Krispy Kreme

A few weeks ago we took Ethan's joy school group to Krispy Kreme for a tour. We were working on the letter K so it seemed like a great fit. The kids loved the tour. They walked us through each step, let the kids play with the dough and then finally all the kids frosted and decorated their own donuts. Over all I was very impressed with Krispy Kreme and we enjoyed filling our bellies with delicious donuts.

Great wolf lodge

Last weekend we went to great wolf lodge in Dallas with three of my brothers and Hana. Nathan stayed home bc he had to work. We were so impressed. It really exceeded our expectations in activities and in customer service. There were slides for all ages and because we went in January it was cheap and empty. We we definently be going back.

2015

Here are some highlights from 2015

-we took a family trip to Utah in April with friends. Watched conference and celebrated Molly's birthday. 

- in April I ran my first half marathon. Finished with just under 10 minute miles.

- went on a couples cruise to Cozumel, Belize and Honduras.

- in May I drive with the kids to Corpus Christi for a long weekend and to run beach to bay.

- in June Nathan's parents came to visit and we took a 3 day trip to Branson and then west plains to visit his grandparents.

-in July we moved into our new house and fixed up my dads to sell.

- in August Caleb and Ethan were both potty trained.

- in July we paid off Nathan's truck! Hooray this was a good day. 

- Gwen and James lived with us for 7 weeks in August/September. 

- in August Caleb started preschool

- in September we took a family trip to Corpus Christi to visit friends. On the way we stopped in Waco to see magnolia market and harp design co.

- in November I took a girls trip to New York City. It was my first time there and a wonderful trip.

-in November our ward split and we got put in a much smaller ward. Nathan is currently the 2nd counselor in young men's and I am the compassionate service Cordinator. 

-celebrated Christmas with my dad, Gwen, her friend, Stephen and James.

Happy birthday

Happy birthday Nathan! Nathan turned 30 this year. I can't believe he is 30 this year. It seems so old. We celebrated his birthday with a custard cake from Freddie's and then a nice, kidless dinner and bowling with friends. 

Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas season this year. We watched several miracles unfold with those around us and we were able to participate in a number of service activities. It's always fun to see and participate in Christ centered activities. This year we were able to take the kids with us Christmas shopping for our angel tree names. They each had a name. We told them about the kids and then they picked out some clothes and toys for that child. We thought it went really well and were feeling a little too proud. The next day we woke up to Caleb and Ethan playing with one of the toys. They told us they were still planning on giving it away, they just wanted to test it out first. That was a little bit of a set back. Better luck next year.

I was able to participate in both boys Christmas parties. Calebs at his school and Ethan's at our house with the joy school kids. We made cookies, gingerbread houses and snowmen. They were both fun.

For Christmas all three kids got power wheels. We decided this year to just do one big gift and a few stocking stuffers instead of lots of gifts. It was a great idea. The boys are having such a great time with the power wheels and we love having them play outside so much. 

We also continued our tradition of new pajamas and a movie on Christmas Eve.

We had several people visiting for Christmas so I decided to put on a nice Christmas dinner. 

We tried to fill the evenings before Christmas with fun things like going to rhema to see the lights, picking out Christmas ornaments and participating in local Christmas activities.

A few weeks before Christmas the wards split leaving us with 4 wards in one building and no time for a traditional party. We got out of church at 5 at the time so our ward decided to have a longer longer potluck the Sunday before Christmas. Caleb was lucky enough to be the Shepard in the nativity.

We also added a few new Christmas decorations to our collection. Including this awesome nativity created by our good friend.

Christmas was wonderful. We love the season and all the friends, family and joy it brings with it.

Table

Between our house and everyone else's in the area there is no shortage of projects. A few months ago we decided to build a table for a family we know who has 7 kids. They needed a big family table and I found this simple design on a popular blog. Nathan took a look and decided with a little tweaking it was doable and with some donated wood we got to work. I mostly just helped with cutting, planing and staining the wood. In the end the table was beautiful, pictures don't even begin to show how good the top looked. We (along with the family who got it) were completely happy with the results. We are still hoping to make some benches but we need to get some more scrap wood. It's so fun to watch Nathan work and create. He certainly is talented.