Dad's Birthday: One More year until 50!

Best Dad ever!

Dad's birthday comes every year the day after Christmas. This year we let Dad sleep in, which he doesn't get to do too often anymore. Then we went to Tucanos for our annual birthday lunch. The boys probably looked forward to it more than Dad. But we had a great lunch and ate lots of grilled pineapple.

Seth only eats the pineapple!

This was the same table as last year. It must be our table now! 

We got Dad a few presents for his birthday. The most popular one was the karaoke microphone. We sang lots of lots of songs and had lots of fun. We can't wait to take it to Bear Lake.

Finally we enjoyed homemade cinnamon ice cream and cinnamon rolls. We are lucky to have Randy as the dad and husband in this house. He is so helpful, kind, and makes us laugh all the time. He is the best!

Dad is the best karaoke singer!

Dax loved it a ton!

Mom's face during "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" actually looks heartbroken!

Christmas

Christmas was awesome! Now that our children are getting older, it seems simpler in some ways and way more expensive and complicated in other ways. We had a great few days around the Christmas holiday.

First, we had a wonderful Ward Christmas Party. Our ward was the last ward for the party, so we all got together on December 22. Dad was relieved that we could walk in on time and leave when we wanted. It was a lot more relaxing. All of the boys wanted to sit on Santa's lap so that they could get a candy cane. Candy is still very enticing for them. Luckily, we had a great Santa who was good to everyone!

Seth with Sam-ta Claus!!

Dax laughed the entire time.

Mark sat on the arm of the chair so he wouldn't break Santa's lap.

We spent December 23 with Grandma and Grandpa. They came down, and we had a nice candlelight dinner. Seth really wanted to burn his candle from Candlelight Christmas this year, so Mom set up a little paper towel candle holder and let him eat by candlelight. Dax used his candle for roasting marshmallows. Grandma and Grandpa Daniels spoiled us like always. Mom and Dad got new National Park sweatshirts that they love. Dax and Mark got $50 to spend how they wanted (Mark already ordered the same Air Jordans that Dad wanted in high school), and Seth got a new suit and Legos. Grandma made everyone book pillows which is such a fun idea, but the biggest news was they are taking all of us on an Alaskan Cruise in September. The kids can't wait!

Seth loved his candlelight dinner.

We burned most of the marshmallows.

Grandma and Grandpa always help make Christmas perfect.

Mom is lucky to have such great parents.

On Christmas Eve we attempted to build gingerbread houses. I say attempted because the boys' houses all caved in, so they gave up. Only Mom and Dad completed their houses, and Dad's is very creative. We loved his candy Nativity scene. I guess we should stick with Emily's prefab houses next year. We also made sugar cookies and had a relaxing afternoon. We spent the evening reading scriptures and talking about Jesus Christ.

The kids really wanted to make gingerbread houses, but they weren't doing well.

Dad's Nativity turned out so good!

Seth's house!

Mark's house. I think it became a planetarium.

Dax's chair for Santa.

Mom made a nice little cottage. Patience pays off.

Mom got new pajamas like the boys this year.

Christmas this year was on Sunday. It was the perfect way to celebrate the birth of Jesus. We woke up early and opened presents. The boys were super excited for the new arcade game AND the weight set. They have used both things many, many times. Then Mom and Dad went and picked up Grandpa Ockey. We spent an hour or so opening gifts and visiting with him. He is starting to lose his memory a little bit, but the boys were very kind and we tried to let him share memories from his past. We went to church where the entire meeting was musical performances. Mom played for the choir, and Mark helped on one piece. Dad just sat sleepily on the pew. The rest of the day was spent playing with new presents and having another candlelight dinner! It was a lovely Christmas!

Christmas morning!

Super excited for a little arcade in our basement.

We have had a lot of fun with the new NFL game.

We are so glad we got a little time with Grandpa Ockey.

Dad got some new binoculars.

Dax got some new headphones and a music player, so he walked around dancing all day!

Christmas dinner was perfect.

Annual Las Vegas December Trip

We have made visiting the Pooles in Las Vegas over Christmas Break a tradition and we love it. Our kids look forward to seeing their cousins every year. Since we had a long break before Christmas, we headed down to Las Vegas before Christmas this year. We played a lot of games (including on the Switch) and ate a lot of yummy food. Jonny even deep fried us a turkey!

We played Secret Hitler quite a few times.

Mark got to drive the Tesla.

