Merry Christmas 2020

We all had a wonderful Christmas.  Megan woke up the earliest at just after 6:00 am. I heard her wake up Allie and then they both went into the front room to check out if Santa came. They were so excited and sounded so cute talking about the gifts and things. I got up with them and enjoyed in their excitement.  The boys were not too far behind them and then they were all chatting about the gifts and Christmas morning.  

After a while I told the girls to go wake up Tony so we could start the fun. We then opened up the gifts in our usual manner.  We had Tyler and Josh open up their first gift together. It was a Nintendo Switch.  They had saved up some money to go towards buying one, but we told them that we weren't going to get one this Christmas. So they were not expecting it at all and were both very excited to get it. All the kids loved all their presents. It was fun to see them get so excited about their gifts.

We then ate breakfast and let the kids play with their gifts for a while before getting dressed and going to Lloyd and Margie's house. Once we got there the kids opened up their gifts from them. They loved everything they got there too. We let them open and play with some of their gifts before we had some lunch. Then it was time to go to the Clark's. We went to my parents and helped them get ready for Christmas dinner. While it was finishing up cooking we opened gifts from them. It was all very nice and we loved what we received and what we gave them. We then ate a yummy early dinner. After cleaning up and chatting for a while we went back home and enjoyed relaxing before bed.  It was a great day of being spoiled by everyone. I can't believe that Christmas has already come and gone. This year has gone by so fast. We have been so blessed this year.

Christmas Eve 2020

Because of Covid we weren't able to have an extended Kresser family party. So we partied with just us and Suzanne's family at Lloyd and Margie's. They had some gingerbread houses for the kids to do with each other. They all did a really good job. Gabe and Brennen lasted a lot longer then our kids and really decorated theirs well.  

After gingerbread house making we ate some yummy dinner. After dinner we Skyped with Nate and Amy and their kids. All the kids opened their jammies together and then got changed. They all looked so good in their jammies. It is my favorite part of Christmas Eve. After that we got packed up and went home.  It was a low key Christmas Eve but it was a super nice time.

Sunday Before Christmas

 Us Steenblik girls were all matchy on Sunday so we got us a pretty picture together. I took Megan's picture before church because her face was red and swollen. It looked like she was having a reaction to something, but were didn't really know what. We gave her some Benadryl after church and put lotion on her face. It did seem to help, but it was too bad that we didn't know what caused it. I got the opportunity to talk in church, so that was...good. I focused on the story of Christ's birth and talked mainly to the kids in the ward. Tyler got to play the piano after I spoke. He did a really good job.  

After church Tony got set apart as a High Priest and a High Councilor in our stake. Lloyd and my parents were able to come and participate in that setting apart and that was nice. After they came over to our house for some yummy soup. It was nice having them over and we all enjoyed family time.

Clark Family Christmas Party

We were able to have our annual Clark family party.  Julie is so good to host all us crazies.  We ate lots of yummy food and had tons of fun activities.  We did a Christmas Jeopardy, a name that song game, and even made a nativity out of snack foods.  After the game we exchanged cousin gifts and then did the adult gift exchange. Everyone had a great time and we all enjoyed each others company.  It is a wonderful tradition and I am glad that we were still able to do it, even with Covid.

Santa in the Park

We went to Julie's house for her and I to make caramels together.  After we made our treats and helped her with her primary project we went to the park near by and met Santa who came on a firetruck.  Each of the kids talked with Santa, got a candy cane, and then they got to climb into the firetruck.  It was a fun, unexpected treat and we were happy to be able to go.  

Gingerbread Houses

 Margie got us another fun Gingerbread house making kit.  We love doing these as a Family Home Evening.  The kids have short attention spans so they don't do a very detailed job, but they have fun creating and eating the treats and frosting.  It is all about the experience and time spent as a family.  

All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth

Allie finally lost both her front teeth.  She is so happy about that.  She is excited that she can sing All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth.  She is pretty adorable even without her teeth.

Saturday Christmas Craft

 Tony took the girls to the hardware store to pick up some things and they had a fun Christmas craft that they gave the girls (and enough for the boys).  They were pretty excited to come home and put it all together.  They got to use the hammer, wood glue, and then paint the craft.  It was a fun surprising activity for the day.

Girls Haircuts

 I finally took the girls into the salon to get their hair cut.  They both look so much better and it is so much easier to do.  They loved going to get their hair cut and they are both growing up way too fast.

