A View of the Hills: January 2020

January is possibly even more jammed pack with activities and festivities that December for us in our household. This is thanks to the three birthdays we enjoy this month. There is nothing dull about this month for us!

Gwen earned her Math Facts level before Winter Break, but her reward came shortly after the break.

Ned also received his Math Facts award

While Gwen's birthday is technically first in the year, she wanted to have a friend birthday party so we postponed the celebration of her party to the weekend. This meant that we celebrated Nyle's birthday first. He asked for cinnamon rolls instead of a cake and why not?! Our family outing was to go ice skating...something he's actually pretty good at, thanks to all the roller skating he and Ned have been doing lately.

Nyle turned 7 this year.

Some great things about 7 year old Nyle:

He is a great friend and seems to always have someone at school that wants to play with him.
He is becoming quite a little reader, transitioning to chapter books, but he still prefers Math over reading.
He still is our sunshine--so full of energy and creativity!
When we read scriptures together as a family and it's his turn, if there happens to be the word "yea", he has to shout it out "YEA!"
Recently he has been begging me to teach him to play the piano.
He's becoming a good buddy to West. They are roommates and need each other to go to sleep at night.

Gwen received her Semester One Award for Straight A's

Ned and Ms. Lohmeyer

Nyle and Mrs. Basile

Gwen, Ned, and Nyle all worked super hard and received Straight A's for first semester and their $50 to accompany their hard work.

Putting together Nyle's birthday present

Gwen decided she wanted to do an Arts and Crafts birthday party. She invited her closest friends: Emma, Nicole, Bella Jerez, Bella Battistone, Sloane, Grace, and Jaycee. They decorated letters, made bracelets, decorated cupcakes, and made caterpillar puppets. It was a lot of fun and she pretty much planned most of it!

Gwen turned 11 this year.

Some great things about 11 year old Gwen:

She continues to spend a ton of time reading and in October of this school year, completed the schools highest reading AR level--again!
She's beginning to utilize her sewing machine more and has been making items for her dolls such as clothes, backpacks, a purse, and a lunch box.
She is still very good at entertaining her little brothers and has made it one of her goals to do so weekly.
She has also been learning how to cook and has become our household cookie baker. She also made dinner for us a few Sundays ago--tacos.
She is a natural on the piano, even though she's not fond of it. It doesn't take her long to conquer a song.
She is still a night owl. It seems like her brain is just most active after 8:00pm--the complete opposite of me!

Getting the customary birthday whipped cream in the mouth.

What a gorgeous view from my kitchen window. I'm so spoiled!

Forming a train with the Jerez's

Gwen trying to make it snow on herself. Notice the scrubs she's wearing instead of snow pants. She was determined that she wouldn't be getting out of the car, but the conditions were too perfect so Zach was able to coax her out. Too bad, she left the snow pants mom had pulled out for her at home! These scrubs are always in the car, for emergencies.

With the kids getting older, it seems like we get to do a lot more fun stuff regularly. With no diapers and naps to have to worry about... we're much more mobile. With that, we decided to go sledding a few times this winter. We don't really have the gear for it, but our good friends, the Jerez's were kind enough to loan some to us as they have extras from their many ski trips. They joined us up on Mt. Charleston one weekend this month and it was a perfect day for sledding, sunny with great snow!

Redstone continues to be a Martin Luther King Jr. Day tradition for us. We still love heading up there to climb all over the beautiful sandstone formations. The Jerez's joined us along with some other friends. It was overcast, but not too cold and as always, the kids climbed to their heart's content!

Ned's was very thoughtful about his gift and Birthday dessert requests. He figured out that he wanted flippers back in the Summer and had requested that as his birthday gift since then. As for his birthday dessert, he thought long and hard and decided his preference was Rice Krispy treats. I quickly agreed to that one as I'm not sure there's a much easier Birthday dessert out there!

Ned turned 9 this year

Some great things about 9 year old Ned:

Ned works super hard at school... dutifully completing all of his school programs early. He's very conscientious
At school, he has a great group of friends that care a lot about school, but also play together well. One of his friend's dad refers to their groups as quirky and nerdy--in the best way!
Ned loves playing with friends more and will often hurry to complete his homework so he can go play with them up at our old neighborhood after school.
He's strong! He has set a goal to do 50 push-ups a day by the end of the school year and has already exceeded that!
He has been having more fun with piano lately, he still asks for help pretty regularly, but seems to be enjoying the more challenging repertoire he is acquiring now.
He's a great leader for his younger brothers. He will often lead them in getting ready for bed if for some reason I can't.