WInter Break 2016

Perhaps I should attempt to blog on a daily basis to avoid these large groups of unrelated photos.  Here we have evidence of 

Henry:
*He is obsessed with his friend, Liam, and is always asking to invite him over.  They built a tall marble run.
*He insisted on wearing his snuggly warm Christmas pajamas for several days and nights.
*He loves his baby sister and pushes her in the hammock, much to her delight.  They also like to read together.
*When he sees me start to take pictures, he requests that I take pictures of him as he hides under pillows.

Avery:
*Lost a tooth on Christmas Eve Eve, and because our tooth fairy isn't very prompt with these things, she came the same night as Santa Clause!
*Did a great job at her school Christmas Concert.  They surprised us audience members with a cool light show.  She let me curl her hair!
*Went to her friend, Zoe's, birthday party at the ice-skating rink.  We have never ice skated with the kids.  I dropped her at the party and realized that there was no support for her.  Few parents, and Christmas trees along the rink meant that she couldn't follow the wall around.  Also, they don't allow support walkers during open skate.  So, I was happy to find that our neighbor was available to watch the other 3 kids whom I dropped at home, and I went back to the party.  We skated, and fell!, together for nearly an hour and had a blast.
*Is trying her hand at photography and took my picture.  She and I like stretch pants (bed picture).

Tate:
*Also did an awesome job at his school Christmas program, but I didn't get any pictures.  Sad.
*Found an article in the Friend magazine about making no-sew blankets.  He showed me on a day where fleece just happened to be on sale so we went to Joann's and bought enough fabric for 3 blankets.  They turned out great, and so warm, for this freezing weather we are having.
*Loves Lego.

Finley:
*Just keeps being sweet and smiley and loves her dolls.  Grandma pointed out that Finley and this doll have the same hair.  
*Has decided, at over a year old, that she likes to play with pacifiers.  It would have been nice if she would have tried this as an infant.
*Let's me put her hair in a tiny ponytail for the first time.

Papa

We're all pretty heartbroken this holiday season.  Papa passed away the Saturday before Thanksgiving.  He was only 64.  He had a blood clot that moved to his lungs.  He had leukemia and was in the process of finding out how bad it was.  Turns out that it was bad and wouldn't have given him much longer.  So this was a quicker and better way for him to go.  But it was sudden and awful.  We spent a week in LaGrande with family, which was nice.  Everyone is pretty shocked and we miss him more than words can say.

Papa was the best.  He was always smiling and looking for ways to help others.  The first time I played cards with the Hibbert clan, it stood out to me how nice Ritchie was to me because he would root for me and congratulate me if I won.  He loved to take the kids to the mountain to play.  I love this picture of his latest project up there-building a tree fort for the grandkids.  His brother, Milo, spoke about his childhood at the funeral.  I want to hear more-there were great stories about his free range upbringing.  This past year he was sending regular texts to his kids of favorite scriptures. He really lived his religion.  I kept saying to Eric that when people pass away we tend to make them out to be saints, but Ritchie really was a saint, and we aren't exaggerating or embellishing.   We love him and will miss him tons.

Travel and Holiday

Harper and Henry at Lori's peeking at Mavis the Kitty.

 Baby cousins Harper and Finley

 Party at our home for the holidays.

 Bow-Tie puzzle work.

 He asked Santa for a choo-choo train while holding two trains.

 Finley likes her new (old) car seat.

 Building a snow fort on a snowy Sunday.