New Year's Eve

Jacob and I enjoyed a bike ride/picnic date on New Year's Eve. Later in the afternoon we headed in to Grandma and Grandpa's house for some fun.

Grandma thought up some fun games for the kids. The moved jelly beans using straws, either blowing or with suction.

 They played a few ping pong games.

 Balloon fun:

Getting Nilla Wafers from forehead to mouth without any help from hands:

Shaking ping pong balls out of kleenex boxes:

 We watched a New Year's countdown on You Tube around 6:00, then went outside to do sparklers and use the Silly String Cari had sent us for Christmas. The kids had a blast.

We had told the kids they could try to stay up until midnight watching movies, but Ryan was so grumpy that we put him and Megan to bed at their regular time, then let Rachel and Annie come down stairs quietly without him knowing to watch a movie. They both made it through the movie awake barely, or fell asleep in the last 10 minutes, so we took them up to bed around 9:00, then Jacob and I stayed up until midnight. It was the first time I've stayed up until midnight on purpose (as opposed to because one kid or another keeps waking up) since I got released from Stake YW more than 3 years ago. :) Thankfully we had the next day to sleep in and take naps.

2015 was a great year. Now onward and upward! :)

Temple construction visit

Ryan was the last one to come down with the fever on Sunday after Christmas. We had been planning on going up to see the temple lights in Mesa, but with everyone sick, we didn't make it. But a couple days before New Years everyone was finally fever free, so we took advantage and decided to get out of the house.
First we went to the church parking lot to ride bikes. Annie got a balance bike for Christmas that she had been riding up and down the sidewalk. After riding it a while at the church parking lot she was ready to try her regular bike with the training wheels off. Unfortunately we didn't bring the right tools to take them off (I thought we had), so she had to wait until we came back 2 days later. On her first try she was riding without any help on her regular two-wheeler. I knew it wouldn't be long after she got her balance bike before she would be a pro on her two-wheeler. Now Ryan and Megan can make use of the balance bike. In fact I think Ryan may be almost ready for taking his training wheels off, too.

Anyway, after riding bikes at the church parking lot we headed up to the Tucson temple site. If we weren't going to make it to the Mesa Temple lights at least we could check out the progress on construction of our temple.

 They have a viewing platform where we can watch all the construction workers doing their thing. It was cool to see all they've done in a short amount of time.

 They also have a trailer you can go in to see pictures of the progress and pictures of other temples, etc. A visitor's center for the duration of construction. It's run by a missionary couple that is overseeing construction, or something of the sort.

 The kids liked the trailers as much as they liked watching the construction workers.

Afterwards we headed to Chick Fil-A where Megan ate straight ketchup (and maybe some fries).

 We decided we'd make it a tradition that every couple months we'll head up and check out the progress on the temple, then head to Chick Fil-A. It makes for a great afternoon.

We're so excited to have a temple going up in our town. Even though it's still a 45 minute drive from our house, that's still better than 2 hours each way. And from my parents' house it's only 30 minutes, so after dropping the kids off, I'll be able to be there and back in 3 hours. Way better than the 6-7 hours a temple trip currently takes. :)

Christmas Day

Rachel woke up nice and early Christmas morning (no surprise there). She had to wait for a while before everyone was allowed to go downstairs and start Christmas fun.

Everyone got a wheeled vehicle from Santa. Megan especially loved her car. She would hardly get out of it to open presents. Except for when she noticed the candy in her stocking.

Ryan was super pleased to see that Santa brought the Rescue Bot transformers he'd been hoping for. He'd play with them, open a present, play with the Rescue Bots some more, open another present, play with the Rescue Bots more, etc.

Christmas chaos at it's finest:

The 3 older kids all got new helmets for their growing heads along with their wheeled presents. Rachel got a scooter, Annie got a balance bike, and Ryan got a ride on tractor that actually digs. Megan loves that one, too.

Rachel was happy enough during the present opening, but soon after came down with the fever that Annie and Megan had had earlier in the week.  You can see her laying next to her new pillow pet in the picture above.

Annie got an engineering set from us. You read a storybook and as it goes along it teaches you how to make different items in an amusement park. She had tons of fun and is really good at looking at the picture instructions and putting it together with very little help. This is the Merry-Go-Round she built. It really twirls around.

Ryan on his new tractor with a sucker in his mouth:

We headed in to Grandma and Grandpa's house where Rachel was quarantined because of her fever. She is prone to motion sickness, so with the yuckiness from the fever, combined with the car ride in, Rachel threw up one block from Grandma and Grandpa's house. Luckily we had anticipated this and she had a bucket to use. 

She opened her presents, then laid on the couch for the rest of the time we were there watching Penguins of Madagascar on the iPad and reading her new books.

Grandpa Knight got a "special" gift for Grandma. A fur coat.

 She looks like Sully on Monsters, Inc. It was a gag gift with a receipt to exchange for something she might actually wear. 

We enjoyed Christmas dinner and playing with cousins for a while before we headed home for movie night and an early bedtime. It was a merry Christmas despite Rachel having to enjoy it from the couch. Though that's likely where she would have spent a good portion of the day even if she hadn't gotten sick, with all the new books she got. :)

Christmas Break

We spent a good portion of our Christmas break hiding out at home to keep from spreading germs. Annie came home from church early that first Sunday of break because she felt sick, came down with a fever that had some respiratory illness accompanying it, and then it got passed around. Megan had her turn next, then Rachel on Christmas Day, and Ryan 2 days later. So we watched Christmas movies and played in the back yard when it wasn't too cold.

We did have Grandma and Grandpa over for Grandma's birthday dinner.

 After dinner they went on a drive with Ryan driving. :)

Megan "helped" me put together a nightstand for Jacob for Christmas.

 She also loved Dr Ohm, carved by Grandpa Campbell. Especially his eyes.

 Yes, she does have scissors in her hands, and yes she does wear that jacket all the time (at least whenever she comes across it--we have to hide it from her sometimes).

On Christmas Eve the kids were all fever free, but Jacob wasn't feeling well, so we headed to Grandma and Grandpa Knight's house without him. I left the kids with Grandma and went to Justin's house to help with some Christmas Eve construction, and made it back just in time to watch the traditional acting out of the Nativity by the kids.

Megan's costume that she tolerated for 2 minutes:

 Mary (Annie) rode the donkey Rachel to Bethlehem.

 Ryan the shepherd came to worship Baby Jesus.

 When we came home the kids got to open their Christmas Eve present of pajamas.

The kids were excited about their slippers and Megan was happy to steal Ryan's shoes since he had to take them off to put on his new slippers.

We were going to let the kids stay up to watch a movie that night since we figured they wouldn't fall asleep quickly anyway, but Rachel had woken up that morning at 3am and had fallen back asleep from 5-6, and Ryan had already demonstrated how completely tired he was, so we just finished 15 minutes of a movie we had been watching that morning, then put them to bed and they were all out by 8:30, which is good on a regular night, let alone Christmas Eve.  Waking up the next morning, of course, happened nice and early...