McAlister Matters

Merry Christmas to all our friends and family! This year we are staying in Bountiful Utah. All the kids are excited for Christmas and counting the days. We're expecting some snow! This was a great year for our family. We've been able to spend a lot of time together and have enjoyed some vacations in Moab and Disneyland. A new baby girl will join our family in April 2020! This year Kahlan stepped up to the 1st grade. She's an excellent student and loves her teacher. Her class put on an excellent Christmas program and Kahlan memorized several songs in other languages. She continues to practice the piano and is making great progress. Kahlan loves organizing activities and art projects. She's also an excellent reader, singer and big sister.  Juniper is now 3 and a half! She's really enjoyed attending a neighborhood pre-school 2 days a week. Juni takes care of her little brother Paul and a dozen or so baby dolls. She loves games and can kick anyone's trash...

We made our annual holiday visit to California for Thanksgiving this year. We flew with the 3 1/2 kids! It was an adventure but we survived the airports. 🙀 Our first trip was to McAlister Fest on Saturday at Tahiea's in Fresno. It was fun to see everyone and all the kids. We had a huge Thanksgiving feast with ham and smoked turkey! Our next trip was to a big cabin in Twain Heart. This was where we got to play games and hang out a little bit with everyone. The cabin was very comfortable and the drive there was gorgeous. The next trip was to Calaveras Big Trees state park. It turned out to be a freezing and windy day but we braved the trail with all the kids. The tree giants were not impressed by us. Our next trip was to Columbia, the old gold mining town near Twain Heart. It was another cold day but we had fun going into a few shops and got our picture taken old west style. After these adventures we were all sick with colds and had to take it easy for a few days i...

And so Halloween came again this year. It was another cold one in Utah but the kids braved the frigid night to trick-or-treat our neighbors. All the kids were excited to do this, even Paul who can confidently say his own name now. He also makes the best monster sound (snorting). Kahlan had a carnival and parade at her school. Juni also had a party for her pre-school. We carved some beautiful pumpkins. They froze outside in the cold and then melted into goo when it got warmer this last weekend.  We all split the candy loot. Paul got some M&M's that he shoveled into his mouth. They got all over his hands and face and gave him a big dripping chocolate beard. Wish we got a picture of that.  Some more pics!!

So our air conditioner decided to die two weeks ago. It was at the end of its life so we decided to get the whole HFAC replaced. We had to wait it out in the heat for a week which wasn't fun. Long hot nights. We had the whole family sleep downstairs in the basement where it was a little cooler. It wasn't too bad with a few good fans running. We've been enjoying our new AC this last week... it's sooo nice to have a cool house again! July was a hot month. We've been enjoying our garden veggies and fresh corn on the cob. We've attended several birthday gatherings. Also, a badger visited our backyard last week. Luckily it didn't stay long! Recent Pics

Kahlan is six today! It's hard to believe she's going into the 1st grade next month! We had a fun little party for her yesterday with her cousins. We opened presents and had cake at our house. Then we went bowling and played 2 rounds. Kahlan and Juniper both did really good. Kahlan requested strawberry cake with green frosting and sprinkles. Click for Pics Kahlan has been doing a lot this year. She practices every day on the piano and has made great progress. She had swim lessons earlier in the year and played on a soccer team in the Spring. Kahlan is an excellent bike rider and has seriously awesome dance moves. She's a tireless and creative artist! She colors, draws, paints, makes jewelry and crafts. She also builds with legos and in Minecraft. She's a great big sister, has tons of energy and we love being a part of her life. Kahlan at the piano

We had a nice 4th of July together with the kids this year. The weather was relatively cool. Our tradition has been to watch the Centerville parade because we can walk there from our house. It's pretty short, less than an hour and pretty simple. The girls have fun collecting candy which is mostly salt water taffy. We spent some time in the backyard with the new slip n' slide. I discovered how to take slow motion video with my phone so I got some fun shots. The kids had a blast. Then we had a picnic and relaxed most of the rest of the day. It started to rain in the evening so we didn't watch fireworks.   But Sarah and I did start season 3! :) More Photos

