Goodbye 2016!!!

 2016 was an excellent year!  We have been so blessed.  And we had such a fabulous end to the year.  Christmas break was so much fun!!  It all started with my volleyball team winning 1st place in the league we had been playing in!! Woot Woot!!

We were able to go to a breakfast Christmas party for the kiddos on Whiteman Airforcee base!  It was so sweet!  The kids got to eat pancakes and hot chocolate, do Christmas crafts and see Santa!!

 Beckham enjoyed the pancakes immensely!!

 It was extra special when Santa brought gifts for all the kiddos!!

 It was super fun, we all had a blast!!

 Elsie wasn't nervous about seeing Santa at all, either!

 I had a super fabulous 33rd birthday during the break, as well!!  We built our traditional gingerbread village!!  Elsie was an active participant this year!!  She is getting so big...

 Beckham's gingerbread house turned out amazing this year.  He put a lot of thought into it :)

 Happy Birthday to me :)

 Jane was pleased with how hers turned out...after a long lecture on how it's ok if things aren't perfect-haha.

 Here's the end result...after a bit of the "snow" had been munched on.

 On Christmas Eve our "Elf Eric" returns back to the North Pole and leaves the kiddos with a special present!!  Here they are wearing their new jammies from Elf Eric.

My sweet little Beckham bought a gift for each of his sisters and couldn't wait to give them out.  SO he wrapped them up and gave them away.  The girls were so excited!!

 These girls are so lucky to have such a sweeeeeeeet brother!!  I just love moments like these!! This is what being a mommy is all about.

We ended our Christmas Eve night by having our traditional Shepherd's dinner and this time we had the sister missionaries with us!  It was such a great night.

Christmas day was wonderful!! Elsie was so thrilled to see Santa had brought her an Elsa castle! 

 Beckham got a cool Bean bag chair for his room!

 and Jane got a desk!!

 Here is Elsie in her tutu and frozen slippers! I was so happy to see Elsie finally acting more like herself.  She began throwing up in the wee hours of Christmas day and had a rough night and Christmas morning...poor girl.

 Here are the kiddos playing with the neat MIPasour!

 Here is Elsie enjoying her Elsa barbie from Grandma and Grandpa...

 Jane loving her new desk in her room!

 Beckham's favorite toy was this cool little drone.  He has become quite a whiz at it.

Our fabulous Christmas day ended with dinner with the missionaries and a message from them.  This was the perfect ending to the day because we had to miss church due to Elsie being sick and Beckham having pink eye.  So a bit of spiritual enlightenment was so welcome!!

Elsie and I enjoyed a Christmas themed reading time at the library.  Her good friend was there, too!

 As a special treat right before school began again, Jane and Beckham had a late night with some friends :)  We played some fun party games!

 Had pizza for dinner, made a light up snow man necklace and watched a movie!!  It was a great night!

 On another fun outing, we went to a hibachi restaurant which has become a family favorite!!

It was a fabulous and fun end to 2016!  I love my little family so much and love every second I have with them!  I can't wait to see what 2017 has in store for our family :)

Christmas Break!!

 It's time for more catch up!  Before I can get to Christmas and New Years, I need to show some of the fun things we did over Christmas break!!  It has been a blast to have the kiddos home and I can't believe the time went by so fast.  But, tomorrow the kids will be back in school and life will be back to normal!  So let's remember some of the fun moments of the Christmas break!

We keep discovering some fun things about Missouri and apparently Hallmark was founded here!  So we visited the Hallmark headquarters and it was super fun!! They have a museum which was actually pretty neat.  This machine made present bows and each of the kids got one.  It was pretty fascinating to them and they wanted to watch it over and over again.

 Here is Beckham showing his little bow...

In the Hallmark museum there was a unique Christmas tree display!

 And lots of ornaments!!

 Ryan makes fun of me for loving Hallmark movies so he had a hay day here as many of the Hallmark movies were highlighted...and I found it fascinating :)

 After a nice lunch we saw a very large gingerbread city display!

 And the kids even got to play in a giant gingerbread house!!

 As a part of the Hallmark museum there was a free children's discovery center called Kaleidoscope!  It was upon Beckham's suggestion that we went here because he went were with his school.  I am so glad we visited here cause it was super cute!!  There were so many activities and crafts for the kids!

 There was a whole glow in the dark area with lots of glow in the dark crafts! This one was where the kids painted with melted crayons was very neat.

 Beckham took way too many pictures of himself...

 We spent a lot of time in the glow in the dark section :)

 This was a darling sink...

 There was painting, note card making, music and all sorts of things to explore!

 We had a great time!

 Here's the fan getting ready to see Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them!! Great show! Elsie sat on my lap for most of it, too!  It may have been because she was terrified...nonetheless it made this movie experience much more relaxing:)

 Of course we had to make a visit to Santa and the Bass Pro Shop!  The whole thing was just magical- totally worth the wait!  The kids got candy canes...Elsie's favorites...

 They got to color a christmas ornament...

 and of course they got to see Santa!

What a fun break we had!  We are so lucky to have the opportunity to have so much fun together!!!