Mother's Day Gifts 2016

This year for Mother's Day the kids & I made lip gloss. This was our first time making products like this, and we learned a lot. The kids helped measure & mix ingredients and prepare the products for shipping. They did a great job! We would definitely work on something like this again!

Easter

We had a peaceful & happy Easter this year! We visited the Easter Bunny with friends and a little window-shopping at the mall! Easter day was warm with lots of sunshine! The kids enjoyed dyeing eggs the night before (which I made into deviled eggs for our Easter supper). They had lots of eggs to find on Easter morning and filled the candy bowl with their sugary treasures! 

Festive Family

With Darren home from work in the days between Christmas and the New Year, we tried to fit in some extra-special family fun! We spent an afternoon at Fort Rapids, which is a kid-favorite!

Degen's favorite!

We also went to the Conservatory, where we enjoyed the gingerbread house contest best! The gardens were beautiful, as always, and we enjoyed the bright flowers during the bleak winter days!

Kyrie's favorite!

The one above and two below were professionally done.

Degen loved this one, especially, that the rooms inside were decorated & lighted.

Inside the above gingerbread house

We also visited the recently expanded museum of art. The new addition is gorgeous! 

Degen used one of his Christmas gifts to treat the whole family to ice cream at our favorite shoppe! He loved this sprinkle cone! 

Merry Christmas '15

Here are a few pics from our Christmas day! We spent a quiet day together at home enjoying new games & movies & toys! Thanks & love to all our family & friends who helped make our Christmas a joyful one! 

Christmas '15

Here are our fancy, Christmas photos that we took before heading to church! Kyrie & I went to my stylist in the morning (while Darren took Degen to get his hair cut, too). So, we were all pretty for the evening ahead! 

Wildlights '15

A busy schedule made it difficult for us to get our annual trip to the zoo's Wildlights on the calendar until the week of Christmas. We were gifted with a beautiful day (hooray!), but also a large crowd (boo!). We did our best to avoid the bulk of the crowds and oohed & aahed at the pretty lights, especially the musical light show on the pond! Wow! This really helped get us into the holiday spirit!

BFF Lunch

After our Santa-visit, we did a little window shopping with our friends before heading to lunch! These are friends whom the kids have had nearly all their lives, and we are really more like family! Now that all our kids our busy with school & activities, we rarely have the chance to get all of our friends together. The kids were very excited to spend this special time with their friends and they talked, laughed & played! It did our hearts good and made the day extra-special!