Clogging Christmas performances

Well there is another Clogging Christmas season in the books.  Joshua, Lydia and I enjoyed clogging this year.  Josh and Lydia were adorable!  I had a hard time remembering our songs and never really felt like I learned them well enough to be performing, but I kept performing any way.  I have always loved the Sleigh Ride dance, but we didn't get to do it this year.  I did like the Santa's Got a Train song.  I loved Country Christmas.  Blue Christmas was a challenge and I wasn't sad that we quit performing it.

Here are some pictures from our clogging recital:

Our faithful supporters

Here is a video of Joshua and Lydia dancing:

4 months old

Aaron turned 4 months old on the 27th of November.  I am just very slow in posting.  He is such a joyful little guy.  We just adore him around here.  Here are a few highlights from Aaron's 4th month.

*He no long finds it necessary to sleep through the month.  I kind of liked it when he did sleep through the night.
*He is holding toys and playing with them
*He likes his jumper and can actually bounce in it now
*He smiles when someone smiles at him
*He has an adorable habit of rubbing the bottoms of his feet together.  I have never seen another baby do it like he does.
*He isn't rolling over yet, but that is okay with me
*His hair is growing and is very blonde
*He weighs 15 lbs 3 oz
*He is 26 inches long


Here are a few pictures of Aaron at 4 months.  I love taking pictures so there were a lot to choose from.

Thanksgiving

We decided to go to Idaho for Thanksgiving with the Waite family.  We had sick kids before we were supposed to go so we were't sure we should go.  It is rare that all of us get together so we hated to miss out.  Everyone except Vicki's family was planning to come.  In the end we decided to go sick kids or not.  We left Matthew and Emma home because Emma wasn't feeling good on Wednesday morning when we wanted to leave.  We left about 8:00 Wednesday morning so we could get ahead of any storms moving in.  We only stopped in Bozeman and Ashton.  We made it to Grandma Karan's before the snow started to stick to the road. Aaron traveled very well. He only woke up and fussed just before Bozeman and then again at Ashton.  We needed to stop there anyway so it was perfect. Dallin didn't feel very well all day. He was a good sport. I am sure traveling while not feeling good is miserable.  He was sick on Wednesday and Friday, but felt pretty good on Thursday, thankfully.

We were actually the first of the Waite families to get to Grandma Karan's house.  Jonathan and his family were a little behind us.  Molly's family, Blaine and Mark, and Candice all came Wednesday evening so we had a wonderful house full.  Gerry and his boys came up Thursday morning.

Grandma's house had just enough snow for the kids to go sledding down her hills.  They loved it! Great memories with cousins.

It was great to get to visit with everyone.  We hadn't seen most of the Waite family for about a year and a half.  Most of the cousins loved holding Aaron.  He didn't get set down much over the two days we were there.  The food was delicious.  The conversation was great.  It was a wonderful visit.

We got up Friday morning and packed up to head home. Grandma Karan and Molly were heading to La Grande for Uncle Ritchie's funeral.  We wanted to leave early enough to stop in Billings and attend the temple in November.  Aaron traveled really well again.  He has gone on a road trip of some kind every month of his life.  (August Idaho and Utah, September Utah, October Utah, November Idaho)  Maybe we will stay home for December.  We went to the temple and then took the children to Toys R Us and Costco to do some Christmas shopping.  It was a good day.

I didn't want Matthew and Emma to miss out on Thanksgiving dinner so I told them we would cook one here at home as well.  It is Matthew's last Thanksgiving before leaving home for his mission.  We finally cooked our own on Saturday, December 10th.  It was fun to eat a turkey dinner together with as many of us as we could. Unfortunately, I didn't take the time to get the camera out.  The Andreasen kids wanted to stay and eat with us, but I wanted it to just be a family time.  Linda did do lots to help us get ready so after we ate we called her and let her come and make a plate of food.

We have so much to be grateful for in our lives.  Thanksgiving truly is one of my favorite holidays. I want to live each day in gratitude and Thanksgiving.

