Insta-Friday December Recap

Our December was full of fun.  

Here's a few of our favourite moments..

Popcorn stringing

Nutcracker Ballet with the big girls

Gingerbread cookies

Card making

Unhappy babies on Santa's knee and one unwilling 13 year old not in the picture.

Sending love to friends and family in the States.

Cute little treats for Mike's office

Discovered some new braids

Made some to-die-for hot chocolate

More beautiful braids

Lots of extra time to play with Caity

This girl danced in a big Christmas Eve production at a church in town.

The commitment was huge the two weeks before Christmas.

She had a great time being a part of the show.  She is always looking for new opportunities to dance!

Only 5 kids checking out the Christmas lights due to above dance commitments:)

Mads dressed up for Christmas Eve service.

Opening a little family present.

{we have an advent quilt. In past years I have filled it with little presents but this year I stuffed a note with an activity for the day written on it.  All the activities you see above were announced to the kids in the quilt on the appropriate day.  Some days, the kids were given a family gift..this one was a new Christmas CD.  Another day it was a new family game.}

Tradition for many generations in my family.

But I'm pretty sure they never used coconut sugar or spelt flour:)

Sweetie pie in her Christmas dress

Mikayla bought each of her sisters a book for Christmas.

She thoughtfully picked each one.

Both girls loved their books and read through them very quickly.

Taylor Swift tickets!!!!

More braids!

Cool snowman.

Caleb is awesome at rolling gigantic snowballs!

Playing with Bree's new mermaid Lalaloopsy.

Now she has one just like sissy...which makes bath time much more peaceful!

A little Light

Well helllloooo there!

Where do I start?!?!

Our Mikayla Grace turned 13.

{November 30}

We took her on a trip of a lifetime to commemorate this special birthday.

Florida-South America-San Francisco

I have lots of pictures I can finally share!

{And I will, but I'm a perfectionist and will want them in order so I'm gonna backdate them}

Today I was approached by a Banmanland blog reader at Michael's!  She knew me by name and asked how the family was doing.
And she said reading this blog was inspiring.
How nice!
Apparently, that was just the encouragement I needed to finally figure out the storage issue and start posting again:)

I wish I had thought to ask her name.
Thank you for taking the time to say hello, it sure meant a lot to me.

This blog is a way for me to document our lives, share with the far away family, and also connect with others.  My prayer is that it would be a little light in this crazy world.  A reminder that faith and love and family should always come first.  An encouragement toward thankfulness and appreciation of God's gifts in those around you and using the ones He's blessed each of us with individually.  Lots of vulnerability and honesty instead of just a bunch of perfect pictures because comparison is such a treacherous tool of destruction.  Each of us has our own strengths, gifts and purpose!!  And maybe sometimes just words and photos from the trenches of a busy family life.

Why am I typing this?
I don't know, seems like the start of a new year is a good time to remind myself what the goal is here.

Doesn't 2013 seem to hold a lot of hope and promise?  

I love that feeling of freshness at the start of a new year!

Let's conquer this year like none before:)

Christmas Eve and the Worshipping Sheep

Through Creator's, Mikayla got the opportunity to be a part of the Christmas Eve services at Trinity Church.  She had a fantastic time being a part of a big production.  They had 6 services in all along with many rehearsals.  She has had quite a few opportunities to dance outside the studio this year and she loves it! This one was great practice in front of a HUGE crowd:) Here are a few of the church's photographs...( couldn't resist posting these because they are great quality and I have been resorting to iphone pics so much these days!)

They were sheep and the song was "it's a baby" to the tune of "call me maybe".

SO cute.

Florida With Mikayla

On November first, Mike and I left our 5 youngest children with two of his sisters and boarded a plane with Mikayla for Orlando Florida.

First time alone with this girl since Mailee was born in 2001!

Mike had a Maximized Living conference in Orlando.  Mikayla got to see what it's all about first hand and meet a lot of cool people. 

We also made time for a little fun

All dolled up for dinner at Texas De Brazil.

YUM.

Mike's Mom Linda is one of his CA's (Chiropractic Assistant) so she was in Orlando as well.

It was a lot of meat.

Like a lot a lot.

They brought her an early birthday cake.

Pictures of Disneyworld require few words.

It is such a fun place, so magical, and you can't help but smile your way through the day!

It was fun to go with our big girl and see her enjoy herself without feeling responsible for anyone younger than her:)

Lots of smiles this day.

Beautiful, carefree, happy smiles!

Ya.

It was that fun

The castle in Disneyworld is Cinderella's.

{Sleeping Beauty's castle is in Disneyland}

We couldn't get over the mosaics in the castle.

I could have looked for hours!

Daddy's princess.

Such a fun day!

The last 4 times I have been to Disneyland, I have had a precious baby either in my belly or strapped to me in a carrier.  

I have loved it every time.

BUT

It sure was nice to spend the day relaxingly strolling and appreciating all the little details...without straining my back or my feet!

A night out for another amazing dinner at Maggiano's.

So hungry!

This was especially fun because of the group of chiropractors and CA's we were with!

Um, hello?

When did you grow up?!?!

All packed up and ready for the next leg of the journey!

{Mike was here too...he was usually doing something important while we were fooling around with the camera!}

Stay tuned for pics of the highlight of our trip, our visit to South America!