Really, these kids are getting too big and too old for all our traditions. There’s not room for them on the fireplace and there’s just barely enough room in front of the tree. Nevertheless, here we are again-Christmas Eve gift opening. I failed to get a picture of them in their new duds because we did something different this year and gave them a choice of two things in the box. It was pretty much chaos after that and I neglected to take a picture of the final choices. Note to self-never give a choice.

Rock tried REALLY hard to get the kids to sleep in on Christmas morning. And they did actually sleep in-sort of, some of them. Either way we started later than we ever have. Alli and Cam who were staying at our house could not believe how long everyone slept. It was a Christmas miracle.

I got a fancy new vacuum that will let me clean my stairs easily. Yeah, I’m pretty boring.

I even got to build legos this year. That was a first! Cade got me this for Christmas this year!

Reagan has kept the kids stocked in Legos for the past few years and this year was no different. He is too generous for his own good.

Cam’s Ham and Cam’s Yams

We love having Cam in the family because he makes our holiday meals amazing. There are other reasons, too, but that one is in the top 5. 😉 This year for Christmas dinner he smoked ham and put the most delicious glaze on it. He was very excited about his glaze. He opened the lid, breathed in deeply and said, “Mmmm smells like Christmas!” After glazing the ham he then took a blow torch to it! It was very exciting. The kids stopped building legos or playing minecraft I can’t remember which, to come up and watch.

I don’t know who asked Santa for more of Cam’s yams but he brought those too! Thanks for all the yummy food this Christmas, Cam and Allie!

This year my parents made the kids work hard for their gifts. They put some money inside these crazy maze boxes and to get it to open they had to solve the maze. The boys especially loved the challenge.

It was great to see Rock’s parents after Christmas and to have them here for Cade’s homecoming. They got each of the boys (the ones over 40, too) these awesome headlamps. All you have to do is wave your hand past it to turn it on or off so taking this picture took a really loooong time. lol

They also got us each a really cool pair of socks.

It was so awesome to have everyone home at Christmas. I love that Reagan is so generous and wants to keep the magic alive. I love that Cade still counts every present under the tree even if he pretends not to. I love that Levi is patient with both those things. And I love that Libby still can’t sleep the night before Christmas. Can’t wait to see what 2026 has in store for each of them and for Rock and I.

Captured this amazing sunset in early December. It looks more like a fire than a sunset! We have had the most mild winter I think I’ve ever experienced outside of Washington. Most days we haven’t even needed a coat outside!

Libby had her Christmas piano recital. This may be her last. 😦 She has become too busy with school and ballet. She played the Piano Guys-We Saw Three Ships. It was very hard and she did awesome!

Levi and Liberty had their Christmas concert on the 18th. After the concert the choir sang happy birthday to Levi.

This song is well worth the listen!

Levi got a big brother home from his mission for his birthday so we had to celebrate a few days later.

Rather than wrap Levi’s birthday present, we had Liberty walk into the room modeling it. He laughed so hard!!! I’m so sad I didn’t get a video of HIS reaction!!

Here’s the suit on Levi with his new birthday tie from G & G Hymas.

Levi and Liberty were asked to be a part of the shadow nativity for our ward Christmas party. It was really really cool. See if you can figure out where they are.

Just before Christmas Reagan took us to the antique store he’s been working at during the holidays. It was very cool.

My goofy kids. Depending on when Levi goes on a mission, this might be the last Christmas picture of all four of them for a while. They are all big enough now I should probably have them stand. They’re almost too big for the fireplace!

December 18th was a big day this year for several reasons. First, it was Levi’s Golden birthday, second, Levi and Liberty’s Christmas choir concert and third, Cade came home from his mission. I’ll cover Levi’s birthday and the concert in my next post, but this post will just be Cade’s homecoming.

After serving for 2 years as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, he said a tearful goodbye to his mission presidents and the Fort Collins Mission and flew home. Well, not without a 3 hour layover in Salt Lake. At 10:00 that night, he finally arrived in Boise. I was SO excited to see him and give him a huge hug! I was a teary mess all day long. It was wonderful to be reunited. Here’s the hug video. 🙂

The ride home from the airport was unreal. The kids were SOOO excited with everyone talking at once. For that one night no one was annoyed or angry and they just reveled in being in one another’s company again. There are a few of those magical moments of pure joy in life and this was one of those.

Cade’s homecoming talk was a few days after Christmas and he did a wonderful job. It has been so fun to see how much he’s grown and to watch him put the lessons he learned into practice in our home. It’s been really cool to see his maturity and the ways in which he leads out in our family and with his siblings now. And speaking of changes, this picture was taken the day of Cade’s farewell. These are two of his closest friends.

But this was taken the day of Cade’s homecoming. Big changes!

