to run.

And afterwords I felt great!

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Remember how Ellie stayed up all night? Well here she is when she woke up about 1 in the afternoon.  She was explaining how she was NOT grouchy.  But when I tried to take a picture of her this is all I could get.  LOL

I love Christmas so much.  I put my tree up as early as possible, and I take it down as late as possible.  Which for me is Jan. 1st or 2nd.  Then the holidays are officially over and the tree is as dead as a doorknob.  

And I cry the day I take the tree down.

Here are the last of the Holiday pictures.  I was so sad for the Christmas break to be over.  I love having my kids home all day.  I love staying up late with them watching movies.  I love sleeping in and snuggling in bed with them all morning.  I love, laying around, watching movies, eating junk food.  I love no lessons, no school, no carpool.  but there comes a point when I am ready to get back to real life. For some reason, this year I never really hit that point.  I didn't want vacation to end.  I'll just have to look forward to Saturday.

Gabe

Cute random pictures of Gabe.

He has learned how to ride his bike! He loves it!

Gabriels Stocking

I got Gabe stocking started early this year- before Thanksgiving, so I could make sure it was done by Christmas.  It still isn't done.  I worked on it on the drive to Utah- while I was in Utah- the drive home, and a lot of Christmas break.  I'll finish it by Christmas next year.

New Years

New years is usually a big let down holiday.  But for some reason this year I had so much fun! Actually-I know why- here's what happened.  Paul got invited to a party with a family in the ward, and Kyle and Ellie also got invited to a friends house.  Gabe fell asleep about 6:00pm and slept till about 11pm so Darren and I were home alone from 6 -11!  But that's not why I had a great New Years.  We had a great time hanging out and watched a Redbox- but I was so lonely!  I couldn't wait for my kids to get home.  I want to spent a holiday with my kids! So when I got a text from my friend saying, "Ellie and Kyle want to come home before midnight.  They said you have a tradition of banging pots and pans outside and they don't want to miss it."  It made me so happy! Family traditions are where it's at.  I remember as a kid doing the same thing.  So I went and got the kids, and then Gabe woke up and we let him stay up.  We had so much fun at midnight running around banging pots and pans yelling "Happy New Year!"  Gabe was in a daze wondering what in the world was going on.   I was so thankful to have my kids home.  That's why I had a great New Years.  We were together.

Then we took a bunch of selfies, and Darren and I kissed.  I love Darren so much.  Then I kissed all my kids to make sure I was the first one to kiss them this year.  I felt so happy just being with my husband and children. 

Oh yea! The true signs of an awesome family party!

Gabe kept trying to throw the pops but couldn't throw them hard enough to get them to pop.  So I pulled out this cookie sheet and gave his this wooded thing and let him have at it.  He loved it! But he kept saying that he wanted to go outside and say, "Happy New Year!" again.  That was his favorite part of the night.  My older kids begged to try and stay up ALL night.  I thought about it- hmm, kids sleeping all the next day? Sure.  I said OK- just be quiet and don't wake me up.  I ended up going to bed around 1 or so with Darren and Gabe.  When I woke up the next morning at 8:30am Ellie and Kyle were still awake!! They had an entire night of uninterrupted Mine-craft and Xbox games!  Ellie was soo happy she had stayed up the entire night!! Kyle had fallen asleep from 4-6 am.  And Paul figured that staying up all night was stupid and went to bed around 3.  I told all my kids to go to sleep! So they went to bed and slept till about noon.  Not bad- but I thought they would sleep longer.  But the next night they all slept like 12 hours!  I guess they had a great time!

Christmas Cards

One of my favorite parts of Christmas is getting cards.  I love the pictures and I love the letters. I love hanging them up and looking at them all season long and thinking about all the dear friends we have.

Kyle's Birthday Party

Because Kyles birthday is before Christmas, things get hectic and it is kinda hard to squeeze in a birthday party.  So we waited for the week between Christmas and New Years when the kids were out of school and in a partying mood.  I have tried to cut back on the number of kids at birthday parties, and I must admit it was so nice to have less kids.  It was actually manageable! 

Of course he wanted a pinata. Since Darren has a job I opted for buying one instead of making one.  It was a lot faster and easier!

This is the Lego cake that Paul made.  he was in a big rush and was upset it didn't turn out very well because he was in such a hurry.  He said, "this is the ugliest cake I have ever made!"  And we both burst out laughing.  It was so funny cause it was kinda true.  It's OK though because it was made from scratch so it was delicious! Especially the frosting.  Happy Birthday party Kyle!