2015 has come to a close...

Here I am, closing another chapter.  What a sweet year 2015 has been...

This was the year that Micah went from baby to toddler "big boy."  He found delight in any windmill or burnt out lightbulb.  "Maybe Daddio will fix it?" He started talking up a blue streak at the end of the year, and mimics anything--good or bad--that his siblings say or do.

This was also the year that Gracie marathon-read herself to sleep, and Joshy started Kindergarten.  Grace started piano lessons with Sarabeth; Joshy said goodbye to his training wheels.  Gracie transitioned to soccer with goalies, while Josh was on his first real soccer team with his best buddy, Kai. LEGOS were the toys of the year, and their room was run over by too many stuffed animals.

This was the year that we had three friends over when we discovered Micah had Hand Foot and Mouth Disease (oops!), and the year Linnea lived with us for four glorious months.  Our three Whitworth seniors transitioned to the real world, and Jeff & I flew to Denver for Christina's wedding (and our 10-year anniversary)!

This is the year that our family transitioned from attending New Community Church to Whitworth Presbyterian Church, closer to our neighborhood.  We continued meeting with our Bible Study group, and watched the Harper family move to the south hill. It was the year of the huge wind storm of November, and we lost power overnight, but grew lots of friendships through tree removal, and electricity-sharing at our house.

It's the year Melissa and I finished with 29 students and then were given a dream class of only 23.  Our childcare was filled with a beautiful tapestry of faces--G'ma Colleen, Annie, G'ma Dianne, Linnea, and Kaitlyn.  It was the year Jeff had an amazing student teacher and discovered he liked running, after all.

It's the year my cousin Megan got married in Stanley, Idaho, and Brooke started college here at Whitworth.  We lost Chad in February, but gained little Nellie in April.  We were sad when our Seahawks fell short of winning the SuperBowl in February and found carrot tops in G'ma Trudy's yard on 4/1.  Dad had his big back surgery on my birthday week, and Jeff lost his wedding ring and then found it in the ashes of the shop stove.

We are so blessed.  Lord, help us to never forget! Goodbye 2015 …now off to print the blog-book, the year recorded for all of posterity! (In our family, "posterity" means the moments when kids with icky fingers leaf through the pages of our blog-books, looking for pictures of themselves "when they were little."  So sweet.)  :)

New Year's Eve, 2015

 Linnea came to visit us!!!  We were so excited to have her stay with us for a few days, and we just vegged around.  We took her sledding at Whitworth and to see Kaitlyn at Dutch Bros, but other than that, we just hibernated.  She was very impressed with our snow.  OH.  And she and Kaitlyn watched the kids one night so Jeff and I could go see Star Wars 7:  The Force Awakens.  EX.CELL.ENT.

 She brought this fun present for the kids!

And our New Year's Eve was a little bit quieter with the Van Sickles in Juneau for their niece's wedding.  Julie and her mom came and then Julie's brother and S-I-L came with little Cali.  We played Qwixx and Splendor.  The kids didn't make it to midnight, but without their buddies, that would've perhaps been impossible.  So they were in bed at 10 and we were in bed by 12:30!

Heading back home.

We had two more great days at the farm just relaxing.  We went to visit G'ma Trudy and Papa LeRoy, Aunt Sheyanna and Uncle Jerry, we stayed up late putting a puzzle together, and ate delicious food and goodies.  Tuesday night, on our way back to Spokane, we invited Aunt Diane to meet us for dinner at New Garden, one of her favorites.  It was a special, crazy-eating-with-kids time.  So good to catch up with her!

More Moser Togetherness

Sunday was filled with tired and crabby family members.  You can only be good for so many days, right?  So we rested a lot, put puzzle together, watched movies, played outside, and...

 ...WON OUR FANTASY FOOTBALL LEAGUE!!!  Actually this was all Jeff and Drew.  The two of them teamed up this year and enjoyed many a text back and forth on lineup deliberations and game day successes and irritations.  But let me tell you, today was a GREAT DAY to be J. Lochhead.  :)

OH!  And Grace sled into a fence.  Megan told her to duck.  Or something like this? No big deal.  Just a scar across her nose.  :)

Moser Christmas

Moser Christmas fell on the day of WSU's Alamo Bowl game.  This was a big deal.  The game was at  11 AM, therefore, we had to get a move on in the morning on presents.  (ha!) Ben had warned us all that he'd get there and get us moving, so even Katie's family spent the night so that they'd be here and ready whenever Ben and Kelly got here.  At 7:55 we sent him this picture.  "Where's Uncle Ben?!?"

 Within an hour they had arrived and the wild rumpus began...

Kelly was excited when she found out Papa Greg had drawn HER name...what kind of lamp would she get?  This year it was the Eiffel Tower Lamp with the Cougar flag flying from the top.  She loved it!

All sorts of Christmas hugging going on...

And then it was game time and the kids watched a movie in grandma's room.  We were relieved that the Cougs won!

And then of course there was the King Crab dinner that has become a tradition.  Ben and Brady do the cooking and Jeff and Joan tolerate the smell.  Ha!

What a fun day to be together!  We all went home--except us!  we stayed!--and then came back for more the next day.

Merry Christmas!!!

 The kids bought each other stuffed animals this year...and there were LEGOS, clothes, and an Xbox Kinnect!

G'ma Colleen and Papa Scott came over to visit in the afternoon.

We shared gifts, played piano, and packed to go to the farm.

We took off that evening for the farm, arriving for a late dinner.

Christmas Eve

 We woke to MORE SNOW, PEOPLE!

While we were busy sledding at neighbor Ellen's and Daddy was snow-blowing Jon and Stephanie's driveway, a large limb broke off of a tree down the street and hit one of our neighbors while he was getting his mail!  It was so scary.  Jeff and other neighbors worked to move the limb off of the street, which made us a little late to the Christmas gathering at Drew and Annie's...

This year we decided to celebrate Jeff and Colleen's birthdays at Christmas.  So we did dessert and presents with these two and then moved into the living room to let the wild rumpus begin.

It was such a nice afternoon together!  We all had church at 4pm, so we each went our separate ways for the evening. Whitworth had a Children's Service at that time.

 I love this picture of Jeff with the kids.  Quick eye contact amidst three busy children...I love this guy.  On the way home we got Taste of Thai so that we wouldn't have to cook.  But good food after a long day was Daddy's downfall...

The kids were sad to say goodbye to Phil for the year.  He goes back to the North Pole on Christmas Eve, so the kids held him the best way they could without touching him (and thus stripping him of his magic).