December- Flashback

Nutcracker-

We spent a lovely evening at the ballet.  All four kids attend with me.  Mitch passed. :) This was Lucy's first time going and she was excited.  

At the very end of the night Lucy got very tired and was done taking pictures.

Nativity-

Our Stake's Nativity weekend.  Lucy was in LOVE with these angel wings and wanted to keep them.  I have to say, they were pretty awesome.

New Glasses-

Lucy picked up some new blue glasses this year.  They are very cute.  At her last eye appointment it was determined that we need to start patching her eye three hours a day, in hopes of strengthening the other eye.  She is such a responsible girl.  She reminds me each day that it is time to patch even though she doesn't like the patch and it is not fun for her.  I really appreciate her willingness to do this because if she wasn't so willing this would be a huge pain on the daily!

Count down to Christmas-

Lucy brought this home from school as a count down chain to Christmas.  Loved it!

Christmas Birds-

Saw these at the store and knew we needed one of each!  This is my new favorite video. I love how you can hear each of the kid's laughs in the background.

Cameron's BB-

Cameron tried out and made the 8th grade basketball team.  I am so proud of him for doing that.  The team was a difficult thing for him.  His anxiety made this year and last year a real struggle.  He didn't get a lot of playing time and when he did he was so nervous.  At one of the last games he got put in for just a few minutes and hit a 3 pointer.  I almost cried I was so happy for him.  

Ornaments-

I don't seem to have any pictures of our ornaments that the girls and I made for our Stuard family ornament exchange but most of November and December was filled with the making of ornaments.  The girls really, really loved it.

Sign-

I decided to make a sign for my parents for Christmas.  I might have waited a bit too long to get started and there was a few moments I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to get it done in time but thankfully for Mitch we pulled it off.  It turned out really cute.

Miscellaneous-

When learning to write your name, it is always a steep learning curve on where it is appropriate to write such name.  It is also hard to blame it on others.

Julia received an award at her school.  I had the privilege of seeing her receive it.

She and her Dad are like two peas in a pod!

Santa-

Lucy asked for one thing:  A Wellie Wisher (It is a new smaller American Girl doll)
Talk about putting the pressure on Santa

Snowflake Lane and Clam Lights

If there ever was a more Seattle like thing to do... Go look at Christmas lights with umbrellas.  Really, really fun!

Christmas Eve

Ringing of the bells

A Shepard

An Angel

Two Wisemen

And of course, what can be better than Uncle Dale!

Laura and Dale with their SSASGE gifts (Swany Siblings and Spouse Gift Exchange)

More nativity at the Stuard's

Christmas

We bought our normal size tree and also a mini tree. It was just too cute to pass up.  And of course, all the presents!!!

De'j'a vu

My toe has been giving me some major trouble lately.  I had my other toe (ingrown toe nail) fixed last summer and swore that I would never do that again.  Unfortunately my other toe got so bad in the past few weeks that I have been limping around.  The last straw was on Sunday when a 10 year old boy accidentally stepped on my foot and I almost screamed out loud and started crying it hurt so bad.  My sock was filled with blood by the time I got home.   I knew it was time. Let's hope this will be the last time I go in for this.  I really don't want to have that close of a relationship with my toe guy!  I mean who even has a toe guy, right?!

This is a nice look I am sporting around today.  It wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't 35 degrees today.

Mid-Winter Break

For Mid-Winter Break Mitch took a few days off of work so we decided to go on some fun adventures. Mitch bought me a new rain jacket and the tag on the jacket summed it up perfectly.

On Monday,  President's Day we drove to Sequim and spent the day.  Our first stop was to the Olympic Game Farm.  This turned out to be the favorite thing of the day.  We laughed and laughed the entire time we were there.  This is a drive through game park where you stay in the car.  Good thing because the animals are not afraid of humans!  You can go through the park as many times as you want so obviously we went through over and over again.  Each time buying more and more loaves of bread to feed to the animals.  I sat in the way back... farthest from an open window!  By the time we were done at the game farm our car was literally covered in bison saliva and drool.

Our next stop on our adventure was to the Dungeness Spit.  This is a five mile long sand bar that goes out into the Strait of Juan de Fuca. The kids were excited to wave to Canada as we walked along the beach.

We took a ferry home and enjoyed looking at Seattle all lit up at night.  We also were the only crazy ones to stay outside of the ferry the entire time.

After a day to rest from our adventure we took a day trip on Wednesday to Olympia to visit the State Capitol building.  Cameron needed to take a tour of the capitol for a merit badge he is working on and we thought, "Why not?"  We actually had a great time.  It was fitting that we were there on George Washington's birthday.

After our tour we naturally went to find the gift shop.  As we turned a corner in the basement we ran directly into the governor.  He said, "Hi guys, how are you?"  The kids thought that it was awesome to see the governor.  Mitch later said he had to bite his tongue....ya know, if you can't say anything nice, don't say anything at all.

After our fun at the Capitol building we went and had a late lunch at the kids MOST FAVORITE PLACE IN THE WORLD, the Old Country Buffet.  We Stuard's really know how to party.  We then went and bought a new garbage can because after 17 years we finally had enough of the one we had.

(I mean, does life get much better?)

We also stopped at the cemetery to show the kids where Mitch's grandparents, Aunt and Great Grandma are. It was there that we ran over a large nail and then had an adventure of putting on the spare and getting it fixed. We (or should I say I )were definitely ready to get back to school!

Groundhog's Day

Groundhog's Day came and went.  We celebrated and I silently cried that he saw his shadow.  I am ready for Spring.

Not too many days later we definitely got a surprise.  SNOW!  We haven't had snow in years.  In fact, I don't think Lucy has ever even seen snow. This was evident in the snow clothes that we had on hand.  The girls ended up wearing multiple pairs of knit gloves with surgical gloves over them.  Talk about GHETTO!  The kids had a great time though and loved the snow days.

Joy

For whatever reason my children's art bring me JOY.  Last night at Natalie's school open house I received this picture of Martin Luther King Jr. drawn by Nat and then today Lucy made Abraham Lincoln at preschool. I will keep these always!  LOVE. ❤

Happy Valentine's Day

Natalie made me this super cute Valentine.  Love this girl!