December

Annual visit to see the Thanksgiving Point holiday lights and visit the reindeer--kids love it!

Rachel's choir held their Christmas concert on a Monday evening--perfect FHE! She was so cute. There were only four little girls in the choir (it is a new activity Lindon added). Rachel loves to sing!

Emma participates in her school's drama club. Their play was held in December--"Yes, Virginia." Emma played different roles, including a pigeon (my favorite). She's the pigeon on the far left.

Here she is as a townsperson in the brown dress.

After the play. They also performed the play at the mall in front of Macy's department store. It was cute to see our little girl up on stage!

I took the kids up to see the Festival of Trees. Always amazing to see the designs creative people come up with.

We have so many Christmas books and I love to see the kids cuddling up by the tree reading them.

The Familias came over for our annual Christmas dinner. The girls had fun playing in the empty remote control car box. They are such crazy girls together!

Luke's drawing of our Elf on the Shelf--I love it!

Our little Nativity pageant. It never really works out so well--we just don't have enough people to play all the parts and usually Max does something funny or crazy to mess everything up. But we try and it's still fun.

Christmas Eve was held at our house. Some of Ben's family came over and we had a nice soup and bread dinner with pumpkin pie for dessert (my favorite!). Kathy and Emma with the yummy pie.

Kathy took this fun picture of us on the stairs--family pictures with everyone are rare these days!

We have a real live elf on the shelf! Ben perched little Max up there and he was so happy. Adorable!

Time with Grandma

Santa just arrived! Look at the cool new kitchen set!

Christmas morning! Waiting anxiously on the stairs.

Emma drew a very detailed fishing picture for her dad. We were both amazed at her ability! What a special present.

Love Rachel's face in this one. Pure Christmas joy!

Luke's cool dragon!

After opening gifts on Christmas morning, we had some of my relatives over for Christmas brunch. It was so nice. We ate a sausage-egg casserole, hash browns, fruit, cranberry bread, apple cider and hot cocoa. Delicious. I think I want to make it a tradition! I loved hosting people earlier in the day--they got to participate in the kids' excitement of their new gifts, breakfast is pretty easy to prepare, and after everyone left, I could just relax with the kids for the rest of the day and not worry about hosting people for a big Christmas dinner that evening.

Rachel showing off her new art supplies to papa.

Luke driving his new cars with Uncle Dave.

The girls' new Christmas dresses. These outfits were gifts from my mom. So pretty!

Emma got hair chalk as a gift and she enjoyed chalking everyone's hair--and I do mean, everyone--all day. Even Sue didn't escape the chalk! We went over to Sue's house later in the day to eat leftover soup and bread there and exchange gifts with relatives. It was a lovely day!

This picture was too cute not to post. Back in their jammies before bed on Christmas night. I love these boys!

December is always so busy and filled to the brim with activities. We loved it, even though it got crazy at times. It is such a wonderful time of year!

November

Rachel makes the cutest projects at school! I loved this fall scene.

Another of Rachel's creations from school. Sweet Max loved being a pilgrim too!

Turkey pancakes on Thanksgiving morning!

Some years we do a Thankful Turkey; other years we do a Thankful Tree. This year it was a tree! I love doing this activity for Family Home Evening each November. We even invited relatives who stopped by throughout November to add a few leaves to our tree.

Thanksgiving Day was spent with Ben's family. It was the last Thanksgiving we would spend in my in-laws' home in American Fork--very sad. But it was such a great day. It was wonderful to see Cyndy and her family!

My green guys!

Love my sweet Emma.

Grandma Bergin was so kind to host Thanksgiving, even in the midst of moving chaos!

Cameron and Anna were able to come too! They are always so much fun to be with. WE LOVE PUMPKIN PIE!

McKaela and Luke played with some new Nerf guns that Cyndy brought.

Love these two! I will miss them when their time at BYU is over.

November also included a day trip to Salt Lake. We brought money the girls earned from their bake sale to donate to Primary Children's hospital. We arranged to donate it in person and the woman we met with gave us a short tour of the hospital. It was great for the kids to see where their money was going and who it was helping. And also, to help them realize how thankful we should feel for being healthy.

After visiting the hospital, we went to Ruth's Diner up Emigration Canyon. We had read about this iconic restaurant and always wanted to try it out. It was even featured on Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives! The food was super good--definitely comfort food. After lunch, we shopped at Trader Joe's and stocked up on some of our favorite items. We really need a TJ's in Utah County!

