Basketball Season

Max finally has an activity to do!  Besides swimming, I haven’t ever signed him up for anything else.  Poor kid.  Madi has always had tons to do…I need to be better about getting him into new things.  Anyway, today was Max’s first practice at Basketball.  He was so cute running around in his jersey.  Besides some basic dribbling with Mike, he’s had NO experience.  When we got there I about died.  All of the kids are bigger than him, and played really good.  They were running around, dribbling and passing; doing different drills.  Granted he is one of the younger ones; but I was so worried he’d be self conscious.  Thankfully he kept working hard, and really improved a lot by the end.  He even made TWO baskets :).  After practice we went to the store and got him a youth ball, so it’s not as heavy, and Mike and him are gonna work on some skills this week.  I’m so proud of him.  He really tries hard when he’s doing something new. 

These two…  Haha, they always make me laugh.  They’re best friends.  I love it!

He thinks it’s pretty sweet that he can turn his jersey inside out and it’s a different color.

Christmas Day

The kids were SO excited Christmas morning!  They both screamed and ran to their stuff.  So fun to see the joy on their faces!  Here’s a bunch of pictures.

The Carlsen’s came down for Christmas Dinner.  We had a great time hanging out and the kids playing.  We don’t see each other enough! 

Christmas Eve

Another Christmas come and gone.  We had a great one and feel very blessed!  This upcoming year will be a fun one; Mike’s parents are flying us to Belgium to go visit them (we’re SO excited and the kids can’t wait!).  And then my parents will be moving back to Utah from Hong Kong sometime later this year.  Yay!  Max will start Kindergarten in the fall; in fact I just had to contact the school to give them his information. He’s VERY excited!  Me…not so much.  I’ll miss him, but I’m happy that he’s excited :)

For Christmas Eve we went and had our annual dinner at Marcus and Ashley’s.  It was beautiful, the kids had fun dancing, playing, and talking to Grandma and Grandpa.  And then we had them open their jammies.  There’s always such an excitement in the air on Christmas Eve.  So fun!

On Christmas Eve morning, we sat down with the kids and spent some time talking about the Savior and his birth.  We showed them some videos, and watched Luke II.  It was nice to have some quiet time to remember what’s most important.

After that we let the kids exchange the gifts they got each other.

Max got Madi the pink BYU shirt she’s been dying for!

And Madi got Max a soccer ball piggy bank.

Madi got a Hello Kitty nightgown, and Max got Ninjago jammies!  He’s obsessed with Ninjago.  In fact, I think this picture he’s finishing up saying “NINJAGO!!” 

Oh, this house.  The memories!  Marcus and Ashley bought and remodeled the house we grew up in.  It’s beautiful and they’ve totally made it their own.  But there are moments when I’m sitting there, just taken back to childhood.  That home will always hold a special place in my heart.  I feel like I had an idyllic childhood, and there are just so many fun memories there! 

Christmas Eve at that house always gets me emotional, especially because my parents weren’t there.  But, it was so great.  To remember the times when the four of us siblings were little and would line up down the hall.  Or when Jessica and Trent started joining us, and before the grandkids had even come. And then to see the house over flowing with so many people, and kids, and love.  We’ve definitely grown!  And we’re so very blessed.

Madi loves hanging out with the big kids!  Here she is with Kylie and her friend Wes

Santa came!  Mike and I were able to call it a night early, so we laid in bed watching our new favorite show “Person of Interest”.  It was a great night!