Goodbye 2014!

Well, another year has come and gone.  It is hard to believe that 2014 is over!  To celebrate, Ciera went to a multi-stake youth dance, Chloe went with the beehive class to play games with the residents at a local nursing home earlier in the evening, and then went with Dave, the little girls and I to a friend's home for a New Year's Eve get-together.  The kids all made it past midnight, at which point we went outside and banged pots and pans and yelled!  (The kids loved that part!)  This year was a really great year... a lot of great things happened and our family is closer and stronger.  We really look forward to what 2015 will bring!

(Just some crazy pics to end the year!)

Ice Princesses

Over winter break, I took the girls ice skating one day.  Ciera and Chloe each brought a friend, and so we had 6 girls smooshed into our van for a fun day at the ice rink.  The girls all got their skates on and started skating right away.  They all did really great!  Autumn got tired of it the fastest, with about 1/2 hour to go in the session.  It was fun to watch them... and a fun way to end 2014!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Day began really early!  Ciera woke up at 2:30 in the morning.  She was really good though, and didn't wake everyone else up.  All the girls finally woke and couldn't wait any longer, so they came in and woke us up at 5:45.  We opened gifts for a couple of hours, and then Dave and I went back to sleep for a little bit.  We had a wonderful Christmas dinner mid-day.  It was turkey and all the fixin's.  It was really a great day.  We made sure to include the "true meaning" in our Christmas celebration, and had some wonderful discussions about our Savior and his life.  It was so fabulous to see the girls think about the Lord and why we celebrate Christmas in with all the fun of the day.  (We DID have a lot of fun together!)

Christmas Eve fun!

Christmas Eve was a beautiful day.  We went to the Heard Museum and hiked around for a couple of hours.  We came home to eat clam chowder in homemade bread bowls.  It was really yummy!  After that, we did our Christmas Eve program and then watched a movie together.  Santa came early and brought the girls Lego Friends sets, which they assembled before climbing into bed to dream of sugar plums and Christmas Day.  It was a really great day!

Building a Home!!

We are building a home here in Wylie.  We started this process back in April, and it has taken a LONG time to get it really going.  We are building in Phase 2 of a community, and will be one of the first homes done in the neighborhood.  It is getting really exciting now that it is actually starting!  They began actually working on the house about 2 weeks ago... YAY!!!

Winter Concerts

Ciera had her winter band concert on Thursday night, and Chloe had her winter choir concert on Friday.  It was a really busy week, but it all was really good.  Ciera's band did a great job!  They played some songs that they are preparing for their trip to the national festival in Indianapolis in March, and then they played some songs that they have been taking around to the elementary schools, including "Let it Go" from "Frozen", and the Veggie Tales theme.

Chloe's choir did a great job too!  They sang three songs, two of which were "I Need a Little Christmas" and "Do You Wanna Build a Snowman" (which they did with all the choirs together).  Chloe was the line leader, and did a great job!

I love watching my girls perform!  I am already looking forward to the spring concerts!

Chloe and I sang in our Stake Christmas Choir tonight, and Ciera played her horn in the orchestra.  It was fun!  We started rehearsing in October, and worked really hard almost every week!  (Chloe only started two weeks before the concert... she picked it all up really quickly.  It was fun to have her sing with me!) These were her "choir selfies" on my phone...

Party Time!

Autumn's birthday party was Saturday evening.  In the afternoon, Dave and I took her out for her birthday date to the movies.  We saw "Penguins of Madagascar"... It was really fun!

Autumn's friends started getting here at 6:00.  They played with balloons, and toys until everyone got here, then they decorated graham cracker houses.  They had cake and ice cream, opened presents, and watched "Frozen".  Autumn had a really good time!