McAlister Matters

  Merry Christmas everyone and a Happy New Year! We are getting ready to head out to California for Christmas and New Years. Santa is coming early to our house today after the kids get out of school so it is an exciting day. Luckily we have connections to Santa to arrange this kind of thing! The kids got to even see Santa at the ward Christmas party. Juni made a special letter and bracelet for him. Do You Hear What I Hear 2023 Sarah and I finished another Christmas song this year. It's becoming a little tradition now. Hope you enjoy it! Some of our other jams are on our  music jams page . We enjoyed a nice Thanksgiving in Utah with Sarah's family. Congratulations to Dave and Brenda Musser on their senior mission call to Spain! We are excited for them. The kids have all had a dozen colds each since Halloween. Paul had a fun Christmas-Around-The-World kindergarten program yesterday. Hope everyone is well! Click for pics

  The kids had a fun Halloween this week. Penny was a little Elsa. Paul went as the transformer Bumble Bee. Juni was a Minecraft llama rider and Kahlan was Velma from Scoobie Doo. Paul still has his arm wrapped for his broken collar bone. There was a costume parade at the school and Paul's class had a program for the parents. We took the kids trick-or-treating around the neighborhood. It was a chilly night in the low 40's. Everyone was cold and ready for bed by the end. We exceeded our candy quota but we let the kids pick out their favorites for the next week. When we stopped by our neighbor Kayleigh's house she was super excited to see Kahlan as Velma and had us come inside to show us the Mystery Machine she had once made. So we had to get a photo. Click for Halloween Pics  

  Paul took a fall at school last week and broke his collar bone. It should heal up in a few weeks the doctors say. He's been a trooper and doing pretty good with it. It's a good thing he's all done with soccer now. Penny can now ride her bike like a champ. She isn't quite big enough to get on by herself. She says to just 'help me up and give me a push'. So that's what we do and off she goes. All the kids are doing good in school and are getting ready for Halloween. Sarah made 38 jars of grape jelly on Saturday. She's also been doing a lot of crochet lately and has made Christmas gifts for the whole family. The kids have been helping us de-stem the grapes. The juice is so good! Sarah and I recently went on a very enjoyable bike ride up City Creek Canyon. The Fall colors were amazing! I went on a overnight campout with the deacons recently also.  Click for more pics!

It's been a busy and rewarding summer full of excitement. One of the big highlights was the backpacking adventure Sarah and I went on last month. We went up into the High Uintas Wilderness for 3 days. It was a tough challenge. There were bugs and some rough hiking terrain but we conquered it! Our meals were great and the location was gorgeous.        You can watch our 30-minute self-filmed backpacking experience in the fashion of Alone . It was fun to make together for the kids and features some music Sarah and I created together too. The kids and grown-ups :-) were excited for school to start. We have a 5th grader, a 2nd grader and a kindergartener. The kids are all loving their teachers. Paul is doing all-day kindergarten which is great because everyone is on the same schedule and Sarah doesn't have to walk to the school 3 times a day. Paul also started soccer. He's on team Turquoise. The team was desperate for a coach so I became the coach. I don't know what I'm

  Juniper finally got her wish to go to a llama farm. It actually turned out to be a fun day. The llama farm we found was at the Hare Krishna temple down in Spanish Fork. We decided to have it be a Musser family party so all the cousins came along. It was fun to have a big group. The lady that built the temple was our host. First she showed us their rescued macaws and Japanese Koi fish. One of the macaws was especially talkative and would often say 'Hello' and 'Hare Krishna'. Next we visited the female llamas and fed them carrots and apple slices. Some were shy but others were anxious for the treats. Then we visited the male llamas and the kids were able to brush them. Then a few male llamas had leashes put on so the kids could lead them around a bit. We took them outside the pen and to another part of the property where some small Indian cows were kept (the Holy Cows). We got to then hang out with the llamas and take pictures till we were done. We visited inside the Ha

  It's hard to believe that our Kahlan is in the double digits! Kahlan had two parties this year starting with a friends party the Saturday before. She had 5 friends over and they played on the splash pad. Kahlan wanted a unicorn piñata and a strawberry cake. The same day the kids got to march in the Handcart Days parade in Bountiful. They each represented a pioneer ancestor. It was hot and long but the kids did good. Penny and I watched at the end. She had a 2nd party last week with all her Utah cousins. This time she wanted homemade cinnamon rolls for her treat. I was okay with that! Kahlan is awesome as you probably know. She's energetic and full of life. Recently she's been learning to crochet with Sarah. She's also been interested in catching butterflies and insects. She still loves to read and did great in the book battles this year at her school. Her teachers love her at school and she attends an advanced learning class and is a member of the school Hope Squad. K

