Christmas 2015

Christmas Eve 

Look who's obviously expecting!

Liberty, being the serious little person that she is, knows the true meaning of Christmas and has no qualms letting you know it too.  When her aunt asked her if she was excited for Santa to come, she looked at her with a very serious face and said, "You DO know the real reason we celebrate Christmas is because of Jesus, right?"  

Mary and Joseph....and a Jesus too big for his manger.

The Christmas Eve Gift

Instead of PJ's this year, Reagan got a duvet cover.  Yep, that really is army/dark green.  Sigh.  It was so much more fun to decorate when they didn't care.

 The Night Before Christmas

Everyone went to bed beautifully-with the help of some Christmas Juice.

Christmas Morning

Santa was brilliant and gave the boys the first 3 Star Wars movies in their stockings (which he leaves by their beds) and told them to watch one so their parents could sleep longer. 

***Public Service Announcement*** 

For those of you 30 years old and older, "the first 3 Star Wars movies" means the original 3 created. There are a few things I will never be able to do and which very definitely show my age.  The first is that I will never be able to call BYU Idaho anything but Ricks and the second is that I will never be able to think of the original Star Wars movies as numbers 4, 5 and 6.  They are 1, 2 and 3 and my children and anyone else who wants to converse with me about them will just have to accept that.

Santa left 4,5 and 6 (got that straight in your heads?) for the kids upstairs by the Christmas tree.

Along with dart guns, a life time supply of darts that should last about a month, and MORE Minecraft.

A few favorite gifts:

Liberty's favorite gift this year was the ballerina snow globe her brothers gave her.  She carried it around all day. 

It plays a song from the Nutcracker, which Liberty saw for the first time this Christmas as a present from Mom.

 The boys favorite gift (and let's be honest, Rock's too) was a Minecraft server.  Now they can play together, work together and yes, fight together in their favorite world.

After Christmas we enjoyed a visit from Rock's parents.  They gave Rock and I several hotel nights anywhere in the world!  This was my favorite gift.  We are so excited!  The only problem is that we can't figure out where to go. I want a warm beach somewhere and Rock wants mountains or Europe. I know-'first world problems'.   

There was no relaxing for Grandma while she was here.  She had her hair done at Liberty Dawn's Hair Salon.

 She restocked our home made play-dough supply.

 She took her first cello lesson from Reagan

And she made us some amazing cake pops which are now legendary!  ;-)

Grandpa was not quite so ambitious but he did demonstrate the perseverance it takes to color a whole page in the cool coloring book they gave us.  It was a huge hit at our house, which is shocking considering the fact that we've had stacks of coloring books sitting unused at our house for years until a girl came along and started using them!

 Here is Cade's finished product.  Wish I'd gotten a picture of Grandpa's, it was pretty awesome too.

Grandma and Grandpa joined us for our annual New Year's Eve Finger Food Dinner.  

And that concludes 2015!  

Can't wait to see what 2016 brings.

Never Use an Expired Gingerbread House Kit and Other Useful Advice

We'll start off 2015's Christmas posts with the world's worst gingerbread house.  If you'll remember, last year we were all sick at Christmas.  It was a story I never ever want to relive.  Due to our "Sickmas" we never got around to making the gingerbread house kit I purchased.  Most years we make it from scratch but I must have had some premonition of how last year was going to go because I bought a kit just in case.  Well it went so bad we didn't even get to the kit! We saved it to use this year because sugar never goes bad, right?  Wrong.  The night the kids pulled out the kit to make it, the frosting would only come out of the tube in one long string because it was too old.  So, rather than cry over their plight, they decided to have some fun with it. They made "The World's Ugliest Gingerbread House".  After lots of giggles, they finished their masterpiece.

Rock did actually get around to making a good one this year too.

My favorite part is the pretzel wood pile.

Rock was particularly proud of the icicles and circle windows on the right side. 

The annual Christmas Sunday picture 

Best
(yes, even though Cade looks constipated)

Cutest

Best teen attitude-Never try to get four children smiling at the same time if one of them is a teenager.

Funny

Funnier

If you want a miracle, wait till Christmas.  We love the Piano Guys at our house.  They have been a huge inspiration for our boys.  So of course once Reagan started playing the cello, the boys would want to play together just like the Piano Guys, right?  If you know my boys at all you can imagine what those practice sessions were like.  And if you are imagining what those sessions were like right now, you are lucky, because your imagination is a lot more pleasant than the real thing was and you can simply chuckle at the futility of such a thing.  If you don't know my boys, here's how it would go: Reagan would tell Cade all the things he was doing wrong, Cade would over explode in tears and frustration and I would have to put a stop to Piano Guys II.  But we have Old Pachelbel to thank for our Christmas miracle.  For some reason they decided they wanted to play Pachelbel's Canon bad enough to be patient with each other.  And so, here is our miracle.

Maybe we'll have a Piano Guys II after all.

Stay tuned for more Christmas at the Hymas House.

Levi Turns 8!

Levi turned 8 years old last week! He and I just finished reading Harry Potter 1-3 together so we decided to go with a Harry Potter theme for his party.

What HP party would be complete without the guests entering through Platform 9 3/4?

The party goers had to walk right through the brick wall.  Worked pretty well if I do say so myself.

The Presents:

The Games:

This game was called "Blow the Snitch".  Cade made us some origami snitches that the boys had to blow across the counter.  First one across won.

Levi took this very seriously.

For the next game they each got to choose their own wand.  Although everyone knows the wand chooses the wizard.  Then they had one minute to move as many fruit loops over to the bowl as possible without using their hands.

The highlight of the party, though, was the Quidditch Match.

And last but not least, Mom and Dad's 8 year old Gift, his very own set of scriptures.