Last week was the annual Musser Family Summer Activities week. Since Jared, Michelle and Samuel were visiting there were a lot of activities planned. There was a day of waterslides at Cherry Hill in Farmington. The girls and Paul loved the water park. Juniper was all over the small slides and went on them in a continuous loop until we dragged her away. We all played a round of miniature golf while Paul slept in the stroller. There was even a talent show one evening. Just about everyone participated. Sarah and I performed a Beatles tune. I think it inspired us to practice more for next year! Paul started walking on his own and performed his talents in front of everyone! He likes to do a sideways surf still but is getting the hang of it. Click for Album    

Juniper turned 3 yesterday! For her birthday we had a fun little park party with some of her cousins. We had some pizza and cake and played for a little while. We had some delicious Texas sheetcake that Sarah made and Juniper opened presents.  Juni's a little sweetheart and always playful. She can be very talkative and is good at explaining things in detail. She loves to paint, read stories and take care of her dolls. At the park, the swings are her favorite. She's very helpful in watering the garden and picking weeds. She also likes to dance and has some very modern interpretive dance moves. More pics

We made it back alive from our Disneyland trip. We were driving 5 out of the 9 days so we were glad to be home finally. Overall the trip was fantastic and the kids all had a good time I think. We stopped in St. George at a hotel where Kahlan lost her first tooth! Good thing the tooth fairy always knows where you are. ;) We stopped for a minute outside the St. George temple. We stayed at the Best Western just off Disney Blvd. It was about a mile walk to the gates of the park but we got to walk through Downtown Disney which is kind of cool. There was a band playing there the first night and the girls were very entertaining with their energetic dancing. Day 1 was awesome but exhausting. Sarah got 31,000 steps! We went on a lot of the big rides using fast passes and met several princesses. The girls loved that! We also attended a really funny Beauty and the Beast play. Kahlan loved the Matterhorn the best. We also stayed late to see the Fantasmic show on the water. Day 2 we w...

It was a rainy Easter today but still nice. We gave the kids Easter baskets on Saturday morning. The kids had matching outfits today from my Grandpa Bob and Grandma Ingrid. So Cute! Kahlan has been having fun playing soccer with her team the Barracudas. She's very enthusiastic and has tons of energy on the field. It's been fun watching her games. The girls and Paul are loving the warmer Spring weather and go outside whenever they can. They have fun riding their bikes, trikes and scooters.  Click for pics

It's hard to believe Paul turned 1 today! He's such a happy and playful little guy and so funny.  Paul just started crawling (forward) about a month ago and since then he's been on the go constantly. His favorite thing to do is help load the dishwasher. As soon has he hears us start dishes he scurries over on all fours and starts taking out the silverware. It makes him so pleased. Paul's super easy going and sleeps like an angel. If he is woken in the night he just lays in his crib and talks to himself. He's been practicing standing up on everything and his new trick is balancing with no hands.  Paul is funny about eating. He will eat just about any food we put in his mouth but won't put any food in his mouth himself, even if we try to help him. He picks up the food on his tray, looks at it, then drops it on the floor. He also likes to make funny faces at us when we feed him, just to make us laugh. He loves playing with cars. He lies on his ...

This week was Kahlan's kindergarten spring break. We had booked a room at the Expedition Lodge in Moab at the beginning of the year. We stayed there 2 nights. The kids slept in a bunk bed so that was exciting. We spent 2 days in Arches National Park and hiked to 10 different arches.  The kids all did great hiking. Even when we got rained on for a few minutes! The weather was fantastic most of the time.    Our trip ran a little short because we accidentally only booked the hotel for 2 nights instead of 3. It was actually nice to come home a little early because we were all pooped! More Pics

The annual egg hunt at Grandma and Grandpa Musser's house took place last Saturday. It was still a little cold outside so the eggs got hidden in the living room. The kids had fun coloring eggs and we had some hot dogs afterwards. More Pics