Happy New Year!!!

We invited Evan, Suzanne and family along with 

our friends the Maughans over for New Year's Eve. 

We had great finger food, played games, and had a great time!

Lauren and Emma doing their thing while waiting for the ball to drop.

Look at that cute girl.  Stacy was making sure she stayed in 

touch with all her friends to wish them a Happy New Year!

What night would be complete without video games.  

All the boys were getting into it.

Justin and Bennett!

Bennett with Erin!  Elsie went to bed at her regular time, 

so she's not in any of these pictures.

Erin and Justin!

Jared toasting the New Year!

Lauren doing the same!

Craig, Scott, Sharon and James Maughan

Robb, Bradley, Suzanne, Evan, Emma, and Stacy Brooksby

Glen, Michelle, Lauren, Erin & Justin Wilson, and Jared Brooksby

The Saratoga Children's Museum

We took Elsie and Bennett to the Saratoga Children's Museum while Jared, Justin and Glen stayed home and installed vent fans in both upstairs bathrooms. I'm pretty sure we had more fun!

Elsie wasn't too keen on the museum at first.
There were a lot of kids there, and it was kind of noisy. 

They had a fire engine that the kids could play in,
and clothing for them to put on.  

Bennett was loving being a fireman.

This was a huge bubble ring.  

If you pulled it very slowly you could
raise a bubble wall all around you. 

Bennett had fun dressing up like a
construction worker and building things!

Lauren snapped a photo of me.

There was a play diner with a counter and booths.  There was a kitchen with tons of food and pots and pans.  The kids both played there for a long time.  They were having a blast.  Bennett would come and ask what you wanted to order.  We tried to order food we could see that they had.

One time Erin asked for an apple -
and this is what Bennett gave her - a BIG apple (honeydew)!  

We laughed about that!

The Christmas Puzzle

Each Christmas for at least the last five years our family has worked on a puzzle.  Usually the puzzle has something to do with winter, but this year it didn't.  Lauren picked out one for us to work on and so we worked on one that was summery.  We finally finished it after Christmas.  

 Here's a picture of us after we completed it.
Even Bennett found a few places to put pieces.

 Erin, Jared, and Lauren picked it up like this
before we took it all apart. 

Back into the box until we work on it another year.
I have to say I was happy to have my table back!

New York State Museum

The day after Christmas we took Bennett
and Elsie to the NY State Museum. 

We had a lot of fun wandering around.

Elsie warmed up to Jared and thought it was great that he would carry her around.

Talk about two cute little munchkins!

OK, this is everyone but me. Isn't that how trips and vacations go. There's always one person missing.

Jared and Elsie.

They had some people there performing and they had instruments so the kids could play along.

There was also a FREE carousel that everyone could ride. 

 Elise wasn't sure she liked it, but Bennett loved it!

Christmas Day!

Our family tradition has always been to meet in someone's bedroom for family prayer before we line up (from youngest to oldest) to head downstairs. Glen always goes down to make sure Santa has come, and then we head down. It was so fun to have Elsie and Bennett here. Their excitement was contagious! We take turns going from youngest to oldest opening one package at a time. It took a while, but I think it is really fun to see everyone's reactions to their presents.

 Oh the joy, Santa brought Bennett a Hot Wheels track and cars.  He was soooo excited!

 Elsie got a bouncy horse.  We all told her it was "Dominick the Donkey"

 Jared with a bluetooth speaker.

 Glen with a pair of flannel lined jeans from L.L.Bean.

 Justin - the grill master!

 Bennett with Legos - and so it begins!

 Lauren with the t-shirt Jared gave her from BYU-Provo. 

 She's waiting to see if she's been accepted there.

 Erin holding her "make" from Glen.  It's our family motto.

 Lauren with luggage - college, here I come.

Michelle with her necklace from Dave and Cathy Brooksby. Thanks!

Pre-Christmas Excitement!

Christmas 2013 was wonderful.  We were lucky enough to have Erin, Justin, Bennett, and Elsie with us.  Along with Jared who was home from BYU-Provo.  But we really missed Brett and Brighton, who weren't able to come this year.

Our Christmas tree before all the presents and people arrived!

The Wilsons!

Elsie and Bennett in the Christmas clothes

Glen, Michelle, Lauren, and Jared the Sunday before Christmas.

Christmas Eve dinner.  We had a pork roast, funeral potatoes, homemade rolls and asparagus.  Yum!

Oh, the anticipation!  Bennett left his letter to Santa.

The Wilson's have a tradition of spending Christmas Eve sleeping outside.  So Lauren, Jared, and Justin decided they'd sleep out here. And it was super cold.  They borrowed warm sleeping bags, and covered up.  I think Lauren came in around 2:00am, but Justin and Jared stayed out the whole night.  Crazy!

Halloween

 This is the Jack-o-lantern Lauren carved - she didn't cut it out hoping that when a light was lit it would shine through.  But the walls of the pumpkin were way too thick to see a tiny tea light.  She carved a measure of music.

 Our traditional Halloween dinner!

 Pizza with a jack-o-lantern face on it. 

The kind of pizza can vary from year to year, but the face is always there.

 Every kid's favorite - Jello Jigglers!

 Heck, we even threw in a salad for a little bit of nutrition!

 And we ALWAYS have sugar cookies shaped like pumpkins, bats, and ghosts!

 

 Here's what my jack-o-lantern looked like.  Why the HUGE nose you ask.  Well it's because I carved the pumpkin that Lauren had used for an activity with her church group on Tuesday night.  They played pin the nose on the pumpkin and she had drawn a bulls eye with rings around it with points.  So when I carved the pumpkin I just followed the face she'd already drawn on it with Sharpie the Tuesday before.

 

Here's what Lauren's looked like all lit up!

Unfortunately it was rainy and cold here for Halloween so we didn't end up having many trick-or-treaters.  Now we have a lot of left-over candy.  Darn!