Rain and snow

We had fun with rain and snow activities - we did painting, shaving cream, and blue milk for our rain day.  Probably the most fun was washing the piggies in the water after they got shaving cream all over them. 

                                  

 We built snowmen another day and ate ice cream snowmen and milkshakes.  Weston wouldn't eat the snowmen treats, so he got a milkshake.  And he had to build a piggy snowman.

And since we never get snow around here, we had to make our own.  You can make a fun snow-like substance with conditioner and baking soda.  It really works pretty well. The kids had fun with it.  Weston had to put his pigs in the snow, of course.  Savannah played with polar bears in her snow.

I intended to do wind and ice days, but a couple of birthday parties got in the way... we just watched "Frozen" instead.  

Star Wars party

Owen's birthday party was supposed to be back in December, but we had to postpone it due to sickness.  We picked a new day in January.  These were the original invitations, a cute idea found on Pinterest,  It extends like a light saber.  We sent out 12 invitations - Owen wanted more guests, but we had to have a limit!  Ten of his friends were able to come, so with our 5, we had 15 kids running around.  It was pretty crazy!  Alex got out the megaphone once...

Most of the party fun was running around with light sabers, hitting things and each other.  They also did a little bit of bowling and shooting nerf guns at the targets on the board below.  

Captured a little bit of the chaos:

Owen requested a storm trooper helmet cake and specifically this version.  He was really particular about what he wanted.  I did my best to put together a helmet.  

I forgot to take a picture of the foam light sabers, which were the most popular thing they got to take home.  I also made each of them a simple robe, but not many of them actually wanted to wear it.  The girls didn't want to wear the princess Leia buns either.  Oh well.  I think they liked the fruit snacks and popcorn.

It seems like everyone had a good time.  Owen had fun, so it was a success!

After the party, they discovered the LED balloons were pretty fun to play with in the dark.  I hadn't seen these kind of balloons before.  They were pretty cool.

Temple worthy priesthood holder

A couple of special things happened since Nathan turned 12 years old.  He received the Aaronic Priesthood, given through a blessing from Alex and our bishop (click on the link for some more information about the priesthood).  He is now a deacon in our church and can do things such as pass the sacrament.  Nathan was able to do that for the first time this past Sunday.  It was a special thing for me to witness Nathan having the Aaronic Priesthood conferred upon him by Alex.  I am thankful that Alex is a worthy priesthood holder.  And I am thankful that Nathan is worthy and willing to have the priesthood now.  I am excited to see him learn and grow in service to others.  

Another opportunity that comes with turning 12 is the ability to enter the temple and perform baptisms for the dead by proxy.  Alex and I were able to go with Nathan on his first temple trip with the youth this past weekend.  Nathan was able to do some family names, most of them from my dad's line.  He did one name of a great great great great grandfather from Alex's line.  Alex was able to perform the baptisms, and again it was a special thing to witness.  I hope that those that Nathan did baptisms for will accept those ordinances.  

Nathan is no stranger to the temple.  Although he had never entered the temple until now, he has visited the grounds of several temples.  We took him with us many times while Alex and I took turns doing temple work.  I couldn't find a picture from Houston, but he went with us there quite a few times.  The earliest picture I could find was from Sydney, Australia in 2005.  Look how much he has grown since then! 

Here are some other temple visits that I could find pictures of.  We also made several trips to Oklahoma City and to the Los Angeles Temple, since those have been the temples near where we lived.

I hope that Nathan and all of our kids develop a strong love for and desire to go to the temple often.  It's a very special place!

sharp shooter

Nathan made the most free throws in his school and moved on to the next level of the Elks hoop shoot, competing against 12 and 13 year olds from other schools.  They did 2 rounds - 10 shots and then another 15, combining the total.  Nathan made 6 of 10 on the first round - a little cold on that round.  On the second round, he made 12 of 15!  I was very impressed with his shooting.  It was fun to see Nathan participate in something that I also did as a child.  My memory of the details of my hoop shoot is faulty, but I remember moving to the next level.  I think I made maybe 7 of 10 in my competition.  And I remember being really nervous.  

Nathan seemed pretty confident, stepping up there and making 18 of 25.  He ended up getting 3rd place, with the 2nd place contestant making 19 and the winner making 20.  I'm very proud of him!

A few of his shots...

12 years old

Nathan had a friend birthday party this year, and he requested a no-theme party.  However, he wanted to start off his party playing soccer, so I had a hard time not going with a soccer theme.  I tried hard not to use a theme, but still ended up with some sports themed favors and such... :)  The water bottles had candy inside.  I did my first ever E-vite for a birthday party instead of making invitations.  It was easier, but I sort-of like making the invitations.  I think 12 years old may be the age where we turn over a new page in our parties.  

part of the E-vite... see, I couldn't stay away from a theme

Nathan wanted pizza, chips, and soda for dinner.  I made a triple layer cake, which turned out to be way too much.  I thought a big 12 year old needed a big cake!

He and his friends had fun playing foosball and our new arcade basketball game after we got back to our home after soccer.  Alex and I joined in on the soccer game for a while too - we had a lot of fun!

I love how Nathan sings to himself!

Nathan is finding out that the quantity of presents gets less as he gets older - maybe more gift cards and bigger items.  I made the OKC Thunder pillowcase as a little extra thing.  And he essentially picked out the Lego set and RC car.  However, he thought he was getting a smaller Lego set, but we surprised him with the bigger one.  We thought it would be funny to put a small girl Lego set inside a bigger box and see his reaction.  His real present was underneath the couch. I'd say he was pretty happy with it!

more wallpaper

We acquired a bunch more wallpaper from Christmas and birthdays - our walls are getting covered!

Happy New Year!!

We had quite a bit of sickness during December, with the stomach bug and colds.  We had to postpone Owen's birthday party, cancel our trip to Utah, and stayed at home on New Year's Eve.  Luckily, we still have fun together at home when we can't get out.  Here's Nathan and Jared ringing in the new year: 

And with that, I'm all caught up on blogging!  Yay!