I'm a Little Teapot

It is so fun to watch the faces of little kids at Christmas. We've been having colder weather lately - no crazy storms, but a little snow flurries here and there. But, the temperatures have definitely been chilly so the kids have been making hot chocolate on a regular basis. Nathan went to his buddy's house and they had a tea pot to heat the water - one that whistled when the water was hot. He thought it was awesome. Then some days later he went to another friends house and they had one too. He told them that's what he wanted for Christmas - a tea pot. So even though he was super excited about his bow and arrow and his other little toys and things, when he opened the box with the black tea kettle (that came with a top that whistles) his face was priceless! Charity and Chad and family came to our house to join us for Christmas this year. We went sledding, ate a traditional New Mexican meal on Christmas Eve (complete with homemade tamales that I had made with a friend earlier that week), went horse back riding at Will's house (Will is one of Dad's co-workers), acted out the Nativity on Christmas Eve, waited for the music on Christmas morning and then rushed it, ate breakfast casserole, did a couple of puzzles and hung out together. It was excellent. The kids get each other gifts at Christmas time. I was constantly telling Nathan to choose less expensive things because he was always wanting to get something that his brothers or sisters really, really wanted (regardless of the $25 price tag). For Ben he wanted to get a panda blanket with a hood. It was $14. Again I told him to choose something that didn't cost so much but he begged and pleaded. He knew the money was coming right out of his account, but he just couldn't pass it up. He was so excited when Ben opened it Christmas morning (and especially to see how surprised and excited Ben was). I like when we get glimpses of the true meaning of Christmas amidst all the fun and other excitement.

Sledding

We found a great hill that we love to go to for sledding. It is up in the mountains, but only about 15 minutes from our house. Nathan goes and goes and goes. As soon as there is someone down with a sled he is ready to hike back up the hill to take another ride down. And the cold doesn't bother him at all - he usually bundles himself up pretty well, but even when he gets snow inside the gloves or boots, he just powers through until we're done for the day.

Mr. Snowman

First snowman of the season. There wasn't much snow to work with, but these kids made it happen. A few days later they went out and made a friend for the snowman - she was even smaller than this guy.

Christmas Tree Hunting

We've always wanted to cut down our own Christmas tree, so we decided this was the year. We bought a permit for $5 and headed to the mountains to look for the perfect one. We looked and looked and looked. We drove and stopped and looked around and loaded back up and drove somewhere else and looked around some more. Most of the trees were pretty sparse or way too big. After a few hours (and the excitement definitely diminishing) we found a spot with a couple different options that would work. The one we decided on actually had 2 different tops, which is kind of odd, but we decided it would be fun, so Dad chopped it down and we tied it to the top of the car and headed home.

Thanksgiving in Utah

Our Thanksgiving adventure was packed full of fun and family and food. *Thanksgiving at Aunt Jenny and Uncle Kelly's house. Dad smoked a turkey, we got full on all the other parts of the feast and that night almost every kid got sick with the stomach flu and woke up throwing up. Nathan was one of the only ones who actually made it into a bowl. HA! *The kids played at a nearby park and played the Wii and watched movies and played Legos. *We went ice skating with Aunt Lani and Michael. This was the first time ice skating for all of the kids. Nathan got right up and started moving around the rink with very little hesitation. He skated for almost the entire time - finally got tired at the end and took a seat. He spent much of the time skating without even wearing a coat - and it was cold (definitely our warm blooded kid). *Ben and Dad went to a BYU-Utah football game and froze their buns off (it was literally 10 degrees outside). The rest of us hung out at Kyra's apartment and kept up with the game on our iphones. *We got in free at the Dinosaur museum (courtesy of Kelly's mom). The kids loved walking around and seeing all the fossils and models and dressing up in different dinosaur (and other prehistoric animal) suits. There was a cool bird exhibit that we checked out as well. We stopped at Burger King and Cafe Rio for lunch. YUM! *Sean and Caelan and I (and baby Kam) went to see the Transiberian Orchestra in Salt Lake which was amazing. *We went to see the lights at Temple Square with Dad's old college roommate, Johnny B and his family. We also met up with Uncle Dan and Aunt Natalie and their fam for a few minutes. When we got back to our car our little dog (well, not really ours, but we've been watching over him) left a smelly surprise in the car. GROSS. *We headed up to a little town outside of Odgen and met up with the Sorensen clan: Garrett and Melanie and their kids, Charity and Chad and their kids, Brittney and Porter and their kids, Kyra, Corbin, Caleb. It was excellent - I think maybe the first time all of the current Sorensen cousins were together at one place. We ate lots of leftover Thanksgiving food and played games. The kids had a turn in the hot tub. Very fun being all together.

