Happy Birthday, Elizabeth!

We had another big birthday around here.  Elizabeth turned 12!  It's still hard to believe that she is a Young Woman now.  She jumped right in with New Beginnings, a fireside, and other YW activities.  She seems to be really enjoying the activities so even though she was nervous, I think she is loving it.

Elizabeth's birthday was on a Monday this year.  We had her birthday dinner of roast chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy first.  Then she opened her presents.  She got the roller blades she'd been wanting, along with some books and a bunch of gift cards.  She's been rolling in money ever since.  That girl just doesn't spend money. She is definitely a saver.  

Opening some of her presents:

I love the smiles in these:

Here's her cake:

She did it all herself!  I was impressed with the book.  It looked great.

The Saturday after her birthday, she had a little birthday party at the local ice skating rink with Natalie and a couple of girls from the ward.  They were all about at the same skill level so it worked out well and they seemed to have a lot of fun:

Enjoying some dippin' dots as a treat:

Right after that, we got changed and then Elizabeth, Joe and I drove to the temple for her very first time inside.  I had helped her find some family names to do baptisms for and that made it even more special.  Elizabeth was in awe and enjoyed taking in all the surroundings.  I loved being back in the baptistry.  I hadn't been back since before we were married.  It was surreal sitting in the same spot that I sat in when I was praying to know whether I should marry Joe, but this time I was watching Joe baptize Elizabeth on behalf of our ancestors.  Where has the time gone?  I am so thankful for that decision, though, and for our beautiful kids that have come from that.

I posted this comparison on social media:

I can still remember her so well when she was just a tiny peanut and now she's over 5 feet tall!  

Lizzy and Dad:

After that, we grabbed some dinner and then headed home. It was really fun having that time with just Elizabeth and we hope to continue the tradition with our other kids.

Elizabeth is learning and growing a lot this year.  Sixth grade at her new school has been challenging in a lot of ways but she is doing great, as always.  It has been tricky for her as she's been learning to handle the heavier workload and there have been some forgotten assignments, but she is a hard worker and always makes up for it.  She still loves her books and has gotten into some new series.  She still loves reading poetry and even reads Shakespeare for fun.  We moved the bookshelf into our room and that has helped her focus more on getting her jobs done, and get better sleep, too.  

For being the book-lover that she is, she is also really math and science-minded.  She always does well in those subjects and seems to really enjoy science.  She has been taking an after-school computer science class and has been learning basic coding and web design.

She took a couple of months of tennis lessons in the Fall and is now getting ready for swimming coming in May. I'm excited to see how she does.  She'll have some friends doing it, too, so I hope that helps both of the girls enjoy it more.  She got to go rock climbing with the YW a few weeks ago and loved it.  I think she would really enjoy regular climbing sessions so that might be something we do in the future.  

Elizabeth has really improved a ton in the past few months in her musical abilities.  She has made a lot of progress on the piano and is playing much more difficult music.  She has had the chance to play some simplified hymns in church, too.  She and Natalie have been going to ward choir with Joe and they are loving it! Elizabeth has a beautiful voice and is getting better all the time.  I love listening to them sing with more confidence.

She is still just as contemplative and loves discussing complex topics.  She was very interested in all of the political talk going on around the election and even wanted to take an in-depth online test to see who her political views lined up with.  I loved it when she'd write out her own view instead of going with the choices given. :)

We are so blessed to have Elizabeth in our lives and in our family.  She is a huge help to us, especially as she's been babysitting more and more.  There have been challenges but she does a great job for the most part and is making my life much easier that way! She even made dinner for us one Sunday recently:

It was a potato bisque.  It was delicious!

We sure love our Lizzy and it is a joy to see the person she is becoming.

January Little Things

January was a month of rain, rain and more rain.  It has continued into February too!  This is pretty unusual for around here so there's not necessarily a lot of indoor entertainment options for kids.  But, we found a new fun play place not far from our house.  We had fun meeting friends there and then Eli and I went by ourselves another time:

I heard from a friend in the ward about a local theater company that her kids were a part of.  We decided to check out their production of "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat".  It was amazingly well done and we all had fun.  I love that show.  Eli doesn't love things that are loud so he had a hard time, and he was apparently tired because this was him by the end of the show:

I decided on a whim to sign up for Brain Chase for adults.  It was pretty fun and helped motivate me to do some things I'd been neglecting like working on our finances and exercising.  Plus there was a fun international cooking elective.

I made some really delicious French onion soup:

I volunteered for a math day at Natalie and Nate's school.  It was a lot of fun to be there helping the kids.  They had a math night that evening, too.  

Eli was proud of himself for figuring one out:

He's got a good little math mind and already knows a lot of addition problems up to 10.

