Winter Wrap Up!

I hope I do a little better posting in the coming months but for now we get a seasonal wrap up of what we've been up to lately....We rang in 2012 with the Ritchies and Gills...


Happy New Year!

Of course our New Year's boy wanted to celebrate turning FIVE, too! So, at his request we had a football party! We had family over on New Year's day and then had some friends celebrate at the church with football games, team camp training and football cake and ice cream!
Megan got to get out of school to be my helper at the party that afternoon--she was a fantastic helper and I think the kids had a great time, too!
Hooray for snow days!




The fifth graders at Badger Mountain organize an annual sock hop school event to raise money for their Seattle trip. Bradley and I got to help run the games and we got to take these fun friends with us for the evening. They were pretty excited!
Bradley got plenty of attention as well, even though I couldn't get him to dress up.

After growing and growing out her hair, Megan bravely went in for a cut to donate her hair to Locks of Love. She was sad to part with it but the shorter hairstyle is adorable, I think!

Amanda went to Tolo...and "Molo" which is what they were calling the non-school dance put on by mostly LDS kids who wanted a more comfortable environment than the school dances currently are to enjoy. Amanda and her date, David, had two groups of great kids to go with and instead of having to try and choose they decided to give the school dance a chance as well and go both nights, hoping the attempts to make it a more appropriate environment were successful. Nate and I chaperoned the school dance and overall, the kids had fun both nights but were much more comfortable at "Molo" (which I have no pictures of because of the sock hop obligation). In addition to no pictures the first night my camera battery went dead the next night so again my picture inadequacies continue but you get a little bit of an idea....



Amanda and Brandie. Every day I am grateful for the great group of friends my daughter has. Though they have their differences and drama, they are good kids that try and help each other to stay that way. I love these kids. As a family we've had so many interesting discussions on how to stay clean, have clean fun and be an example without being exclusive, or reclusive for that matter. It sure is tough to try and figure out where that balance is. Again, sooooo very thankful we have families right there in the trenches with us to work on all the challenges of teenagerhood together. It's never dull!

So, there's a little bit of our winter to bring us up to date a little bit!