Floating Lights

We took the family to a lantern Fest in ABQ. We went before sun down and found a good spot to hang out. There were fire pits all over the field and with each ticket you got a smores kit, so we roasted marshmallows and hung out by the fire. There was live music going and the kids ran around on the track. Once it was totally dark they gave the signal and all of us lit our paper lanterns and they floated up into the sky - hundreds, maybe a thousand, flying lanterns floating into the sky! It was awesome. It was just like the movie, Tangled, with the "floating lights." This might have to become a new tradition for us.

Reading in Bed

Nathan is becoming quite the reader. He likes to read when he goes to bed - I'll often find a stack of books in his bed. I told him to try an easy chapter book. Sometimes he tells us that he's read 25 pages over the course of say, our drive home from school. I think there is a lot of skimming going on, but it is nice to see him excited about books!

Halloween

Nathan found an old army hat that belongs to Dad and from then on was insistent that he be an army guy for Halloween. Luckily we had some camoflauge pants and shirt that worked well, and then he let me paint his face green and brown. They did some trick or treating at the trailer park and then at the church (trunk or treating). We finished the night stopping at a few houses on our street. The kids love going to our street because since we are the only trick or treaters that come they really give great treats (full size candy bars or full handfuls of treats).

Fall Festival

Our ward had a Fall Festival this year with a chili and pie cook-off and all sorts of carnival games outside. I was in charge of all the games, so the kids were my helpers getting things ready and set up. One of the booths was a picture booth - this is Nathan's silly picture of himself. There was apple bobbing, tarp throw, ping poss toss, fishing, cupcake walk, pumpkin bowling, can throw, pumpkin golf and pumpkin broom races. The youth were in charge of running the booths and the kids went from one game to the next. There were even little prizes at each one. Fun time.

Happy 7th Birthday

Nathan wanted to have some friends over for his birthday, so we arranged to have Samuel and Jonah and Brigham come over after school for pizza and playing. They each brought a present (which was super nice since it wasn't an official birthday party). He just wanted a simple cake (one of those poke cakes), so I didn't even decorate it all fancy, but that's what he wanted. The boy played outside and ran around and ate and opened presents. It was one of the best "parties" ever - no organization, but he had a blast. He was pretty thrilled with his presents: a Jurassic Park dinosaur, a shirt, candy, and a few other little knick knacks.

The Wonder that is New Mexico

We packed a load of fun into our short little family trip. We decided we wanted to hit up a few of the NM sites that we hadn't seen so far, so we made a plan. Our first stop was Roswell where we stopped at a tasty burger and sundae diner. Then we stopped at the Area 51 museum. There was a cheesy display of aliens and UFOs - it was excellent. There were all sorts of written accounts and photos and newspaper articles and government documents. It was actually quite interesting. Then we made our way over to Carlsbad Caverns. We decided to go through the Visitor Center and then check out the evening bat cave event. Everyone loved it except for the baby who wouldn't keep as quiet as they need things to be so we had to hang back a bit. We found a nice (and pricey) camping spot just outside the caverns. The next morning we went back to the caverns and hiked down and all through the caves. They were amazing! We then took the elevator back up. We didn't want to spend all the money for that campsite again so we continued on our journey. We found another nice campsite and got some sleep. The next day we found out that some of the biggest horse races of the year were happening that day...and they were free. We got to be right there near the track. We watched a few races, which were exciting and then we headed out. We went to a Smokey the Bear museum, an old western town and some other fun monuments. We all had a great time!

