Romantic day with my valentine.

Around here, we take turns planning Valentine’s Day and Anniversary. Joe gets the odd years, I get the even years…so guess what? It was my turn.
I wanted to do something different, and we did.
Shooting.
I know nothing about it, Joe’s been a few times. So we went down to the shooting range, had a quick lesson, and went to it.
Joe looks so dang cute. And he had great aim, too.
 
Since I was so new at this, I was a little nervous. But Joe was a good teacher and I actually had a lot of fun.
Afterward, we went to Carver’s for dinner…baked brie, yum! Dinner was absolutely delicious and I love hanging out with my best friend.
I’m so grateful for this man, he takes his role of provider, protector, and presider seriously. I got a good one, people. I love him and I like him.

Valentines Day fun!

Friday was Valentines Day, so we had family day. Parties at the the school, lunch with Dad, early day, good stuff. That night, Dad surprised the kids and took us all to see the Lego Movie.
Everything is awesome!!
The movie was cute and the kids loved it. We went home for pizza and wings, then passed out little prizes to the kids.

These kids are the coolest! I love my little valentines.

Time for Valentines!!

Beau wanted Ninjago…here’s the result.
Colin made his box all by himself…look how cool! He wanted to do basketball, but look at the attention to detail! Hoops and players and everything! He passed out some fun dip with his Jazz valentines…Since Beau makes his box at school (hallelujah!), and Colin did his by himself (double hallelujah!), I had some extra time to work on Camri’s. Good thing because she wanted a Lalaloopsy box. I think it turned out pretty well. Camri and I had fun working on it together.
Of course, Winnie the Pooh is still the favorite for Camri’s actual valentine…Dangit, didn’t get a picture of Beau, but I did spend the morning in his classroom for the party. I love spending Valentine’s Day with these kids!
 

The end is here

It’s been a great year. We’ve had joy and sorrow, success and failure, change and, um, no change.
We made some improvements to the house (specifically the kitchen, yay!). I got a job and a new calling. I did approximately 624 loads of laundry, made about 780 meals, and washed over a billion dishes (easily). We stayed busy, but had time to play too.
The last week of the year was full of mostly playing. Movies, games, laser tag, Chinese food, hanging out, more fun with family…I love it!
New Years Eve we decided to have our own little party with the kids. We stayed home, ate yummy food, and watched a show. That’s my kind of party! I love these little munchkins!

The Week

I know I’ve said it before, but the best part of Christmas is The Week.  This is the week between Christmas and New Years (aka my b-day) that Joe takes off work and we basically play for a whole week.  I’ll admit there are not a lot of homemade meals during this week, but this year, we did get some cleaning done and lots and lots of laundry washed.  Joe took over and was a laundry maniac.  It was awesome!
We also went and saw “Frozen” and “The Book Thief” and “Percy Jackson” (not the same day), we played Laser Tag, we played games and ate Chinese food at Grandma and Grandpa Heugly’s, we saw a friend get baptized, we had more family parties at Grandma’s clubhouse, we sent Dakota off to her first and second Stake Dance with cousin Mark and friend Keller, we had a Pulsipher game night at our house and Conner slept over, we got to see Char and George, we went to see the Midway Ice Castle, and we even went to the dentist.  It was a very fun kind of busy!  And that’s not including my birthday….
     
No cavities from any of the kids, by the way!
Hurray for The Week!!

Ward Christmas Party

This year, our Ward had a Christmas Breakfast.  It was wonderful! It was also nice because last year, I was in charge of all the food.  It was much easier to just show up and enjoy the show.  I did make a gluten-free breakfast casserole (no bread or soup), so we just brought that directly to our table.  It was so yummy!
The Primary, Young Men, and Young Women combined to do a short program about the Nativity.  Look at cute Mason and Sadie as Joseph and Mary! Koko participated as one of the narrators.  Here she is by Conner.  During practice, Conner’s mom walked over to me and asked, “Do you believe in betrothal?” Yes. “They look good together, we should just arrange this right now, I would love it if my kids married a Heugly!” 
I took that as a compliment.  Dakota thought it was funny, but I guess she wants to pick out her own husband…whatever.

Our dear friends, the Knudsens just found out they are moving to Nebraska for work, they will leave after Christmas.  I’m so sad for us (even though I’m happy for them).  Anne has been my visiting teacher and friend for years, I will really miss her cute family.  Nebraska is lucky to get them!  It was quite touching to see their family get up and sing together.Emma, Colin, Camri, and Beau participated in the Primary Choir…it was the perfect way to celebrate Christmas. 
They showed a slideshow about all the missionaries serving from our ward.  I was bawling.  These Elders and Sisters were just here, so young.  Now they are out there serving the Lord, facing challenges, growing up.  Koko grabbed Joe’s hand and whispered, “5 years!”  Nope.  I’m not ready for her to leave like that.  Although I am grateful for the example that these missionaries are to my kids.  We have almost as many girls out as boys, I love it!  I love my sweet Sunridge Ward. 

The Nine-Tree Christmas

My sweet Mother-in-Law decided to get rid of a few Christmas trees this year.  We jumped at the chance to take them off her hands…they were fully decorated and everything! So we added them to our small collection.  I’m a sucker for a good Christmas decoration. 
We put her doll tree on the landing and the Sports tree in the basement:
We have trees in each bedroom, some are bigger than others. Not all of them are pictured:
    
We have our little countertop tree in the kitchen:
We have our skinny flocked tree in the family room, and the big main tree in the living room:
   
I love decorating for Christmas, it’s my favorite.  I especially love the evenings when the tree lights come on, there’s snow outside, Christmas music is playing…it truly is the most wonderful time of the year!

Thanksgiving, part deux.

Thanksgiving was great, then that evening we got a visit from the stomach flu.  Gross.  Koko, Camri, and Beau were out.  The timing was poor since we were having Pulsipher Thanksgiving on Friday, and we hosted it at our church.  They mostly slept all morning, and missed most of the party, but they did join us for a little while at the end…in a quarantined Primary room across the hall.  I felt bad for them, they were pretty sick.
In the meantime, we ate and talked and had a grand time.  Lisa and Scott and family were here from Kentucky, Eric was here from New York, and Kevin and Lorchin and family were here from Colorado.  We had a representative from every family, and even a few extras…

   Liz saw me taking this picture and posed for me. Cute!Lisa’s family stayed with us Thursday and Friday night…we had so much fun and even got a little Black Friday shopping in.  I love this crazy family of mine!
Happy Thanksgiving!!