La Chua Trail Hike in December

Saturday we decided to take a little excursion. We hiked the La Chua trail, better known as the alligator trail. If you come to visit us in Florida, this is where we take you!

It was a beautiful day, with many large alligators visible sunning themselves in the 70 degree weather. We also saw two wild horses and a bison, which was a first for us on the trail, plus many birds.

 

Christmas Week

We had a lovely week of Christmas. It is always nice to have a few days of no school for the children before the big day, so we have time for some festive traditions.

Sunday night we drove around the neighborhoods to look at the Christmas lights.

Monday evening we went to the duck pond to see the Christmas lights.

We found Olaf among the lights at the pond this year. Can you tell what kind of weather we are having? Everyone is wearing shorts and t-shirts!

Tuesday afternoon we had our annual Polar Express Party; this year we invited the Olsens and the Dansons, making 8 children total. We made bell necklaces, colored train pictures, watched the movie, and ate popcorn and drank hot chocolate.

Wednesday was Christmas Eve. The children finished prepping their gifts, and they were very excited. We let the children open their gifts for each other, and their gifts to Jared and I. Then we watched White Christmas.

The children handmade Jared and I each a snuggly Christmas blanket (under Anwyn's direction).

The children selected or made nice gifts for each other. You can read more about their gift giving here.

For dinner that evening we were invited to the Cricchio's home (along with the 4 missionaries in our ward and a single sister). We had a lovely dinner and a nice time playing and visiting. We brought Scotcharoos for dessert. It was almost 9 when we got home, and the children went quickly to bed.

Christmas Day the girls were awake by 6 a.m., but we waited until Zach woke up at 7 to start the festivities. Stockings were opened first, then breakfast of caramel pull aparts and bacon. Then it was time for presents. The children all got Lego sets, and the girls got Rollerblades. We got a couple new games to play as a family (Dixit and King of Tokyo), a few movies and books, and some plastic baseball bats and balls. We also tried out K-nex this year. We spent a nice day relaxing and playing, most of us in our pajamas. Dinner that evening was ham, funeral potatoes, rolls, and zucchini.

Ready for the stockings!

The first Lego build of the day: a Star Wars set for Zach.

Books for all! Even Jared and I, although we missed the picture. 

The Jungle Rescue Lego set the girls were eagerly anticipating.

Reading the hilarious new non-picture book from the Thiriots.

The K'nex helicopter with spinning blades.

Friday was a day at home together, playing games, reading books, watching movies. A nice vacation day!

December Activities

December is a wonderful month, with lots of great traditions and activities.

We put up our Christmas tree during the week of Thanksgiving.

The month began with the Festival of the Nativity, hosted by our stake. The nativity sets from all over the world are so special to see, and the musical performances were lovely. The children had a great time dressing up in the nativity costumes. It wasn't very busy when we were there on Saturday, so I am pretty sure the children took turns trying on every costume available. Zach was resistant to dressing up at first, until we told him that he looked like a Jedi. Then he was happy to be Luke Skywalker or Obi-Wan.

Anwyn ran her second 5k race. She ran for Tyler's Hope, a local foundation that supports the UF Movement Disorders Clinic and Dystonia Research (Jared knows and works with some of the faculty there). She ran it in 26:10, taking 3 minutes off her previous 5K time. We felt a little bad about sending our little 9 almost 10 year old to run this race surrounded by lots of big people, although there were a lot of elementary school age kids there too. We didn't feel bad after she ended up doing so well. It was a fun event, and Anwyn finished with a huge grin on her face.

The last week of school was busy for the kids with class parties. Lily had a field trip to sing carols at a nearby care center. Zach and I were able to go along. We walked (with 130 first graders) to the care center, then walked to a park for playtime and a picnic lunch. Anwyn's class had a Polar Express movie pajama party (they also got to decorate cookies).

Zach had a pageant performance at his school. The children sang songs and briefly acted out the nativity. Zach was a cute wiseman. He was very excited and he kept waving at us and grinning up on the stage.

Zach is the first wiseman on the left.

Friday was our Ward party. They had a nice catered dinner, with a program to follow. Jared and I each  took a turn playing the piano for some background music during the dinner. We were pretty involved with the program: the children sang with the Primary, Anwyn played a Jingle Bells variation on the piano, and Jared and I played the Sleigh Ride duet.

 The girls met and visited Santa, but Zach didn't want to get too close.

 

 

Saturday morning was the piano recital for my students (5 students this year, 3 of which are Tanners :). I thought it would be neat to hold it a local care center, so the kids could perform for a few more people and bring a little holiday cheer to others. They all did a great job, and it was a nice program.

Five piano students

Lily played O Come, O Come Emmanuel, Jolly Old St. Nicholas, and Jingle Bells. 

 Zach and I played a Jingle Bell Bop duet.

  Anwyn played What Child is This, a complex Jingle Bells arrangement, and a duet with Kylee.

Jared and I played the Sleigh Ride duet.

Christmas Greetings 2014

We are so blessed and thankful for the life that we have as a family!

