Christmas

We spent Christmas Eve here at our house with the Garthe Family. Grandma started a new tradition of reading the kids a Christmas story. They all LOVED it!!!

We spent Christmas morning at home. It was very mellow and perfect!!!

 

 

 

John's Mom made Memory books of his dad. It was a nice surprise filled with lots of great things about Papa Garthe. Somethings we knew and somethings we did not.       

John surprised me with an L.A. Temple photo

(This was my clue, I had to unscramble the letters)

And I surprised him with a trip to Houston for his brother's surprise 40th Birthday party.

He was pretty excited!!!

Later that day we went to my parents house for some more Christmas fun! And we were once again spoiled!

Movies!!!

My mom and I took the kids (plus my niece) on a Saturday morning to go see a movie. John was gone with the youth on an all day activity so we decided to go have 

some fun too!

This was my first time taking the 3 big kids to a movie. Normally my mom or sister take them. So this was a fun event. We saw Frozen, which was Awesome!!! Then we enjoyed some yummy Chick-fil-A. Since it was right before Christmas there was this huge Christmas Tree in front of the theater. The kids had to have their picture taken with it.

Christmas Cookies & Gingerbread houses

One of my family's Christmas traditions is to spend a day baking all different kinds of Christmas cookies to give to friends and neighbors. The kids always enjoying going to grandma and grandpa's house to do this because they get to taste all different kinds of cookies and help decorate some.

This year we also got to spend an evening with the Burke's, Gibsons, and Westover's making ginger bread houses. The kids had a BLAST and made some pretty cute houses. They had TONS and TONS of candy to choose from. 

 Maybe we'll have to make this a new tradition.

Madison is 6

Madison turned 6 and is growing by leaps and bounds. Her reading is exploding and she is turning into my big helper. She is such a JOY to have in our family. She helps me a ton and LOVES LOVES LOVES being the BIG sister. 

We started her birthday with Pancakes for Breakfast!

Then since it was a holiday for Daddy we headed to the Children's Museum of the Desert in Palm Springs for a day of play. We have heard great things about this place and have been wanting to go for quite some time. Man was this place great!!! We ALL enjoyed it! I wish is was closer to our  house!!! (See more photos from our day at the museum here.)

After the museum we stopped at Red Robin for some yummy dinner and Birthday dessert for Madison. It was a GREAT Day!!!

We got to have a little birthday party a few days later with the family. Madison was spoiled as usual. We are so blessed to have amazing families that live so close!!!

She was really excited to get CASH!!!

Children's Museum of the Desert

The Children's Museum of the Desert is AWESOME!!!!!!

We met the Gibson's out there on Madison's birthday and the kids all had a blast. I just wish is was closer because it was SO MUCH FUN!!!!

 

 Katelyn thought this ball thing was awesome! She had so much fun trying to catch the ball.

 There was a Pizzeria and Grocery store for the kids. They could have stayed an played their all day. They were in HEAVEN!

And of course, there was dress up clothes!

 

Claudia was so excited to see the Veterinarian clinic. She is obsessed with Doc McStuffins so this was perfect for her!

What a GREAT DAY!!!!!