First Half of December

As always, December was a busy month. Here's a few of our happenings:

Coats
Our stake participated in a coat drive for Syrian refugees. We were able to donate a few coats to help with the effort. In combination with other religious groups our stake was able to fill and donate 4,100 boxes which filled 7 large moving vans.

Kids holding coats soon to be donated

Kiddos at stake center where coats were dropped off

Graduation Dinner
It's official! Rob is DONE!!!!!!!!! After 4 1/2 years of graduate school Rob completed his Master's in Project Management and a certificate in Business Analytics. So me friends watch the kids (All 3! A first) while I went to join Rob at a celebration dinner. It was nice meeting some of the people Rob worked on projects with.

Robert, Burt and Somebody

Brian?, Jack, Rob, Shobha, Cory, Sharish, Dennis? Don

To further celebrate Rob installed a new dishwasher for us the next day.

Train Show
Because of my Cub Scout calling we heard about and went to a local train show. All different sizes of trains were displayed. One man even had the latest generation of trains that you can control with an app!

Do you see the building on fire and "smoke"?

Once a year they open a real caboose and we were able to go in and climb around.

Ward Christmas Party

Our ward threw a great Christmas party. After a yummy dinner and program the kids went to see Santa. While waiting for Santa the kids listened to Christmas stories and drank hot chocolate. Neither of the older kids wanted to leave.

Asher knew exactly what he wanted and was not shy

Jacqueline knew what she wanted but felt a little shy

James first tried to pull on Santa's beard, realized a real person was behind it and started crying

Jacqueline Finishes Ballet
Family and friends were invited to watch the children's final "performance". The whole time Jacqueline and I were dancing Asher was copying the moves next to his chair.  The class was good for my little girl and I. She still remembers some the dance moves, but more importantly that it was her alone time with mommy.

My Christmas Present

A friend introduced me to the Christmas present Rob or I will be giving myself. It's a media cutting machine called the Silhouette Cameo. I borrowed my friend's and made the following items within a 24 hour period. I'm in love with the machine and can hardly wait to get it for Christmas!!!!

Various Other Happenings

Gotta love the rolls! Chubby baby James remains above 100th percentile for height and weight. Not possible you say? Well, Jacqueline was negative percentile for awhile so it must be possible to be above. Rob will be done with graduate school and we hope that a little more dad attention will help him sleep a little better. He's "only" waking up twice a night.... but momma still needs a little more sleep then she's currently getting. He's cute enough to keep loving though.

This picture is blackmail on Asher when he's a teenager. His female cousins sent some play dresses to Jacqueline and Asher enjoyed them as well.

Now that Rob's out of school he can start on my honey-do list!

James explored the mud during our unseasonably warm December.

Asher couldn't pull a fence pole out and kneeled down to say a prayer for help. The prayer must have worked because he was able to pull the pole out. Wahoo for prayer!

Onto the holidays!