Pinewood Derby

JJ had fun with the boys participating in the pinewood derby.  The went over to the bishops house one Saturday morning for a workshop.  They all worked together getting the shape of the cars and sanding them down.  Nolan enjoyed being involved in the whole thing.  We had an extra car kit that my Grandma had given us that Nolan was able to use. JJ worked with them at home getting them all painted and putting the wheels and weights on.  We had fun attending the pinewood derby together and watching all the races.  Garrett's car did well, it wasn't the fastest but he did well.  He had fun participating and hanging out with his friends.  Now that the church isn't doing boy scouts anymore this was our last pinewood derby race.  At the very end they did a siblings race and Nolan was able to race his car.  He loved it.  Also Nolan got some glasses from JJ's office.  They aren't prescription, JJ had plastic lenses put inside them so he would think they were real. Nolan loves them and when he put them on for the first time he said "I can see really good far away now."  Silly kid.

Lucy got a calligraphy book for Christmas and she has been working on it.  The book came with a different projects to do and she has been having fun learning.  I found this cute note on my mirror that she wrote for me. 

 We had some really cold weather come through our area.  The actual temperature was -5 in the morning and it felt like -25.  They canceled school for 2 days due to the cold weather.  I tried to keep the kids busy with fun things at the house.  Although they mostly hung out, watched movies and played together.  We did make some pinecone bird feeders and hung them on the trees for the birds.  The birds ate the bird seed of so fast! 

 Nolan and I painted one morning.  He painted with finger paint on tin foil and then we pressed paper on the tin foil to make a print.  When the weather is so cold I have to be creative to keep him busy and not in front of the TV or tablet to much.  Thank goodness for preschool to get him out of the house and doing fun things.

 Nolan also liked to play chess, he does pretty good.  He understands the pieces and how they can move.  The logic and thinking ahead with moves not so much.  We had fun playing a few games together.  I had to keep my eye on him to make sure he was moving them correctly.  Mostly he loves to play with me.  I know my kids favorite thing is my time, anytime I will give them they will love.   

 I asked for Nolan's help doing the dishes one morning.  I had lots of chores to tackle and I thought it would be best to involve him.  He was so excited and loved rinsing all the dishes for me.  He even put them in the dishwasher.  I had to go back and rearrange them all but he loved being my helper.

  Our good friends the Navarro's are moving to Texas for a new job.  Eli played with us on our sand volleyball team and we have had a fun time getting to know them.  The Elmore's hosted a potluck going away dinner for them.  We had a fun night hanging out with our Missouri River Ward friends and eating yummy food.   

Basketball

Our Saturday evenings are usually spent cheering on Lucy at her basketball games.  She had a game down off Manchester so we called up Grandma and Grandpa to see if they wanted to join us.  It ended up also being really close to where Christy lives.  It was fun to have them all join us for her game.  Lucy was excited to have so many cheerleaders there for her.  She played a really good game and made a few baskets.  After her game we went to my parents house for dinner.  We then played some games and visited.   

Snow Day from School

The kids had a snow day Monday, they were excited to be home.  The snow hadn't melted and they had been enjoying playing in it for the past few days.  They made a snow city in the front yard.  Using the snow piled up from shoveling the driveway they carved out tunnels and caves.  They even made a flag that said "snow mountain".  They had a blast playing together out there for hours.  I don't mind the cold where there is snow to play in, otherwise the kids get cooped up and go stir crazy inside.

 

Snow Day!

