Christmas

We headed to Logan last Wednesday to visit family. My parents and Katherine were awesome and watched the kids that evening so Casey and I could get in an early Christmas present and go and see the Aggies play basketball (something we haven't done together since before Peter was born.) The team didn't pull out a win for us, however we had good seats and enjoyed watching the game. The kids got to watch a movie and eat treats with Grandma, Grandpa, and Katherine.
Thursday Casey headed out with my Dad to work on Davids house. The rest of us played around at Grandma's house for the morning. After lunch we went out to Nana's to make cookies. I remember eating Nana's delicious molasses cookies each year as a child and I thought it would be fun to make them with the kids. We did our best to follow the incomplete recipe. The cookies turned out fine, but weren't quite what they should have been.
Friday morning we played around at Grandma's again while the boys were off working. We met up with Dad and Casey for lunch, then went to see the house. Friday evening David, Anica, Elliot, and Nana joined us all and we had an early Christmas dinner. Patty and Eric stopped by and we got to chat with them also for a bit. After dinner we opened our gifts from my parents. My mom made blankets for the kids that they toted around that night and have loved sleeping with since. They also got Lego's (Elsa's castle, and a cement truck) that they built as soon as we got home. We got spoiled with other fun things as well games, magic trick kit, books, fun things for the kitchen, etc. (Thank you Mom and Dad!) The kids played around after. My parents pulled out musical figures that Elliot and Peter danced (bounced ; ) to for a while.

Saturday morning there was a layer of snow outside. The kids eagerly suited up and went out to make a snowman, and with Casey's help made their biggest one yet! Casey also got out his new Star Wars kit to play with the kids. They loved the experiment with the "light saber" and learning about static electricity! After lunch we headed home. We hit a lot of snow / rain on the way, but the roads were fair and we made it home just fine. Saturday afternoon the kids put together their Lego's they got from my parents. We decided to take it easy and eat out for dinner. The kids got to open their jammies; we told scripture stories and the night before Christmas before sending them off to bed.

The kids decided to peak out of their room at 4 a.m. They were quickly shooed back to bed and thankfully didn't come out till 7:30 to open gifts. The kids were thrilled with their gifts and had a wonderful morning opening presents then beginning Lego assembly. We headed to church around 10. The three wards in our church combined for a Christmas sacrament meeting. Casey joined the choir and put on a fantastic program. Casey did an great job and it was so special to get to put more Christ into our Christmas day. After church Casey cooked up some breakfast for lunch while the kids continued to build Lego's, try out their bow and arrows, and played the afternoon away. We ended our evening at Brett and Vanessa's to eat tamales. The kids were everywhere enjoying themselves. We had cake also. The kids wondered who's birthday it was. When we said it was Jesus' birthday Bryker asked if we had to wait for him to come and blow out the candles before we could eat it!

Today Kendal got to join Casey at basketball practice. The kids played with their Christmas fun throughout the day and got to play their new Wii games with Daddy. It's been a great weekend and we have a week with Daddy at home and Darrington family fun to look forward to this weekend!

Snow fun!

We've had a few good snow dumps this past week or so. Unfortunately it's been followed by rain and freezing temperatures. They ended up cancelling school this past Thursday due to road conditions from the previous day's snow / frozen temperatures. So the kids got a rare day with Casey. We enjoyed the day and the kids went out and built snowmen and a snow dog with Casey. Kendal named hers Frosty and Peter named his Olaf (these kids are very original ; ).

Casey has had a bunch of games come and go. All of his games this past week were wins! So his team has nine wins and three losses so far this season. He's gone to games every Saturday so far this month, and the kids have missed him a ton. He's doing open gym's (aka practices) over the holiday break while we're around. When school gets back in his team only has a weeks worth of games to end their season. However JV, and Varsity play throughout the month, and will finish mid February.

Kendal has been reading two of the American Girl series about Kirsten and Samantha. She's loving the stories and is doing a great job reading books just above her level. She just finished both of the Holiday books from each series. In the Kirsten books Kirsten is from Sweden and celebrates St. Lucia's Day. We looked up the holiday and learned more about it. It is celebrated among the Scandinavian countries so I thought it would be fun to learn about since some of my ancestry stems from that part of Europe. Kendal cut out and made this St. Lucia's day crown!

We plan on going to Logan this week to see family. We'll come home for Christmas and then we get to go to Raft River leading up to New Years to see our Darrington family.

