Our Favorite Missionaries

We received a fun package from our favorite missionaries serving in the Japan Tokyo Mission! As I type this, they are over their half way mark. I'm very grateful for their example. I know that we have been the recipients of many blessings because of their devotion and service to our Heavenly Father.   That being said, my family and I still miss them like crazy!!!

None of us were brave enough to try the dried of fish, "fish jerky." I even tempted Luke with $1 if he ate one fish, no takers.

Gingerbread Men Cookies

Emma helped me continue this tradition of these yummy cookies. Unfortunately, Luke was starting to feel under the weather…a bug that would plague our house for the next two weeks! Ignorance is bliss.

Myles discovered my holiday secret of going into the pantry to eat treats and followed my footsteps.

Graham Cracker Houses

For FHE, we cleaned the church and then invited our friends to join us in making graham crackers houses. We did two shifts, one for the kids and one for the bigger kids. Myles was exhausted from scrubbing the toilets at the church and went to bed early. Next year, he'll give me Emma competition for more candy eaten than actually placed on the house. Our kids look forward to this tradition every year; Bryan and I do too. There was a friendly competition going on amongst the adults until Luke declared my house the winner.  There were skeptics that the judge was possibly persuaded with sugary sweets. I claim I'm innocent of such corruption.

Each child received their own bowl of candy. This helped to simplify the process as well as minimize the germs.

Sunday Before Christmas

Luke and Emma included in our family prayers that, "We are grateful that we can celebrate Jesus' birth." These little kids were a great reminder of the true meaning of Christmas.

Bryan's Birthday

We celebrated Bryan's birthday by making him one of his favorite breakfasts, french toast, sausage and eggs. I secretly stashed money away from teaching piano lessons and the kids and I surprised him with a new snowboard. I wasn't gutsy enough to actually pull the trigger and buy one (but I gave Bryan a print out of the options I considered). Turns out, I should have just bought it! I think Bryan is enjoying doing his research and finding what he really wants.
Bryan is a wonderful husband, a kind father and we feel very spoiled to claim his as our own. This year has been filled with quite a few ups and downs. At times, it felt like more downs! Through them all, Bryan remained calmed and always took care of his family. We hope we don't kill him off this next year!

We invited a few friends over to enjoy a Dr. Pepper birthday cake and ice cream with us.

Happy Birthday to my favorite person!

Florida: Day 7

As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. We really enjoyed our time in Florida. Our last day we hung out with McCrackens and packed up. It was a great ending to a great trip.

Amazing how fast they change. Friendships still remain.

"Hmmm…I have to go back to how much snow???"

Neither one of us have sisters and I wonder if that contributes to us being so close. We've been told that we look like sisters. Once, the person asked if we were sisters because "your eyelashes look exactly the same." 

On our way to the airport. 

We rented a minivan. Unfortunately for Bryan, I wasn't converted. I was impressed with Bryan's ability to leave the van's gas tank completely on empty…without one of us needing to push.

Minutes before we checked in for our flight, we found out our flight was delayed. Denver was getting pounded by a snowstorm.  We made our way to a nearby park to kill some time.

It was strange to think about heading back to lots and lots of snow when this was how we spent our evening.

Enjoyed some snuggles on the flight home.

We rolled into Denver after an uneventful flight, waited a ridiculous amount of time for our luggage and collapsed into our beds sometime before 1:00 AM.

Chapter closed.

Florida: Day 6

We returned to Magic Kingdom for another fun filled-to-the-max day. We felt like we were on cruise control this day. We strolled more through the park and enjoyed our day. The kids really weren't into the characters or shows that much. They were all about the rides. Having Myles with us this day we changed up our game plan a little and tried to take advantage of our fast passes and rider swap. The lines were definitely longer this day, but we just bounced around and avoided the longer wait times.

We told the kids on our last day they could pick out one toy from Disney World. I was a little nervous with what they might pick out. After Pirates of the Caribbean, they both insisted they wanted these pirate swords. Bryan and I were pleasantly surprised given the options that were at their fingertips, literally. Swords for less than $10??? Sold!

Most of the time, the kids were really good about waiting.

Sometimes, the wait got old. :)

In the end, worth it.

Afternoon snack time. Pineapple dole whip deliciousness.

Another fantastic, happy, fun, memory-making, but also exhausting day!

I think we rode in complete silence on our way back to Krista's. It was a lot of stimulation all day at Disney.

This is one of my favorite pics from the trip.

This is one of my favorite memories from the trip. 

Luke wanted to hold my hand, a lot. I loved it.