We got a ton of snow in St. Louis, we haven't had a good snow like this in a while.  We knew it was coming and people started preparing early in the week.  We could see they had treated our roads days before the storm was suppose to hit.  I moved up my grocery shopping to Thursday afternoon while Nolan was at preschool.  I am glad I did, it was so busy at the store and lots of people had the same thought.  I am thankful I moved my grocery day up because Friday got kind of busy for me.  JJ had a flat tire and I ended up taking his car into the dealership for a new tire.  He drives down to JCPenny in South County Friday afternoons.  I didn't want him driving on a spare or in the van.  We need new tires on the van, the ones we have wouldn't have been good to drive through the snow.  They had already called an early release from school Friday afternoon.  The snow was suppose to be coming Friday just after lunch time.  I am glad they sent the kids home early because they were right and the snow came just as they predicted.  It snowed like crazy and accumulated fast!  I am glad I was able to get JJ's tire fixed because he still had a busy afternoon at JCPenny.  He was thankful he was still busy so it was worth his trip down there.  When he got off work the highways were already bad and there were several accidents and road closures, included some highways.  I saw they had closed one of the highways he would have taken to get home.  I was able to get ahold of him so he could not waste to much time and take a different way home.  We were glad he was able to make it home safely and it didn't take him to long.  We heard some people were stuck in their cars all night on one of the highways.  We were glad to all be home together in our warm home.  We woke up to tons of snow and it was still coming down!  The kids were excited to get bundled up and go out to play.  We had somewhere around 9 inches of snow in the morning.  It was a heavy wet snow which was perfect for packing and making snowmen and snowballs.  We got the driveway shoveled and then headed down to the common ground to go sledding.  I was glad I picked up some more sleds at 5 below after our last snow storm.  We were smart to get down to the common ground early, it wasn't very busy when we got there.  As the morning went on it got more crowded.  It snowed on us the whole time we were sledding.  We spent several hours having fun down there but left cold, wet and exhausted.  After the kids clothes had dried they went back outside to play with the neighbor kids.  It was nice to be snowed in the rest of the day.  Everything had been canceled and there was no where to be.  It made for a relaxing day at home with pretty snow to look at through the windows.  We enjoyed making snow ice cream, snowflakes from coffee filters, playing games and watching movies as a family.     

 

Art Show

Nolan's preschool had an open house art show.  He was really excited for us to come to his preschool for the party.  He kept talking about how there would be cookies at the party.  We looked at his journal he writes in at preschool.  It was cute to see some of his drawings.  He showed us some art work in his classroom as well as some displayed in the hallway.  He was cute with a big smile on his face while we were there. 

Chess

 For Christmas Garrett got a chess game.  He has really enjoyed learning to play and will play any chance he has.  Grandma taught him to play and we also checked out a few books from the library.  He learned a few moves from the books.  He is constantly asking people to play him.  He keeps his game all set up on the dinning room table.  I also found out our neighborhood has a chess club.  We went to the clubhouse for that and he loved it.  They only meet once a month but I know he will look forward to meeting again.  I think it was good for him to play someone other then a family member.  We have all had fun learning to play chess, even Nolan.  I think it is great to see Garrett enjoy something like this.

 

Story Time

The library just started a new series of story times.  They are Mister Roger's Neighborhood themed and each focus on something to prepare them to go to kindergarten.  This one was about kindness.  We watched a short clip from a Mister Rogers episode and then read a few books to go with it.  We then all made a kindness crown.  They have these once a month, I am hoping we can make it to them all.  Nolan has story time at his preschool so we don't usually go.  I thought this was fun to do with him.  We played some computer games and checked out a few books. 

By the end of the week Nolan and I are both looking forward to relaxing together.  Friday afternoon's we don't have anything on our schedule.  We usually like to snuggle up together and watch a movie.  Nolan fell asleep quickly this afternoon and took a nice afternoon nap with me on the couch.   

 We had beautiful weather over the weekend.  Lucy had a ice skating activity with the Young Men and Young Women.  We helped drive a couple of them over to the ice skating rink.  After we dropped them off we took the boys to Towne Park to walk around.  We have never walked any of the trails there.  We walked them all and had fun exploring, the trails aren't that long.  We let the boys play in the nature classroom area until it was time to go.  They love playing there.  It is amazing how such simple things can keep them occupied for so long.  I enjoyed sitting on a bench soaking up some sun as they played.  After we got home the kids enjoyed playing in the cul-de-sac with the neighbor kids.  We tried to enjoy the unusually warm weather as much as we could.  

New Years

The Smiths hosted a get together for New Years.  It was fun to get together with them and the Munson's.  We ate some yummy food, played some games and visited.  It was nice and low key.  The kids had fun running around playing with each other.  Ours kids really wanted to stay up until midnight.  I was surprised how well they lasted.  We did some popper and drank some sparkling cider a little after eleven.  We then headed home, it was late and I wasn't interested in everyone being exhausted the next day.  We climbed into bed just after midnight.  Some neighbors set off a good display of fireworks which I watched from the window.  We had a tough year, I feel like we have had a few tough years.  This might have bene the toughest.  Opening the office has been a challenge and I know it will take time to pay off.  The hard years are hard and this has been a hard year.  I know JJ is working so hard and has so much on his plate.  We are looking forward to a new year and new possibilities for our family.       

