Happy 10th Birthday Lyza!

 We've got some catching up to do...

Have I ever mentioned that Mason loves puzzles?

Our elf has been a little mischievous this year. This was one of his funniest pranks so far.

We had a ward Christmas party and the kids were involved in a nativity. Lyza was Mary, Nixon was a wise man, and Mason was a shepherd

Henry was very excited to see Santa

Santa was surprised when Mason handed him a home made card

Here is another one of Figgy's pranks. He was been into toilet paper (literally)

Last Saturday Henry and I were playing with dried beans together so we decided to make this wall funnel thing

Henry thought it was so much fun dumping the beans in the funnel

Then we added a second story to it

Lyza and Nixon tried to make a new area for Cupcake to explore but she wasn't too happy with it

Kim and I went out to eat for a date last week and it was delicious

After that we had to read Christmas books before anyone would go to bed

This is a new puzzle this year the boys and Kim had lots of fun with

Henry helped Kim make a batch of gingerbread fudge. It turned out really well so we are going to make several batches and give it out as gifts to friends and neighbors

The boys made these Christmas tree crafts

One day this week the moose spent a long time across the street from our house

Later that evening when we were waiting for someone to come by and pickup something we were selling on Marketplace Kim got a text from that woman letting her know that she was in the driveway but was too scared to come to the front door because of our moose

The moose sat on our front lawn for hours

Kim and her friend had a trip planned to Trader Joe's in Spokane so Kim had to leave out the garage door since the moose was still camped out by the front door.

She came back with lots of treasures

Look at the ornaments Henry made (and check out that silly smile)

This week there was a Santa and a book event at the elementary school

Followed by a Christmas concert. Lyza joined the fourth and fifth grade special chorus this year so she got to sing lots at the concert

Here is some of their singing. Please excuse the shaky camera work, the conditions were not ideal

The next day Lyza turned 10! You can see Figgy on the light fixture wanting to be part of the birthday decorations

It is hard to say anything good about Lyza...because there are so many things to say and you don't want to leave anything out.

Lyza can be very thoughtful when she is thinking about the right thing. Lyza is very passionate. When she fully commits to something she stays laser focused on it and does a wonderful job. Lyza has a very beautiful and active imagination. Lyza cares about others and their feelings. Lyza is incredibly smart and can tell you everything you didn't want to know about a subject she has studied. Lyza has a great sense of humor. Lyza has a strong testimony for her age and is able to understand scripture quickly. Lyza has a beautiful singing voice. Lyza loves nature and is a wonderful hiking/exploring companion.

There are many more things we love about Lyza but she reads the blog and we don't want her head to get too big ;)

WE LOVE YOU LYZA!

After school Lyza had some friends over for pizza and then we went to flying squirrel

We had lots of fun there

Including the climbing wall

Henry loved these arcade games even without actually playing them

Here is a video of the fun

After that we came home and did presents and that kept a pretty serious smile on her face

Lyza requested pear pie for her birthday and he mom came through with an amazingly delicious pear pie

Of course we all sang to her

We had a fun bunch and Lyza had a great time with friends

After her friends left we did some family gifts. We think Lyza's diet consists of 90% gold fish crackers so we had to replenish her stock

She got some cute clothes (a fox reading a book!)

She got a book about wolves

A playpen for her hamster

And...

I am so excited for us to go to Wicked in March!

She got Cupcake in the playpen right away

Unicorn PJs

Turns out the case for the playpen also makes a cute hat

Kim went out for lunch with a couple of friends and one of them announced that they have sold their house and are moving out of the area. We are excited for their new adventures.

Look what Lyza made in school

Kim and I went to an adult Christmas party Friday night and she and a friend made some changes to their word board

She had lots of fun with her friends (while I was playing some very serious games of ping-pong)

There was also a white elephant gift exchange that was very memorable

I think it is time for a video of Henry dancing with Santa Claus

Take care

 Henry loves this decoration he made at Grandma's

The was some puzzling activity going on here last Sunday

The result was a completed 449 piece puzzle (can't find the 450th piece)

There is a couple in our ward that we have never met. During the heat of the pandemic they were Lyza's primary teachers and always sent her very thoughtful card in the mail. Kim got this handmade card from them congratulating her on her American citizenship.

We found Lyza's funny picture at school

Umm? Pickle juice?

There were some big changes in sleeping arrangements around here this week

Henry started sleeping on the bottom bunk with Mason on the top bunk

Nixon and I built a loft bed

And we put it in Henry's old room (the study) for Nixon's new room

He has been loving having his own room and Mason and Henry have both done surprisingly well sharing a room and sleeping in the same room

I think Henry is proud of his work

And look what Mason made

We started an advent candle this week from Aunt Terry

The moose visited this week

It enjoyed eating apples off the ground

The kids had a fun pajama/Christmas activity at the library this week

Lyza had a special chorus musical performance at City Hall this Friday evening that we got to attend. It was hard to see her because the crowd was so huge (think a Donald Trump rally: yuuuge)

Henry got a better view from up above

Her performance was quite entertaining and she did an excellent job

The boys got to see Santa afterward

And then we took the kids to Wendy's for the jr. frosties they got at Halloween

Saturday morning we woke up to snow

So we did some painting

After the snow stopped I took Nixon out in the afternoon to watch some bald eagles. We saw quite a few (maybe 10-20)

This one was in the tree for quite a while

Here it is from the other side

There were eagles in the sky but none were going for the fish in the lake so we decided to do some hiking on some new trails

In some fairly thick trees where no one else was we found this eagle that flew away shortly after getting its photo taken

The surrounding mountains looked really good with new snow fall

We don't normally see eagles fly so close to each other unless one is trying to steal a fish from the other but I happened to catch these two flying past each other

Nixon was an awesome companion on our adventure

Past where everyone watches the eagles we found lots of the dead fish washed up on the shore of the lake

Even though the eagles didn't seem too interested in fishing they were fun to watch and it was nice to get out with Nixon

Last night Kim got to go out for dinner with her friends for Mexican food

We hope you have a great week. Take care.