Random Winter Fun

Allie received the Soaring Eagle Award at school. We are so proud of her for being such a great student and friend.  She loves school so much and is so happy to be able to go. 

Josh loves Koda so much.  They love to snuggle and are good buddies.

Allie lost her first top tooth.  The other top tooth is really wiggly so she is very excited about it.

First good snow fall of the year.  We all love the snow and can't get enough in the winter. 

Koda all snuggly.  We love our old doggie.  He has been more snuggly lately and loves to snuggle mostly with Tony.  They are two good buddies.

Tyler's Broken Hand

Tyler came home from school last month with a bag of water.  I asked about it and he told me that it had ice in it that had melted.  He then told me he had been icing his hand all day because he hurt his finger in gym (which is second period).  I looked at his hand and it was swollen.  

So I called Tony at work and he came right home to take Tyler to the doctor.  Tyler didn't want Tony to pull it back into place, but Tony was able to talk him into it while they were in the car driving to the InstaCare.  

They took some xrays and saw that it was fractured and we would need to make an appointment with the fracture center at Primary Children's Hospital.  The next day I had to get a copy of his xrays to give the hospital so that we could set up an appointment.  

They got us an appointment for a week after the accident.  They said the fracture was right at the growth plate but it had started healing so he wouldn't need surgery.  So they told us to keep it wrapped up in the brace for another month.

We would take off the brace when Tyler showered and he had some pretty cool bruising each time.  Luckily he said it didn't hurt much.  He had a hard time writing at school but they mostly use their computers, so I guess that is good.  In gym he could only do things with his legs, like soccer or running.  

After the month of healing he was able to remove the brace but they told him to still wrap up his finger while participating in gym to protect it from getting hurt again.  He is very happy to have the brace off and moving his hand like before.  It has been a crazy thing with his hand, but it could have been much worse so we are thankful for that.

Halloween 2020

Halloween was very different this year.  I was on the fence about letting the kids go trick-or-treating.  The Covid numbers in Utah have gone up a lot so I wasn't sure what was the right thing to do.  

A lot of our neighbors are older and we weren't sure how many would even open up their homes to trick-or-treaters.  We had three different neighbors bring our kid some treats since they were not accepting trick-or-treaters.  We really do have a best neighbors who are so thoughtful to our family.

The kids really wanted to go trick-or-treating so I decided that Tony could take them out around the neighborhood and just go to the houses that were obviously open.  I bought extra treats just for our kids incase they didn't get very many.  I did not need to do that because they got a lot of good loot.

Allie was done about 45 minutes into trick-or-treating.  Tony called me and I went and picked her up.  She changed into her jammies and then helped me pass out candy.  We didn't have as many trick-or-treaters so I made sure to give out lots to the kids that came.  

Tony and the rest of the kids came back about 8:20 and they all had a great time.  It was a good Halloween and I am very glad that we let the kids go trick-or-treating and just have fun being kids.

Dibble's Farm Fun

 We went to Dibble's Farm on Saturday morning to pick pumpkins.  This is Tony's coworkers family farm.  The kids love picking up pumpkins and playing on the hay.  I love getting cute pictures of my kids.  It is always fun to go checkout the farm.  After the farm we went to lunch and we all had a great time.  Family time is the best time!

School Halloween Fun

Our cute baseball player.

Allie's cute pirate hair.

Red Ninja, pirate, and Super Girl

Anniversary Trip - Day 7 & 8

We started our morning by driving to our first waterfall.   It was really cold so we decided not to do as many hikes as we were planning.  The waterfalls were beautiful and the trail was really nice.  It was only 30 degrees and frosty.  Even though it was cold it was so pretty and we are totally going to see them again with the kids.

We then went to find a hike in Sisters.  It was along the river and I thought it would have had some sort of end that was nice, but we didn't find the end.  We went for about 45 minutes before we turned around.  It was a pretty hike and not too hard, but it was still really cold.  

After our hike we went and had lunch at Takoda's in Sisters.  After lunch we stopped at a fun local shop and bought a few things for the kids.

We then headed to Boise where we stayed for the night.  We were both very glad that we switched hotels so that we drove further this day and then had less driving the next day.

The last day we went home and unloaded the car before picking up the kids and Koda from Margie's.  We were very happy to be back with the kids and thankful to Lloyd and Margie for watching the kids so we could go on vacation.