A New Year

New Year's Eve was lots of fun here. We had the missionaries serving in our ward over for dinner. We love having them over. After they left, we busted out a few games. We played Guess Who till we literally couldn't anymore. Then The Game of Life-Pirates. The boys really enjoyed this game (though some tears were definitely shed when things didn't work out the way they wanted). While we were playing, I remembered I had gotten some NYE items from Hobby Lobby. Horn blowers and confetti poppers. The horn blowers were a huge hit... almost too much :) We ended up designating the kitchen/toy area as the room to use those in. Our poor Sirius didn't care for them too much. Once Pirates Life was finally over, we headed out into the COLD night and popped our poppers. Wahoo! Then off to bed for our boys while we obligingly stayed awake to ring in the new year officially.

New Year's Day we headed out to the snow! Brad found a place where they have a designated sledding hill. Such a blast! Though... we didn't have any snow pants and after an hour and a half, the boys were feeeeeling the cold. Brrr! We quickly changed them in the back of our car and headed home. We grabbed some Hawaiian food on the way home since it was getting late. Yum! We all love our Hawaiian food! It was a great and fun way to spend our last vacation day with Brad. The boys had Monday off, but Brad would be heading back to work. We absolutely loved having Brad home with  us for so long.

Oh Jamers. He was in adventure heaven, traipsing through the snow and 'discovering' different parts of the area

Hanging with my Jack, who was content to go down once and then play in the snow. He did end up going again at the end and even went by himself twice 

 Gavin took to sledding and couldn't get enough. I think the other two will be more apt to go down more once I get some snow clothes :)

 Family snow picture. Such a beautiful day

 A goal for the year- start taking pictures manually on our Nikon. I made Brad stop the car so I could jump out of the car to take these. Though beautiful, could have been so much better if I knew how to change settings. 

2015 was a great year for us. Hard, and a little odd, but great all the same. I don't know why, but I feel wonderful things are in store for us in 2016. I look forward to seeing how the year pans out and to see us all grow. Gavin wants to start learning piano and playing soccer. James is off and on about piano and really wants to play baseball again. Jack will be starting preschool in the fall and is starting to really grow into being a big kid. I've been trying to find balance in life and hope to get closer to being better at that this year. Happy New Year! 2016, I am excited to see what you bring us!