Christmas Eve 2012

December 24, 2012

Christmas Eve is always such a high-energy day!  Our kids were so full of excitement it was hard not to act childish around them.    

Grandaddy, Grandma, Lindsey, and the rest of us.
Reeve family traditional Christmas Eve dinner... steak fondue!  We look forward to this day every year. 

Brian's favorite Christmas Punch (cranberry juice, pineapple juice, Squirt, and vanilla ice cream)

Christmas mint cookies.  My favorite year round!

Kid's Gifts

Our kids get 10-12 dollars to spend on one another each year.  We have them trade their Christmas gifts on Christmas Eve.  They love this tradition and look forward to shopping for their sibling.  They also love wrapping their gifts without any help.  

Natalya bought Irelynn a stick pony that makes clip-clop sounds.  Natalya figured that if she liked riding around the kitchen on a broom so much, that she might like a real stick pony even better.  She was right - Irelynn loves it!

Branson bought a set of Mini Mouse board books for Annika.  They come in a box with a handle like a purse.  Annika was so excited and squealed, "Min Mou!" which is Annika for "Mini Mouse."

Annika, with mom and dad's help, bought Branson a paper air plane book with special folding paper.  He loves making paper air planes and flies them all over the house!  (Though sometimes they get permanently stuck on pot shelves.)  Grandaddy has helped him make some really cool ones that do flips.

Irelynn bought Natalya Sudoku books and logic game magazines.  Natalya loves a challenge!  And she enjoys doing a puzzle before bed.  It was the perfect gift for her.

It's not Christmas Eve unless Grandaddy reads, "T'was the Night Before Christmas".  Our kids expect it every year :) 

We set out cookies and milk for Santa, and carrots for the reindeer.  But Annika helped herself.  Naughty baby.

The advent calendar is complete!  

We always tell our kids, "The faster you go to sleep, the faster you'll wake up.  Then it will be Christmas morning!"  So they were all out before 8:00pm in anticipation of Christmas morning...

Optimus Prime

December 24, 2012

Annika found Branson's Optimus Prime mask.  She seriously wore it or carried it around the house for hours.  I couldn't resist taking a picture.

Hot Cocoa

December 19, 2012

It got cold all of a sudden!  So I made a giant batch of home-made hot cocoa mix and we've been enjoying it on cold evenings.  Sometimes we put a fire in the fireplace, too.

Scriptures and hot cocoa... warms the heart and the soul. 

Chelsea

December 15, 2012

One of my dearest friends, Chelsea Vocana, recently moved to Lake Elsinore, California because her husband took a job in Riverside.  I normally don't get emotional when friends move, but it was especially hard to see her go.  Her family has been like family to us.  Our daughters are best friends.  We've spent many Saturday mornings together at the temple.  She's watched my kids and I've watched hers.  She was Natalya's Sunbeam teacher and then her Activity Day Leader.  We look forward to visiting them in the future, but I think we're all secretly hoping that one day they move back.  (That's probably just wishful thinking.)

I had a little going-away party for her at my house a week before they moved.  Lots of friends came to say good-bye.  It was bitter-sweet.  We all wanted to be happy for their new adventure, but at the same time it was sad to see her leave.  We'll miss you, Chelsea!

A Visit With Santa

December 12, 2012

My kids were super excited to go to Daddy's office to visit with Santa this year!  Although they weren't totally convinced that they made it to the "Nice List", they thought they had a chance.  They each wrote a letter to Santa so they could hand-deliver it themselves.  

Annika wasn't even afraid of him.

It's nice to have Santa at Brian's office because we have our own private meeting with him.  There's no line and no rush.  The kids could ask Santa questions about reindeer and he could talk to them about their favorite subjects in school.  And when they were done, he gave them all cookies and candy canes.

Thanksgiving 2012

November 22, 2012

I didn't take very many pictures on Thanksgiving day.  Why?  Because I was too busy relaxing.  I had a thoroughly enjoyable holiday! No stress.  No mess.  Just good food, a puzzle, a book, and  a whole lotta nothin'!

Thanksgiving this year was just our little family and my dear friend, Lindsey.  She's like family to us.

Compared to previous years, we had a relatively simple Thanksgiving dinner.  Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy, cream corn, Rhodes rolls, fruit salad, pumpkin pie, chocolate mousse, and Martinelli's.  We ate until we were sufficiently full, then we kept on eating.  I don't think I've ever had a more relaxing Thanksgiving!

Pilgrims and Indians

November 20, 2012

Branson's class had a Thanksgiving performance at his school.  He was an Indian and had a few speaking parts.  The entire class sang songs and recited poems.  Then they ended dancing the "Turkey Tango".  The whole program was adorable.

My favorite part was when his eyes met mine after each one of his speaking parts.  He always looks to me for approval.  So I gave him a lot of big smiles and thumbs-up from my seat!  

 After their performance, Mrs. Reed had a feast prepared for them! 

This is a picture of Branson with his friend Dylan.  
And they made and decorated their placemats.

  Mmmm. 

Snug as a Bug

November 6, 2012

She's snug as a bug in a rug...

Halloween 2012

October 31, 2012

A quick peak at our kids' Halloween costumes...

This is Natalya as Athena, goddess of wisdom and battle strategy.  Athena is also her favorite character from the Percy Jackson book series.

Irelynn really wanted to be a bug.  She didn't care if she was a butterfly, bee, or lady bug.  So when we found this costume online, it was decided.  And she's the cutest little lady bug I've ever seen!

