Happy 8th Birthday Lyza!

Last Sunday I went to church with the two big boys while all the other sickos stayed home

 After days of being sick and having to postpone her friend party the day before, Lyza started feeling better Sunday afternoon so we whipped up a party for her

 Lyza got some fun gifts

 Henry, its not your party!

 Lyza got right to work reading her new book

 Even though Lyza was feeling better it is still obvious from the video that she was not feeling 100%. She still had a really good time and told us over and over that it was the best day ever. Here are some clips of celebrating with Lyza

Here she is talking to her grandparents on her actual birthday

 Lyza's friend had her birthday party on Lyza's birthday so she got to have another party that day

 Just when we though Lyza was getting better she had a huge coughing fit that took her all the way to urgent care. Turns out she not only had the flu the previous week but also developed pneumonia! Poor girl! The amazing thing is that this week she has been the happiest we can remember. She has had the BEST attitude and has been an absolute pleasure to be around. We love her soooo much!

 We went to the elementary school this week to see Santa

 The kids also did some crafts there

 I guess our boys take novels with them when they go grocery shopping?

 Lyza got nebulized lots at home to get her breathing back under control (that is our joke around here about using the nebulizer)

 We got some snow that Henry was happy to play in

 Nixon also got out there and tried to rebuild the snow man from the previous week

 Lyza got to have her friends birthday party on Thursday evening

They started off playing some Just Dance 

They also played some charades 

 After that it was time to eat some cereal (breakfast themed party)

Then they played musical chairs

Then they decorated some Christmas trees

 Then it was time for presents

Then it was time for cake cinnamon rolls

 We never got a picture with all of the kids because some got there late and some had to leave early. This is the cinnamon roll bunch

 Silly faces!

 Then they played some Christmas Bingo

Happy 8th Birthday Lyza! We love you 💗

Christmas on the Lake, and Visits from Santa and Mr. Moose

Sometimes Mason takes his costumes a little too far

Henry helping mommy with laundry is kind of funny (no wonder she thinks she is never getting anything done around the house)

Henry LOVES playing the piano

For family home evening we went down to the lake to look at the Christmas lights. Henry got to snuggle up close to mom in the baby carrier

The lights along the board walk are pretty impressive. My favorite part is the reflections in the water

They have these big boats touring the lake, showing off the lights, and travelling across the lake to see Santa

When the boats first begin they come across the Grinch

Here is the Grinch sitting on his chair

This is the dragon/creature that breaths out fire

Those reflections in the water are so pretty

Staying warm together

My cute bunch

This tree looked pretty cool

Selfie!

We walked through the mall on the way back to the van

Henry had lots of fun

There is something magical about Christmas lights

Potty training is not very fun right now. At this rate Henry might be potty training Mason 😝

But if you can get him smiling he can melt your heart

We got a dump of snow this week, which makes it feel more like Christmas

Kim and the boys made this awesome snow man

I got to take the boys to see Santa

Nixon had SO MUCH FUN with Santa

Henry, not so much...

In fact, he hated it

Santa was a little bit of a joker with Nixon

Henry is so cute before bed. I finally got our teeth brushing ritual on camera, followed up by the cutest wave "night-night"

On my way to work I saw the moose, turned around, got the camera, and got a few shots

And as a throwback, here is Lyza two years ago telling Nixon that "all mooses have a beard"

We had some big snow flakes falling one evening and while Kim and Henry were out shopping Henry was completely amazed with them. When she told me about it we did our best to recreate the moment.

Have you ever seen a cuter elf?

Kim and I had my work Christmas party Friday night. It was fun going out and trying to act like grown ups. We had an entire meal without anyone spilling their cups or having to force anyone to eat their food. Success!

Hope you have a great week!
Take care