blurb book 8

it's been over a YEAR since i last printed a book. i'm a little bit behind. but, it felt good when book #8 arrived in the mail. i always load my next book as soon as i finish one, but it seems to take awhile to get back to it.



i didn't have a "family picture" during this six month period so i improvised.

here are some of my favorite pages. 

 

 

 

 

xylophone

monday night was our monthly manwaring family home evening. aunt sue and uncle brett invited each of the famlies to do a performance about christ. i asked owen and wesley to play a couple christmas songs on the xylophone (they use the xylophone in their let's play music class) and gave them a couple day to practice. owen memorized his and wesley was so brave, considering he was in TEARS when i asked him. they made me proud!

 

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indoor soccer

the boys have been playing indoor soccer. this is owen's second year and wesley's first. they have both REALLY enjoyed it.


wesly's team 

owen's team

looks like we will be doing this again. 

happy birthday dad!

my dad turned 61 last week.

i thought this picture of him and halle was so cute.

 

happy birthday dad! we love you! 

doctor

this little girl can make me smile one second only to drive me completely batty the next. we have a special relationship. ;) but, i sure do love her.

lately, she is getting so chatty, so creative, and so BIG! some things she does are just laughable.

i saw her playing with her dolls in the kitchen yesterday. she was tracing each of them and talking to them so sweetly as she did. "such a good girl", "you are doing so good", "it's okay baby, almost done". it was so darn cute.

 

 

 

 

it reminded me of the annual exams i took the kids to in november. we hadn't gone in YEARS and so i thought it was about time. maddy and wes went a few days before owen. owen was in pure agony when he heard we were going to the doctors. when he asked maddy what they do she said matter-of-factly, "owen, all you have to do is pull down your underwear and then they give you crayons to color!" ha. for some reason that didn't ease his mind. ;) 

happy birthday kevin

saturday we celebrated kevin's 34th birthday! well, we actually started celebrating friday night when kevin and i went on a double date with our friends the allen's. we did texas roadhouse and james bond. it was a very nice evening! saturday came quickly as we were up early to do our birthday breakfast and then off to ogden manwaring's baptism in blackfoot, id.




kevin received his traditional gift of a lego advent calendar (with a birthday on december 1st it just makes sense). it's the gift that keeps on giving...to everyone! the kids love it!

after a good time at the baptism and lunch with my family we were off to a matinee (wreck-it-ralph) and then we did dinner at papa tom's, kevin's favorite.

it was nice to be home that night and relax. it wasn't long after the cake and ice cream that kevin was sound asleep (8:30pm) all cozy on the couch with football on. we had a great day!

we love our hard working daddy! 

 

cozied up

maddy's little buddy, cooper, was over the other day and they cozied up to share a christmas story. 

day after thanksgiving (aka black friday)

after our early morning shopping i made it home to find kevin had put the tree out! he couldn't take it any longer. this guy loves christmas more than anyone i know. it makes it fun.

i was home long enough to rearrange furniture for the tree (this will be the first year we have put it in our living room) and get everyone dressed before we were out shopping again with my sister nat, mom, grandma freidenberger, janice (my mom's sister visiting from cali), and my cousin kayla (janice's daughter).

we had fun and accomplished our main task of finding something to bring to the crafting table.

we had some great crafts and had a good time.


our holy family

and a trio of trees

thanks for the fun day everyone! it's always fun to see janice and kayla!

with a tree up in my house i couldn't think of anything else to do but start pulling out christmas. i had fun all day saturday decorating.

and kevin surprised us with a train to go under our tree. we wore the batteries out before the weekend was over. lots of fun! and it brought back many memories of the train under the tree when i was growing up.

magic! 

happy thanksgiving

we had a very lovely and quiet thanksgiving! kevin went off to work thursday morning while the kids and i watched the macy's parade and put the finishing touches on our menu assignments. then we headed over to my parents for the rest of the day.

kevin came over around 2 to join in the relaxing. we did a puzzled, dressed some pilgrim and indian paper dolls, and watched movies.

we put a great spread on the table and enjoyed dinner with natalie, grandma freidenberger, and mom and dad.

 

 

a turkey butter mold. awesome! 

kevin and maddy 

owen and kevin 

the four old birds. Ha! ;) 

me and nat (SO FUN to have a sister join us) 

me and wes 

wesley's taking a bite of the drumstick. 

wesley putting the finishing touch on our charles wysocki puzzle.

after a few hours we were ready for PIE! maddy insisted that grandpa sit with her. she loves her grandpa!

around 9pm me and nat convinced dad to chauffeur us to walmart and target to get a couple shopping items. we struck out at both places. THEY WERE CRAZY! but, it is always fun to be a part of it for a moment. we were sad we didn't get what we wanted to PLEASED we didn't have to stand in the 1-2 hour lines.

the next morning me, nat, mom, and dad were back at it! we had great success and a fun time shopping together. dad is a great chauffeur and is always waiting right outside the store door with a warm car to greet us! we grabbed some breakfast (the REAL reason we go out) and made it home in time for kevin to head to work. 

happy birthday mom!

 my dad was out of town this year for mom's birthday, so we decided it would be our extra rare chance to spoil mom on our own. :)
 after owen's soccer game on saturday we went over to mom's and cooked her a big birthday breakfast! it was fun to share it with her.



 i love this classic mom squinty-smile! we love you mom! happy 58th!

 

boxed up fun

it's amazing how much fun these kids can have with big boxes.

a big thank you to our new neighbor for donating them to the cause! :)