Stuff from the end of 2013...

Just a dump of events that finished off our 2013.  Lots happened but I cannot go back and put together a post for each event.  So...here you go.

Lorien turned 12 on November 8th.  Once you are 12 in our church you are old enough to go into the temple (dunt-dunt-daaaaa).  Will and I got to take Lorien on her first temple trip with the youth.  It was sweet to see her excitement and talk with her afterwards about her experience.  

Clare got glasses!  She looks like a mouse...a sweet, wonderful, adorable mouse.  She was having trouble seeing the white board at school so we got her eyes checked.  Now she and I can wear glasses together.

We attended the last Stanford home football game.  This season was a fun one to watch.  Go Stanford!

We hosted our family for Thanksgiving.  I cooked the turkey.  When I was getting the turkey ready for the brine Adell was looking at the wrapped turkey nervously.  Finally she asked, "Momma, is the turkey's head going to pop out when you open it?"  She was imagining a live turkey wrapped up in that blue and white plastic.

The Thanksgiving dinner spread.

Colter is still as troublesome as ever.  Even when having a tea party with Adell.

Lorien started playing the viola this year.  She has never played a string instrument before and it was a rocky start.  She had her winter concert just before the Holiday break.  Will and I went without any of the other children (good choice).  The concert was lovely and Lorien played well.

We picked out a Christmas tree and got that sucker decorated.

And finally, a month and a half late...we had Lorien and Wyatt's friend birthday parties.  Wyatt picked a "Nerf Gun" party.  Originally he wanted to hire a gaming company to come over and set up laser tag.  After a little research we discovered that it would be more cost effective to buy a bunch of Nerf guns and have a war.  Lucky for us Target was having a buy-one-Nerf-gun-get-one-1/2-off sale.  The party was a hit...and no one shot their eye out.

Lorien wanted to have a Dr. Who party...because she loves that stuff.  Also, because it was the 25th anniversary of Dr. Who in November.  Lorien and her friends had ice cream, talked about all things Who and watched an episode of the show.  I think it was a hit but I am not a nerd so I don't know for sure.

One lovely thing about celebrating the kids birthdays so late.  Our friends, the Clarkes, were back in the states for a visit.  They have been living in Amsterdam for the last year.  They are some of our favorite people and our kids have birthday-partied with them just about every year since we became friends.  We've missed them--and will continue to miss them until we can convince them to move back to California.  

Good bye 2013!  You were a good year.