Fuzzy Balls!!

This might look like a silly vase of fuzzy balls, but for 5 months at our house it became a very important part of our family!  I thought a lot about this and tried so hard to make it a meaningful expreience for our family.  I was really feeling like we needed to have a greater focus on service.  I was also feeling like we needed to be more accountable for our family scripture study, family prayer and temple attendance!  So..the fuzzy balls came into play!  We had a Family Home Evening and talked about all of these things. We decided each night at family prayer we would go over the day.  We could put 1 fuzzy ball in for morning family prayer, 1 for nightly family prayer, 1 for family scripture study, 1 for going to the temple and 1 each for answering the question "What have I done for someone else today?" We would count them up at the end of the month.  Each fuzzy ball was worth 25 cents!!  Our goal was to see how much money we could earn by the end of May.  This money was to be spent for activities during our trip to Hawaii in June.  The kids understood that if we didn't earn any money, we wouldn't have any money to spend in Hawaii!!  It didn't work perfectly...these plans never do...but it worked well!  We earned almost exactly what we needed to have to do the activities we wanted to do in Hawaii.  

The most important part of this whole experience was getting the chance to reflect back on your day and see what you were able to do for someone else.  I LOVED hearing the things my children did each day.  They were usually small, but it got us trying to look for opportunities.  

We just might have to bring the fuzzy balls back again sometime in the future!!

California!

This was the most spontaneous trip we have ever taken!  It was Christmas Vacation and we realized that with Dad's day off and him also being off for New Years Day, we had a window of time that we could go somewhere together. We talked about many different options.  As he left for work one day I said...you know, if you could take another couple days off work we would have enough time to get to California and back!  We also had 4 free nights in a hotel.  That was all it took.  Dad called me from work an hour later and said he had the days off and we should go.  So we did!  It turned out to be such a fun trip.  Our hotel was awesome.  We spent a lot of time in the hot tub there.  We visited several beaches, found some tide pools and rode bikes along a 22 mile road connecting several beaches together. It really turned out to be one of our funnest trips.  We will have to be spontaneous more often!! 

Christmas Morning!

It's finally here...Christmas morning!  So many surprises and so excited to see what everyone thinks of them!  We did it a little different this year.  We had the kids put their presents to each other in the computer room under the Christmas tree, and Santa left their one present each on the couch in the living room.  The kids opened their present from Santa and then we had them give each other the gifts they made for one another.  It was so fun.  They were each impressed at how much work was put into their gift.  Chris and I also opened our gift from the kids.  They spoiled us!  

Next we headed downstairs for the big reveal!!  Haha! We are so goofy!  The kids wanted to spend their Christmas money on a vacation again, so after looking into it we told them that they would have to wait until June this time, but we could go somewhere really fun because we would have a lot of points saved up.  They were on!  They knew we were going somewhere, but we made them wait until Christmas morning to find out where.  We wanted that part to be a surprise.  So...they walked downstairs to find the basement decorated HAWAIIAN!  We are going to Hawaii in June!  They didn't believe us at first.  Kylee asked if we were "messing with them"!! It took a minute for it to all sink in.  We even had Hawaiian music playing.  Chris and I had way too much fun planning this for the past 2 months!  They each unwrapped 2 more presents...snorkel equipment and water shoes.  WE ARE SO EXCITED! June will not come fast enough I am sure!

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve!

We got together with the Hadley family at Grandma & Grandpa's house.  Aunt Kacey was great and planned a whole bunch of fun "minute to win it" games.  Great fun with the cousins.  We ate lots of yummy food for dinner and had a great time together.

After we finished at Grandpa and Grandma's we went to visit Grandma Wyatt.  She couldn't be with us that night so we took our Christmas to her.

So excited for morning...I can hardly wait!!