New Year's Eve

    

We had such a fun New Year's Even celebration this year. We ate some yummy snacks and played fun games, including my favorite, Balderdash. Meanwhile, the girls played Jenga and Guess Who with Jordan and watched some movies.

    

At about 10:30pm the girls passed out their party hats and horns and we did an early countdown. They had no idea it was early. Our countdown to the new year ended at 10:47pm. Then we packed up and went home. The best part about it was that I was in bed just after midnight and got an excellent night sleep. And none of us were grumpy the following day due to lack of sleep. I think we need to stick to the early countdown until our kids are a little older. 

    

BYU Basketball Game

We took the girls to their first BYU basketball game today. Mind you, we had seats on the second to the top row of the Energy Solutions Arena, so it turned out to be quite the experience. Josh and I hiked up and down the steps about six times each in the first half alone for food, drinks, potty breaks, poopy diapers, etc. By half time, we were more than ready to find a closer seat. When we finally selected our spot, we looked over and Cindy and Tony and kids were right across the isle. Other than cleaning up spilled food, calming a fussy baby and controlling a two-year-old, it was fun. And it turned out to be a pretty significant game with Haws scoring 42 points.

Sledding

Finally enough snow to go sledding!!! And with how much I love the snow, I sent Josh off with the girls while I enjoyed a warm cozy morning inside the house with Emma. The girls had a lot of fun and it was a good day to go too, not too many people but a ton of snow. Ashlyn is finally big enough to go down the hills herself but not big enough the get back up herself. It made sledding a lot of fun for Josh. Kali had a bit of a mishap on one of her runs down by running into someone else. She felt bad and didn't want to go down anymore. But after a while she gave in and began sledding again. It was too irresistible.

Christmas

I love how well you can see the excitement of what is taking place in these photos. They were taken the first few moments of walking into the front room on Christmas morning to see what Santa left them and their facial expressions are priceless.

And within a matter of about fifteen minutes, our front room looked like this. It was great! Some of the favorite presents included:

the wii

        

the new castle additions to our block set

Jenga

Kali's doll and dresses

Emma's picnic basket and Sadie's Monster High doll that I didn't get a picture of her holding. 

Also, if you ask Ashlyn what Santa brought her for Christmas, she seems to only remember the oranges, candy canes and pez from her stocking. Who knew Christmas could be so inexpensive for a two-year-old! But the thing I loved most was how excited the girls were to give presents to each other and to their cousins. They did a good job picking gifts out and helping wrap them and I really feel like they did much better this year at understanding the reason behind the celebration.

Christmas Eve Pajamas

Even though they know it's going to be pajamas, I love how excited they get every year to open a present on Christmas Eve. Sadie was funny and insisted that Dad wrap my present this year so that I wouldn't know what it was. Unfortunately her tactic didn't work. He did wrap mine, but I still knew what they were because I picked them out.

Emma was so much fun to watch too. For some reason she was in a very good mood and appeared to love her jammies as well.

BYU blue

and hot pink!

Parry Christmas Eve Party

This year, the Parry Christmas party was in American Fork which made for a bit of a challenge with the huge snow storm. Thankfully everyone made it there and home safely and the evening made it all worth it. The food was great. Ashlyn obviously loved the green frosted cupcakes.

And the kids always love when Grandma reads Davey and the Donkey. 

We also got to enjoy an array of talents. Kali and Sadie each played a Christmas piano piece that they had been working on. Then to finish off the evening we sang a few Christmas songs together. And on Jingle Bells, the Gallaghers let all the kids hold one of their bells and ring it. It made it much more lively and fun.

Bohman Christmas Party

This year for the family Christmas party, the Bohman boys did a soup cook-off. Each was responsible for making a soup and the sisters brought rolls and desserts. I was seriously impressed with the soups. They were all super yummy. Brett won the contest with his version of Aimee's cheesy vegetable soup while Todd and Brian came in a close second with their beef vegetable soup and chicken noodle soup. Jason or Steven would have won had the kids been allowed to vote because they made mac & cheese and tomato soup. After dinner was cleaned up, Mom insisted the grand kids act out the nativity even without the costumes. Tony did a modern day narration of Luke 2 and the kids loved it. It's kind of hard to tell from the picture, but Kali is Mary and she's riding on Dallin, the donkey.

Then we exchanged our family gifts. Kevin and Tanya gave us a couple of fun games and some much needed flashlights. I didn't get a picture of the girls playing with their flashlights, but they were a hit. Then Aimee had all the kids gather around and surprised us all by passing out presents that she had purchased for each one of them. They were such a hit. She bought the best gifts ever. Emma got a Dr. Seuss board book and a rattle. Ashlyn got a polar bear puppet and a bracelet with little snap on charms. Sadie got an octopus puppet and a bracelet with charms. And Kali got a Chinese jump rope and some chapstick. The kids were in heaven. It was such a thoughtful thing to do and so much fun for everyone.

