Our Growing Family: 2017

Friday, December 22, 2017

Santa

Monday we visited Santa at Bass Pro Shop.

Advent

Sunday morning Ben lit the Advent candles at church while Mollie explained what each candle meant and recited Romans 5:8.

For Ben one of the best things about going to school this year meant he didn't have to go to The Nutcracker. And then he was off on the day of The Nutcracker performance! So that he didn't have to go, we invited Mollie Grace's friend Sarah Grace and Ben spent the morning at her house playing with her older brothers. They girls enjoyed dressing fancy and going to the Orpheum.

School Party

Thursday was Ben's school party and another half day. Parents were invited. They ate snacks, decorated ornaments, and played a game where they got a gift. Everyone brought a $10 gift card. (Still having fuzzy camera problems!)

Ice Skating

Pancake Santa

Last week Ben had a couple of half days so on Wednesday when we picked him up, we headed to the zoo to ice skate. This was Annie's first time to ice skate and they had tiny little skates just her size. She started out holding my hands and skating in front of me. Then she held onto the wall and skated around by herself. By the end of the hour, she could walk around on the ice without holding on. I was really impressed with how well she did.

Both Mollie Grace and Ben skated much better than they have in years past. I have no pictures of Ben skating though. He intentionally fell every time I aimed the camera at him because he didn't want me to take his picture.

My camera was being really annoying and most of my pictures are blurry.

Look, Ben was there!

After skating, we met some friends to walk around the zoo. The sea lions were very active.

We got a great view of the baby hippo (although I didn't get a great picture).

Christmas Card Pic

Thursday, December 21, 2017

Hal

On December 4, we had to put Hal to sleep. He has been declining for the last month. We took him to the vet in November because he was throwing up and had diahrrea. All the tests were pretty inconclusive. They gave him a shot for nausea and a vitamin shot that perked him up for a week or two but then he almost completely stopped eating. I tried all kinds of things to tempt him to eat but he would just eat a bite or two at a time. He had lost nearly half his body weight from 9.9 lbs to 6 lbs. He just laid around and could barely walk. Leaving him at the vet's office was very hard. The kids cried and cried, but we all also knew that we were making the right decision. He was 13 years old in October.

Sunday, December 10, 2017

Small Group Christmas Party

Small group Christmas party fun -- tacky sweaters, dirty Santa, lots of food.

We got to take this lovely Christmas decoration home with us.

Annie and Lily Cate

Indoor Soccer

Soccer never ends. The Predators began a winter Futsal series this afternoon. Ben is #11 in yellow.

Children's Museum

After watching Ben's program at school, the girls and I went to the children's museum. We were excited to discover that renovations were finally complete on the Grand Carousel. They've been working on it since we moved here.

The most beautiful horse on the carousel.

For some reason Annie decided that she was scared of the carousel. She felt like she was going to fall off.

I ended up riding with Annie.

Making Christmas trees in the art room.

Mollie Grace playing with the extra large Lite Brite.

Annie playing in the kitchen.

Chapel

On Friday, family was invited to join the 3rd through 6th graders for chapel to watch the 4th grader's Christmas program.

Ben led the pledge.

Ben's line in the program about the tree meaning of Christmas.

Playing their recorders.

Christmas Decorations

This year rather than hanging lights on the house we bought two light projectors. Five minutes and outside decorating was done!

This year I am running behind with ornaments. We put up the tree last Saturday, but are still looking for the right ornaments to represent the year for each person.