Christmas Break

The kids have had an exceptionally long Christmas break this year as our school district doesn't have school on Fridays.  Yes, you heard that right, my kids never have school on Fridays.  Zac also decided to take a Christmas break from work, so we have had a lot of time to do many activities together as a family.  Here are some of the activities that we have been up to...

We sorted through our crayon bucket, which was full of nothing but broken and stubby pieces of crayons.  We sorted them into colors and took off all the wrappers.

Then meted them down and poured them into greased toilet paper tubes to make giant crayons.  It was a huge mess, but very fun. 

Zac took the kids shooting.  There are many wonderfully secluded areas near our house in which one can shoot guns... and this has become a recent favorite family activity. 

An Annie Oakley in the making?

Zac was asked to be in charge of a Christmas party for our ward.  He coordinated a wonderful ham and potato dinner, projected the Nativity movie, and had a committee put together gingerbread house kits for each family in the ward. 

Everyone had a lot of fun putting the gingerbread houses together.  The party was a huge success! 

Tanner and Ashlyn were in a school Christmas play and they got to learn to square dance.  Although, Ashlyn thought it would be fun to square dance with her twin, we assured her that it was good to branch out every now and then and meet new boys! 

We always have our own little family party on the 23rd, where the kids exchange the gifts that they worked hard to save for and bought for each other.  As part of that party this year, we took all of the kids bowling.  It was a first for Charlotte and Bronson and they loved it! 

As you can see, I rocked it with a score of 139, as compared to Zac's 117.  I may or may not have used the bumper pads to my advantage ;)

With Zac home for a couple of weeks, he also helped me get to some organization projects in the house.  We were able to finish our mud room area, which is now very spiffy and organized.

And we also shuffled rooms in order to free up the nursery for the new baby in a couple of months, which means that Bronson now sleeps in a big boy bed! 

Ack!  It is always a leap of faith taking them out of the crib.  After a week of tears and getting out of bed at all hours of the night, I think he is finally getting used to his new room and bed and we are going to make it!

Of course he has discovered that he likes the freedom of being able to leave his room at will to perform his mischief.  Thank you, Dad for taking a picture of the mess, but not actually cleaning it!

We also shuffled Charlotte downstairs into her own room and moved Tanner in with Ian.  Everyone seems to be pleased with their new sleeping arrangements and hopefully everyone is in a happy routine before baby comes and no one feels displaced because of baby.

And of course we have had lots of lazy time to just sit and read and enjoy our time off!