May the Force be with you

Gavin began his birthday celebrations at school.  I had wanted to send in brownies for his classmates, but it is no longer allowed.  Does anyone else feel like our modern society has sucked all the joy out of life?  So I sent in cute shaped erasers to give to each student instead.  Still fun, but not quite the same.  Anyway, Gavin's 9th birthday coincided well with the new Star Wars movie premiere.  We celebrated at home on the evening of the 17th with our family.

Silly faces!

Ali didn't like the silly faces, aw.

Present time.

Wow!  Look what you got!

As usual, Gavin got spoiled by his parents and both sets of grandparents. 

(Kaleb made him the cute origami puppy too.  Gavin dreams of the day when he can have a real one!)

More Thomas sets!!

Let the train-building begin.

Woo hoo!

Cake time.

Gavin requested a chocolate cake with blue frosting.

You got it!

Make a wish!

It already came true.

Yum!

The next day on the 18th, Gavin got a date with Mom & Dad to see "Star Wars 7- The Force Awakens" and it was awesome!!  We love you sweet Gavin!  Thanks for letting us celebrate your birthday with you!

Holiday Assembly

All 4 of my school kids got to perform in their Holiday Assembly.  Teague's class sang and danced to "North Pole Rock & Roll" sporting Santa hats and sunglasses.  He was also a "horsey toy" on the Island of Misfit Toys in Noe's show choir performance.

 

Gavin's class did a cool robot-dance with an 8th grade class to "Jingle Bell Rock".

 

Noé sang with her show choir and danced as "Rudolph" in one of her class skits.

Kaleb was Santa in the Rudolph skit and also played the saxophone with the concert and jazz bands.

 

I have to admit that the assembly struck a sour note for me.  One of the class skits showed Christmas celebrations through art history.  They started off with paintings of St. Nicholas from the 12th century, then showed Nativity paintings with Jesus and Angels in the 16th century, then showed jolly Santa artwork from the 19th century, finally they ended with Christmas cards from the 20th century that depicted what Christmas means now-a-days.  Their explanation was that it was no longer a religious holiday, but a time to party, eat, and drink with your loved ones.  Now don't get me wrong, I love to party, eat, and drink (non-alcoholic drinks, ha ha) with my loved ones, and visit Santa too, but Christmas is a religious holiday to me.  I'm just sad that for most of society it no longer is.  Makes me think of a quote:  "If we don't teach our children to follow Christ, the world will teach them not to."

At the kids' table

Ali is quite the climber and decided to climb out of her high chair (even with it buckled tightly around her waist) and join her siblings at the table.

How can she be so big and little at the same time?

Dinner time is always a challenge with getting my picky-eaters to eat, but it's always enjoyable when we're all around the table sharing about our day.

Ali says, "Yea, I'm at the big kids' table now!"

Youth Temple Trip

Three weeks after performing at the cultural celebration for the re-opening of the Montreal Temple, Kaleb and Noé got to go back with the youth in our ward to do baptisms for the dead.  I'm so glad that they love going to the temple.

Afterwards they got to eat a yummy buffet dinner too!

2015 Christmas Cards

I absolutely LOVE sending and receiving Christmas cards every year.  And I'm sending a huge thank you to all of you who send us cards, they are my favorite Christmas present.  I'd love to add you to our Christmas card list too, just send me your address (see my email address below).  Anyway, I started sending Christmas cards the first year we were married in 1997.  In 2002, we became parents and we started inserting a family photo.  In 2005, we moved to Taiwan so we started inserting a family newsletter.  So that has become our tradition- card, photo, newsletter.  On Boxing Day 2010, I found a gorgeous selection of English Christmas cards at a mainly French-speaking store.  I loved so many designs that I bought 10 years' worth of cards (yep, I'm set until 2020).  Time has been going so quickly, that I'll be out of those cards before I blink.

 

Here is this year's photo and newsletter:

 

 

Dear Family (who are like friends) and Friends (who are like family),

'Tis the beginning of another holiday season and our thoughts turn to you. We're sending some Christmas cheer, hugs, and kisses with a little update of our year.

Leonard traveled several times for work and got to enjoy the hospitality of the Netherlands, Mongolia, Brazil, and New York City.

Jennifer accomplished one of her goals and danced on stage again. She joined Noé's dance studio and performed in the year-end recital. She's taking the class this year too, but her knees aren't sure that they're still up for it.

Len and Jen celebrated their 40th birthdays with a hot air balloon ride over the city of Ottawa. It was such a peaceful, lovely experience.

Kaleb is continuing with learning the saxophone and after successfully teaching himself to play an intricate piano piece for the school talent show he is also in piano lessons this year.

Noé is continuing in lyrical dance, her 10th year dancing. However, she switched musical instruments this year and is now learning the clarinet.

The twins participated in the Montreal Temple Cultural Celebration. They had so much fun making new friends, learning new dances, and getting to perform in front of President Eyring.

Gavin has enjoyed Cub Scouts and made his first car for the Kub Kar Rally (Canadian Pinewood Derby) shaped like a lightsaber.

Teague has enjoyed visits from the Tooth Fairy twice this year. His smile is so sweet and he's loved the chocolate he received. He's also become quite the spelling/reading champ now that he's started grade one.

Hiram is still the boss when it comes to potty training and we're hoping for a Christmas miracle to help him reach this milestone. He loves going with his mom to her gospel study/play group each week and his gymnastics class is always a blast.

The 3 musketeers learned some soccer skills this summer and their dad helped coach the little ones.

Ali just joined the nursery class at church, and being the youngest of 6 she thinks she's quite grown up and capable of doing what her older siblings do. You should see her run and fall at her gymnastics class, it is quite entertaining.