Natalie and Nate working on some problems, too:

We got to go watch BYU play UOP in Stockton with my Dad, Chris, Lisa, Katie and JR and some of their kids.  My dad got us amazing seats!  Our kids were a lot more interested being so close to the action. 

Waiting to go in:

We managed to see people we knew from 4 of our 5 CA wards we've lived in.  There were definitely a ton of BYU fans there!

The kids even got on TV!  Hallie took this picture for us:

Crazy hair day at school:

We did fruit/veggie faces again in preschool and I was blown away by their creativity:

Look at those orange lips and olive earrings!

I love the carrot arms and legs.

Eli has been falling asleep almost every day in the car when I pick up the kids from school.  He and Nate wake up early and get their jobs done so they can play Wii so he gets tired later in the day.  It is so sweet.  He will usually transfer and sleep more when we get home, too.

A quote I loved for the quote board:

Trip to Greenwood

The kids had kind of a weird Christmas break this year.  They got off of school on the 22nd and then had the whole first week of January off.  So, we decided to head up to Greenwood during that week.  It was a really fun trip--one of those magical family vacations where you just genuinely love spending the time together.  It made us all want to go back soon.

One thing that made it so fun was that they had had a ton of snow right before we arrived so it was a winter wonderland!  We arrived late Thursday night and then stayed until Sunday.

On Friday, we had a lot of fun playing in the snow around the house:

Of course we had to hit up the Village Pizzeria that night, which was delicious as always.  We had fun playing games, hanging out in the hot tub, and just being together. 

By Saturday, temperatures were warming up fast.  We got up pretty early to go sledding to try and beat the rain.  It started raining pretty quickly after we got out there.

This guy didn't last very long:

I ended up sitting in the car with him for awhile while Joe and the other kids had a blast sledding:

They were completely soaked by the time they finished.  We got our suits on and hopped in the spa when we got back.

Despite the wet, heavy snow, Joe worked hard building a snow cave that afternoon.  He finally finished when it was dark.  It was big--all three of us fit inside:

On Sunday, we went to Sacrament meeting with the local ward, then packed up and headed home.  Then it was back to school, work, and real life again.

Christmas Break

We had a pretty quiet Christmas break.  We didn't plan to travel anywhere and then a bunch of us got sick.  It started when we figured out Eli had hand, foot & mouth disease that had been going around the ward.  Then, Elizabeth got it.  She had to miss the last day of school.

The sickies snuggling and watching a show:

The kids didn't get out of school until the 22nd so we didn't have much time before Christmas.  It was mostly full of shopping, wrapping, delivering plates of goodies, and finishing up watching all our Christmas movies.  We did a fun Little People Nativity scavenger hunt with scriptures to read. We also sang songs on Christmas Eve and watched It's a Wonderful Life, as per tradition.  

Christmas morning, since we still had sickies, we decided to stay home from church, sadly.  We were supposed to perform but it worked out that we could stay home.  So, it was a pretty relaxed morning.  The kids got up to open presents at 7.  I forgot to get a before picture, but here is the after:

Yikes.

Poor Lizzy was pretty sick on Christmas.  Then, Joe and I went for a walk and he was struck with some stomach problems, too.  So, they both napped the day away.  While they did that, Natalie gave us one of her presents:

That's right--Christmas the Restaurant!  She took our orders and served us.  It was a lot fun.

That night, we had a nice candlelit meal of roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, grilled asparagus and salad.  My mom gave me some of her Christmas china and it was so fun to use.

It was a great day.

We had a fun break after that, too.

It wasn't all sunshine.  Natalie gave me this nice note after a particularly difficult time with some of my children:

I just like to remember the nice notes they write. :)

I helped Natalie sew a blanket:

The kids and I had our own Chopped competition one night.

Here are some of their creations:

Natalie's:

Lizzy's:

(Eli and I made that soup and it turned out really good.  He loved chopping up vegetables and throwing them in the soup.)

Nate's:

Desserts:

Natalie's:

Lizzy's:

Nate's:

Eli's (mine):

(Turned out pretty gross :)

It was so fun:

Joe and I ended the year with a great anniversary celebration.  I got a babysitter and left the kids early so I could take the BART to the city to meet Joe for dinner.  

We had a delicious dinner at Wayfare Tavern:

We even tried beef tartare.

Sadly, something didn't sit right with me and I got really bad stomach pain.  We ended up canceling our plans to go to the temple (why we were so dressed up!) and hung out for a little bit until I felt better and then went to a movie.  It was still such a fun night.  I sure love this guy and I'm pretty proud of us for making it to 13 years still best friends and as much in love as ever.

Goodbye, 2016!