We are Living Lawge

 This year for the Lenahan Christmas Party Weekend Extravaganza, we were able to go with our friends the Blankenfeld's. Rusty works at Ben's firm, and is the newest attorney!

 Everyone needs a serious selfie at the ocean.

 The boys.

 The girls.

 The obligatory Christmas tree picture at the formal dinner.

Look at us! Two non huggers hugging. 

The weekend was fun, as always. Mostly this is because we have a free getaway. I did have way too much fun at the expense of one of the attorney's very drunk date. When people are that far gone, they have the funniest conversations and you can make fun of them right to their face and they think it is hysterical. That might be my new favorite past time.

Kate and Addison love to have me on field trips. 9 years of them down, 6 more to go.

 When cleaning out stuff from our house to take to the DI trailer, I had an odd surprise when I opened it up. Apparently someone didn't want their homemade tree with painted dolls as ornaments anymore.

 Nathan, as person of the week, modeling the grape caterpillars I brought in. This might possibly be my first real Pinterest success with food art.

 Celebrating Dad being awesome at Chevy's. Of course, this calls for tortilla dough on your head.

 Robes are an obsession in this house. I am banned from having one because it would probably be all I wear. Instead, I let my children enjoy the beauty of robes. 

 We love this joke in our house. Yes we are strange, but we also say "poopus" a lot instead of purpose, so this one isn't so bad.

I tried sending the twin to school with covered legs, but I found these tossed in the backseat after I dropped them off. They know what they want I guess.

 We had absolutely no clue Nathan would be as good at soccer as he is. At the end of the season, the coach of the #1 team in the division (Nathan's was #2) contacted us to have Nathan play on his team next year when Nathan moves up to U10. I had no idea kids got poached in Rec soccer!

 Nathan loved his coach this year.

 The Jaguars! This was such a great team of boys, and we are really glad we got to know them.

 One night, for FHE, we ended up on the soccer field. Nathan had run his mouth a little to Ben tat he could beat everyone in our family-all at once. I think Ben took that as a challenge:)

It was rough, but we kept up with the kid. We can't let him think he is too good, or it will go to his head, right?

 Before going in, we stuffed them full of food. When you travel with 7 people, you have to be a bit creative with funding. Muir Woods only charges for people over 15, so this was a steal of an excursion.

 Counting rings in the trees.

 They look a little hoodlum-esque here. That is a sucker in Addison's mouth, not a cigarette by the way ;)

 In the park they have volunteers who provide small information sessions. One of them found this giant banana slug. I was grossed out, but the kids thought it was amazing.

 Selfies with mom when you are 13 may not be a favorite activity.

 Then we headed over to Tiburon. It was gorgeous there!

We ate pizza (which is actually our favorite thing to do in new towns-as long as it isn't a chain) and saw a movie. I was surprised that it is cheaper to go to the movies in Tiburon than here. Most likely this is because all th ehouses are a million dollars. Who could afford the movies after that?

Cultural Day 2014

Kate and Addison had to dress up as a community helper for school. I am not sure exactly how this came about, but I cannot deny it is partially because of my lack of desire to put together any other costumes. I do love that they were so excited to go as a Sister missionary companionship. They write letters to Alyssa (serving in Temple Square) all the time. They think she is the most amazing thing ever, so dressing like her was a big bonus for them. Time has gone so quickly and she should be home at the end of this year. I know she will have a little cheering section ready and waiting for her.

Nathan went as Rudolph Dassler, founder of Puma. He is obsessed with anything soccer related.

Emma's assignment was to prepare a presentation as if her historical figure was running for President. She went as Sacajawea. The night before this assignment was due was a little chaotic. Because of other scheduling conflicts with our family, Emma did not have very much time to work on her homework that week. She found herself getting further and further behind and was in tears as she looked at everything she had to finish. I remember sitting there and feeling so sorry for here, even if some of her own decisions had put her in this situation. I suddenly thought about how many times in our own lives we are struggling, and look at what lies before us with little hope. We want to give up, and cannot even see any way that we can get through the trial. This is where the Savior comes in, and lifts us up and bridges that gap. Even though many times we are dealing with the consequences of our own choices and should have made better ones, we are not left behind. This was quite the stream of thoughts running through my head:) So, I looked at my poor little girl with tears streaming down her face, and I wrote her speech for the project. Now, I don't advocate doing children's homework for them, but this was different. She didn't ask for me to do that, she just looked at me with despair and asked how was she supposed to get all this done? I had her continue to work on the other assignments she had, and lifted this particular one from off her shoulders.

I know this has happened for me so many times. There are situations that work out a particular way that I know I didn't "deserve." The nice thing is about the plan of salvation, is that it isn't about what you deserve. It's about what you do with what you are given, and the atonement of Christ that makes up for the rest. 

 

 Bailey has made some good friends on the team. This group of Jr. High boys also happen to be pretty fast.

 Bailey was able to medal at the Championships for Jr. High! He placed 15th.

Emma is our future track star. She is a great sprinter and I am so impressed with how hard she worked during her cross country season.

Emma is looking forward to competing for WSCA in two years. She and Bailey will most likely practice together (which makes drop off and pick up nicer!)