3-D printer and more

The 3-D printer has gotten a lot of use.  

These aren't from the printer but they are cool and detailed figures that the boys use to play a game for hours on end with.  

If I had know the printer could do something similar I wouldn't have bought the figures.  

This one and the one below is from a 3-D printer

Nathan also printed this chess set

Elijah's new mask

Jarom taking aim at me with his nerf gun.

I love nuts.

Jarom's ant farm.

Josiah in his air soft safety gear he had to try on while wearing his church clothes. 

cookie dough is the best and boy can we eat a lot.  

Christmas Day

We have a deal that we can't be woken up till 6am on Christmas morning.  I remember waking up so often as a kid because of the excitement.  My sisters and I had a deal that if one of us woke up first they had to wake up the others to go take a look under the tree.  I still get excited for my kids and have a hard time sleeping at times.   I feel like Nathan and I do a pretty good job at reminding the kids through lessons and service of what this season really means leading up to the day of Christmas.   Christmas morning and the full day is just plain fun.  We read the Christmas story again out of Luke 2 before tearing through the gifts.   Nathan and I really enjoy spending the day with our kids playing with new stuff.     

Josiah opening "The Lord of the Ring" figures for a game he and Jarom discovered.  Jarom got some too. 

Jarom trying to open an air soft gun that I had wrapped a million plastic bags around so he wouldn't guess what it was.  

Sadie getting very surprised and hopeful of what she thinks this gift is. 

It is what she thought.  I surprised her good on this one.  We decided to spend the money on a really good camera.  I had lead her to believe she will need to pay for this herself.   She was super happy and thankful for it.  She has really liked photography for a long time. 

Okay so this is impressive.  Just for the record there were several gifts that were double boxed so that when it was delivered it didn't show what was in it.  

Josiah's spider (this is as close as he will get to having a pet one) and Porg

Sadie with her new camera

Josiah and Jarom got a 3D printer.  This thing has printed so many items.  Next post I will show pics.  

Christmas Eve

As a kid our family had the tradition to open one present on Christmas eve and read the Christmas story.    We have continued to do that with our crew.  At the request of Sadie we did a last minute shopping trip and got the kids matching pajama bottoms and t-shirts.  Then they opened the gifts from each other which consisted of stuffed animals.  They were set for the night.  

I love taking a picture of the tree with the presents and stockings all set out.  

Christmas Lights

The beginning of December I was told of a a house in Port Orchard that had impressive Christmas lights. I thought we could go some evening to see them.  Not so, there was always something that got in the way.  I was disappointed in the change of plans each time even though I had no idea what we were going to see.  Finally, the Sunday evening before Christmas, we went.  It did not disappoint.  Wow!  This couple has been saving all sorts of variations of lights.  It was so fun to see it.  Once we were home I found we out missed another house that wasn't too far from this one.  We will get that one next year.  

The boys with ET

many many Santa Clauses

so many different snowmen

Sleigh ride, it didn't move but so fun to see.

The reindeer in the back of Josiah and Jarom were animated and would sing.  It looks like Jarom is one of the deer.

Mr. and Mrs.

Busy young lady

I think this is a great picture of a video I took of these two.  Sadie enlisted Elijah to help her turn pages on a song that a women's group sang in our sacrament meeting before Christmas.  They are practicing page turning here.   Sadie was asked to play several songs for others who were also singing and she was the organist for the meeting.  Our of 14 songs she played 12 of them.  It was mentioned in joking that she should have worn a fit bit to see how many miles she got going from the piano to the organ.  She did a great job.   There were two songs she really had to work at and it was stressful for her.  Her and her friend Ali played a cello/piano duet that was tough to learn but they did great.  She was a super busy lady in the month of December with basketball, music practices with various groups, music practice on her own, and school work.   

Winter Concert

Elijah had his winter concert just before we went on Christmas break.  It was cancelled the night before due to heavy winds and rain so we had to squeeze into the elementary school the next day.  I don't like concerts in this gym.  There are so many parents who take any chance or room they see to video their kids.  You can't see between the many phones up in the air.  Knowing this I stood up before the concert started and snapped a pic of the whole group.  Elijah has a yellow arrow pointing to him and he spotted me.  I was able to get one more pic then during the whole concert we were lucky to even see him with all the phones and heads in the way.  He is so animated.  

Crock pot Crack

Yep, you read that correct and I blame this Christmas addiction on Chris.  She introduced this recipe to me a few years ago and now we have to have it every Christmas.  It makes a ton so I do share with others too.   Love love love these.  

sock exchange

Our young women did a sock exchange for Christmas gifts to each other.  It was a fun night being together.  We did the miracle pill which was fun to taste different varieties of food taste different.  

basketball

At one point before Christmas the coach was trying different players on varsity.  Sadie got to start on this night.  It was quite nerve racking for her especially when they did the starting line up.  She wasn't sure who and how she was supposed shake hands, fist bump or whatever they decided to do.  She made it through though.  See pics below.   She continiues to always start on JV and plays pretty much the whole game.  She has improved a lot.  I expect even more improvement next season since she has a place to practice at home now.  I love watching basketball.