New Year’s Eve

Ice Skating in Downtown Vancouver

 

We’d been wanting to take the girls ice skating for awhile now, and so we were excited to go in Vancouver with everyone.  There is a cool little rink downtown at Robson Square which was the perfect atmosphere for some outdoor ice skating.  Annie LOVED it.  She had so much fun and didn’t want to leave, she could have easily skated all night.    

Leah did not love it as much as Annie did.  She preferred to stick to the wall.  

Amy’s fiancée, Chris, flew in on Wednesday, the 29th to spend a few days with the fam.

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for watching the boys on the side lines!

After ice skating, Grandpa treated us all to the Cactus Club in downtown Vancouver for dinner.  Dan got the teriyaki bowl and I ordered fajitas.  Great restaurant, good food, and the best company – what a perfect way to end the day!  Thanks again David and Mary!

Fun in the Canadian Snow

Wednesday morning we woke up to a winter wonderland . . . . so everyone got all bundled up and went out to play!                                                                                

Nerf Wars

So now that we all had nerf guns, we thought it would be fun to go to the church gym and have some wars.  We played the guys (David, Scott, Dan, and Mike) vs. the girls (Mary, Elisha, me, and Amy), and it was really evenly matched, much to the guys’ dismay.  We set up some “obstacles” to hide behind, and played for a good few hours!

The kids had fun playing in the gym as well.  The girls loved running around and picking up all the nerf darts and bringing them back to the moms . . . . we told them the dads were the bad guys.  haha.  And James did just fine practicing his new crawling skills and watching all the commotion.  

And this man lift thing in the gym provided some great entertainment and the awesome aerial shots of us playing in the gym.                                                       

Christmas in Canada

This year we were on schedule to spend Christmas with Dan’s family.  It had been 4 years since we were in Canada for Christmas, since 2 years ago we went to Dan’s sister’s place in Georgia.  So we were really excited!  And yes, a little crazy as well.  Or so people told us:)  We didn’t think flying there was that bad . . . . we only had 8 check-ins, 5 passports, 3 carry-ons, 2 car seats, a double stroller, lots of Christmas presents, and a partridge in a pear tree.  We arrived the night of the 23rd, so immediately got right into all the Christmas Eve festivities the next day!

The girls LOVE making cookies with Grandma!

That night we had the traditional turkey dinner and then acted out the nativity, which always ends up being a little goofier than it probably should be, but we love doing it.

                             Mike as Joseph, Molly as Mary, and Scott the Donkey.

David as the Innkeeper                     

Annie made a perfect angel.   

Especially since she had memorized her part, Luke 2:10-12.

James played the part of baby Jesus really well, especially with the bottle.

Elisha narrated and Dan recorded.                                 

Grandpa reading Annie, Leah, and Molly a Christmas story.

And of course, the traditional Christmas Eve in front of the tree wearing their Christmas pajamas pictures!  

The very first picture on Christmas morning in Dan’s family is always the Christmas Lineup.   I love James and Foster’s faces . . . . they’re like, “What?  You woke us up early to stick us in a line and take pictures?”

I love this picture . . . . they had been told so many times not to look down by the tree, and so they all had their eyes closed as they came down the stairs!  so cute.

Santa came!!! 

Santa brought the girls some new pink scooters!  They love them. 

Nothing beats the reactions of kids when they discover what Santa has brought!  And as parents, of course we have to capture and record it!

Stocking time!

So excited about every little thing in their stockings!

I think the kids were all most excited about these next presents.  We had them all open them up at the same time . . . .

“A Pillow Pet!!”

Pillow Pets were the one thing my girls have been asking for for Christmas.  They were all the rage this year . . . they are EVERYWHERE.  Annie was always set on the unicorn, and for awhile Leah wanted the unicorn too, but then they were concerned that they wouldn’t be able to tell them apart.  So the few weeks before Christmas, Leah just said, “I’ll just wait to see which one Santa brings me.”  What a mature little girl!  And she was thrilled when she discovered that Santa brought her the ladybug.  Here they all are testing them out:

My poor guys were both pretty sick on Christmas.  So sad!  James had a fever and bad cold, and Dan had a cold and sore throat.  James really wasn’t himself for the whole first week we were in Canada.  And then actually Leah got croup during the week as well . . . . and then of course we spread the diseases to everyone else.  So sorry everyone!       

The day after Christmas was Sunday.  Dan’s Dad is in the Bishopric of the singles ward, so we decided to go with his parents to that ward.  Sacrament meeting was so quiet and we definitely had to make sure the 5 kids we had with us stayed well behaved!  It was fun going and checking it out, although the kids were kind of bummed when they found out there was no primary.  After church we took a few pictures:

For Christmas Scott, Elisha, and Mike got everyone nerf guns.  They had wrapped them up individually and then put them in a big box with a gift tag that read, “To everyone, from the 3 elves.”  Scott and Mike had their guns already loaded and ready to go, so they open fired on us all as we frantically tried to unwrap and load our guns.  It was so funny.  Then on Sunday they took this picture:

and we all knew what would happen next!