Family Skiing, Basketball, and Saying Good-Bye

 Kim had a fun girls night a couple weekends ago

The next day they all got together again with the kids and the kids had lots of fun playing together. Here is Nixon practicing his wrestling skills.

Some foosball 

All of the kids together

Lyza had some friends over to play D&D

Mason has been very interested in origami. This is a Pikachu watch he made

Check out how much Mason moves when he plays video games

He is drenched by the time he is done

Mason with some of his art work he created to remind us to be kind and loving

We all got out on the hill together last week. This is Lyza and Nixon on the chair lift behind me while I have Mason beside me

It was a beautiful day

Henry got some more lessons from his mom

And we got a group photo

It is fun riding the chair lift with Henry

Henry did really well again on the hill

We drove home from Skiing in lots of falling snow (almost a white out at times).

The next morning was beautiful with all of the new fallen snow so I had to get the drone out and document it

Kim was in charge of a stake youth fireside last Sunday, which included getting the refreshments. That meant picking up several hundred donuts. Lyza was happy to help out.

Playing with friends in the morning before school

Henry got to go to the indoor playground with friends

He also got fun preschool at our house

Kim got a new flower (an amaryllis)

Kim and I went on a date this week and had pizza

We finished updating all of our lighting this week, which meant replacing our ceiling fans in the living room and the toy room

Henry was a good helper

Lyza had an Emblems of Belonging night for Young Women this week

Here's the necklace she got (if you can see it on that busy patterned shirt)

Are those muscles or did Mason stuff balloons in his shirt?

Nixon had his first basketball game of the season yesterday

Nixon is in 3rd grade and he is playing with 3rd and 4th grade boys. It is definitely a step up from last season (not to mention the fact that the hoop is a foot higher than last year)

Everyone anxiously waiting to see if Nixon's shot is going to go in (sadly it didn't)

He did really well. Here is a little video of him playing. Watch for the 25 second mark where Nixon gets hit on the face when he shoots (the refereeing was terrible)

It was really cold yesterday so we didn't go skiing :(

And for the sad news...we said good-bye to Cupcake today. Luckily Lyza took some pictures with her very recently and got to say good bye to her.

Lyza is missing her little hamster right now.

Take care and have a great week.

Starting Off the New Year Right

 It was a wonderful sight to see Nixon teaching Mason how to play chess

Occasionally Mason will get up and set the table for breakfast

I made this for my lunch one day and thought it looked so good it deserved a picture

While school was still out the kids got together with friends and played in the gym at the church

The kids also got to go to flying squirrel

They played a lot of dodge ball

And this new climbing game

To finish off the Christmas break we did fondue corn dogs

We were having fun reading Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel before the paparazzi interrupted

Our WHOLE family went skiing last weekend, which also meant is was Henry's FIRST TIME SKIING!

I skied with Mason quite a bit at the start while Kim was teaching Henry. Mason ROCKED it and was so good.

He made it down the big hill on his second run without falling. This is what that looked like

It was fun skiing with Henry. For his first time he did so good. 

Mason's books bring smiles to everyone's faces

Henry helped make waffles last Sunday

We finally pulled Mason's tooth

We had friends over and played games

Henry is so cute when he is listening to an audio book

Here he is at preschool this week

All seven elementary schools in the Post Falls School District had a combined assembly with their 5th grade students on the importance of kindness. Each school picked a single 5th grade student to present an essay they wrote on kindness. Lyza was chosen as her school's representative.

There were roughly 500 people in attendance. That is quite an audience for someone who just turned 11!

Lyza did such a good job and made us so proud!

Kim took Henry and I out for lunch on Friday and it was delicious fun

I got to take Lyza on a date that evening. We started at the Coeur d'Alene Public Library followed by frozen yogurt

We had some delightful conversation together

Yesterday Nixon got to go to the roller skating arena with a friend

They had races based on age groups

Nixon did quite well

Here is the group of kids Nixon was there with (complete with some Korean exchange students ;)

That's it for now.

Take care