We've set the date and baby Girl is scheduled to come on January 18th! I'm going through a slew of issues, but trying to stay positive and count down the days we get to meet our little girl!

I've failed this year at making a family Christmas card to send out. We've been busy, haven't gotten a family photo, and i've just felt blah. I attempted sunday to get one of the kids to post online, but they're blurry. Maybe i'll try again another day.

Love these two cuties so much!

December happenings

We reached the end of November and I got my husband back. Yep, no shave November is over! I've got to say he grows a pretty impressive beard, but I'll take him clean shaven thank you!

Here's a picture the day before he took it off.

Growing up my Grandpa and Grandma Loosle had a Christmas part to their craft store. I remember playing in those enchanting rooms and loving the atmosphere in their shop. My Grandpa also sold Christmas tree's for many years. When I was younger my Grandpa gifted little Christmas tree's to the Grand kids to put in our own rooms at home. I have fond memories of decorating and having so much fun with that little tree. I was reminded of that fun tradition this year when a couple of my cousins mentioned that their kids have little tree's too. I wanted to carry on the wonderful memory so I went out and bought a small three foot tree for the kids room. They've lovingly decorated / redecorated it over the past couple of weeks. I'm grateful for the tradition my Papa started that I can carry on with my own kids.

This week I got some baby prep done. I've got a deep cleaning list I'm getting through, and other to do's I'm spreading out before the baby comes in six weeks! This week I pulled out the newborn / first months clothes along with blankets, burp clothes, etc. to wash. Peter loved seeing the little things and had to know which ones he's used and what came from Kendal. We also got our new car seat. Peter insisted I take it out of the box immediately. He inspected, and played in it for a while. I'd definitely say it's been Peter tested and approved.

Kendal finished her basketball season. She's progressed quite a bit this past month. She's made more baskets in practice these past couple of weeks, she has learned new skills, and has built upon other skills.  Last weekend Grandma Darrington got to come cheer Kendal on. She was a bit spacey during that game, but it's year one so we have no expectations. Yesterday's game she was on point. She defended (which is always her top skill), and did well at offense. When she defends she's right there with her opponent and she will take the ball if she can. Offense has been harder. She's not a shooter so she doesn't get the ball much during the game. Casey and I emphasized that she can rebound, get open, and help wherever possible. She shined doing this at her last game. It was hard being the underdog on her team sometimes. Over half the girls have played a year and can shoot very well and are very dominant during games, so Kendal learned what skills she could add to the game, and loved it when she did get the opportunity to handle the ball on court. She's also been great at cheering on and praising her teammates for their great shots and skills. Her team won two games and lost two games this season, no matter the outcome Kendal was always happy to been at her games playing ball.

Saturday morning our ward had their Christmas party. It was themed around Dr. Seuss' The Grinch. The food and decor were wonderful. Kendal loved all of the table decorations and even horded some to bring home. Peter was weary of the Grinch roaming around till he found out who was inside the costume. The program was simple and sweet about how it was really two missionaries and their teachings of Christ's birth that brought the Christmas spirit to the Grinch. Afterwards the kids got to see Santa. Both were excited, but again shy when it came to talking with him.

Casey is in the depths of basketball season and they've added four games to his already full schedule. He's managing it well even with parents / players with attitudes, and not always getting the practice times / places he needs. His team has done very well this season winning all but three of their games so far. He does his best for them and includes everyone on the team. The kids and I have hit up a couple of games. Kendal and Peter are their usual selves of only paying attention for so long, then hitting me up for snacks, then playing around the rest of the game. Kendal is observing and analyzing a lot more this year. She makes a lot more comments and her knowledge about the game has grown a lot.
We're lucky Casey's birthday falls on a Sunday this year. No games or work (just church callings and choir   ; ) so we get him mostly to ourselves. The kids adore Casey and miss him a lot this time of year when his coaching schedule is fuller. He is so wonderful with them. He reads them chapter books at night and sings them amazing songs at bed time. (He's currently reading Peter Pan to the kids.) Right now he's in the other room introducing them to his childhood days of Mario brothers on the Wii (Thanks Mom and Dad : )!
It's no secret Casey's favorite holiday and music is Christmas. He's joined the stake choir that has been practicing Christmas songs for 3 + months now. He says some of the tunes are a stretch for him, but he's an amazing singer and has come home every week singing the songs they've practiced. I'm excited to hear him perform on Christmas.
I'm so very blessed to have Casey in my life. He is a wonderful man and I'm so grateful for who he is and all that he does for us.
Happy Birthday Casey!