La felicidad que se encuentra: Kyle, Jenny, Alexa, Tyler, Tad, Liam, Nathan, and Audrey

Tyler Man turned 7 and chose to take his friends to see Spies in Disguise at the movie theater.  He got a game table, a whoopie cushion, and Legos. Grandpa Sweeny flew out to St. George to help Uncle Rich on his house so we went down for the weekend to say hi.  While Kyle helped them lay cement on Friday we spent the day playing at the St. George's children's museum.  We milked cows, fixed cars, rode dinosaurs, played giant pianos, had a picnic lunch, and lots of fun.  On Saturday we hiked Glitter Mountain and collected crystals, hiked the Black Mountains (where we saw several petroglyphs!), went swimming, and then ate dinner and played games with Peggy and Paul.  Following in his sister's footsteps, Tyler decided to cut his hair because it was getting too long.  What is with these kids and scissors?!! Fun videos from this month: Swingle wrestle mania (which is a daily event)  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgF28wqk6Yo Karaoke night featur

We rang in the new year with Minute to Win it games.  And we stayed in our jammies all day :).  The games included tying a banana around our waist and using it to scoot an apple across the room, sticking our faces in a bowl of whipped cream to find a single blueberry, dressing each other up like snow men using toilet paper for the snow, scooping Cheerios from a spoon held between our teeth and moving them to another bowl, and then some good old fashioned living room corn hole.  We used the Netflix count downs to put the kids to bed early, but Alexa stayed up with Kyle and I until midnight watching the Apple Dumpling Gang on Disney+. Video links: Tad's victory dance Scooting apples with a banana Cheerios We went to the Butterfly Biosphere with Forest and Jen and did soldier hollow tubing with the Lunas. It was the Lunas Christmas gift to us, which I thought was so awesome!  Side note--we accidentally locked ourselves out of our bedroom that morning and don't

I was so happy to stay home this year for Christmas!  There was something wonderful about going to sleep in our own beds on Christmas Eve and waking up together and just being with our little family on Christmas day. We loaned our 8 bunnies to a live nativity in Lehi being staffed by refugees.  We went and they put on a great nativity with activities and a marketplace from ancient Israel, lots of animals like camels, sheep, donkeys, etc. you could pet.  We have made it a tradition to go to the Young Living Country Christmas every year.  They do an amazing job.  It includes live reindeer; wagon rides with their giant Clydesdale horses (that work the farm year-round); story time and cookies with Mrs. Claus; a live nativity complete with a choir of angels, camels, donkeys, etc.; and a western / Christmas village with a post office to mail letters to Santa, a jail, a saloon with free hot chocolate, a general goods store, a barber shop, and a bank all handing out something special to th

Alexa and Tyler had their first violin recital and they did a great job!  They each played a piece by themselves and then had a duet.  Mark was here from England and it was fun to have him join us. We got our first good snow and had fun sledding with the Tates.  Aden has a small snowboard that he let the kids try and they were surprised that I knew how to use it, haha.  I earned cool points with Tyler by snowboarding down the hill without falling :). Tad got hit by a sled as seen in this video and he goes flying, but he thought it was absolutely hilarious to see it on video again and again. We hosted a big group of Swingles for Thanksgiving.  The best part was having Great Grandma Swingle fly in from Arizona.  And Richie and Megan's family stayed with us.  We had fun playing and going to see Frozen 2. Great Grandma Swingle had a sleepover with us after Thanksgiving and helped us put up Christmas decorations.  She even taught the kids how to make tea rings.