Anwyn is almost 10 years old and in fourth grade. She has joined a few school offered programs this year: STEM club, Math Olympiad, Chorus, and the Cross Country Running Team. She is a speedy girl who loves to run, and she makes sure that we are out the door early enough to participate in the daily Morning Mile.

Lily is 7 years old and in first grade. She loves her friends at school, and especially likes her Enrichment class. She is a creative, fun-loving girl. She loves to be read to, and is working on developing her own reading skills.

Zach is 4 years old and attends preschool three days a week. He has adjusted well to school and loves his teacher and friends there. He currently loves all things Star Wars.

Baby Boy will be joining our family sometime in the middle of April 2015. We are all eagerly awaiting his arrival!

Kristi does the usual everyday mom things, and serves in the Primary presidency at church.

Jared is continuing his post-doctoral research position at the University of Florida. He serves on the high council at church.

Highlights of the Year 

A trip to Washington D.C in February: Jared participated in a Parkinson’s conference, while the children and Kristi spent most of the time exploring the Smithsonian Museums and riding the metro. We were especially thrilled to play in the snow! We loved the chance to visit with dear friends and family in North Carolina along the way. Read about it here, here, and here.

July Vacation: flew to Utah, spent a few days there, drove 12 hours to Canada to see Kristi’s family for a few days. Spent a night in Idaho visiting Kristi’s extended family, then back to Utah for 4 days for a large Tanner family reunion. It was so wonderful to see so much family, and the children had an especially great time bonding with their cousins.

Florida Fun: picking strawberries and blueberries, the largest live oak tree, trips to the beach, Jacksonville Zoo, Blue Springs, and the pumpkin patch.

Family Reading List

We love to read! Here are just a few of the favorite books we have enjoyed this year. You can follow Jared and Kristi on Goodreads if you want to see our complete list for the year.

Jared 
Albion’s Seed by David Hackett Fischer
Words of Radiance by Brandon Sanderson
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage by Alfred Lansing

Kristi 
Uncle Tom’s Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe
The Lunar Chronicles series by Marissa Meyer
How Will You Measure Your Life by Clayton M. Christensen
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Power of Habit: Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business by Charles Duhigg

Anwyn
Redwall series by Brian Jaques (1-5)
Warriors and Seekers series by Erin Hunter
Penderwicks series by Jeanne Birdsall
The Candymakers by Wendy Mass
Florida Sunshine State Reader Award Books

Lily
Magic Tree House series by Mary Pope Osborne
Imagination Station series by Mariane Herring
Prudence Wants a Pet by Cathleen Daly
And many picture books

Zach
Any Star Wars book
Any Superhero book
And many picture books

Read Aloud 
Holes by Louis Sachar
The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner
Mrs. Piggle Wiggle by Betty Macdonald
Mrs. Noodlekugel series by Daniel Pinkwater
A Little Princess by Frances Hodgson Burnett
My Father’s Dragon by Ruth Stiles Gannett

Thankful in November

November was a nice month. We had an FHE lesson at the beginning of the month about gratitude/thankfulness, so that helped us to bring a more grateful spirit into our home. This year we did a door of Thankfulness. Throughout the month we added pictures/descriptions of things we are thankful for.

 The details are kind of hard to see, but the kids drawing were cute!

This is what we had on our door for 2014. Over 100 things! 

turkey, raspberries, presents, rain and rainbows, my family, butterflies, cats, science, friends, ocean, prophets, Christmas trees, blankets, police, helicopter, un-baked, cookies, Halloween, water, fireworks, candy, terraria, Sky the fish, seasons, music, shapes, snow, joy, books, Lego Star Wars game, smiles, Box Car Children book, leaves, temple, the piano, foxes, education, people, bees, priesthood, paper, minions, bikes, balloons, horses, computers, peace, work, brains, a comfy place to sleep, flowers, babies, rolls, the earth, our house, running, the woods, our country, the alphabet, hamburgers, monkeys, pumpkins, orange chicken, birds, Christmas, STEM club, Santa, porcupines, light, shoes, Legos, parks, clothes, doors, deer, dolphins, pizza, Lily, Zach, Anwyn, Dad, Mom, watches, T.V., cars, hot dogs, salad, snowmen, birthdays, veterans, dogs, scooters, ice cream, church, Jesus, the sun, skunks, carrots, pumpkin bread, blueberries, cups, plates, spoons, squirrels

Zach's preschool class decorated turkey handprint t-shirts and had a cute little parade.

Jared had a High Council speaking assignment in Cross City the Sunday before Thanksgiving. We all travelled along with him and enjoyed visiting with the members of the branch there. They hosted a Thanksgiving dinner after church which was really nice.

The girls dressed up as pilgrims in primary in Cross City.

We celebrated Thanksgiving Day with our good friends the Beck family. They were kind enough to invite us over for dinner again this year, and we enjoyed fantastic food and great company. 

I am thankful this month that things are moving along well with pregnancy #4, and very thankful to be past the yucky nausea stage! 

20 weeks of pregnancy on Thanksgiving Day.

We are thankful for these three great kids in our family!