Start of the new year! 2017!!

 Hooray for 2017!!

We started off the new year with a family gathering at Tammy's house this year! We had lots of yummy food, and played some fun card games together.  Unfortunately we didn't snap any pictures, but thankfully we snapped a couple of our sparkling cider toasts at home the next day! This has always been a tradition in both our families on New Years Eve/Day! So Happy New Years!! Here's to the Upcoming Excitement of One of the Sure to be Best Years EVER not only because it has a SEVEN in it, but also because it will be our 10th year temple wedding anniversary, and I get to turn the new leaf of entering another decade, the 30s! Woah, how in the good heavens did that happen!! But, we are super pumped for Jonathan to finish up his MBA program this year too, and get to have a more normal family-life, routine, and DADDY back again from all of his school-nights and study responsibilities.  We are ecstatic for this new year and another start of an adventure together! Truly, it doesn't matter where we are, or what we have, so long as we have the gospel and we have each other.  :) Home is where the heart is, and our hearts are knit around this sweet family of ours and we are just so very thankful for our blessings and this adventure of life we get to learn from and experience together.  :)

  For our first Saturday set of chores, it thankfully was warm enough to give our car and van a good washing!!! The kids love doing this together and they are such great helpers too (for the most part! hehe)  You never know what may happen or who may get sprayed when you get Nathan and Gracie as the hose-spraying job! Haha!! Love these smiles and working hard together!
   
Love this other half of mine :)

Working hard with Dad to clean the boat, our family form of almost year-round recreation.  Jon has been able to take some youth from out ward out too.  It's been something he had looked forward to for a long time, and we were finally able to save up for.  It is certainly a fun way to spend time together and gain some new skills and learn some important life lessons too, about getting back up after you fall, trying and ever trying again and learning that some of the most rewarding things in life (like the feeling of accomplishment when you finalyl get up on skies or wakeboard for the first time after sooooo many tries) actually can tend to be some of the hardest too! But we can do hard things with FAITH in OUR SAVIOR and it all turns out to be so worthwhile in the end!

Love these helpful hands!
 

For our start of the year homeschooling studies, we finished our learning about the Human Body by making life-sized posters with our traced-bodies and then we got to glue the bones and some major organs on underneath too! Gracie was so proud of all her sticker additions and of course, her favorite pal soft-dog was along for the coloring excitement too! She sure had a heart full of love for all those around her!

 We had Katelyn start taking on some very interesting children's biography readers, as recommended in her Good and the Beautiful Language Arts Binder.  Her favorites were the "Nathan Hale: Patriot Spy" Book, which tells the story of the courage of Nathan Hale, during the Revolutionary War times, at being so willing to help George Washington obtain helpful information and give his life for the cause of liberty.  She also enjoyed the "Snow Walker", which is about a boy who suffered walking out into below freezing snow storms to bring food to needy families.  he also liked "Leave the Lights On, Abbie" about a girl who helps run her familie's lighthouse to help her father return home from sea too! So proud of Katelyn for really progressing so well in her reading these past few months! She is really gaining lots of confidence and learning so much! Go Katelyn!
We also got off to a great start to the year by visiting our nearby library and filling our bags to the brim with lots of homeschool learning books and fun reads too! This is one of the highlights of our homeschooling, getting to choose and read LOTS and LOTS of books together! Love to see their excitement in coming! 
PLaying with the Magformers this cute girl got for Christmas! She was so patient at helping me build a flower, although her favorite creation was definately the doggie! We love our Gracie girl!

The kids made Aunt Sarah some cute birthday coloring pages to brighten her day and help her feel special! We love both Aunt Sarah's and their January birthdays! My sister said this was the highlight of her day, so sweet. :)

THEN, just when we didn't think we would get any snow this wintertime for Christmas, it started coming down on January 6, 2017!! SURPRISE!!! The kids were so thrilled, they instantly grabbed their shoes and clambered out the back door, short sleeves, socks and all! Haha...once they realized how cold it really was, they high-tailed it back inside to pile on some snow gear, pants, coats, hats and gloves to go play some more! This was definately a perk of homeschooling this week, because we could take a break and play play play while the snow lasted! They were so proud of their 6 inch snowman they built on the trampoline too!  The snowy trampoline made for a pretty fun slip-n-slide surface too!
 
Smiles for Aunt Sarah's birthday pages Nathan colored for her!

It was a tender sweet moment when I found Nathan had climbed his way up in the night to sleep with his sister on the top bunk.  My heart is so happy when I see their close friendship growing.  What greater pals could we all have than siblings.  ;) :)
 
Sweet Gracie girl peacefully asleep with little soft dog.  I know I will miss these moments of seeing our sweet peaceful sleeping angels some day.  I am treasuring and soaking them up all I can while this precious time lasts!

So proud of her tower she built all by herself! Way to go Katelyn! We sure love these smiles! Happy Start to the New Year!