A few pre-Christmas events worth noting:

Libby got her first job working as a lunch helper at school. In December she got her first paycheck!

Levi and Alli celebrated their birthday.

Alli and I went skiing at Bogus for a day. It was an awesome day of skiing and so nice to ski with someone who is at the same level as me. We conquered Silver Queen that day!

Christmas Eve

Levi and Rock have been learning how to play the guitar this year so they played Silent Night for everyone at our Christmas Eve family breakfast. It was AWESOME!

The LEGO Christmas Day

I thought my kids had outgrown LEGO’s but Santa apparently knew something I didn’t.

We thought it would take them a week to finish their creations, but it only took them a day! Hopefully it is a day they will remember forever.

Possibly Liberty’s favorite Christmas gift was a set of earrings and permission to pierce her ears. We had to go out as soon as we could to do it and the aunts got to go along.

After Christmas Rock’s parents came to visit.

They wanted to see Reagan in action at work, so we took a trip to Fred Meyer Jewelers and he sold them some beautiful jewelry!

And that was Christmas 2021!

Cade was in Into the Woods this fall. He was Prince Charming and was fabulous! He hammed it up and sang his heart out. It was so fun to see my kid up there being that amazing! I wish I could post a video of him on stage, but we weren’t allowed to film it. So after pictures will have to do.

This year was Libby’s first time at Pie Night! Our ward gets together every November for one night of pie making. We donate over a hundred pies to the local homeless shelter. It is one of my favorite things about November!

Also this month, Rock and Levi ran a 5K. Levi won 2nd place overall and Rock won 1st place for his age group. What’s really funny is the size difference of their trophies.

Rock says the best feeling in the world is when your son is better at something than you.

Well, turns out I still got to take all four of my kiddos to the Pumpkin Patch one more time. Love this tradition. Someday I will make a book of all the Halloween blog posts and pictures to put out just at Halloween to show the history and growth of our family.

Happy Halloween!

We were back to school for real this year! Here’s the first day of school pics:

Levi was the best in his school at Cross Country this year and 3rd at Districts. Several times he won the meet he was at and it was super exciting! He had a great season!

The Spirit of Boise-Balloon Stampede

We haven’t been to this in years and it was fun to watch all the balloons inflate and take off into the air. No matter how old you get, it’s still exciting.

Homecoming 2021

Liberty ran for student office! Personally, I think her slogan was the best. She didn’t win, but I am so proud of her for being brave and trying!

The school year is off to a great start!

We asked the kids where they’d like to go for possibly the last whole family trip we take before Reagan leaves home. They all voted for Washington. They wanted to do go back to where we lived, played, ate, etc. when they were tiny. And Liberty wanted to see it for the first time. So that was our big family trip for the summer of 2021. Washington State to our old stomping grounds.

First Stop: Duvall

We had to eat at Ixtapa, of course! Our very favorite-still to this day-Mexican restaurant.

We often picked blackberries in Duvall, so we had to do that too!

We also went to visit Reagan’s favorite playmate from when he was little. I am so sad we didn’t take a picture of them together. It was a blast to visit with her and her mom-she was my favorite playmate too! 🙂 Since I didn’t get a grown up picture, here’s a little one.

Next stop Mount Rainier National Park!

It was a great trip down memory lane. The best part might have been staying in this Airbnb in Redmond-where we would love to have lived could we have afforded it back then! The backyard was amazing and just the right place for my evergreen loving boys. It was bittersweet for Reagan especially to take this trip. He has so many happy memories from Washington. He now thinks he wants to live there someday.