Kade's Snowballs!

Kade scored an awesome "snowball maker" at the DI.  I'm not sure if that is really what it actually is, but it is at our house and it makes some awesome snowballs.  On a snowy January day he made this nice snowball pyramid!

Origami for Family Home Evening!

One night for the activity for Family Home Evening Quincy was really excited to teach us some origami.  She had just learned how to make these cool swans.  We all got to make one!  Fun times!!

Brinley's projects!!

One day Brinley was bored and couldn't find anything to do so Chris helped her make this little guy!  They raided the recycle box outside and found their supplies.  Good thing Brinley has the best Dad in the whole wide world!!!!

Disneyland 2012!!!

We have been so blessed to go on so many fun trips lately.  Dad had enough points built up at work that we were able to combine the points with our Christmas money and go to Disneyland.  We all voted to wait until January though so that we did not have to deal with the lines over Christmas break.  We left Saturday, January 14th and came home on Sunday, January 22nd.  We headed to St. George where we ate at The Pizza Factory and then spent some time visiting with Dan, Lilly and Kara.  We went to church the next morning and then headed to California.  We stayed in an awesome condo right across the street from Disneyland.  It was perfect.  Here is a brief rundown of what we did

Monday - Newport Beach & Down Town Disney

Tuesday - Disneyland

Wednesday - Disneyland

Thursday - Newport Beach & Whale Watch

Friday - Disneyland

Saturday - Disneyland

Sunday we headed for home!  It was one of the best trips we have ever taken to California.  The weather cooperated pretty well and our kids were the perfect age for Disneyland.  We had sooo much fun together.  None of us wanted to come home to cold, snowy Utah!!  

 The Whale Watch we went on turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip.  We have done this before in San Diego, but this time was sooo much better.  We got so lucky and ended up being there on the one to two days of the year that they see this many killer whales.  They were everywhere and so close to us.  They swam right under our boat.  It was so amazing to see.  I don't know how we lucked out.

We love Disneyland!!  I think we could go every single year and never get tired of it.  It is such a happy place and our kids seem to enjoy it so much.  I just love spending the time together! 

Hopefully we will be back in the future!!

Family Goals for 2012

If you want to reach a goal, you must "see the reaching" in your own mind before you actually arrive at your goal. Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/goal.html#P778AXTqQBipl6AW.99

For Family Home Evening in January we set some Family Goals for the year.  These are the ones we decided we would work on.  I will feel really good if we can accomplish these things this year.

Southwick Family Goals 2012

* Talk and treat each other with Respect &  Kindness

                - soft voices

                - tone of voice - POSITIVE

* Work on Healthy Eating

                - Whole grains, fruits & veggies

                - Kefir and vitamins in the mornings

* Morning Family Scriptures

                - Everyone ready to read by 6:50am

* Family Prayers

                - Family prayer morning & night

                - Food prayers - remember when eating alone

*Family Home Evening

                - Every Monday Night

                - Everyone takes turns teaching lesson

* Work Together

                - Jobs done...mark chart  :)

* Look to the Temple

                - Mom & Dad go at least once a month

                - Kids do baptisms for the dead at least quarterly

* Fun Family Activities

                -Do something fun together once a month

               

* PPI's

                - PPI with Dad in between General Conference on Sunday

* Pay off House in 4-5 years

* Humanitarian Service Trip!!

Kids Favorites

I love to ask the kids a few of their favorite things so that we have them recorded each year. Don't have this for every year..but a few here and there. Here are a few of their favorite things for 2011

Kylee:
Candybar: Reeses peanut butter cups
Cereal: Captain crunch...no crunch balls
Dinner: Turkey steak
Dessert: 4 Layer pudding dessert
Memory: Swimming in the ocean in January with Uncle Bill's family
Holiday: Christmas

Emilee:
Candybar: Take 5
Cereal: Peanut Butter crunch
Dinner: Turkey steak
Dessert: Oreo pie
Memory: Dinseyland
Holiday: Christmas

Kade:
Candybar: Sour skittles
Cereal: Cookie crisp & Trix
Dinner: Steak
Dessert: Oreo pie
Memory: Washington DC
Holiday: Birthday, Christmas & 4th of July!!

Quincy:
Candybar: Hershey's cookies-n-cream
Cereal: Cookie crisp
Dinner: Chicken Taquitos
Dessert: 4 Layer pudding dessert
Memory: Swimming
Holiday: Christmas

Brinley:
Candybar: Tape gum
Cereal: Cookie crisp
Dinner: Nachos
Dessert: Popscicles
Memory: Swimming
Holiday: Christmas & Birthday

Christmas Day 2011

This year...as in years past...we have been blessed enough, mostly through points at Chris' work, that we are going on another trip for Christmas!! Back in October the kids started asking if there was any way that we could go somewhere together again instead of getting presents. We told them no. They even volunteered to earn part of the money themselves. Then miracles happened and more points showed up than we thought. When we got to figuring it out we could see that it would work. It was not a surprise this year...we had them help plan it. They of course wanted to go to Disneyland. We decided we did not want to be there during Christmas break this year because of the crowds, so we are going in January instead. So...for Christmas they each got one Santa gift, a pair of PJ's each that their mother found very cheap on black friday, and their favorite box of cereal. I am always amazed that this seems to be plenty and we have a great christmas every year!!

