New Year's Eve

Tonight was such a blast. Brady and Jordan volunteered to organize our New Year's Eve festivities this year. I'm so glad that someone took charge because it made it a ton of fun. They organized a bunch of minute to win it games that were challenging yet fun. After each couple had a chance to participate in a couple of the minute to win it challenges, we would sit down and play a longer game, all the while keeping track of the winners because the couple with the highest score in the end won a gift card to Cafe Rio. And guess who won...We did!!!

All the girls stayed awake until midnight but Ashlyn. I thought for sure Emma would crash, but she was a ball of energy, probably from all the sugary snacks she kept downing.

10 Year Anniversary

After ten years of marriage, Josh and I finally got to go on a trip together. We celebrated in San Francisco.

The first day we spent exploring Chinatown and ate at the best Chinese restaurant ever. We had to wait over a half an hour to be seated and paid $40 just for lunch, but it was so worth the wait and money. You know its authentic Chinese food when you're only given chopsticks to eat with and the waiter doesn't speak English (he only understands it).

Then we explored Pier 39 a bit.

The next morning we headed back to the Wharf and got to walk by Boudin. That place was packed morning, noon and night. Not only do they have a restaurant, but they have a big glass window where they make the bread for you to see. Check out the huge sourdough crocodile.

Then we did a little more exploring of Pier 39.

Next was our ferryboat ride around Alcatraz.

 

Brady and Jordan gave us tickets as a Christmas gift. We were super excited but even more so when we realized it was taking us under both the Golden Gate and Bay bridges. 

It was pretty cold and super windy but it was beautiful and I'm so glad we had the chance to go!

We even had a great view of the famous sea lions as we pulled into shore.

That evening we headed to the AT&T Ball Park for the BYU bowl game. This is the view from the stadium. I wish I could have gotten a picture looking the other way because the sunset was beautiful with vibrant pinks, oranges, and yellows.

Josh tweeted out these pictures of us at the game and we got on their jumbotron. I felt famous.

Our seats were pretty high up there. As a matter of fact no one was even behind us even though we were on the second to the last row, but at least we were directly above the fifty yard line. Unfortunately BYU didn't play well and lost the game.

Day three we got on a double decker tour bus and took a tour of the city. Our tour bus guide was fantastic. We couldn't have asked for better. He was super funny and was constantly telling us interesting facts. Our tour included a bus ride across the Golden Gate bridge to Sausalito. Had we known we wouldn't be able to stop before the bridge on the way back, we would have gotten off and walked across the bridge.

From there we took a shuttle bus to Muir Woods, a redwood forest. We didn't know what to expect, but it was full of paths and trails and we could have easily spent another couple of hours there had we had the time. Unfortunately, when we arrived we only had an hour until it closed for the evening.

It was beautiful and the trees were huge.

That night we switched hotels. We wanted to be able to stay in a fancy one at least one night. Our new hotel was the Intercontinental near Union Square and this was our view.

I hadn't ever set foot in such a fancy hotel. Not only did we have a gorgeous view, we had a bench by the window, bathrobes, and a huge room. The hotel had a bellhop, a concierge and everything you touched cost money. It was super fun for one night. Josh and I walked to the mall that evening and ate out. We talked about how nice it would have been to have had another couple of days to explore more of Union Square and to see a broadway show. The next day we headed to the airport and flew home. Sadly, our trip was over. However, it was the best way to celebrate our 10 year anniversary and we will always carry those memories with us.

Christmas Goodies

You can always tell how spoiled you are when you look at the house after all the presents have been opened. Santa brought the girls new bedding--quilts, blankets, and pillows. Josh and I gave them a new wii game, a new movie, new dresses and shoes, and a few new toys

But my favorite part of the day was that the girls were so excited to give gifts this year. They bought gifts for each other and could hardly wait to give them. They also made some of the cutest homemade gifts for Josh and I. Kali gave us a cute card with a Christmas tree made out of scraps of paper. She also had Ashlyn tell her the words she wanted to tell us and wrote them in a little booklet with a string attached to it so that it was like an ornament. Sadie made us a cute bookmark. And all of them put on a little presentation for us. They explained that everything they did was because we had taught them the true meaning of Christmas. I was so proud of them.

Christmas Morning

Our Christmas morning traditions consist of eating muffins for breakfast while Dad reads an account of the Savior's birth from the scriptures. Each year he chooses a different account to read whether it's from the Bible or the Book of Mormon. Then I read a children's book about His birth for the younger ones. Then we open the small box which has some pictures of gifts our Heavenly Father and Savior have given to us and talk about them briefly. And last, we open the large box which is our gift to the Savior. We do a family home evening early in December about service and how that's the best gift we can give the Savior as we celebrate his birth. We challenge the girls to try and fill the box with warm fuzzies (to represent the acts of service they do) before December 25th. It's the perfect way to begin the day, remembering the most important reason for Christmas.

Christmas PJs

My girls have been obsessed with sleeper pajamas ever since Kali bought a pair last year. So guess what kind of pajamas they got to open up on Christmas Eve....sleepers!

Parry Christmas Party

What another wonderful Christmas celebration. We are blessed to have such wonderful relationships with extended family. It's very telling when kids look forward to seeing their extended family, and our girls always do.

After eating some yummy food, we had a quick program. Then the girls got to dress up for Grandpa Parry's reading of Luke 2. Afterward, Tyler got out his accordion and played while we sang a few Christmas songs. We finished the evening with a gift exchange game where we ended up with a happenings book with all sorts of great deals for the coming year and the girls opened some gifts from Grandma and Grandpa.