Annika loves dogs.  This hand-me-down from Irelynn was perfect.  She would put it on, then stick out her tongue and pant like a dog. 

Branson was Thor for Halloween - with big padded muscles!  We even got him a Thor hammer that lights up blue and makes thunder sounds.  

Halloween was a lot of fun with classroom parties, the ward trunk-or-treat, and Providence's annual community trick-or-treating.  But  secretly the mom in me was glad when it was all over. Too many activities can be exhausting!  Sometimes I prefer celebrating the quieter moments in life :)

Hangin' Out

October 31, 2012

I looked out the window and saw Annika just hangin' out on the trampoline.  She waved to me so I snapped a picture.  Adorable.

Cousins

October 27, 2012

This summer we were so blessed to have my sister-in-law Brittany and her family move to Las Vegas while her husband goes to law school at UNLV.  They live just a minute or two from our house and attend our same ward.  They have 5 kids so everyone has a friend when we get together.  When they first arrived, our kids ages went: 8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,0.  Here we are making pumpkin faces together...

(James didn't make his way into this picture)

I love that we get together so often.  Whether it's a Family Home Evening activity, meeting at the park, Sunday dessert, or mid-week  play-date, we seem to see them multiple times a week!  Family is awesome.

Primary Program Cover

October 14, 2012

Every October our Primary children have a chance to speak to our church congregation and express some of the things they've learned during the year.  So each year during this time we print the Sacrament meeting program and always put a picture of our primary children on the front cover.  

We unfortunately picked a three-day weekend to take this picture, so many families were out of town.  We figure this picture shows maybe 2/3 of our active primary children.  

(For instance, there are only 13 Sunbeams in this picture and we normally have 28.)

The make-up of our primary classes in 2012 looked like this:

Sunbeam A

Sunbeam B

Sunbeam C

CTR 4A

CTR 4B

CTR 5A

CTR 5B 

CTR 5C

CTR 6A

CTR 6B

CTR 7

Valiant 8

Valiant 9A

Valiant 9B

Valiant 10

Valiant 11

Here we are in the Primary room practicing for our upcoming program.  

With almost 120 children you'd think it would be impossible to keep everyone's attention to teach them something.  But I'm impressed with how reverent they can be when they know it's time to learn.  

I think that there's no better place to serve the Lord than in the Primary.  It's where their testimonies of Jesus Christ begin and grow stronger.  They learn stories of Jesus, how to pray, read scriptures, and how to stand up for truth and right.  Children who learn to love the Lord stand as a beacon of light to those around them.  They're even good examples to us adults! 

In fact, just the other day I was driving with my kids in the car and we witnessed an accident.  A woman hit a man on a motorcycle.  After we left the scene, Irelynn (4), spoke up from the back seat and said, "Mama, should we say a prayer for that man?"  I can't believe I didn't think of that.  I asked her to say the prayer and she did.  She blessed him to 'not be broken' and to 'not have blood' and that he would go to the hospital and get better soon.  It's been only 4 years since my little Irelynn left her Father in Heaven and came to Earth - and she still hasn't forgotten Him. 

I love these kids!

Irelynn's First Field Trip

October 4th, 2012

"D" is for Duck

Irelynn's little pre-school class took a trip to Floyd Lamb Park at Tule Springs.  We had a picnic on the grass then walked the perimeter of the park where we could feed the ducks and geese. 

I chaperoned.  We listened to princess music most of the way there.  (Poor Ethan, surrounded by girls!)

"D" is for donuts and drinks.

 Annika most liked the peacocks. 

But they didn't like her.  

"D" is for duck.

What a fun way to learn letter "D"  

San Diego Zoo 2012

September 29, 2012
San Diego Zoo

After two days at Disneyland, we decided to change pace and go to the zoo.  Although I was born and raised in southern California, I somehow had never made a trip to the San Diego Zoo.  Brian went when he was a kid, but other than that, this was a new experience for us all!  

The San Diego zoo is spread out over 100 acres and houses over 4,000 animals.  With Annika on my back in a backpack and Irelynn in the stroller most of the time, we miraculously covered nearly the entire zoo.  The only exhibit we missed was the panda bear exhibit.  We walked for hours - Brian and I were impressed with ourselves! So we justified eating junk food because we worked off a bazillion calories :)

 Gigantic map of the zoo

Some of these Galapagos tortoises were over 130 years old!  I know, shocking!

Even more shocking was...

 The California Kingsnake, TWO-headed specimen!  

 Seriously??  Yes. 

Annika loved the reptiles and fish.

We got to see a show where we learned about various animals and even saw some perform. The kids loved to see the wolves and the seals. 

 I have some wild animals at home, too...

Among our favorite animals were the Okapi.  

Is it a zebra? Donkey? Horse? Deer?  Nope, it's an Okapi.  We learned that they're found in a tropical mountain forest in central Africa.  They're not endangered, but they are shy so not many people see them.  Brian and I thought it looked like an animal you'd see in a sci-fi movie like Avatar :)

They had an awesome Polar Bear exhibit.

Branson liked the rhinoceros exhibit the best.  Probably because one of them kept nudging the other one forward by bumping his horn in his rear end!  We were laughing so hard!

 I spy a monkey...

There they are!  My little monkeys...

At the end of a very looong day of walking, we put a quarter in the "Footsie Wootsie" machine and all shared stepping on the vibrating metal plate to relax our tired feet... laughing the whole time.  

It was a great three-day vacation to southern California.  One we'll not soon forget.  The kids are already asking to return!  Maybe next year...