{December 2015: Christmas Festivities, Family Visits, Snow, Perform Talents}

Christmas Festivities.  Love Our Kiddos, Christmas Eve Matching Pajamas.  Baby Girl H's {turn} putting the Star, on the top of our Advent Calendar.  Baby Boy D's First Christmas.

 Lovely White Christmas. Our Girls Opening Presents.  Snacks for Santa & Reindeer.

 Our Sweet Kiddos Opening Presents, together.

Special Christmas Breakfast.  Baby D Snuggling with Daddy and Standing Up.

Opening Christmas Presents together, as a Family.

 Nativity Play on Christmas Day.

 Girl Band Practice.  Curling Our Girls' Hair.  Creating Art.  Big Sister R & Little Miss K, Entering & Winning Awards at their School Art Contest.  Little Miss K Singing at her School Christmas Concert.  So Proud of our Kiddos! :)

 Our Kids had So Much Fun; Making a Ginger Bread House and Christmas Sugar Cookies.  Little Miss K did an Amazing job on her talk in Primary {at Church}: "I know that my Redeemer Lives". Her talk that she said was, "President Gordon B. Hinckley shared his testimony: 'Jesus is my friend. He is my exemplar. He is my teacher. He is my healer. He is my leader. He is my Savior and my Redeemer. He is my God and my King. Gratefully, and with love, I bear witness of these things.'  Jesus is my Savior, for He rescues me from me. I'll try to explain just how to you. It's very clear to see. Heavenly Father sent me here, to learn to choose the right. I can't get back to live with him, unless I win the fight. Each day I have to make a choice. Some days I seem to choose the path that's leads away from Christ, and that's the way I lose. But God knew that I'd need some help, so Jesus said he'd come, and be my Savior so I can try to be the best I can become. And when I try to change my ways, a better person be, I can succeed because of Christ, who gave His life for me. I know that Jesus is my Savior, because He died for my sins. I want to do all I can, to follow His example and be worthy to live with Him again, someday. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

Baby D Adorably Sleeping.  I LOVE that he sucks his thumb!  It is Super Cute! :)  Our Christmas Cards & Baby Announcements, ready to send out.  

   Mark's brother Glen, his wife Summer, and their 4 kiddos {our nieces & nephews} came to visit us at our place, for a few days.  It was so lovely to spend time with them.  

We had a wonderful time, visiting the Cheney side of the family, up in Washington, a few days after Christmas, through New Years.  We also celebrated Baby Girl H's Birthday, this month, which I will be posting about on my photog blog, very soon.

  

{November 2015: Thanksgiving, Visit Family, Performances, Family Fun}

November was a lovely month!  We spent our time with family and friends; and feeling thankful for our many blessings, that God has given us.  We spent Thanksgiving day, up in Oregon, visiting Mark's side of the family.  It was Baby D's first Thanksgiving.  Our kids enjoyed spending time with cousins: going to see our friends, star in the play "Annie", making up plays, and making and eating our delicious, Thanksgiving Dinner with them.

 Baby Girl H, smiling for mama, with her fancy clothes and her baby doll.  Daddy {Mark}, showing our fascinated kids, a craw-fish, that he found in our irrigation stream.  We rescued the craw-fish, and took him to a better home, {at the park}, to live in a river.    

 Little Man C, playing in the snow.  Baby Boy D, sitting in his high chair.  Little Miss K, dressing up for 50's day at school {#50days}.  We enjoyed having Thanksgiving early in the month, at our home in Idaho, together with just our kiddos; before heading to celebrate with extended family, later in the month {on Thanksgiving Day}.

 Our Kiddos Love Snuggling with our Sweet Kitties!  We brought them into our breezeway, during the cold winter months.  Our Kitty in the Cat Habitat, with the visitor Kitten {that we later helped to find a home}.  

 Big Brother E, going on a hiking/camping trip with his Daddy.  We enjoyed watching Big Sister R, perform at a Christmas Festival with her Honor Choir {that she is in}, from school.  She {& the Choir}, did a fabulous job!

 Up in Oregon, at our Thanksgiving Festivities, the kids enjoyed playing awesome, fun Games with their Cousins {setup by Auntie Laura}.

 We enjoyed going up into the Mountains, with Mark's side of the family, to practice Shooting targets. It was a lot of fun!