It has been wonderful to have Caderade home. But he’s off to college again and leaves on January 5th to BYUI where he’ll room with 5 other missionaries from his mission. He’s super excited and we are excited for him!

On November 1st on our way to Levi’s state meet in Lewiston, we visited Monica at the monastery she was staying at for a month. She took us on a tour of the beautiful and peaceful grounds before we headed to the race. It was awesome of her to come support Levi and great to see her.

Levi went to a dance with a girl from Rocky and the pictures turned out so cute!

Liberty got to be a mother for a weekend. Her Parent/Child Development class assigns each student a robot baby that cries until you figure out whether it needs food, a diaper change, or to be held. It tracks all the care you give it and you get a grade based on how well you do. It even woke up in the middle of the night!

Levi got his wisdom teeth out just before Thanksgiving break. He was totally loopy afterward and we got lots of great video of him.

Also this this month, Levi grew a mustache for No Shave November. He was quite proud of it, but Libby was not a fan and kept bugging him to shave it. He made it all the way to the end of the month though and was proud of his work. He even got it immortalized in his Senior Yearbook picture. I had already paid a fortune for professional pictures, so I was not too concerned about the immortalizing of the stache.

Reagan came home for Thanksgiving and is staying for the whole month of December. He got two seasonal jobs to work while here. He sells meat and cheese platters at Hickory Farms in the mall and he discovered an quaint little antique store in downtown Eagle that he wanted to work at so badly, he convinced the owners to hire him even though they weren’t really in need of anyone new. This boy can talk people into anything.

Our Thanksgiving was a quiet one this year. We just had my parents over for dinner and then the Byam crew came over for dessert. We got to talk to Cade a lot that day. He is now out of his cast and has no pins in his pinky. He’s started playing piano again and has done some PT that has helped a lot.

I did not take one picture on Thanksgiving, apparently. Grateful for another good year. Grateful that Cade will be home soon. And grateful for all our blessings.

Levi just finished up his last season of high school cross country. It has been an emotional rollercoaster of a ride for him and for those who love to watch him run. He learned so much and grew so much through his time in cross country. It’s not an easy sport. It requires mental as well as physical toughness. He had an amazing first year and then a few harder years and then finished up with another great year and a time he was proud of. His competitive spirit often struggled with his “better angels”. But his highs and lows taught him to weather disappointment and bounce back. He learned how to lift and build his teammates even when he had a bad race. The most important lesson he learned is to always look forward to the next goal, not behind at the past. Play to Win, don’t just play to not lose. I’m really proud of this kid and who he has become through this awesome sport.

Levi was the only one on his team who got to go to state ALL 4 YEARS.

Congratulations, Levi! We are so proud of your dedication to this sport, your team and the perseverance you have shown throughout.

In September I flew to San Diego to attend a Jody Moore workshop with my good friend Adrianne. It was so fun to hang out with one of my favorite people and learn from one of my favorite teachers! We learned a ton and had a blast exploring San Diego.

When I got back from San Diego we celebrated Rock’s birthday. He made another beautiful pie! Caramel Apple Sage!

Reagan flew to North Carolina to look at flight schools in September. He’s decided that’s what he wants to do next! He got to fly this airplane-with the help of an instructor. 😉 He ended up choosing a flight school in Utah because it was cheaper and he had more friends and family there. He ran into a bit of a snag with his plans, though, and will have to wait 18 months to really start the process. There are lots of stupid hoops to jump through for the FAA.

He was still in Texas on his birthday so we sent him to Red Lobster for a birthday dinner and then we played Hot Seat over Zoom with he AND Cade, cause it was Cade’s P-day. It was really fun! I can’t wait till all my kids are home at Christmas!

In October Cade broke his right pinky for the SECOND time doing the same thing as last time; playing basketball. It was so bad that he had to have surgery! He was able to have the surgery in Wyoming, rather than coming home, but being in another state when your child has surgery that ends with pins in his hand and the only person taking care of him afterward is a brand new 18 year old missionary, is not an experience I would like to repeat.

He got the pins out this week after 6 weeks in a sling/brace and is already trying to play the piano again. Hopefully that, combined with PT will get him almost back to normal by Christmas. The Dr. seemed to think it wouldn’t take long. But he also told Cade NO BASKETBALL!!

Levi went to Homecoming in October with a friend from his cross country team. He dressed up like a gangster to ask her because they were in Portland and according to Levi there are a lot of gangsters there. Don’t ask me to explain the sign. 😉

I am really glad Levi has such a good group of friends.

Halloween came and went this year with the least amount of attention we’ve ever given it! Levi had the state cross country race 5 hours away the next day so we were driving on Halloween. First time in 25 years that we didn’t get to pass out candy to trick or treaters. 😦 But, we did manage to get some pumpkins carved. Did not, however, get a picture of them lit.