Six Flags

We needed to make a trip to Six Flags to pick up our season passes.  JJ usually works at JCPenny Friday afternoons but for some reason wasn't on the schedule.  We were fine with that because it gave us some time to spend as a family.  We decided that would be a good time to go to Six Flags.  We stopped at the McDonalds right by Six Flags for a quick dinner and then headed into the park.  It was freezing cold and as much as we bundled up we were still cold.  We are glad Nolan is taller so he can ride more rides with us.  We rode the Justice League ride together as a family, on Nolan has been wanting to ride for years.  JJ took the kids on the scrambler and then we split up.  I took Nolan to ride the Ferris wheel and JJ took Lucy and Garrett to ride the Batman.  Just as we were about to get on the Ferris wheel Nolan said he had to use the bathroom.  I crossed my fingers the whole ride hoping he wouldn't wet his pants.  JJ and the kids rode the Batman four times and finished before we did.  Thankfully JJ meet me at the exit and ran Nolan to the bathroom just in time.  We tried to warm up by the fire enough to ride the train but we were all to cold.  Its to bad it was so cold because the park was decorated so pretty with so many lights.  It would have been fun to be able to ride around and look at them.  As we were exiting the park they were handing out free samples of mug cakes.  We went home and all made a mug cake and climbed into our warm beds trying to thaw out.  We are excited to have season passes.  I'm sure some really hot day in the summer we will be there and say remember that time we went after Christmas and it was so cold!    

 

 

Happy Birthday Dad

The day after Christmas s my Dad's birthday.  He wanted to ride the carousel at Faust park and walk around the old houses there.  Its one of his favorite things, we do it often but we all love it too.  It has been a while since we have done that and it was fun to see how much Nolan loved it.  We walked around the old houses and looked inside all the windows.  We walked down to the old Governor Bates house.  There were some park workers there doing something and they gave us a tour of the house.  Of all the times we have walked down there I have never been inside.  It was a special treat.  The kids enjoyed it and liked learning about picking cotton.  We went back to my parents house and made some soup and homemade bread.  We also watched the Incredibles 2 movie, our family got it for Christmas.  We had pie and sang to him, I hope he had a nice birthday.  It was a fun day celebrating with him and being together with family.  We bought him a bluegrass band CD, we had heard the band preforming live at a fall activity.  They were selling their CD's and we thought he would like to have one.  We missed JJ in the birthday celebrations, he was busy working long hours at his office.   

 

 

 

Christmas Day

The kids were so excited to go downstairs Christmas morning.  We made them sleep until at least 7 and then wait for everyone to go down together.  Nolan was so excited to see Santa brought him the adventure force gun.  He has been asking for this for months and was really excited to see Santa brought it for him.  We all looked at our stockings and gifts from Satna and then we had breakfast.  We had French toast, we haven't had French toast for a while and it was really good.  We then spent time opening the presents, taking turns and seeing what everyone got.  JJ and I both spend a lot of time thinking about gift the kids will want.  It is fun to watch them open them and be excited about them.  Nolan got mostly PJ mask toys, he really likes that show and was excited to have the toys.  He got the characters from Grandma and Grandpa Rahm so he had lots of fun things to play with all together.  Garrett asked for some new clothes, he likes to have matching sets of things.  We also got him some new games, Chess and Mastermind.  He was especially excited to learn to play chess.  Lucy knew most of her gifts.  She had some amazon money left over from her birthday and picked out a Lego friends house.  She only had enough money to pay for half the house.  I told her I would get it for her for Christmas if she wanted to put her money towards it.  She was so excited to unwrap it and put it together.  She also asked for some new Nike shoes, we went together and picked them out.  She didn't know about a new outfit we got her, some new leggings and sweatshirt.  I got JJ some new clothes and some cologne.  JJ surprised me with a new Fitbit versa watch.  I have been wanting to have a calorie counting watch for a while.  I have always been curious how many calories I burn in my classes at the gym.  He did a lot of research and shopped around for a good deal.  He was so excited to give it to me.  He has been saving his money from teaching spin class to buy it for me.  I thought it was a really sweet gift from him. As a family we got some laser guns and some DVDs.  We also got season passes to Six Flags.  The kids didn't need a bunch of new things and we liked the idea of spending the money on a season pass we can enjoy for several months.  The kids were really excited about them!  We spent the day relaxing and enjoying our new gifts.  The weather was so nice and that afternoon my parents and Courtney came over.  We all went for a nice walk together.  Grandma taught Garrett to play chess and we played with the kids toys.  We put on a Christmas movie and spent time relaxing together.  I made some appetizers for dinner and we snacked on them as well as some treats friends had brought over.  We had a really enjoyable time together.  We felt so blessed we were able to give the kids nice gifts.  We kept things small and it was nice, we were glad all the gifts were a hit.