Christmas Morning Treasure Hunt

We had a good Christmas here in the Denton home.  The kids were up around 6:30 or so and dug into their stockings.  Then it was off to open presents.  It was really fun to have Liam crawling around and getting involved in his first Christmas.

  After all the presents had been opened, we had a visit to our advent calendar from Lego Santa Yoda.  He put a clue in the last day that started the kids on a treasure hunt to find clues that would lead them to one last gift..

Here is the video of the hunt.  The clues are shown below in case you can't hear the kids.

Santa Yoda hanging out at the calendar.

Here are all the clues the kids found.

First clue (read best in your best Yoda voice).

This clue was in the Bible at Luke 2.

They found this clue hanging from the ceiling of the minivan.

The next clue was hidden in the microwave of Riley's play kitchen.

 

This clue was hidden in the chest in our front hallway. Sensei Wu is a Lego Ninjago character and "Big Head Joe" is a name that the kids gave a Star Wars Jedi character that has a cone head (Ki Adi Mundi for all you Star Wars nerds).

 

This clue was found hanging from the Lego figure of "Big Head Joe".

The last clue was hanging inside the clothes dryer.

So the final gift was a new Wii.  Our old one stopped working a few months ago and it made more sense to buy a new one than to repair the old one thanks to Christmas sales.  We got a black one to replace the old white one.  The kids were really excited!

I Love to see the Temple

We had the opportunity to go to the Atlanta Temple today. Here are some pictures of the kids. Doug took the ones of Liam while I was in the Temple and the big kids were being watched by members of our wonderful primary presidency. Liam's still new at the whole sitting thing. Doug said he only rolled down the hill a couple of times.

Epic Star Wars Battle

A couple of Saturdays ago the kids decided to have a Star Wars battle. They made signs and got dressed up. They even got their stuffed animals and set them up on some shelves so they would have an audience. After all this work the battle lasted about five minutes! 

 Every battle needs a princess with a light saber and umbrella.

I'm not sure Aiden ever joined in the battle. 

Family Pictures

When the kids and I were in
Memphis for a few days this summer we asked our cousin Meggan to take pictures of the kids. We hadn't had professional ones taken since Riley was born. The day of the pictures Will was in a lot of pain. He ended up having a tooth pulled later that day. Meggan got some great pictures considering her subjects! Check out her work at mebs photograpghy



Riley and Liam

Riley reading to Liam. Not sure why she has a water gun or an umbrella. But at least he'll be dry if she squirts him with the water gun.

This is what Riley's feet look like most days after playing outside. And yes, she does wear shoes, usually flip flops or crocs.

Liam hanging out while I do dishes.

Riley and Liam.

Riley overload.

First Day of School

The boys are excited to start a new school year at a new school!  Q is a 4th grader and A&W are in the 1st grade.

R won't be going to preschool this year for a few different reasons, but she will have workbooks and opportunities to learn at home.  She insisted that we take her picture today too - pop tart and all.

Lincoln Boyhood Memorial

We promised Quinn back in 2nd grade that we would go to the Lincoln Boyhood Memorial sometime. It only took us a year to find time to go! We went a couple weeks before we moved. It was hot and I decided we should walk to the living farm instead of driving! We made it up to them by getting Sweet CeCe's after.

Moo

This year I decided to take the kids to Chick-fil-a's Cow Appreciation Day. If you dress like a cow you get free food. It only took about 30 minutes to throw together costumes for the kids. The kids had fun and even made costumes for some of their stuffed animals. I didn't dress Liam up but Riley made sure he wasn't left out.

This is what Liam looked like after Riley drew more spots on her face and kissed all over him.

Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays!

We've had several birthdays in the past couple of weeks. Quinn turned 9 and Will and Aiden turned 7. All three boys wanted Pokemon cakes for their birthdays. So I had them draw a picture of what they wanted and I did my best at decorating the cakes with what little cake decorating skills I have.