Vasquez Rocks, and Other Stuff

Shortly after the new year, we joined some friends for a trip to Vasquez Rocks.  Corinne and I climbed around near the parking lot, but everybody else explored the boulders and had paper-airplane contests.  Connor especially liked the paper airplanes.
  

  

Three-Inch Vertical Ascent

    

Eating Rocks

Airplane

 
As usual, we worked around the house, did school, taught Joy School, and went to the park a bunch.
  

  

Getting the mail is a big privilege.

    

Asleep on the Chair       

  
One Saturday, we met Aunt Helena at the Santa Monica pier and went on a bunch of rides.
     

  

    
Connor and Elise made these cubes at school - they're supposed to illustrate Bible stories or scriptures.  I was impressed that Connor could do Matthew 6:24.  We've been working on it and a handful of other scriptures at home.
  

Connor: Side 1

Connor: Side 2

  

Elise: Side 1

Elise: Side 2

  

Corinne was a big fan.  I had to move them elsewhere.

New Year's Eve

Connor, Elise, and Evan contributed to our holiday decorations with these projects they made at school.  These hung on the sliding glass door for a couple of months, actually.
  

Evan's Hands-and-Feet Reindeer

Connor's Nativity

 

Elise's Nativity

 

  
We stayed close to home the last week of 2013.  Evan had his last days of nursery at church.  During one of those Sundays he made this block tower which he named "downtown."  The nursery leaders were impressed enough to take a picture.
  

  
On the 31st, we got together with our friends for an early New Year's party (it was on New York time, roughly, so we rang in the new year around 9pm.  Evan discovered the drum set in the playroom upstairs, so he stayed out of trouble for at least 45 minutes!
  

Happy 2014!

  
After the party, our family headed to Pasadena to look at the staged Rose Parade floats.  Before we got to the staging area, however, we drove the parade route, and got pelted with shaving cream tortillas, marshmallows, and silly string by everyone camping out overnight.  The kids could have driven like that for hours, but we eventually made them come see the floats with us.
  

Notice Corinne's floppy head.

Silly string doesn't wash off easily.

  
And these were just two pictures I liked:
  

Evan, Sleeping with his Eyes Open

 

Helpers

  

Christmas

On Christmas Eve, Ryan came home early from work with the announcement that we were going on a big hike.  I still hadn't wrapped anything or bought food for Christmas dinner, but I went along anyway.  We drove to La Tuna Canyon, a popular mountain biking trail.  Mostly, the hike was fun, but we took a shortcut that was WAY steeper and more dangerous than Ryan had expected.  I did not enjoy that part, since I kept seeing images of my kids falling to their deaths.  We did make it to the top, though, and Connor even found a geocache (his first all by himself!)  We didn't make it back down until about an hour after sunset.  Luckily we had our phones for light!

 

   
Christmas Day was lovely and uneventful.  We ate waffles and Christmas crab and See's Candy.  Everyone enjoyed their gifts, and since the kids were all sick, we did a lot of resting!
    

  
The Friday after Christmas, we went to our last ice skating lesson of the season.  Since Ryan went with us this time, it was a much better experience.  Evan, strangely, decided that he DID want to ice skate, and went out there all by himself and did great!
  

Pre-Christmas

December is the most hectic month of the year.  Most of it is fun, of course, but still crazy.

Connor continued with his basketball class.  One day, he decided to teach Evan to play (Evan already knew how to dribble and shoot, but not the other rules.)  He was surprisingly sweet with his little brother, and let him win every game.
  

Blocking

Somehow, he scored anyway :-)

 
Ryan and Connor's Cub Scout pack got to march in the Christmas Parade.  They took Elise and Wiley, too.
    

The Daisies had an awards ceremony, during which Elise received her watering can patch (taking care of plants), and her orange petal.
    

Flag Ceremony

 
We had Joy School at our house!  The older kids helped out on Tuesday (they were pretty good, actually,) and on Thursday we made ice-cream-cone Christmas trees.  We also did our Christmas Pageant for the moms.  It wasn't exactly polished, but that just made it cuter.
     

Connor Reading "Where the Wild Things Are"

   

Evan the Shepherd, Waiting for his Cue

Singing

"Jingle Bells"

   
Our ward Christmas party was the day after my birthday.  We were NOT late for once, and the kids got to see Santa!  There was an amazing nativity program after the dinner, put on by the Primary kids and a handful of very talented grown-ups.
    

Shepherd and Angel (Yes, I reused the Joy School costumes!)

Connor and Elise had their Christmas piano recital.  They both worked really hard to prepare for it, and I was super proud of them!  They both do really well under pressure.  Connor played "Joy to the World" (duet) and "Silent Night" (alone).  Elise did "Dance of the Reed Flutes" - from The Nutcracker (alone), and "Away in a Manger" (duet).

We drove all the way to Santa Clarita to find a Christmas tree lot where you cut your own tree.  It was dark when we got there, so the kids took turns holding the lights and using the saw.
 

Connor and Elise's school did their annual Christmas program.  It made me cry.  It was that good.  We actually got a babysitter so Ryan and I could attend without the little ones.  The lighting wasn't great, though, so I didn't get much in the way of pictures.  
   

We got a picture of a few of the kids before the show.  (We were EARLY!)

"Deck the Halls" Played on Boomwhackers

We put up lights this year, although Evan kept knocking them off the fence with his baseball bat.  We read Christmas stories by candlelight most nights (everybody fought over whose turn it was to blow out the candles), and watched as many Christmas movies as we could squeeze in.  We got Godiva chocolates for all the neighbors, and meant to deliver treats to friends, but I didn't make them in time, so we ended up eating them ourselves.  It was a pretty good Christmas season!