more December fun

so much happened last month that I'm very glad it's January and we can finally take a few deep breaths!

jack had his first archery tournament. it was a fun shoot, so it wasn't a legit tournament, but it was good practice. he was a nervous wreck when he arrived. his shooting wasn't his best because of it. hopefully he will be able to learn how to calm himself down during the season. tournaments start the end of January.

Ellie and I went on a date to watch one of the activity day girls at her figure skating winter show. we froze our buns off and we both laughed too hard to get a decent selfie.

why is it so cute when dad's read to their kids??

Ellie's class had a big project on Mayan civilization and they broke up into groups for individual topics. Ellie's group got geography and they made a volcano for the open house for families... but the volcano didn't work!! turns out that she and her partner, Peyton, were putting tiny bits of the baking soda and vinegar in at a time rather than using it all at once. luckily their teacher let them try again in class the next day and it worked great!

we have had a great time at activity days making stuff. we made sand art cookie jars to give to someone for Light the World and then the first week of January we learned how to make pretzels!

one of our Young Men leaders was walking by the kitchen and stopped in to tell us how good our pretzels smelled and he said "im not kidding, it smells so good I kinda wish I was a 9 year old and that I was a girl right now". that made the girls laugh so hard!

jack mastered card towers and taught Ellie one night while they babysitter so Chris and I could go to the temple.

Chris bought a new weber kettle and had to take it for a test drive with some ribs.

we were able to spend a lot of time hanging out with family during December!

caiden was visiting from BYU-I and Morgan and Chris were visiting from st Louis, so we got to spend some time with them. to say that the kids LOVED abby and Kate would be a huge understatement. not to mention how much fun they had playing ping pong with Caiden.

Charlie helped make chili and borrowed uncle Marc's chef's apron. he liked it so much, he told Marc that Marc should buy a new one and give this one to Charlie haha!

jack gave his first talk in sacrament meeting on the 30th and did a fantastic job! seriously proud parents over here!! his talk was on the importance of goals and how they keep us on the covenant path or get us back on it. he did very well and looked so calm and poised. unfortunately Chris was at work that day, but he received a nice text from a pharmacist in the ward that let him know what a great job jack did and that he should be proud of him.

we are.

and Owen was Owen all during December :)