Here are some pictures from our Idaho Thanksgiving:

Watching the BYU basketball game on Wednesday night

Eating Pie

The beautiful nativity at the Billings Temple

A hard lesson learned

We have been having computer problems.  We decided to backup our files and reset our computer back to what it was when we first got it.  I thought we had covered our bases and backed up a couple of ways.  Unfortunately, our back up plan had some holes.  We lost about one years worth of pictures.  We lost all the videos we had on the computer.  No more band concert videos, no videos of Joshua's cute monkey crawl, no video of Joshua and Dallin playing in the mud together or jumping on the trampoline.  The lesson to be learned is to check your back up plan before you reset your computer.  If I had simply checked to make sure things were really backed up I would have saved myself many tears.  I did shed quite a few tears over the situation.  Thankfully I had posted pictures on our blog and I could get those back.  It could have been much worse than it was.  I am grateful for the pictures we do still have, but I miss the pictures that I lost.

Dallin turns 10!

I will do a catch up post on all these fall birthdays sometime soon.  Dallin turned 10 yesterday.  He was excited to have a death by chocolate cake decorated with M&M's making a ten. We spent part of the day hiking.  We had ham casserole and muffins for dinner.  Matthew had asked for a Star Wars game for the ps4, but I had more ideas for Matthew than Dallin so we gave it to Dallin.  Matthew was surprised when Dallin opened it.

Dallin recently finished his Bear scout award and is looking forward to being a Webelos scout.  He loves to adventure with the older boys.  He likes to go out and shoot hoops.  He likes to play pool on our new pool table. He likes to work to earn money to buy books.He loves to read and is super smart.  He gives great hugs when he is grateful for something. He adores Aaron and is so tender with him.  He will walk him when Aaron is fussy.  He likes to help give Aaron a bath.  He has gained maturity this year.  We truly enjoy Dallin and are grateful to have him in our family.  We love you, Dallin!

A fall hike up Cottonwood Canyon in the Bighorn Mountains

We had a cold day with snow early in October, but ever since we have had beautiful fall weather.  Neil has been taking advantage of the nice weather and taking the kids out to do activities.  I have usually stayed home with the younger children, but I decided to take Aaron and go along on Saturday.  David was playing basketball with the 8th grade team at Rocky Mountain Middle School in Cowley.  We stopped and picked him up to go with us.  Emma stayed home with Joshua and Lydia.

It was a beautiful day for a hike and the scenery was majestic.  We enjoyed hiking 2 miles up the canyon to a meadow. Neil carried Aaron in the baby wrap. It wasn't too hard of a hike, except for one part where the path was muddy.  Neil and Matthew stayed by the edge by holding on to bushes and making their way through.  David went off trail and into the trees.  Dallin and I just plowed through the mud to get it over with.  Aaron was a good sport about our hiking, but he didn't like the muddy gap.  I think he got a little cold on our way back down.  We enjoyed a snack in the meadow and the boys liked climbing the big rocks.

The boys decided to go off trail to miss the mud on the way back.  They got into some thick brush, but they survived and found the trail again.  The kids got ahead of us on the way back to the van, but they missed the cutoff to the campground so we beat them back to the van.  I took a picture of Matthew running to the van just to prove I beat him.

Neil listened to the Cowboy triple overtime game on the way home.  I fell asleep, but woke up to hear the exciting finish.  It was a fun way to spend part Dallin's birthday.  Matthew, David and Dallin have dubbed themselves the Adventure crew.  I love that they love to be outside adventuring together and that they have a dad that's willing to take them.

Halloween 2016

Neil took the children trunk or treating on Saturday while I was still in Utah. We had  kind of a low key halloween which was fine with me.  We went to Westside to watch the costume parade and deliver treats to Dallin and Josh's classrooms. I took the kids to Powelloween on Monday after school.  It was super windy and I wasn't sure I even wanted to go, but the kids wanted to go.  Aaron was a good sport about riding in his stroller in the wind. We came home and had pizza for dinner and did Family Home Evening together.  I always think of eating pizza with Martha on halloween.

David was a basketball player. MaryAnne was a clone from Star Wars and Linda was Darth Vader.  Dallin made a box into a Rubik's cube.  He did a great job working with Neil to make it.  Joshua was spiderman. Lydia was a really cute witch.  Her red eyes went right with her costume.  Aaron had several choices.  He could be a cow, a lion or a dinosaur.  We decided on the dinosaur costume.

Westside costume parade

Dallin made this  Ghost bowling game for the cub scout halloween carnival