This past summer was all about camping. We went with several of our friends to Lac Philippe and had such a great time there, especially exploring Lusk Caves. Noé also went to Girls camp for the first time; while Kaleb went to a couple of Scout camps. Gavin got to join Kaleb for the last night of the International Camporee, as well as go to a Cubaree on his own. We also took a couple of quick road trips to upstate New York and Pennsylvania.

Our extended family grew with the addition of two babies. Jen, Noé, and Ali took a girls' trip to Las Vegas to visit little Bennett and we're hoping to take another one soon to meet sweet Charlotte.

We love celebrating all of the holidays, but we're most grateful for Easter that makes our Christmas celebrations so meaningful. We hope all of you have a very Merry Christmas and joyous 2016!

Love,
the Reil family
xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Here are our family pics from the past 6 years too.

(I can't believe we've been in Ottawa for 7 Christmases, but next year we'll be in India!)

2014

 

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

 

For a flashback of our first 7 Christmases with kids click here.

 

We'll share our address in India as soon as we have it and please send your addresses to us, so we can update our Christmas card list (reil.fun@gmail.com)!

Life Story #10

What were some of the family traditions that you remember?

 

 

I love traditions!  Growing up, we did fun things throughout the year for the holidays and such.  I always thought we just did the "ordinary" things, but now that I've "matured" I've realized that these things we did actually made for an "extraordinary" life.

 

I'm going to base my little year review based on the school calendar.

 

Back-to-school shopping- Every August, my mom would take me out for the day.  I loved having time with her all to myself and getting an ice cream cone or frozen yogurt after.

Halloween- We carved pumpkins, dressed up in costumes, and went trick-or-treating.  I remember when I was in 8th grade, my mom let me paint a giant spider on our front window.

Thanksgiving- This holiday was mainly spent with my "Lee" family.  We quickly outgrew Aunt Janice's house and had to meet at one of our churches to fit everybody in.  I grew up with my cousins and went to school with them from 4th-12th grade.  I loved getting extra time to hang out with Adrienne, Kristen, Sarah, Meredith, Benjamin, Tyson, Jeremy, and it was awesome when Aunt Barbara's family from Washington came down and we got to hang out with Hilary too.  Sometimes the Yoakum family came and all of us teenagers would go down to the strip or see a movie together after our turkey feast was over.

Christmas- I spent every other year with my mom and every other year with my dad.  I'm going to do next week's post all about Christmas, but I did want to mention here that when I was in Vegas it was spent with the "Barlow" family and when I was in Idaho it was spent with the "Pittls".  The mornings were always spent opening presents and the evenings were always spent feasting with family.  I love that I got to spend lots of time with my extended families often!

New Year's- It was a treat to stay up until midnight and watch the ball drop in Times Square on TV.  Our church used to rent out the Meadows Mall and have a dance every NYE.  My cousins and friends would go and dance to the top 40's DJ; my parents, aunts, and uncles would dance to the country band; and my grandparents would jitterbug to the swing band.  You had to be 14 to go and the year I turned 14 they stopped doing it, boo!

Valentine's- My mom would always have yummy treats for us to have on this extra sweet day.  My dad would also send me candy or flowers.  When I was in Elementary School, of course I wrote out cards for all of my classmates.

St. Patrick's- We didn't do too much to celebrate this, but we did wear green or we'd get pinched.

Easter- We always dyed eggs and got a visit from the Easter bunny with baskets filled with chocolate and jelly beans.  One year I had to go on a scavenger hunt to find each element of my basket.  I was spoiled with some toys, new clothes, sandals, and earrings too.  It was so fun!  I also always got a new dress to wear to church.

Memorial Day- We'd have a picnic at the park with the Barlow family.  We'd usually get KFC and spend the day outdoors before it got too hot in Vegas.

Summers in Vegas- I didn't spend much of the summer in Vegas, but I would go to Girls Camp with my church to Deer Haven in Cedar City, Utah.  I had 6 fun years making memories with good friends.  As a family we'd also swim at my Granny's pool as often as we could!
Summers in Idaho-  I spent most of my summers with my dad in Idaho.  Some of my favorite activities were tubing the Boise River and biking the green belt.  I miss those carefree days!

4th of July-  My dad and I would usually spend the day at Aunt Mary's house, barbecuing and entertaining friends.  In the evening we would first set off our own fireworks at dusk, then go down to the fair grounds to watch the big fireworks display.

Birthdays- I loved having a summer birthday and had lots of fun parties in both Vegas and Idaho with my friends and family, presents, and yummy cake!

I hope I'm creating ordinary-extraordinary memories for my kids now!

Stow Away

One morning before school, Ali decided she was going to stow away with Noé.

Noé was more than happy to oblige.

Even though Noé left without her, Ali didn't mind because Noé also left her fancy scarf behind.  Dress-up time!

Ali has learned to "moo" like a cow...

...she makes the cutest little face when she does it and puckers her lips up.  She also makes a cute face when she draw her mouth into an "o" shape, but I couldn't catch it with the camera.

Life is fabulous!

She is so happy she has Hiram to play with during the day.

She loves her big brother!

And he loves her!

I sure love these sweeties too!

(and their siblings and Daddy!)

Always Behind

I realized that it's been a month since my last blog post!  I always seem to get behind, but I always try hard to get caught up again.  This past month was busy with the holidays and we had an even more fun time as my Dad and Mom from Idaho and two of my nephews came for 2 weeks.  I want to put all of our fun Christmas pictures on here as well as get back to my Life Story questions.  It may take me a while as my day-to-day life has become even busier than normal.  I got a new calling at church and am now the Mia Maids Adviser, but more importantly Leonard got a posting for work.  We are moving to INDIA in six months!!  Please wish me luck with all I have to do to get us there and I wish you a joyful 2016 as well  :).