New Toys!

After the holidays wind down, it's fun to play with all of the new toys we get as gifts!

Owen got a gemstone kit that had real gems in it!

I got to decorate my very own jewelry container!

New clothes are not toys, but I get just as excited about them!

Owen got an electricity kit and learned about currents are conducted to make electricity!

I grew my own crystals from a special kit!

I got my own caboodle to hold all of my makeup, hair bows and jewelry!

Owen continued practicing on his new skateboard and got pretty good at it!

He also got a mini drone that he controls with his hand only!  I liked it as long as he stayed away from me (and my hair)!

Bringing in the New Year!

We got to try something new to bring in the new year!  We went to Fernbank Museum for a Noon Year's Eve with our friends Landon and Dylan!

It was a beautiful day and you can always find a dinosaur at Fernbank!

Here we are waiting for the balloon drop at noon! 

The boys are so crazy!

All of those balloons dropped right at noon!

Later that day we went over to Landon and Dylan's house to celebrate New Year's Eve!  Owen wore his new fancy pajamas for the occasion! 

Dad and I toasted at midnight!  And we had a group picture of everyone that was still up to ring in the new year!

Happy New Year!

Not a surprise I was up at midnight, but Landon and Dylan didn't quite make it!

The kids continued the party in the morning! 

This is what happens the next day after I stay up until midnight!

After our naps, we needed some candy to get our energy back - the gingerbread house was perfect for that!

Since the holidays were over, we decided it was time to get rid of the gingerbread house!

Here's Owen doing some damage to the gingerbread house!

And I got to finish it off!

Merry Christmas!

We had so much fun on Christmas, Mom forgot to take pictures of us!

The last night Bobby the Elf hung around, he set up Santa's lookout!

I guess we ended upon the nice list for the year!  Santa (and our family) surprised us with all sorts of fun presents!

Here's a look at me checking out my gifts from Santa!

I couldn't believe that Santa got me a skateboard (last year he said I needed to be 8 to get a skateboard)!  I had to give it a try right away!

Dude Perfect Birthday!

I had a couple family birthday celebrations that led up to a fun Dude Perfect party at home with a few friends!  I was sick in bed for two days less than week before my birthday so the celebrations definitely helped me feel better!

I've gotten used to the Christmas decorations being a part of my birthday!  Lots of fun birthday presents from family!

Grandma B and Grandpa Mark took me on a birthday outing (just the 3 of us) to Top Golf! 

For my birthday party, we had a Dude Perfect competition!

Dad came up with several different Dude Perfect competitions for us - bottle flip (of course!), basketball hoops, ball toss, and dizzy bat run!

But the best competition was paint ball shooting!  Our shooting targets were each other (photos - not actually us!).  Dad gave us a lesson first, including safety!

It didn't take me long to get the hang of the paint gun!  Even Clara gave it a try! 

Can't have a party without pizza and cake!

It was a great birthday party with friends!  And we were awesome at hitting our targets!

Turning 7 is exhausting! 

Check out my golf swing at Top Golf!

Christmas Pictures!

With both our grandparents, we all went to church in the afternoon and then came home to take some pictures while we were all dressed nicely!

Here's our whole family!

Here we are with both sets of our grandparents!  We were pretty lucky to spend Christmas with all of them together!

Just the girls!

Give me a twirly dress, something to pose in front of, and a camera and I'm happy!

We definitely were on Santa's "good" list this year!

And then Owen was done with pictures...

Christmas Visitors!

We had some extra visitors at our house over Christmas!  Grandpa Mike and Grandma Pam came from Iowa to stay with us!

We took them to ride SkyView - a giant ferris wheel in downtown!  We could see the GP building from the top of it! 

Boys on one side!

And girls on the other!  (And someone who doesn't like camera flashes!)

 

We were high up but it wasn't too scary...

After the ferris wheel, we went to a light show in Centennial Park!  Clara found her magic stagecoach!

 

There were some really cool lights there!