Picture a Day 2020

 

Here is our picture a day video for 2020...and what a year it has been.

Picture a Day 2019

 

This is my picture a day video for 2019.  I made the video last January, but never posted it.

Christmas!

Ah, coronavirus times.  I feel like I have both too much to do and too little.  In any case I haven't seemed to have as much time to update the blog.  So I am quite behind.  We had a nice Christmas this year.  Here are a few pictures form our holidays.

Just before Christmas break we got new countertops in our kitchen.  Here is the before picture.  The island was a big slab of brownish granite and the outer countertops were granite tile.

And here is after.  White quartz and white tile backsplash

It looks lighter now

Still trying to figure out how to change that wine rack for a regular cabinet.  It can hold our Martinelli's in the mean time.

We made a bunch of treats

Jello popcorn balls was one treat we tried

New stockings

Our tree

Our advent candle

Our tree star had some issues this year.  It stopped working regularly when our tree fell down soon after we decorated it.  I eventually had to replace the entire light string inside and now it's good again.  Hope it can last a few more years.

Christmas Eve dinner.  The past few years we have done a big cheese/crackers/fruit/veggie plate with spinach artichoke dip for our Christmas Eve dinner.  We started doing this because I wanted something easy since Moms are usually busy on the days leading up to Christmas, but now its gotten a bit more involved and not that easy since I make the spinach artichoke dip from scratch.  But its good and Scott helps me.  It's a nice tradition now.

We read the nativity story from the Bible and the kids help act it out each year on Christmas Eve.  We have a little program with songs interspersed and its nice.  Emma is the angel, Grant is a shepherd, Anna is Mary, John is Jospeh and Matthew is a wise man.

The kids with their special pajama pants from Ma2!

And Christmas morning.  I made cinnamon rolls the night before and they rise in the fridge overnight.  Then we bake them and German pancakes on Christmas morning.  We also have fruit salad with 7up, a Guptill family tradition.  It's quite the feast.  We eat first and then open presents but the kids are allowed to go through their stockings before breakfast. 

Ready for presents!

Their was a present opening frenzy!

Later on Christmas Day

The kids playing video games

Emma working on a gem craft she got from my brother

 

John was proud of his Lego creations

Matthew and Grant both had fun with Nintendo Labo creations

more Labo

more Labo

And each kid got a bike this year...except Matthew

Everyone had outgrown their bikes and we got rid of most of them in Utah.  Matthew already had a bike that was the right size and he got a skateboard. 

Grant's bike is a little too big for him to start on.  Maybe he can grow a few inches here quickly

Emma with her new training wheels bike

John is still learning to ride without training wheels and its been a little rough.  We ended up putting training wheels back on so he can get comfortable on this new, bigger bike.

We're working on it.  

Merry Christmas everyone!!