December 2016

This might be my last blog post... as of 2017, I will be uploading our family's pictures to a chatbooks account and printing them as our picture journal. But here is a look back at what December 2016 was like for us...

Our Elf (Simon) showed up on December 1st and brought each of the kids a chocolate advent calendar.

Noah got to go to a Suns game with his friend Nathan Graff. He had so much fun!

We hosted the Sherwood family Christmas party at our house this year. We had fun eating dinner together, playing Christmas games, sitting by the fire, and teaching the kids "slap leather"!

Noah went on a campout with all these boys... it was on a wet and windy weekend. I was so nervous about him being miserably cold, but of course he was fine! He also hiked Picacho Peak on the campout.

Noah's second time doing baptisms for the dead, his first time with his deacons quorum!

Every year I take an updated picture of Noah that he can give his grandparents for their wall. The lighting in this picture is horrible but Noah looks handsome anyway!

Noah got his cast off a few days before Christmas. He had broken his arm earlier in the month while playing basketball on the playground during school. The doctors weren't very impressed with the way it was healing after the cast came off and he got an x ray so we are hoping that the next x ray shows better improvement. He is so anxious to get back on the basketball court with his good arm working the way it should.

Christmas Eve was Simon's last day with us. He brought a disposable camera with him and in a cute little note, told the kids they should use it to capture fun memories on Christmas Day!

We delivered some peppermint cookies to Grandma Sherwood (she LOVES them!) on Christmas Eve then went to Red Robin with the Baldwins.

 

Noah holding Hudson, who is wearing the Santa pajamas that Noah wore as a baby!

 

 This is out of order, but these are the best of the pictures taken on Christmas Day with the disposable camera. Abby and Sophie took most of these and had a great time with the camera!

Christmas morning! Santa brought Abby some Peppa Pig toys, 

he brought Sophie a polaroid camera and film, 

and Noah got a drone!

These are all such happy Christmas morning pictures...

 

Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, so the kids all opened up matching church clothes the night before. We went to an hour of church and it was so nice to spend part of our day thinking about our Savior and singing hymns about Him.

We spent the afternoon with the Sherwood family, having lunch and doing a few gift exchanges. It was sad to not have Grandma and Poppy there, but they were on facetime with us for a few hours though!

The day after Christmas, we took some side by sides out to the desert and went riding. It was a pretty cold day but we were bundled up in warm clothes and rode with blankets covering us. It was a lot of fun for the kids to have some cousins come with us! Suzanne, Tyler, Scott, Ellie, and Lucy came.

 

We had a fun time spending New Years Eve with just our own little family. We ate dinner at In & Out, then went to see the temple lights on the last night they were on. After that, we went to see "SING" at the theaters and ended the night watching the countdown on tv.

 

 That wraps up our 2016!