 Our kids {& I} loved going to see our besties, perform in the play "Annie".  Little Man C, enjoyed building a cardboard boat, with his Daddy, and posing with his Grandparents.  On the way back down to Idaho, we were all excited to watch our Big Sister R, perform with her Dance Team, at a Christmas Festival.  {She &} They were amazing! #soproudofthem

  

{Family Visits, 12th Anniversary, 1st Day of School, Owies: August 2014}

We began the month of August continuing our trip up to Washington and went to see my sister Angela and her daughter {our niece} A in the play "The Sound of Music".  They both did a fabulous job on their parts.  We loved watching them perform.  It was an amazing show.  Angela played one of the lead Nuns {Sister Sophia} and A was Gretel. 

 Our son E received his Bear Badge at his Scout Pack Meeting.  My brother Danny, his wife Jolie and their two kids came to visit us and we had a lovely time with them.  We went blueberry picking with them while we were still up in Washington.  We had two visits to the Emergency Room, to get our daughter K's head super glued and also because our son C had swallowed a penny.  I think we need to put some of our kids in a bubble!  It's so hard to not be able to protect them from everything.  But that's a difficult part about being a parent, I guess.

 Mark and I celebrated our 12th Anniversary in August.  Mark's parents {in Oregon} watched our 5 kids {I was 3 months pregnant with our #6 at the time}.  We went to the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center and saw and learned some amazing things about the history of the Oregon Trail.  It was a lot of fun!

 We tried new restaurants, viewed sites around the area, and had some much needed alone time together.  It is always nice and very important to spend some time alone, away from the kids.  And your relationship and the kids are all the better because of it.

 We also rode the train in Sumpter, Oregon.  It was really fun.  We enjoyed looking at the beautiful views from the historical train's windows.  We had a wonderful time on our anniversary together.  I'm so grateful to have had this incredible man in my life for the last 12 years.  I'm Lucky, I'm in Love with my Best Friend.  Here's to Eternity. 

   Here are our Kiddos playing at Grandpa and Grandma's {in Oregon} and the Park together.  

 Here are our Kids getting the mail with Grandma {Mark's mom} and having fun playing with their cousins in Oregon.

 We had a wonderful time visiting with our Friends and Family, in Oregon together.

 We sure do Love these Kids!

We love going to the Library for Story time.  Before we moved into our house, we lived in an apartment across the street from a library {pictured above} in a smaller town {outside of the bigger town that we now live in}.  My parents came to visit us and helped us pack our apartment up to move into our new house, that we were moving into at the beginning of September.  It was especially helpful with being pregnant with our #6, to have their help.  We loved having them in Idaho to visit us!  It was a joy visiting and spending time with them.

 One of the special things of being married to a teacher, is having them home during the same vacations that the kids get.  School started for the kids and Mark at the end of August this year.  Our son E, started 4th grade, our daughter R began 3rd grade, and our little K, started Kindergarten this year.  Mark also started teaching his 2nd grade class again.  They are all at the same school.  Which is so much fun for us!

{Christmas Festivities and Traditions: Dec. 2013}

We loved decorating our Christmas tree together.  We took our tree out of storage, but we left all of our ornaments, stockings, and other decorations in storage.  So we bought some decor, ornaments and stockings at the Dollar Store.

Our family sang {"Silent Night"} together in church yesterday. It went very well. We were so proud of our kiddos! Merry Christmas!!!
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  Our family sang "Silent Night" together in Sacrament Meeting at church during the Christmas season.  It went very well.  We were so proud of our kiddos, who sang out with all their hearts.  That same day, I sang in Relief Society (Women's meeting) at Church a duet, "As Sisters In Zion", with a friend, Whitney.  It was fun.

The kids have enjoyed playing in the snow this Winter Season.  They like building things and having fun with the snow, together.

We enjoyed building and decorating a Ginger Bread House together (tradition). 

  The kids loved finding creative places to put the candy on the Ginger Bread House.

 We went to our Kid's Elementary School Winter Music Concert.  They did an Amazing job on their songs {with their classes}.

We Loved watching them perform with their 3rd and 2nd grades!

 

   Our Baby Loved Being Cozy in Her Stroller, while the other kiddos played in the snow together.

When Mark was on a Scout Campout, the Kids had a Movie Party Night with Mama.  We had a Blast together.  I helped the Kids make an Advent Calendar at Library Story Hour, and we had fun counting down the days with that.  We acted out the Nativity Play together (tradition) and we loved doing that together.

The kids enjoyed playing all of the parts, and we enjoyed singing together, reading out of the Bible, and Remembering the True Meaning of Christmas together.