The Pierce Family

Monday, February 16, 2015

Scripture Power!

Since Savannah started public school and has to be at the bus stop by 7:20 we had to readjust our scripture reading time to an hour earlier - 6:45! It has been a bit of an adjustment for all of us; the morning definitely comes quickly and it's not always easy heading downstairs when it's cold and still dark outside. But the blessings do come from persevering, one of which I never even anticipated. Yes, it's a bit harder to get the boys out of bed and down the stairs but once we begin reading they are still so tired that we have none of the antics that we had last year. No climbing all over the furniture or getting up and down to get things from the kitchen or standing on heads or losing patience and tempers. It's all about peace and quiet (and hunkering in their blankets) and, in consequence, the Spirit is definitely present!
Yes, there's a little Noah under that camo blanket!

He moved! There's an arm!

The face does come out of that blanket when it's his turn to read.

Xander also enjoys snuggling in his blanket during scripture reading.

And we did it! Right before 2014 ended we were able to complete another reading of The Book of Mormon. Oh, how we love this book! It has truly blessed our lives in so many ways and our daily reading is the best way to start each and every day!

Sunday, February 15, 2015

Gingerbread Houses the Easy Way!

Last year's gingerbread house making was a fiasco so this year I decided to play it smart, buying 3 of the pre-made gingerbread house kits and hot glue gunning the houses together. Wow, what a pleasant time one can have when there is nothing to worry about but decorating!

Loads of yummy candy and tasty frosting - can you blame him?

David even jumped in and helped, with the decorating as well as the munching.

They all did a fabulous job!!

This was another "Christmas-time" activity we squeezed in right before the New Year but I'm glad we at least did it. And pre-made is definitely the way to roll, at least for us!

Saturday, February 14, 2015

Temple Lights

Confession - in the nine Decembers we've spent in Baltimore we have only been down to see the DC temple lights once. Pathetic! So this year David and I agreed that we must make it a priority...and we still almost missed it! The Saturday after Christmas down we went. Savannah and Xander goofed off the entire drive down which drove David and I batty...

and Noah passed out!

The temple is so, so beautiful!!

If only the kids's faces didn't look so scary or so grumpy! Noah was not thrilled to have been woken up!

The evening was so pleasant that we left our coats in the car. I love when the weather cooperates for outside activities.

This used to be a live manger but no longer.

Next time I'll rethink my wardrobe...wearing a Utah Utes sweatshirt to a Mormon event drew a lot of comments, both annoying and funny.

I was hopeful that most people would have already visited the temple lights but there were still a ton of people there. Still, we made it through the nativity room quickly and with room to breathe.

I took a ton of pictures of the different nativities but these were some of our favorites:

It was such a fun evening spent together.

We stood around waiting forever to get a picture of the lights with the temple in the background until I realized that there was no one taking it from the corner and that ended up being the best shot! Too bad Xander couldn't quite keep his eyes open for this one.

Friday, February 13, 2015

Christmas 2014

Christmas morning - excitement was in the air! We all headed down around 7:30 to see what Santa had brought the kids.

Noah got what he wanted - a new knight costume and sword!

Trying out his newest weapon.

A very cute little knight! From that smile on his face I think Santa got it right!

Santa brought our huge baseball fan a new bat...

and Savannah received more Monster High dolls, though I think this will be the last year for those.

Santa also stuffed some new hats in the kids' stockings.

Say what?!?!

There were even some candy canes for me and David.

Some favorite gifts of the day: Legos, of course;

a North Face jacket;

a new tie;

a nerf gun;

and new scentsy buddies!

I always love when the kids get gifts for each other. Noah gave Xander his old sword since he knew he's be getting a new one from Santa. That little guy is too much! Xander was very sweet about it.