Thirty-eight and counting

This year the birthday snuck up pretty fast after Christmas and New Year's.  We had a ton going on.  But my boys pulled through and made it a great day.  They made a wonderful breakfast and then we got to celebrate with a great dinner, vanilla bean cheesecake, and a movie night.  I never feel like I am getting older on my birthday (although each birthday of a child makes me think maybe I am getting older), but life gets sweeter each year. 

Basketball Season 2014-2015

Basketball started in November for Mason and Drew.  Mason for the 9th grade team and Drew at the YMCA.  The one thing about Chile was sports like basketball weren't super strong, so these two have been working hard to play hard.

Mason had practice times that were all over the place.  Every week was different, they could be at 6am Monday, 7:45pm Tuesday, Friday at 3:30, whenever the gym was open.  We were constantly checking our calendars to make sure Mason got where he needed to be at the right time.  It was a lot of fun to cheer Mason and his team on.  Mason worked hard and saw great improvement over the season - even some amazing 3 pointers.
Drew played for the YMCA with his Dad as coach.  He is actually still playing (I am way behind in blogging).  He is doing the extended season and has his last game this Saturday, March 7.  He went from this shy guy to one aggressive player.  It has been a lot of fun to watch.  He always plays hard and has a good grasp of the game.  He is especially good at setting screens.

 This one went in.

 This shot went in too.

 Setting the screen.

 Not the clearest, but not being timid here.

 Coach Mark.

Happy 2015!

We were able to celebrate New Year's Eve and New Year's Day morning with our great friends the Snarr's.  We were so happy that they could come and we could be together.  We love being together with this great family.  The years keep passing, our kids keep getting bigger, but it always feels comfortable being with these friends.  

 Keeping up with tradition.  We had cheese fondue for dinner - the kids tolerate and the adults love.  And then chocolate fondue for dessert, which of course no one can get enough of and we eat until it hurts!

 Tod - these two pics are for you to remember those awesome PJ's with the feet in them that our very manly boys were wearing.  

White Christmas 2014

Christmas 2014.  Back in the northern hemisphere!  It was a perfect Christmas Eve and Day at home, enjoying our family and thinking on that first Christmas Day, the birth of our Savior.  We even had a little bit of a white Christmas.  

Christmas Eve Night, sprinkling out the reindeer food in preparation for Santa's deliveries.

 Good morning beautiful Christmas Day.  With a dusting of the white stuff.  

 After the unwrapping came a day of playing with all things new.  A day to celebrate Christ and our family.  How blessed we are!

Playing the Piano

Mason and Drew had their piano recital the weekend before Christmas.  They haven't had a recital since we left Iowa, so it was a big deal.  They both did so well.  I was really proud of them.  They are back with the best piano teacher ever.  We recorded both of them with our video camera, but pictures were only taken of Drew.  

A Real Tree!

While in Chile we used our fake pre-lite tree.  We didn't really use the lights on it because we worried about the electrical wattage burning out the lights.  We did however plug it in the last Christmas we were there on Christmas Eve (hopefully it still works).  So the point is, while there we just craved a real tree to fill our house up with it's pine scent and have the lights on all the time.  Since it was summer it was so light until so late that even if we had the lights on, you probably wouldn't have noticed them.  

So Saturday after Thanksgiving we picked out a real tree that filled our house with the scent of pine.  Sunday afternoon after church we decorated.  It was a beautiful tree and I loved it!  We were all very excited about it.  

Mason is such a goof ball.  So now I can post the pictures since in everyone he has a crazy face.

 I missed our mantel while we were gone!

Dallin's turn this year.  And that poor tree was always leaning.  We tried correcting it many times, but it just liked to lean.  So we had the leaning tree of Pisa this year.