We Love you, Levi!  We love your kind heart and your sweet boyish ways.  You are all snakes and snails and puppy dog tails.

18 Years ago

Eighteen years ago this week I came home from a semester in Jerusalem.  Kerri, you are right-it is almost 20 years-and that makes us officially old.  This time of year is always tender to be me because of the time I spent in Jerusalem.  I can hardly get through Christmas carols or talking about my experiences there without getting too emotional.  It did truly change my life.  My faith today is in large measure due to my time there.  And this morning I was reminded of a night I shared with my friends while staying on the shores of Galilee.  I wrote the experience in my journal and I felt like I needed to share it here.  Not sure why.  Maybe this is for you, Kerri, and for all the other girls that night! 

Nov. 20, 1997

“After dinner a group sat around in a our room and talked.  We talked about life and love and Jerusalem.  We talked about our favorite things about Jerusalem-the funny moments, the sad ones.  The moments we’ll never forget.  What sparked the conversation was a letter Jen Browning got from her cousin who was here 10 years ago.  She read it to us as we sat together and it was such a special moment.  Her cousin said that she’d just gone to her 10 year reunion for Jerusalem and it was just like they’d never left.  They were still one big family she said.  She then told of her feelings for Jerusalem-how it had changed her life-how it was home to her-how she thinks of it every day.  It was wonderful to hear her thoughts-to hear her express her love for Jerusalem.  She is now a mother and closed her letter as she was “going Christmas shopping.” As we all sat in our room we knew that would us us in 10 years.  We’ll look back with fond, vivid memories of this wonderful place and experience.  We were all a bit teary eyed as Jen finished reading that letter.  It was like we’d taken a time machine forward while her cousin had taken one back.  It’s so sad to think that it’s almost over, we don’t want it to ever end! We’re kind of in a time warp here.  Our regular lives almost stand still.  To think that we have to go back to the real world soon is scary and sad.  But at the same time it’s exciting. 

We spent the next two hours straight talking about our favorite times or scariest times, our sad moments and our happy ones.  Our most spiritual moments, our favorite field trips, our favorite teachers and their quirky personalities-we laughed and cried- it was the best!!  To sit around with all my friends here-there was at least 10 of us-and bond like that… those are the most precious moments in life I think.  At least most precious to me.  They’re conversations and laughter and tears that I want to just bottle up so I can listen to them later and re-live them.  I was reading in Jesus the Christ later and I found a quote that fit my feelings exactly.  “Mere pleasure is at best fleeting; happiness is abiding, for in the recollection thereof is joy renewed.” That makes me so happy to know that I will be able to look back on my experiences here and by reliving them I will experience the joy I’ve felt all over!  Our happiest moments we can relive and feel joy again!

Then later we went for a walk along the water and happened along Cam Pederson playing his guitar.  We sat down and listened to him sing and play as we looked at Galilee before us and the stars above us.  He sang his Jerusalem, City of Peace song.  It describes our experience here perfectly and all were in tears again.  What a wonderful moment in time-again.  One I would just love to capture.  These moments are so vivid in my mind now and I don’t ever want them to fade.”

Across the ocean are my deepest emotions and memories that will never cease.

Thanksgiving

Reagan’s cornucopia.  I would have used it as the centerpiece if it had been a little bigger.

Thanksgiving went fairly smoothly right up until the turkey came out of the oven.  For those of you who have ever made a Thanksgiving dinner, you know that this is the craziest, most stressful part of the whole day.  To add to this most stressful of moments,  our garbage disposal, clogged with too many potato peels, decided to spring a leak-all over the floor and cupboard right as the turkey came out. 

So Rock went from the glory and prestige of this…..

to this…..
 


And then on to this…

It’s a pity I don’t have a good picture of all the cooks.  They would have enjoyed a tryptophan nap too, I’m sure.

Alli and Liberty snuck downstairs for a little piece and quiet after dinner.



That weekend we went to the Festival of Trees to watch Reagan perform in his first public appearance.  His new school does not have an orchestra, so he is in a group called Fiddle Express this year.  He loves being the only cello.  They make him feel really important.





Here is Jolly Old St. Nicholas in which he has a solo.


 Liberty found her favorite tree very quickly.

This is the “When Pigs Fly” tree.

My personal favorite was the Star Wars Tree that had the Death Star for a star at the top.  I am kicking myself for not getting a picture.  

And that was Thanksgiving. 

Ancient Egypt

We just finished up fall term in our homeschool co-op where I taught a class about ancient Egypt.  I had an absolute blast and I’m pretty sure the kids did too. 

The Queen of Egypt showed up on the first day of class and taught every lesson.  She brought a kid size sarcophagus with her.

On the day we learned about mummies, the kiddos mummified one of their stuffed animals.

They also got to mummify each other.  Then they were laid to rest in the sarcophagus.

This is Levi doing the mummifying.

Each child could write to the Queen of Egypt in Hieroglyphics to earn a treat.  I had several that took the challenge, but one actually sent me a letter in the mail and it said, “Dear Queen of Egypt, What are you going to give me?”.  Well, that little stinker got a letter back (in hieroglyphics, of course) that said, “You’ll have to wait and see.” 

The kids made Egyptian murals to document their learning.

We made pyramids out of sugar cubes. 

I let Liberty make one at home and after a few hours I could already see erosion happening…..

We call this “Saliva Erosion” for those who want the technical term.

I love our co-op!  And I love teaching.  So glad I get the opportunity.  One of the moms in our co-op even blogged about me on her blog!
http://www.mentorofleaders.com/ancient-egypt-comes-to-life/

Next term we’ll be learning about Ancient Greece.  I’m still trying to decide who I’ll be.  Helen of Troy or Venus?  Or maybe Athena!