Happy New Year - Welcome 2019

It seems like every year for New Years Eve we've had several parties to be at or plan.  Our teens are usually at dances, Trek & I usually have a house full of people, & the kids are usually watching movies until they pass out at 9.

This year was completely different.  There wasn't a teenage New Year's Dance & we decided to make New Year's a family togetherness affair.  We didn't go anywhere, we didn't throw a party, we bonded as a family unit & had a BLAST doing it.

We got 9 new Board Games for Christmas (amazing games) & we played as many as we could until midnight struck.  Some the younger kids could play (Jumangi, Yeti in My Spaghetti, Connect 4, Disney Codenames, & Loteria), one Taya could join the older kids in (Harry Potter Clue), & the others were for the 4 oldest (Villainous, Hail Hydra, & Thanos Rising).  We never got to play Villainous or Hail Hydra because that Thanos Rising game took THREE HOURS & we LOST.  It's HARD, but a blast.  Thanos took out all our heros in one devastating swoop & it was kind of sad.  But it was fun playing as our favorite heros (Cap. America, Loki, Thor, Dr. Strange, etc.).  The geek genes run strong in our family.  ha ha ha.

At midnight we opened up some sparkling cider & toasted the new year all together as a family.  I wouldn't have had it any other way.  I love these people.

Happy New Year.  

May 2019 bring happiness, fun, & many more adventures for the Potter family.

Cleaning The Temple

After Christmas, Trek & I had an amazing opportunity to clean the Birmingham, AL temple.  We've never gotten the chance to help clean the temple before, so we were really excited.

We went up early & did some temple work (genealogy, I am doing it, my genealogy) first, then met up with some great families from church to clean the temple.  It was a lot easier than I thought it would be.  First off, it's a tiny temple.  Our temples have been huge for the last 10 years (DC, Frankfurt, & Oakland)  Birmingham is a "fun size" temple & I love it.  Secondly, all they had us do was vacuum & clean the bathrooms.  It was REALLY quick & easy, but wonderful at the same time.

Afterwards, we all went out to dinner together at this total hole-in-the-wall Mexican food place.  Let me tell you. . . hole-in-the-walls are my favorite.  The food was AMAZING.  We will definitely be going back.  It was a great night of service, friends, & great food.

Canyon's Date Night

I had another cute date night with my little Canyon man.

Of course we went to Chick-Fil-A 

A-G-A-I-N.

It's his favorite.

He likes it because he gets ice cream at the end which cracks me up.  I've told him LOTS of places have ice cream, but no!  Chick-Fil-A is the "bestest" ice cream.

After dinner, I took him to the arcade & let him play on $5 worth of coins.  He was in HEAVEN.

His favorite game was a space invader type game, but massive.  He played it several times.

It was a fun night.  He's adorable & I enjoy our little dates together.

Christmas 2018

 Merry Christmas from the Potter House!

Santa came & boy were the kids excited.  Watch the video below to see their reactions:

Christmas Morning

Cadence got a bunch of stuff for her new car.  (Mimi & Baba gave her their old car so now she has her own vehicle to get to early morning seminary, school, band, & play practices.  Hooray for self-reliant kids!)  She got a steering wheel cover, a bluetooth transmitter so she can play music from her phone through the speakers, a holder for her phone, a license plate cover, an Avengers sticker, & a Groot bobble head for her dashboard.

Lorien got Heeleys.  She's been asking for a pair of Heeleys for years.  For those of you who don't know what Heeleys are, they are shoes & roller skates all in one.  Now she skates around the floor at top speeds like a roller derby girl.  It scares me to death, but she loves it.

Bladen has been begging for a pogo stick for months.  Santa knew just what to get him.  We're still trying to break it in (it's a lot harder than it looks), but he loves it.

Craiger is getting into coding like his siblings.  He got an Iron Man Inventor Kit.  It's awesome.  He has an iron man hand that he attaches coded components to to make it light up a certain way, blink, make sounds, all sorts of cool stuff.

Canyon LOVES PJ Masks.  This is a huge PJ Mask playset with traps, ropes, slides, & secret passages.  He is in heaven with this thing.

And the one thing Taya wanted more than anything was an electric scooter.  This one is perfect for her.  All she does now is play outside (which is WONDERFUL).  She loves it.

After we enjoyed our Santa gifts, we opened up all of our Nancy gifts.  All 107 of them.  Nancy always sends each of us a  whole new wardrobe, but this year there were TONS of gifts.  My kids call her our Fairy Godmother for obvious reasons.  They got the most amazing new clothes & shoes this year.

I got totally spoiled this year.  I think I counted 9 pairs of shoes/boots, several new outfits & dresses, a coat, 3 purses, & a few other fun things.  She is SO good to our family.  We love her so much.

After all the Nancy gifts were opened, we started opening from family.

The kids loved everything they got from grandparents & aunts/uncles.  It was the best Christmas ever.

My absolute favorite part of Christmas is stockings.  My mom always made such a big deal out of the stockings when I was a kid that it quickly became my favorite part.  My mom hand made all of our stockings (I made Canyon's this year) & they are beautiful.  We each buy 1-2 things to put in each other's stockings.  I always love to see what fun things come out of them.

Trek bought all the boys walkie talkies & put them in their stockings.  That cracked me up.  They are having SO much fun with them.

And of course I always find an excuse to buy new socks & underwear for the kids.  What better place to put them, but in the stockings?

Cadence & Lorien were cracking me up this year.  I did stocking themes & Cadence's theme was Loki where Lorien's theme was Thor.  (They're kind of obsessed right now).  A lot of their stocking items were matchy matchy. . .  with Lo's being Thor & Cadence's being Loki.  They got a kick out of it.

Geeky Girls

Geeking Out

Christmas was great.  Once everything got settled, cleaned up, & put away, I opened up the game of Loteria that I got in my stocking from my mom & played it with the family.  My dear friend & Zumba instructor here in AL introduced me to Loteria as part of her culture & her upbringing.  It's FUN & addicting.  My kids loved it.

And every Christmas, my dad buys me a special gift called "The Daddy Gift."  This year my daddy gift was a new viola case.  Mine broke in the move & I've been carrying around my precious viola by hand, with no case ever since.  I needed this SO desperately bad & he went above & beyond.  It's a humidty controlled case so it makes sure the AL humidity doesn't get to my viola.  It fits my baby perfectly & keeps it safe & comfortable.  I love it.

It was an absolutely wonderful Christmas.

Merry Christmas from our home to yours.