We also had a big family dinner at our house when Ben's sister-in-law came into town. The girls enjoyed a Boggle game with Aunt Sue.

It was a good month! I always LOVE Thanksgiving time.

Halloween 2013

At the ward Halloween party--like my impromptu scarecrow costume?

The big day! It's always so busy, but so much fun too! Here are all four kids in their costumed glory. Pioneer Emma--so pretty!

My sweet witch, with a bit of sass!

The cutest Pooh ever!

Transformer Luke--look at those muscles!

What's great about living in Orem now, is that it's easier to trick-or-treat at Grandma and Papa's house and at Aunt Sue's house! We loved seeing them on Halloween.

I love the "scary" Halloween faces. :)

Halloween was great and I was so pleased that the weather was nice too. Good day!

October

Ben and I took the boys to Kohl's one Saturday and they both wanted to sit in the little cart. Hee hee!

Then they held hands in the car on the way home! Adorable. These boys are the best of friends sometimes, but they also know how to push each others' buttons the most!

Emma had her first big school research project and had to give an oral presentation on a Utah landmark. She chose Harper Ghost Town. She memorized her speech and did a wonderful job. Papa and Grandma got to come. I love this picture of my papa intently listening to Emma!

Grandma and Papa also took Rachel and Luke on their birthday dates, per tradition. I think this picture was for Rachel's date in September, but Luke also got one for his in October.

The last days for shorts happened in early October. I got summer stuff packed away and winter clothes out. Look at my little guy in overalls! I wanted to get a pic of him in them before I packed them away. He kinda looks like a minion, don't you think?

Papa came up from Texas for a quick trip and helped us do a few things around the house, including putting a new seal on our basement toilet. Luke happily helped Papa and Uncle Dave as they worked. He's even sporting a plumber's crack as he helped Papa with the toilet! How appropriate. :)

We had a big family dinner while my dad was here, which sadly, I don't think I got any pictures of! It was for Luke's birthday and I think we only took video on Ben's phone of the cake and all that. Here's Papa playing the piano with Emma before the dinner.

The girls' school had a fall festival, which was super fun. Each student got to decorate a pumpkin at school and they were all on display during the festival. Here are the girls' pumpkins--turned out way cute!

We decided on a whim to take a few family pictures in late October before the leaves all fell off the trees. It was very impromptu and I didn't even go out and buy any coordinating clothes--I just worked with what I had and I think it turned out pretty cute! I'm not posting the family pictures because they may or may not be Christmas gifts for some people who read this blog. :) Sue took the pics for us, which was very kind of her. This is the pre-picture chaos. Those of you with kids can relate, right?

Here's a few other shots from that night. The leaves were beautiful!

Ben snuck in some good fishing trips with the kids. Luke wants to go every time. Here's their catch from one of their outings. Such a good bonding activity.

Happy 7th, Rachel!

Rachel's seven!!!!

We had a friend birthday party for her. Since we don't have a cool, fun backyard anymore (at least not yet.....) we held the party at the local park. The playground is awesome and fun was had by all. Here she is with her requested pink cupcakes.

Opening the gifts. She got some cute ones!

A little Bingo

The gang

Oh, how we love our Rachel. A few things about Rach at age 7: *She keeps her room IMMACULATE. All the time. It's amazing to me, actually. She never needs any reminders and on Saturday, when it's time for all the kids to clean their bedrooms, she just smiles because she knows all she needs to do is dust a little and vacuum because everything else is done. :) She loves having her own space--a little too much sometimes, since she hardly lets anyone in her room! *She still loves to color and draw. *She is great about doing her homework and reading every day. She doesn't read voraciously like Emma does, but she enjoys it. She especially loves reading the Friend magazine. *She likes to write little notes for all of us in the family. We love it! *She is definitely competitive with Emma. *She likes to ride her scooter far more than her bike. *She's been having cheese quesadillas in her lunch nearly every day at school. *Her favorite foods (besides cheese quesadillas) are cereal, bagels and cream cheese, cheese and crackers, (hmmmm....seeing a trend here?), and mashed potatoes and gravy. *She feels the spirit a lot and sometimes it moves her to tears. *She is in the Lindon city children's choir this fall and loves it. She can't wait for her upcoming Christmas concert! *She doesn't like to be away from home for too long. *She joined the running club at school! Twice a week, they run at recess and earn little charms by meeting running goals. She is so excited about it. *We love her sweet spirit and super tight hugs. Our family wouldn't be the same without her! Love you so much, Rachel!