December

Natalie had fun learning how to play checkers during their games unit at school:

Eve learned to ride her bike without training wheels!

She loves riding around the block.

Eli and Maddy had a free viewing of Moana 2 in the theater through their orthodontist and we all had fun going together with Eve. They even got free popcorn and some swag:

I loved this picture of Lizzie from her album:

She made it to the island of Madeira and loved serving there. She is in a really fun foursome.

We got our tree and decorated for Christmas. Joe bought a bunch of fresh garland from an employee for his son's fundraiser and it actually made our house look really festive, even if it was hard to put up and take down.

Natalie was in a play called "Machinal" and we loved watching it:

I loved watching the boys' Christmas band concert:

Another cute Eve selfie:

I love the lights on our bushes at Christmas time:

We got a good snow one night:

I especially love hiking in it:

Eve got to see Santa at the ward Christmas party:

I loved this picture of Joe hard at work playing with play dough:

A selfie while I did her hair:

Natalie, Eve, and I took a trip to Boise together one day. We got lunch and picked up a Christmas present for Nate that was only available there.

Eve trying out the drum set:

Another cute school pic:

I loved that Eve let me put her hair half up one day with this cute clip that matched her dress:

She looked so dang cute at storytime:

We ended up having our fancy Christmas dinner a few days early on Dec. 19th. I always love that tradition.

I loved this beautiful sunrise:

We went to see The Nutcracker at CSI. Since Natalie couldn't make it, Maddy went with us.

Then we drove to Utah for a few days to visit Tom especially since he wasn't feeling well. We had fun playing games and hanging out with family.

We came back on Christmas Eve. We prepped our food and then had fun at the finger food gathering at Chris and Regina's. We always love that tradition. I especially loved playing Would You Rather? and Never Have I Ever this year:

We went home and then took some fun pictures (Natalie's idea):

I was so impressed with how well Eve could keep a straight face :). Of course there was lots of laughing too:

Then we took the traditional ones:

Then we did our Christmas devotional and watched "It's a Wonderful Life". This little girl conked out:

The tree:

Pictures from Christmas morning:

Eve loved her cleaning set:

Re-creating the scene from "A Christmas Story" with the weights Joe asked for:

Nate got this cool aerophone, basically an electric saxophone:

I loved hearing Nate and Eli playing together later on the aerophone and cello. They were figuring out Disney songs from Eli's new music book.

We went bowling one day:

Eve with the crazy teeth she got from her tickets:

For our 21st anniversary, I made a little picture collage with pictures from each year:

And we had a nice dinner at Elevation:

I loved this message Eve wrote on her doodle board:

We had a super fun New Years Eve night. We played games and then played with sparklers outside:

2024 was a great year!