Lastly, I would be remiss if I did not share the amazing lengths to which my awesome brother in law goes to to show loyalty to his team on game day.

But it totally paid off this time cause he got this!

I might frame this one, it makes me smile every time I see that face! At the very least his wife should frame it. 😉

Our last few days in England we saw some pretty awesome stuff. First, was Blenheim Palace, pronounced like Blenem, not Blenhyme.

This is one of the biggest houses in England. The website claims it is England’s greatest Palace. Having never been in Buckingham Palace, I don’t know if that’s true, but it is certainly more grand on the outside. Winston Churchill was actually born here and spent much of his youth here as well. It was fun to learn more about him as we took the tour. Again, no pictures were allowed inside, but it was truly stunning. Think-Versailles-but less ostentatious-more reserved, more, well, English. I will need to use pictures from online to show you what it was like. They were restoring the whole front entrance so I couldn’t get good pictures anyway. Just the ceiling mural was beyond incredible. It was lowered down because of the restoration work and we got to see it up close. But this picture is what it looks like normally.

The grounds were amazing at Blenheim as well. Lovely trees and ponds and lakes that went on for miles.

Two British men stopped and asked us where we were from at this pond and we had a lovely conversation about the relative ages of our country’s histories while watching the swans.

From the above bridge you can see a creepy old tree that was used in a one of the Harry Potters.

And yes, there was also a Mission Impossible scene filmed in the courtyard of Blenheim.

Tower of London

On our last day in England we went to see the Tower of London. “This imposing castle, located on the banks of the River Thames, has served as a royal palace, prison, mint, and stage for political intrigues for over 900 years.”

It was interesting to wander around this place and see all the history and hear about all the gory details of life in a palace/prison. The crown jewels were fun to see too! They had crazy security, which, after the Louvre theft recently, I understand. You couldn’t even stand next to them, they moved you by on a moving walkway.

Honestly, though, even more than the Tower of London, I loved the Tower Bridge. I didn’t realize last time we were in London how big it really is. It’s an amazing bridge. Far more exciting than the London Bridge. lol.

The next day we said goodbye to this wet, green island. We had such a “lovely” time and have more we want to go back and see! Till we meet again, England!

Windsor and Winchester

I wanted to see both Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace but we opted for the more historical of the two and visited Windsor. It was very cool to see a real castle, still in use. Queen Elizabeth loved this home more than any other place. She and her family were whisked away to the castle at the start of WW II and stayed there throughout, but her son only uses it for state visits. Just a few weeks after we got home, they hosted Donald Trump there.

After a yummy lunch of fish and chips we drove to the town of Winchester to see the longest cathedral in Europe, Winchester Cathedral. It was really amazing.

We wandered through the quaint little town of Winchester and had dinner.

Rather than cram everything into this post, I’m going to do one more post to finish up our trip. Stay tuned for Blenheim Palace and the Tower of London!

On the Sunday of our trip we attended St. Mary’s parish church in Henley. We could hear the bells ringing all the way from our cottage. This church’s foundations were built in the 1200’s!

After church we went to a Sunday Roast at the Angel Restaurant (below). Sunday Roast is a big deal and a big meal in England. There was more food on my plate than I’ve ever seen. Some of it I liked, some I did not. However, Rock loved it all.

After our very large meal we drove to Basildon Park, another large estate in England used now as a tourist venue, but where Mr. Bingley’s house, Netherfield Park, was filmed in Pride and Prejudice as well as some of Downton Abbey. The grounds were beautiful and we had a lovely walk in and out of the rain as we wandered on the huge property.

In the dining room/ballroom I had Rock take my picture by this random window. When we went home that night we watched Pride and Prejudice and I discovered it was the same window as in one of my favorite scenes from the movie!

Silly, I know, but cool for Austen fans like me.

A walk that I imagined Elizabeth Bennett walking on her way to Netherfield Park. Sorry it’s so big-I can’t get it smaller for some reason.

Stay tuned for the final (I think!) post from England!

Our day in Oxford was definitely a highlight. Being in this town that has been the center for knowledge, education, history and architecture for centuries was thrilling. And seeing many of the places Harry Potter was filmed was kinda fun too. 😉

The Bodliaen is one of the oldest libraries in the world. And also one of the biggest. It was first build tin 1602. It’s books are so precious that you aren’t even allowed to check them out. EVER. And it’s always been that way. Even King Charles couldn’t check out a book there. Below is the sign/promise you make when entering.

We definitely didn’t get to see as much of Oxford as I would have liked. I wanted to go back and spend a second day there, but there was just too much other stuff to see. Ah well. Someday I will go back and walk along the Thames as it winds it’s way through Oxford.