  At the end of June we packed up the car and made our favorite drive across Nevada to California. We stayed two weeks in Turlock where it reached temperatures of 108 degrees. The kids enjoyed swimming at Grandma Mimi's and the splash pad at Grandpa Bob's house. We ate lots of snacks and I worked a few days remotely.  We took two days and went to the Monterey coast and visited a beach. It was cool and breezy but nice enough for the kids to play in the sand and water. Penny wasn't feeling well that day and slept on the beach. We stayed in Watsonville for a night where avocados cost 11 cents. The next day we went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. It was super expensive and super crowded but cool to see all the fabulous fish! We also went to the Dennis the Menace park in Monterey and the kids loved that. Then we went to a tide pool area and the kids got to climb around the rocks and see lots of live crabs. Sarah said that was the coolest part of the day. We spent another fun day a

  Juniper gets a birthday every June. This time she turned into a 7-year-old as expected. We had a party for Juniper and her Utah cousins all attended. She wanted homemade strawberry shortcakes for her dessert treat. She had nice weather to celebrate in and Grandpa Bob and Grandma Ingrid were in town too!  Juniper is a sweetie and we love her! She wanted a real Llama for her birthday. Unfortunately, we don't have room for a llama. She wanted a llama themed party so she made all her own decorations. She drew a portrait of each of her stuffed llamas and then for the party she had each llama placed below its portrait. Juni likes to play games and is good at everything. She's a good reader and had perfect grades in school. Her teachers love her too. She's a great helper around the house and loves to entertain Penny. Juni knows how to take charge and is destined for greatness! After Juni's birthday and Father's Day we went on a short trip to visit Bryce Canyon. We stayed

  Spring finally came so we were able to plant our garden. We have some sunflowers in the front yard this year. It's an experiment. Paul checks the plants every day. Penny likes to help out with watering too. Today is the last day of school for Kahlan and Juniper. They are going to really miss school. They love their teachers and friends. I got to go camping with Paul for a night at the stake fathers and sons campout at Camp Zarahemla. Paul loved sitting by the campfire and sleeping in the tent. Dinner and breakfast was provided so it was an easy camp. I didn't sleep of course.  Sarah and I got to go on our favorite City Creek Canyon ride a few weeks ago. We hit a wall of snow towards the top and got rained on but had a blast. We're gearing up to do a backpacking adventure later in the Summer. Juni's class put on a funny presentation last week and Juni played Belle from Beauty and the Beast. She did a good job. The kids went to cousin Emily's birthday party this wee

  Kahlan received a book about the Human Body as a gift from Grandma Mimi a while ago. She loves this book and wanted to make a presentation on it for her Deep class. She put the whole presentation together herself in Powerpoint and  presented it to her class and then to us last week. She did an awesome job and gave lots of fun facts! Enjoy!

  This big guy turned 5 last week! All the kids got sick after our Capitol Reef trip so we couldn't have a party for him until last Saturday. We had pizza, cake and ice cream. Paul wanted a lemon cake (yellow) with orange frosting, his favorite colors. Paul's a cheerful little dude. He loves playing with his cars, dinosaurs and robot toys. He's becoming a good little builder in Minecraft too. Paul has faithfully completed 175 days of pre-school and is set to graduate next month. He's already busy checking the plants and trees in the yard. He's always very interested in their progress. Paul is getting good at math and practices at meal times. He loves to watch Paw Patrol and Spiderman shows and whatever the girls are watching too. He's still a champion at matching games. We love you Paul! We had a quick visit last Friday from Julie and her family. They came for dinner and we ate pie. It was fun to have them visit our house. Click for more pics!

  With a foot of snow on the ground, we left Bountiful last Wednesday and headed to Loa Utah. We stayed there for 3 days and visited nearby Capitol Reef National Park. It was Spring break for the kids and we wanted to get away. The park weather was clear and sunny for the most part, just a bit chilly in the mornings. Capitol Reef is nice because there are not a lot of crowds. We went on several fun hikes with the kids. They had a blast climbing on rocks and sandstone. We saw lots of petroglyphs and Kahlan copied some in her sketch book. We hiked to one big arch.  We ate pie at the old farmhouse and hiked along a river. Penny was a good hiker and we didn't have to carry the kid carrier backpack this time. We had trail mix and lots of snacks and picnic lunches. We also discovered an Indian pizza place with delicious curry pizza.  It's hard to do big hikes having 4 kids with small bladders. But we survived. Paul and Penny came down with fevers after we finished our stay. And Paul