Christmas 2013

It was a busy, fun Ohio Christmas! We missed being with family but enjoyed being with each other and our friends.

In the nativity scene at our ward Christmas party, Abby and Katie were angels and Alex was a reluctant shepherd (front left-center, trapped in Mom's beige sweatshirt).  :)

Katie's class party, where Alex and I got to help out with games

Reading The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve

Matching jammies on Christmas Eve

No lack of enthusiasm about presents here! (doll bikes and suitcases)

Sarah with Daddy and Baby Madeline

Abby modeling her new owl necklace

Katie with her new American Girl horse and filly

Alex testing out his ceramic dinosaur painting kit

Abby made these cute pom-pom critters

Alex sewed these rice-filled hand warmers for us at preschool

Katie made this ornament for us at school

We got to talk to Jennie on her mission in Spain!! This is what the Skype call looked like at the Kaelberers' house; we got to join in through FaceTime. She looked and sounded great!

Modeling new outfits

A few days after Christmas, we drove about four hours to Sandusky, Ohio, to meet our friends the Daytons at the Kalahari resort--the nation's largest indoor water park! 

Adrian, Natalie, Zeke, and Taylor

Movie time in the hotel room after a fun day of splashing and sliding

On the way home, we took a short detour to visit historic Kirtland for our second time. Despite the rain, we enjoyed visiting the sites and seeing the large collection of unique creches in the visitors' center.

In an unprecedented moment, everyone fell asleep on the way home (Dad too, after he snapped this picture!). 

December 2013

It's definitely looking A LOT like Christmas around here!

This is the view as you walk through our front door. (It's a split-level home, so you see down into a family room and up into the kitchen and living room.)

Alex got all dressed up for you to pose by our enormous tree. 

Ashley and Katie as reindeer . . . I love that Ashley's mom snapped this picture before enlightening the girls about the evils of drawing on your face with permanent marker!

Fun sledding at the school with neighbors on a snow day. (School has been closed twice already, for conditions a Northern Utahn wouldn't think twice about driving in!)

This is 10 minutes before Sarah realized her hands were cold and much screaming ensued.  :(

Katie enthusiastically joined her first-grade chorus in a fun concert!

Burrito baby. 

Abby did a great job in her first school orchestra concert, and I got to accompany the orchestra on the piano. (The enormous, gorgeous poinsettia plant was a thank-you gift that night.)

Happy Holidays!

November/December 2013

Katie's first tumbling meet!

How do you celebrate signing an employment contract? If you're Luke, you get a rowing machine, of course!

Caught these two doing this and couldn't resist . . . 

Sarah says, "I want another treat!"

Child #2 and Child #3 are insane. 

CHICAGO! --We got to tag along with Luke to THE largest medical conference in the world: RSNA. (All these years that Dad has been going, I never knew it was the largest--about 54,000 attended this year.) Scott and Nora met us there, and we had a great time (with our 54,000 new best friends, of course!). 

Nightly swimming at the hotel was a highlight . . . 

. . . as were the gourmet hotel breakfasts. 

We had an absolutely magical girls' lunch and shopping trip at American Girl Place! The four of us also went to a fabulous stage production of "A Christmas Carol"--so fun! 

Meanwhile, the boys + Sarah checked out the aquarium and the children's museum. 

Snuggling in a big hotel bed

A huge, beautiful tree on a downtown plaza

Cloud Gate ("The Bean") sculpture in Millennium Park

Ice skating in Millennium Park

Sarah's only decent nap in four days--at the outdoor skating rink. What a trooper!

An amazing city!!