The only sad thing was that everyone was there but Josh and Emma. Emma got sick the previous day and had been throwing up and fevering so Josh stayed home with her.

Pajama Party

We let Kali have a birthday party with friends this year and I think she started planning it during the summer. She knew almost right away that she wanted it to be a pajama party. She even bought footsie pajamas for the special day with her own money because I wasn't about to buy them for an eight-year-old. Then we had to come up with a cake. It took us a long time to figure that one out, but thanks to Cindy, we came up with this cute bed idea. I was pretty proud of how it turned out and Kali loved it. She said she was the girl with the short blond hair and that her best friend was right next to her with the long brown hair. I didn't plan it that way, but it worked out.

To start the party off, they each got to decorate a pillowcase to take home with fabric markers. Kali's was a jungle with monkeys. Each monkey was one of her friends. I was a lizard and Josh was an elephant. She also had the great idea of having all her friends sign the back. For games, we played a snoring game and musical pillows. In the snoring game, all but one person climbed inside sleeping bags while that person was out of the room. The person then came in and tapped each sleeping bag to listen to the snores and tried to guess which was Kali. It was pretty entertaining.

Kali's Birthday

Kali is officially eight now. She woke up to some very exciting presents this year too. Sadie picked out a cute fairy dress-up costume for her. Ashlyn gave her a heart necklace that she really wanted for herself. And Josh and I gave her an iPod nano.

We had a fun day listening to music, painting nails and doing makeup. Then we invited her cousin over for a playdate. For dinner, Kali chose Cafe Rio. I wasn't about to argue because it meant I wouldn't have to cook.

And then in the evening we invited family over for cake and ice cream.

Some of the things we love about Kali:

She is very friendly and likes to have fun. She is such a good big sister. She loves playing with her sisters and especially likes to help take care of Emma. I think Kali is Emma's favorite person next to me. She's very smart. Not only is she a quick learner, but she retains information very well too. She always wants to do her best and because of that she is sometimes very hard on herself. She's also very sensitive which makes her quick to forgive and quick to recognize the spirit. And last of all, she isn't afraid to try new things. As a matter of fact, if it involves climbing or anything physically challenging, she jumps at the opportunity.

Ears Pierced

Kali's grandma payed for her to get her ears pierced for her birthday present this year. She was so excited that she stopped counting how many days until her birthday and started counting how many days until she would get her ears pierced. She talked about it with her friends non-stop and could hardly wait. When the day finally arrived she was still very excited. She picked out her earrings and then suddenly she got very quiet. I could tell that she had gotten nervous about the painful part of the process. She is one girl that DOES NOT like pain. It was like she couldn't focus on anything anyone was telling her and I could tell she was thinking about what was about to happen. Thankfully the store clerk gave her a stuffed animal to hold on to. I was afraid they would do one ear and she would decide not to get the other one done.

But wouldn't you know, she ended up being very brave. She didn't even say "ow", and calmly let the clerk pierce her second ear too. She admitted that it hurt a little, but it was the best I've ever seen her deal with pain.

Baptism FHE

Tonight we did a family home evening lesson on baptism and focused on the symbolism behind the color white. We talked about how it represents being clean and pure and explained that repentance helps us stay that way. Then we walked them into our bedroom where we had laid out Kali's baptism dress and the blessing dress each of them wore as a baby and my bridal portrait. They were so excited to see it all and even more excited when I told them that they could all put on a white dress. They would have worn them to bed if I would have let them.

Baptismal Interview

Kali got to meet with the Bishop today for her baptismal interview. She was a little nervous about it so I had her open up the scriptures to the verses that talk about the covenant she'll be making. We talked through them and she basically tried to memorize everything in the verses. I don't know where she gets her perfectionist personality from (can't be me!). She wanted to be ready for any question the bishop would ask her and she was. She's such a good girl and very sensitive to spiritual things. She also has a very good knowledge and understanding of the scriptures.

Dance Recitals

Both Kali and Sadie had their Christmas dance recitals this week. I haven't had a chance to format the videos of them, but I'll post them as soon as I do. Sadie was a little distracted while I was there so it's not the best I've seen her do, but it was still a lot of fun to see all the things she's learning. Same with Kali, she's a hard worker and I can tell by how much she's learning.

Bohman / Casey Christmas Party

Our first Christmas party almost always turns out to be the Bohman/Casey Christmas party. This year Aunt Trudy's family was over it and they reserved a community building in Riverton. It worked out nice to have a place large enough to fit everyone and more importantly, it gave the kids room to move around. Kali, Sadie and Ashlyn ran up and down the halls almost the entire evening. They only stopped long enough to play the candy game. The only bad thing about the evening was that it was so cold outside that our van doors froze shut on both sides. So the girls had to climb out through the front doors. We poured water on them and were able to get them open, but then the automatic function stopped working. We later discovered it was a blown fuse.