Family Ski Trip

One of our Christmas Presents from my mom, John and sister, Shelli, were ski lessons and ski rentals for the kids and us. What an awesome gift! We took the kids skiing for their first time at Mt. Brighton in Brighton, MI. It was an awesome place to take them for their first time. It had a magic carpet, a tow rope and chair lifts. While the kids were in their lessons, Trevor and I had a chance to ski just the two of us.

Following their lessons, we skied together as a family. Trace was content staying on the bunny hill with Daddy and I took the girls to try out the tow rope and largest bunny hill. The girls mastered the tow rope and did a great job on the largest bunny hill.

By the end of the day, Kianna was begging to try the chair lift. After making sure she knew how to change directions and look for oncoming traffic, we declared her safe to try the chair lift. Trevor and I took her up for the first time and she did an awesome job! She immediately wanted to do it again and was so proud of her accomplishment. Kaylee, a bit more timid than her sister, was content using the tow rope for the day. Trace mastered the bunny hill and the magic carpet. He quickly declared that he wants to go skiing again for his upcoming birthday. Time will tell if that will happen or not...

Christmas 2014

Christmas Eve Fun

Grandma Becki and her grandkids

Pajama Party

Gaskill Christmas Party

Dad and Sue

Christmas Ninjas

Lego Christmas

Walker Christmas Party

Silly Sisters

Matthew and Kianna with their hair chalk

Aunt Shelli and Trace

Cousins

Kaylee and Aliyah's first spin class

Family Spin Competition

Winners

Losers

This year we celebrated our Christmas with the kids on the 21st by having them open their gifts right after church and then watching "The Nativity Story" as a family later that evening. We also took them to see the new movie, "Annie" over the weekend. The kids had a very lego Christmas!

We spent five full days in Iowa. We had a nice time visiting with family and friends. Some of the highlights include:

• Playing Peanuts at the Gaskill Christmas Party.
• Mike's BBQ Ribs at the Cook/Langfald Christmas Party.
• Sam's games she planned for the kids on Christmas Eve: Minecraft Building with marshmallows and sticks and "Do you Want to Build a Snowman" with toilet paper. 
• Working out twice at my sisters' new cycling studio, Burst Cycle. Especially, the family workout, where Bree and I about passed out...
• Date night with the Issa's.
• Helping my mom organize her pantry and kitchen cupboards. 
• Cousin sleepovers.
• Yummy desserts.
• Chillaxing with family.
• Santa's surprising splurge on legos...

We had a nice time in Iowa and still have a week left of Christmas Break back in Michigan. Score!

Toledo Zoo

We made our annual trip to see the Christmas Lights at the Toledo Zoo. They were beautiful as usual. It is a fun tradition.

Christmas Programs

Daddy and girls

Kianna

Kaylee's solo

Kaylee and Mommy

The kids had two Christmas programs they were supposed to be in this year, one at church and one at school. Unfortunately, the programs came the same time influenza came. Trace was unable to attend either the school or church programs due to influenza. Poor kid he was down for 5 days. Thankfully no one else got influenza. Kianna missed the school program due to a fever and upset tummy. Kaylee thankfully made it to both. Kaylee had one of the lead roles in the church program. She had a lot of lines to memorize and even sang a short solo. She did a great job! Kianna had a couple of lines to memorize in the church program and she said them with LOTS of energy. She too did a great job. 

The school program was fun this year. The theme was Christmas around the World and the songs showed different things that kids had been learning in music class. It was really well done and much different than the usual format.

Christmas Fun

 

Christmas is such a fun time of year with lots of traditions and fun activities. Kianna and I enjoyed some mother daughter time at our Church's Pinterest party. We made six different crafts including gift bags, gift tags, sugar hand scrub, an ornament, a little wreath, and some homemade potpourri. Kaylee would have joined us, but she was home sick. We brought her home a couple crafts to do when she was feeling up to it.

The kids and I have also enjoyed baking and decorating sugar cookies together. They usually do this with Grandma Sue, so this was a first for me.

Then as if, we didn't have enough sugar in our systems, we made more cookies and candy. Kaylee was in charge of the peanut butter blossoms, Kianna was in charge of the ritz peanut butter crackers dipped in chocolate, Trace was in charge of unwrapping the Hersey's kisses and I was in charge of homemade caramels and turtles.

Trevor and I have had several work Christmas parties to attend. My work party was a prime rib catered meal with my coworkers. We spent the evening visiting with friends old and new. The highlight was when my boss shared his story of how our company began. He then opened it up for whoever wanted to, to share their story of how they ended up at 3DPT. It could have been filled with awkward silence, but it wasn't. Lots of people shared and it was a good time of getting to know each other better by hearing each other's stories. Trevor's party was the following night. It had a Christmas Morning theme. We had delicious breakfast food, visited with friends, and had a Gingerbread House decorating contest. It was a fun weekend of parties.

Another fun activity, was when Trace's Kindergarten class made Gingerbread houses.  I was super excited to be able to help him out, since I wasn't able to help the girls when they were in Kindergarten. I think when Kaylee was in Kindergarten, Trevor and I were in Nicaragua, so Grandma Sue helped her. If I remember correctly, Grandma Becki was able to help Kianna, when they were here for Kaylee's play several years ago. The girls were in good hands, but I was excited to get my turn too!

We are still hoping to make it to the Toledo Zoo to see the Christmas lights, but our first attempt was thwarted this past weekend. We were in Toledo doing some shopping and Trace spiked a fever. He ended up with influenza, so our trip is on hold until he feels better...