Celebrating at Wings and Waves...

 When you have a birthday a few days after Christmas and the weather outside is freezing you celebrate your 5th birthday at Wings and Waves! Instead of staying home and watching the kids be bored over Christmas break, and waiting all day to celebrate Ryan's birthday for when dad would get off work, I decided to pack up the kids and drive down to McMinnville to spend the day at Wings and Waves. This was our first time there and we had so much fun! Preston and Ryan spent most of the day playing on the kids' structure, while Zach, Brooke and Kate spent their day on the slides for the older kids. There is something magic about water and kids. Everyone was entertained the entire day!

That night we drove back to Portland and met Dad for dinner at Red Robin(Ryan's favorite place to eat) and blew out candles on Ryan's Paw Patrol(Ryan's favorite cartoon) cake at home with family. We finished off his birthday with gifts of course. He is still very much into construction so the giant Garbage Truck was a hit, among other thoughtful gifts friends and family gave to him! 

What a great Day!

Ryan's Favorite Things Include:

Mac and Cheese

Paw Patrol

Star Wars

Construction Vehicles 

Temples

Christmas Festivities 2017...

We spent Christmas Eve over at Grandma and Grandpa Thompson's house this year. Each family brought an activity to do, we ate yummy food and re-enacted Luke 2. We arrived home just before bed to quickly open up our Christmas jammies and rush the kids off to bed. 

The kids woke up Christmas morning very early and very excited to open gifts! Kate got the fitbit she was hoping for, Zach became the proud owner of new clothes and soccer gear, Ryan was thrilled to find his Hot Wheels Gorilla Garage ready to play with, but was even more excited about his Angel Moroni and book and picture of the temple, and Preston was excited about his Paw Patrol Toys, but let's be honest, would have been just as happy playing with the wrapping paper. We hosted Christmas dinner at our house. It is becoming a yearly event. Marnae and her family stopped by for dinner on their way home from being on a cruise and we invited our good friends the McCauleys' to join along with our usual crowd of Grandma, Grandpa, Andy and fam, Heather and fam, Paige and fam and auntie Gay. Justin prepared his Christmas Trivia(Grandma won this year),and we exchanged gift cards among the adults and the kids did their small gift exchange. We love hosting and boy is it a lot of work! But we wouldn't have it any other way. These traditions are the makings of some great memories that will hopefully last a lifetime. 

 

 

Oh Ryan...

My good friend, Ashton Thelin, snapped this picture of Ryan while she was in Primary today! Ryan and his reverent ways...can't deny that he wasn't paying attention. 

Alpenrose Holiday Performance...

One of our favorite traditions around the holidays is watching the Elite Dance Studio performing company Christmas Show. This is Kate's 4th year performing in it. The music, the Christmas videos, and of course the dancing always put us in the holiday spirit. I am always so grateful for all our family that makes the effort to come and watch Kate. 

Kate also had her team Christmas Party. They all got matching jammies and water bottles. So cute!

Oh Jonte'...

One of my best friends, Sarah, who I danced with in high school opened up her own dance studio two years ago SMJ Performing Arts. Our friend Jonte' Moaning, who we also danced with in high school, was in town over the holiday break and was teaching a master class at her studio. Sarah texted me to come down and say hello and watch him do his thing. He is super talented and we always knew he would be a star. He has danced for Janet Jackson, Beyonce' Knowles, etc. The future is bright with this one. It was so fun to catch up with these two. It makes me so happy to see my friends succeed in making their dreams come true!

Ryan's Gymnastics Showcase...

I signed Ryan up for gymnastics this winter to give him an activity during the day to help the winter months pass of having to stay indoors pass quickly. He had a great time. I wasn't too sure about the class at first with the majority of kids being girls, but he and his friend Max made the most of it and I think having coach Tyler(a boy) was a plus. He really did get a lot stronger, and it helped burn off some of his 5 year old energy! His favorite apparatus was the rope swing.