Ben really loves playing Smash Bros. with his cousins.

I love this picture of Audrey wearing Mark's hat.

One day while Jonny had to work, we went on an adventure to Springs Reserve. We definitely did not plan enough time for this place. It was so fun. We played on the playground and rode the train to the Old Las Vegas town. We really loved the outdoor animal exhibit. Then the kids finally pooped out since they were starving, and it was well past lunchtime. We will have to go back and finish visiting another day.

The boys liked these huge geckos.

We went on a short train ride.

The botanical gardens were pretty, too.

Dax looks like he is in one of the animal exhibits.

Everyone tried to jump really far!

We love spending time with family.

Ben loves Mom and she loves him!

We also did a few Christmas light activities and just enjoyed being together. Mark is a great older cousin to the younger kids, and Dax and Seth love hanging out with Josh. The other big thing that we did was go to Tiffany's Hi Fit class. She has become an instructor, so we went to support her. Mom did the entire class, and the boys did most of it with just a few breaks. It was fun to be there with all of the Pooles. 

Mom was definitely tired after Hi Fit.

Mark gets down on the floor to play with the kids.

Cutest cousins!

Jonny! Ha ha!

Thanksgiving Weekend

2022 Thanksgiving was a busy weekend. We had a lot going on. First, we went to Grandma's house and we were so excited because Stephanie had baby James early in November. We spent lots of time holding James, waking him up to eat, feeding him, and just loving having another baby around for a while. Thanksgiving was relaxing and simple since it was just the Ockeys and Ferlans for dinner. The kids made pies with Grandma, the boys watched Buffalo play Thanksgiving morning, and we played a lot of games and did lots of baby snuggling.

Isn't James the cutest little guy?

Oldest and youngest grandchild on the Daniels side.

Dad loved holding James, too!

We all took turns taking care of this cute baby.

Seth also helped hold James.

Mom went to lunch with Angee.

Grandma is so patient with the bakers.

They each made a mini apple pie.

Seth loves cooking with Grandma.

Even Mark made his own pie.

Go Bills!

Holding James while watching the game.

Both James and the cat loved Mom!

We helped feed James every 2 hours.

Our traditional family pic by the fire place.

Everyone at Thanksgiving!

Dad took this photo of Mom. Does it look like she has antlers?

On Friday, we headed home because we had Christmas Trees on Saturday. But was also had TWO Christmas adventures to squeeze in on Friday. So first, we went to the Lightwalk at Tracy Aviary. This was a new event, and we really liked it. There were lots of fun light displays and great places for photos. We walked through the whole aviary and saw some pelicans and ducks, but most of the birds were inside for the night.

The light tunnel was the best part.

We took lots of photos.

We found other fun lights in the aviary.

Mom and Dad are so cute!

Seth liked the star light.

Dad had a fun idea to hold hands with the star light.

Only Seth would sit on Santa's lap.

Then we went to North Pole Festival at the soccer stadium. We enjoyed this event a lot last year, but this year we didn't like it quite as much. They had created a new light show in the stadium instead of having lots of lights to walk through. The boys liked all of the fun games to play, so we spent a lot of time playing. We took some fun photos, and then headed home to get some rest before a big Saturday.

There are a lot of fun photo spots at this light show.

Mark is such a great website helper!

Having fun walking through the giant snowman.

The kids got some light necklaces and Rudolph noses.

We played in the game area for a long time.

There were even soccer balls and a goal.

We are excited for Christmas adventures!

Saturday is always Christmas Trees with Dad's family. We all met at Grandpa Ockey's house and walked around to check out all of the updates and changes to the house. We layered up and drove up the mountain. There was actually snow this year, so the kids were able to do some sledding. It was a little rough and we broke a few sleds, and hit a few trees and bushes, but everyone had a lot of fun. We had to tromp around a long while to get some trees. Mom and Dad finally found a few they liked, and they chopped them down. It was a nice day in the sunshine and the snow. We stopped for pizza at Roys and ate a lot before heading home. Thanksgiving Weekend was perfect!

Mom loves being in the mountains.

Only Mark tromped around and looked for trees with us. Seth and Dax kept sledding.

Mom and Dad had fun together.

Seth on the big jump.

Mark heading for the trees and bushes.

He's okay, but he did crash!

Dax loves sledding the most.

Love this tradition--most of the time!

We also picked up Dad's old tapes from his house, so now the kids think listening to them is super cool.