A Morales Minute

We had an array of snacks and goodies to eat for our dinner and to munch on while playing games to celebrate on New Years Eve.  Playing charades.  Olivia wrote down the things we would act out. She went with a Star Wars theme.  Playing Sorry! We also put together a puzzle. It's the Frozen puzzle there with Olaf the snowman enjoying laying on the hot beach.  We watched the ball drop and yelled Happy New Year and kissed at midnight...eastern time. 😁 Then we finished the game we were playing. When it was done the boys went to bed.  Tyler was brushing his teeth and after he spit in the sink he said "Hey where's my tooth!" We're thinking he must have spit the tooth in the sink and the running water pushed it down the drain. He was pretty sad but a note to the tooth fairy seemed to help. I'm sure she'll find it and if not he will probably get his money that he was worried about.  The girls went to bed a little afte...

My Grandma Mary Rae Naylor turned 90 today! I don't get to see her very often as she's in southern Idaho. I missed her birthday celebration but I'll get to see her this summer!

December 27, 2002. Our wedding day. :) It doesn't seem like we've been married for 13 years but it also feels like he's been with me my entire life. I really couldn't have asked for a better life. I remember my uncle Dave asking me some years back if it's what I thought it'd be. It really is! The toughest part of our marriage for me is parenting. I can be with Jaime and never get bored or tired of him. It's the taking care of the babies when they cry, potty training, always packing a diaper bag, dealing with infant carseats when shopping, dealing with kids while shopping, they're costly, cleaning up vomit and potty accidents, the disciplining, dealing with picky eaters, getting them to bed, helping with homework, constantly having to clean up after them...that's the stuff that's hard. Marriage for me is easy, however, without that hard stuff I wouldn't have my kids. I wouldn't have my family. If I had to go back in time and decide to g...

Tyler finally got to get a test ride in on his bike! It was short lived though because we headed out to celebrate Christmas with Bel. Sitting at the table eating appetizers and visiting with Aunt Bel about Christmas. Diana stayed the night at Bel's on Friday and got up early to get lunch ready for us. She made roast and potatoes for lunch. After eating the kids were ready for another round of gifting.  Uncle Chris and Aunt Bel gave Tyler a Star Wars tie fighter Lego set.  They gave Aidan a Star Wars AT-DP Lego set.  They gave Olivia a Lego elves treehouse set.  They gave Lindsey a science kit and a doll came with the set. She can hardly wait to do some science experiments.  I made Bel another head scarf out of Seattle Seahawks fabric. The girl is so cute and kept saying she was going to cry as she opened it and then as she was opening the book we gave her.  It was a book I made of our ...

Christmas Morning! This was the earliest my kids have ever woken up for Christmas. Going to bed early must have something to do with that. I heard Lindsey up at 5 am. At 5:30 am I heard her and Olivia talking. A little before 6 I heard them walk out to the family room. at 5:57 they came in to ask me if they could wake the boys. I let them of course. ;) They were all so excited and happy with what they found next to their stockings. Tyler was quick to ask to open gifts under the tree since he couldn't do much with a bike. :)  Jaime stopped before handing out the first gift and suggested we go down to the living room to turn over the advent calendar for December 25th. It was Tyler's turn. I love my advent calendar. Not only does it tell the story of Christ's birth but also about his life, miracles, death, and resurrection and what it means for us.  After the scripture we knelt down in our circle for family prayer. Jaime asked me to say it. Immediately after...

We planned to celebrate Christmas Eve with Jaime's family this year. With Bel having cancer it kind of changed plans. Bel had a chemo treatment on Tuesday December 22 and the second and third days are always the worst so she knew she'd be laying down and in bed most of Christmas Eve and Christmas day. Jaime's parents wanted to go be with her on Christmas Eve and not come to our house so I was debating on going to my parents but then Bel told her parents not to come to her house because she'd be feeling so yucky and sleeping. So Martin, Diana and Marcus did come to our house Christmas Eve but they only stayed about about an hour and a half then went to go see Marty's family. We didn't open gifts with them on Christmas Eve like we usually do. Instead we just saved them for Christmas morning. Our home all lit for the evening. A friend gave me the luminaries to light the way. I really like how they look. And I can't believe Jaime and I for...

Tonight we made cups of hot cocoa and headed out to look at the Senske 'Dancing' Lights Show.  The lights and music to it is so magical. It's amazing what light and sound and can do to the senses and when it's Christmas music and lights it's just that much better! We've done this for the past 4 years. Without even planning on making it a tradition it just sort of became one. That's probably how many traditions start, unintentionally, but I know that some people plan on certain things to make into traditions. This just became something everyone wanted to do and we enjoy it so...yeah. We'll probably do it next year too. :)

The boys wore Santa hats on the last day of school in 2015. Off to spread the holiday cheer! Aidan came home with an award for compassion. He really is compassionate. When anyone is feeling sad or hurt he's happy to help them. I have been told many times by friends that their child didn't want to go to preschool, kindergarten, or primary but it was because Aidan was so kind to them that they would go. This year Aidan's teacher told me that when someone was hurt in class they'd choose Aidan to help them and he was always more than happy to. Bel had another round of chemo today. She's had a rough go of it. She didn't want to go today and needed a bit of encouragement that she'd be ok. I hate seeing her go through this but for some reason it's trial she needs to go through. Bel's asked me to give her a scripture each week for her to read. This week I came across this one. Isaiah 40:13. I included the footnotes for clarificatio...

I had to get a picture of Aidan's letter to Santa. He sat at the table on his own and would ask a bit of spelling as I was in the kitchen. He wants the Imaginext Millennium Falcon. It's actually a Playskool toy but the size of the characters with it was about the same as Imaginext so he groups them all together.  Monday I went on my third field trip of the year. I accompanied Lindsey and the other sixth graders from her school to the planetarium. It was a cool learning video and presentation on the stars and planets. I'll admit, my kid is pretty knowledgable in this stuff! After the kids got home from school I took them to the library for a hot cocoa with Olaf event. There were crafts for the kids (which they ran out of in the first 15 minutes. They weren't expecting a turn out of half the city to show up.) There was story time, hot chocolate, and pictures with Anna, Elsa, and Olaf.  We didn't stay too long as it was way to crowd...