Duck Creek

Our annual trip to Duck Creek was great as usual. We love spending time with the cousins and all the family. The kids love their time on the quads. We hiked and ate yummy food and took pictures and played board games.

Big Brother Cuddles

Nathan loves to cuddle his little sister. The other day he just snuggled right up with her and they both fell asleep. He's so cute with her, and he is quite confident in his abilities to carry her and change her and take care of her.

First Day of 1st Grade

First day of school again. Nathan started 1st grade with Mrs. Janssen. A bunch of his close friends are in his class including Samuel and Brigham. He was ready and excited to start again even after the fun summer he had. Here we go again.

Hanging with Gma and Gpa

Grandpas and Grandmas Sorensen and Dick were both here for Kamryn's baby blessing. They were also here for the City Swim Meet. Grandpa Sorensen and Dad volunteered to be timers down at the swim lanes. They had a great time. We also went to the roller skating rink with Grandpa and Grandma Sorensen. Fun times.

Swim Team

Here is the swim team story of 2015. We really wanted Nathan to be able to be on the swim team this year. He's only 6 years old but I knew he was so close skill-wise. We took him to the pool a few different times before swim team actually started. The only qualification for swim team is that you are able to swim across the pool by yourself. Well, we got him to do it (barely) and so we took him to swim team. Well the youngest kids swim in the lane right next to the wall, so the first couple of days Nathan was grabbing onto the wall all the time. His coach came to me on the third day and said they weren't going to make any final decisions until Friday, but it seemed like maybe Nathan wasn't quite ready to be on the team yet and maybe he needed one more year of lessons. I told this to Sean and that night Sean took him to the pool and had him swim back and forth across that pool without any help. We emphasized to him that if he wanted to stay on the team he couldn't use the wall, even though it was right there. The next day he did awesome and on Friday his coach, Abby, came to me and said "Wow! I don't know what happened but wow! He can stay on the team" So he swam everyday for two month of the summer. He swam for an hour during swim team and then also practiced water polo for an hour. He went to the swim meets and did pretty darn good in fact. Before his first meet he told me he wanted to win first place in all the races. Since this meet happened to be about 2 weeks after swim team started (2 weeks after he really got the hang of swimming at all) I told him just to focus on finishing the races. At the second meet I convinced him to race the 50M freestyle (that's the longest race for his age group - there and back in the pool). He got there no problem, but on his way back I could see in his eyes the look of sheer terror (like "I'm seriously going to die!") but he made it and he swam that race every other meet. It was amazing to see how much he improved throughout the season. At the last regular meet of the season Sean convinced him to do the butterfly (we realized he had never tried that race yet). We have a deal where if they race at least 5 races in the meet then they get their own Costco ice cream afterwards. That did the convincing and Nathan swam the butterfly for the first time and did awesome. I think he got second place. In fact that is the race that he qualified in for the City Meet (you have to qualify at the districts). He swam that and another race plus a relay at the City Meet during his first season of swim team. It was great. All the other moms would watch him swim and talk about what a power swimmer he is - he just powers through the water.

Baby Kamryn

Baby Kamryn has arrived. Little sibling number 3 for Nathan. She came super fast too - well, once she decided it was time (a week late). Contractions started coming during the afternoon - here and there. Once they started getting regular at all we headed to the hospital. Sean was going to drop me off at the door, but I told him we could walk in together. It took literally 15 minutes to walk from the car to the front door (because I had to keep stopping to deal with a contraction). I got in, signed in, got dressed into the gown and my Doctor happened to be passing by so he came in to check me. In a very calm way he said, "Okay, we are having a baby" and within a minute nurses were at my side wheeling me out to a new room. I got into the delivery room and within 25 minutes of getting to the hospital our little baby was born. The kids came to visit the next day and they were all smitten.