When you have 5 kids you can fill up a tree with presents with only a couple each...amazing how that works!
Santa was good and left them each a present wrapped in Disney wrapping paper!!
Waiting patiently on the stairs before they were allowed to enter the family room downstairs. Brinley was so funny this year. Kade had been working on us all week about letting him set his alarm and waking up at 6:00am. We told him 7 would be great! Well, little miss Brinley showed up on the side of my bed at 5:30!! She said she just couldn't stand it anymore and she needed to see what Santa had brought. She woke up Quincy and Kade when I sent her away and had them help convince us that it was time to get up. At 6:00 we finally realized that she was not going to let us get anymore sleep and she woke her big sisters up.


Kylee had a "getting ready for College" Christmas! She got a Bed-in-a-bag set (which she helped pay for) and some tupperware. She opened up the tupperware and said, "I got lids"?? That was the joke the rest of the day. It's hard to grow up...especially on Christmas!



Emilee always wants to be surprised. She would not tell Santa what she wanted...so she got a skin for her ipod and a shirt! She was happy and surprised. Mission accomplished!!

Kade gave Santa two ideas and wanted to be surprised to see which one he would get. Luckily Santa was smart and picked the one he was secretly hoping he would get!! He got a wii hunting game.

All Quincy has wanted for two months was a Figit Friend. Luckily Santa honored her wish...it was a little hard for Santa to do this! It looks like a purple alien and tells jokes and dances to music.

Brinley wanted a Baby Alive...the doll that eats and poops!! Oh how fun! Santa was also crazy enough to honor her request. She looooves it!

The kids drew names and traded gifts with each other. They did a great job with this. As a mother, this was probably my favorite part of getting ready for Christmas. The older three spent their own money and they spent a lot of time thinking about what the other person might want. Kylee gave Em this shirt and some lotion from Bath and Body Works.

Quincy gave Kade this big tin of popcorn that he has been drooling over every time we have walked past it in Walmart for the past month! See that big smile on his face!! She also made him a cute note on the inside of a rolled up wrapping paper tube with a picture of him and her together.

Brinley had Kylee and she gave her a big princess coloring book, some crayons and this cute picture that she drew of her and Kylee.

Kade had Brinley and he gave her a memory game that she loves, a big box on Nerds and a candy neclace.

Emilee had Quincy and she got her a huge fuzzy poster to color and a box of candy.

The kids were so nice and gave Chris and I this cute picture of them with their names signed around the picture. We got a basket full of hot cocoa, mugs and our favorite giant sized candy bars!! It was the biggest present under the tree!

Later that afternoon we went to Grandpa and Grandma's for Christmas Breakfast...which had to be at noon because of church! We exchanged gifts after we ate. Brinley and Quincy both got princess dolls for their present.

Kade got this cool watch from Grandpa and Grandma

Kylee and Emilee got clothes...every teenagers love. Kylee got a wool coat and Emilee got a hoodie and some pajama pants.

Grandma was one busy bee this year. She sewed us all these cool aprons!

Dad is modeling his "big bib". Grandma told everyone that the women's were aprons and the men's were bibs. I think that is appropriate.

What a bunch of macho guys in their bibs!!! Hahahaha

Christmas this year was on Sunday. I decided I wouldn't care if it was on Sunday every year. I loved going to church on Christmas morning. We had the choir program and the spirit was as strong as I think I have ever felt it. It was a wonderful spiritual feast and a great time to remember why we celebrate the day.

Merry Christmas everyone!!!

Christmas Eve 2011

Christmas Eve had to be a little different this year. For as long as I can remember we have always celebrated Christmas Eve at my Grandpa and Grandma Hadley's house. Since Grandpa and Grandma are celebrating this year in heaven (I know my Grandpa is so thrilled to finally be there with my Grandma) we had to come up with a different plan. We decided to start the night off by meeting at Grandpa and Grandma Wyatt's house for a visit. We sang some Christmas songs and a few of the kids played a couple christmas songs on whatever instrument they are learning right now. Kade played his clarinet, Em played her saxaphone and Spencer played Grandpa's trumpet because his was home in Gunnison. I thought it was great. We had a nice visit and it was a great start to our evening.

Then we went to Grandpa Tom and Grandma Barb's house for dinner and a little Christmas Bingo. We ate a yummy ham dinner. The kids were pretty excited to play Bingo due to the large bowl of presents that could be won. Everyone played and it was fun.

I thought our first ever Christmas Eve on our own turned out great. We definately missed Grandpa and Grandma Hadley but knowing where they are and the magnificent celebration they are probably having this year...you can't feel too bad about them not being there. It was a great night.

Merry Christmas Eve!!!