The Night of Villages

Tonight we spent the evening visiting villages. We've learned from the past and bundled the kids up tight for our outdoor adventure at Gardner Village. Hardly anyone was there which surprised me, but we took full advantage of it.

We spent the time searching for all the cute elf displays while visiting and playing with family. Then we headed to Village Inn for hot chocolate and pie. Everyone had fun!

Nine

Kali is growing up so fast. She is already nine. This year her birthday fell on a Saturday so everyone was home to share in the fun. In the morning she opened presents. Then she got a haircut. Then she played with her sisters and her toys.

She also spent some time trying out her sewing machine. I hadn't given her any instructions and next thing I knew, she had already sewn a pillow for her Barbies.

I told her several times that I wasn't going to do anything fancy for her cake after her eighth birthday. Yet she somehow managed to talk me into doing something and this is what we ended up with. It was a bit of a challenge but turned out pretty cute as long as you don't look too close. Family came over to spend the evening with us and she was in heaven.

A couple of the things we love about Kali. She loves to be the center of attention which means she's willing to try anything new. She's very driven and likes to be good at everything. Her determination and drive have allowed her to excel in many areas. She is an excellent writer and very intelligent. She's dependable and very sensitive to the spirit. On the other hand, she's still a kid at heart. She loves princesses and dolls and doesn't want to ever grow up. She is such a good example to her younger sisters and a big help to me.

2nd Round of Lights

Brady and Jordan texted to say they would be coming up to see the lights at Temple Square and wanted to know who wanted to join them. Josh and the girls jumped at the opportunity. Unfortunately, Kali and I couldn't go, but she didn't mind too much because she was birthday shopping instead.

The Family Cookbook

I took on the crazy project of redoing our family cookbook this year. Ever since I did the first one our family has talked about how much they use it but they've also commented on recipes that need to be added and ones that need to be taken out or changed. We've also had several people join our family since then and we wanted to add their yummy recipes too. I was hoping that everyone would be willing to pay for them if we did it instead of a gift exchange for Christmas. When I suggested the idea, everyone was on board. As a matter of fact, several people wanted to buy multiple books. I also had the stipulation that Todd help me with a database to easily put it into a book format. He suggested the family website and said it would be easy to do it from there. Little did he know what he was signing up for. I actually ended up with the easiest part, collecting recipes and entering them in online. Todd and Gale put in hours and hours of formatting and reformatting to get to the finished product. But it was well worth the hours. The finished product has arrived and I love it. It has around 300 tried and true family recipes. The book is half-sized (to help limit the amount of counter space it takes up) with a coil binding that allows you to fold the book in half. It has one recipe per page and includes several pages for adding recipes. There are indexes and pages of pictures. I love it and can't wait to start using it!

Bohman / Casey Christmas Party

This was my favorite Bohman/Casey Christmas party too. I thoroughly enjoyed myself. Maybe it's because I put more work into it. Sara and I planned it and I think about 70 people came. Kevin's family was the only one missing. We had great food, good music (a last minute addition thanks to Jason and it really set the tone for the evening) and a ton of socializing. I'm grateful to have such wonderful immediate and extended family.

Hairdos

Sadie always has to see her hair from the back. So here are a few hairdos that we've tried over the last several months.

Christmas Dance Recital

I love that Sadie and her cousin get to be in dance together. Here they're practicing their splits. Check out the pained expressions on their faces.

Although this isn't a video of the dance, you get a feel for it from these four pictures. Sadie did an awesome job. I love her face in each picture because you can tell she's giving it her all. It's almost as though she's taking on a new character. It's so cute.

Lights at Temple Square

Sara and Jeff invited us to go see the lights at temple square with them this year. It was probably one of the coldest nights to go but it sure made it less crowded and the girls didn't seem to mind. As a matter of fact, we were doing all we could to keep them from playing in the snow so that they wouldn't be cold and wet.

Kali and I were happy to see that our favorite spinning tree has light on it this year. It isn't lit up every year but this year it is. It's broad enough at the base that when you stand under it and spin, all you see is a swirl of red lights. It's beautiful!

We love to see the temple and the nativity scenes that remind us of the true spirit of Christmas.

Bohman Family Christmas Party

I just have to say that this was the best family Christmas party ever in my opinion. A couple of months ago we debated what to do for the gift exchange and were running into all the same problems we had in previous years. This year, however, Molly suggested doing a sub for Santa in place of the gift exchange and everyone was on board with it. It turn out to be so much fun. Jesse got the name of a family in need. Mom called them and told them what we wanted to do and got details about their family. We then divided everything up and we got what we could. We tried to involve the kids as much as possible too. We brought all the gifts to the family party and had the kids help us wrap them. Kali is so proud of herself in this picture and rightly so. That is the first present she has ever wrapped on her own and she did an excellent job. The girls were so excited to be doing something to help out someone in need and so was I. When all was said and done we probably had four boxes full of gifts and food in addition to two laptops to give to the family.

 Then we sent some of the adults and older children to the home to drop off the gifts with a special visitor.

In the meantime, Sara and I organized some activities for those of us that were waiting. You could make snowflakes or marshmallow Olafs.

 

We ended up with some pretty creative Olafs. Some with two heads.

Some with long necks. And some that never even made it that far. Then Mom passed out gifts to the grandkids and everyone went home with a smile and their face and a good feeling in their heart.