Lia's Science Fair

Lia had to do a science fair project for school and she decided to grow salt crystals in different temperatures of water. She and Nate worked together on the project, but really Lia did all the work. She did a really great job and was disappointed that she wasn't chosen to move on to the district level. Nate and I were disappointed too knowing how hard she worked and how much time she put into it. But, that's the way life goes sometimes and it was a reminder that even when things don't go our way, we still need to feel good about our efforts.



 

January

In January, Lia had a scope to see what was causing her reflux problems. She did great and everything looked fine.

 Laura's school class made hot air balloons and launched them behind the school. I got to help with the project and it was impressive to see them go up!

 We did crafts at Grandma Nelson's house.

 Megan and I went on a field trip with her preschool class to the children's museum. She loved the rock wall!

 And Nate took Lia, Laura and Josh to a Jazz game. The had a great time!

Skiing

At the beginning of January, we took the kids skiing with Nate's brothers and Audrey and Lucy. It was the first time skiing for Megan (which is maybe why I have more pictures of her than the other kids?). She had a hard time the first half the day, but after stopping for lunch, she did great! Nate does most of the instructing since he actually knows how to ski and I only kind of know how to ski, but I ended up at the top of the hill with Megan by myself on our first run down after lunch. I wasn't sure how we were going to make it down, but as we looked down the hill, Megan said "it's fine mom" and down she went. The whole rest of the day she was on her own and did great! She didn't want to leave when it was time to go home. Lia, Laura and Josh also did great. Laura fell and hit her head on one of her first runs down, so she had a hard day, but they all had fun otherwise and are doing well for only having gone a couple times. Next year we're hoping to get passes so we can go more.

Airborne

For Christmas my mom and dad did an airplane theme and gave us a gift certificate to go to this trampoline place called Airborne in January with all of my family. It was really fun! Nate tried the obstacle course and got most of the way through before he fell. It was impressive because it was pretty tough!

Sleepover with the Elmers

The kids are always begging to have a sleepover (which we don't do with friends) so we had their cousins Samantha, Jessica and Daniel over  during Christmas break. They didn't get much sleep, but it was fun!

New Year's Eve

On New Year's Eve, the girls and I went shopping at the outlets and went to lunch while Nate and Josh flew to Denver for lunch and came home. Nate was trying to earn a few more airline points before the end of the year and Josh had never been on an airplane and was dying to go. Denver was the cheapest and quickest flight available and Josh flew for free. So they had a hot dog in Denver and came home. Josh was thrilled! The girls were excited too to go shopping and have lunch. We spent that night with Nate's family eating Chinese and playing games.

Christmas Break

Over the break we built legos, went sledding with my family, played a REALLY long Monopoly game, played with our new blocks, finished the Monopoly game, and Megan bounced from room to room on her new ball. I love having the kids home over the break!

Christmas Day

 Christmas Day was a great day! I never manage to get great pictures on Christmas morning, but the kids had fun and we had a nice day with both families.

Christmas Eve

The Sunday before Christmas, our little family did our own "Christmas Eve" and had a nice dinner, acted out the nativity, and sang songs. We started it last year and I hope to continue it every year. Laura was in charge of the nativity and gave everyone their assignments. This night was my favorite night of the season.

Then the Monday before Christmas, we had my mom and dad's "Christmas Eve." Megan got to be Mary this year with Easton as Joseph.

On the real Christmas Eve, we went to Luann's with Nate's family. It was the last year with the Winzeler cousins.