DECEMBER

2019 is quickly coming to a close! 

Jack played indoor soccer this winter and it was a blast. He did SO good. I like the games, they are fast paced and indoors. I don't have any pictures, but he played hard and was the top scorer. I think he really enjoyed it.

He also continues to do great at the piano

Annual gift exchange with my family at our house. 

It's turned into a fun tradition

See, I told you she likes to hold an ear

This is to celebrate that we've finally decided we all like Costa Vida. 

Deciding on a place to grab dinner is torture. Someone suggests a place and 2 or 3 others disagree. 

Finally everyone likes Costa Vida

The girls Christmas recital

Hillary and Lisa throw the cutest b-day parties. I should have taken more pictures. 

This one was "Toy Story" themed. Darling decor and clever food

Christmas sing at North Pointe

Elf comes out on Halloween and Christmas to hop across the cross walk with the kids

Nielsen family party at Aunt Ronda's

gathered for the talent show

gathered for the present exchange

gathered for the nativity

 Christmas Eve at my moms

Christmas morning

Kates pile

Emery's pile

Jack's pile

Ivan's pile

Christmas morning breakfast

It was fun to have Justin with us this year

Christmas day at Sharons

our cute little threesome

Hillary was trying to get a family picture and Kate just wanted to get in it so bad

New Years eve

Ivan, Jack and Emery went to the cousin party at my moms

Me, Mike and Kate had steak and shrimp at Sharons and the we rang in the new year with poppers

 A sight I'm loving since Christmas

all the kids and friends playing "just dance"

It's time for 2020. And I'm finally caught up! Yay!

November

A couple in Alpine started this foundation. 

They have a big warehouse next to their house full of food donations. They have plastic bins for all the elementary's in the area and every Wednesday night volunteers come, fill plastic bags full of food items and put them in the bins. Then Friday they take the bins to the the schools and the schools have a list of kids who need food over the weekend. The plastic bag goes from the bin into their backpack. They do this every week. We've taken the young men and young women over to help a couple times. It's pretty cool what people do.

Our little miss Kate LaVer turned 3

We LOVE her soooooo much. 

She is my little pal during the day. She's so easy to get a long with. She either has her little friend Ellie over to play or she plays by herself. She's awesome at entertaining herself and she's awesome at hanging out with me and running errands and going to lunch. She loves to eat at Jersey Mikes. She wants "turkey and pickles." When she has to go to the bathroom she runs in there first and squeezes back in the spot between the wall and the toilet and says, "I like to get into tight spots." She's always saying, "pretend I'm____ and you're_____." lately it's been Anna and Elsa and she like to knock on my bedroom door and sing, do you wanna build a snowman. She uses, "just in case" a lot. She wanted to help put her shoes on and as she was doing it she says, "oh I'm brave." Her imaginary friend is either Kenley or Emma. She still uses her binky. My niece just had a baby and kate was laying in bed talking with Mike about the baby. She said, babies use a pacifier, but I'm a big girl so I use a binky." When the kids ask me to get something for them I like to reply, "thats why God gave you legs." One day she wanted me to get her out of the bed and quickly followed the request with, "I don't have legs." Another time she wanted me to feed her so I said, "that's whey God gave you hands" and she said, "my hands go here and here (as she placed them one at a time on her hips) so I can skip like this." She skipped around the table. Once in a while she'll just look up at me and say, "mom, I love you." or "will you marry me." The other night Mike was home alone with her. He was snuggling her to bed and whispered, "I love you." She replied, "and I love mom." She was laying face to face with Emery one morning. She kept their faces locked nose to nose and said, "we're best sister." She loves baby's and is always saying she can't wait to have a baby or pretending she's a newborn baby. She likes to be holding someones ear or rubbing my arm. One time she was crying and I asked her what was wrong. She replied, "Emery taked me out of her business!" When she gets mad she says, "I'm not living here anymore." She has a funny sense of humor and says, "just kidding" a lot. I love it when she says, "ok momma" when I ask her to do something or stop doing something. When I picked her up from Ellies one day she said, "where we going next?" I told her we were headed over to the school to change out the reading books and she said, "after the books, where we going thirth?" (third)

Happy "thirth' birthday little girl!

Jamie, Shelley and I flew to AZ to surprise cousin Candace for her bday. It was such a fun little trip

I really enjoy these funny faces

Shelley, Ryan and Candace

Kate and my Lydia, my cousin Ryans little girl, were the cutest little play mates

 Jacks field trip to the capital

Mikes Bday

Kristian and Malori and the kids were in town for Thanksgiving

Planetarium

snow at grandma's

We didn't think Keven and Hillary were coming until Christmas, but they surprised everyone and came early! One of the best gifts for Kate

"What you look like as a boy" filter. 

That's me, but I bet you thought it was my brother Danny!