Wednesday, November 30, 2016

Our Christmas Newsletter 2016

Christmas News Letter 2016:

Happy Holiday’s Friends and Family! We truly are so blessed to have you in our life and are so grateful for the impact that each of you have on our family. We hope you have had a wonderful year. 

2016 has been a crazy and a whirlwind of a year for us Lancaster’s. We have had an exciting year full of adventures, changes and just living our day to day life. Our family would like to share a little of what life has been like for us this year. 

DAN: With such a light heart, Dan keeps us laughing and keeps the craziness somewhat under control in our family. He is still continuing his work at Pioneer Natural Resources as a Geologist. We may be the only one’s who are happy that gas prices are on the rise. Ha! Dan was promoted to a manager this year and is enjoying his position and working with his team. We all get excited when Daddy comes home and it’s usually nonstop play when he walks through the door. He’s handled the transition to father of three with ease and hasn’t looked back.  Other than work, Dan has been focusing more on running and has enjoyed completing a couple of races this year. He also was called as the 1st Counselor in the Sunday School Presidency for our church congregation. He has been enjoying the work and helping where he can in the ward. 2016 has been a great year for Dan. He has continued being awesome and we are all so grateful for him, his hard work and his love for our family.

LESLI: It’s been quite a year for Lesli. With lots of change, laughter and happiness, She truly loves being a mother of three. She did awesome bringing in to the world our third child in January. She loves spending her days at home with her three little ones and making sure life runs smoothly for us all at home. When she’s not wrangling the kids she spends her time singing and enjoying her new found love for yoga. She has continued to sing with Millennial Grand Choir and is looking forward to the Christmas performance this year. It wouldn’t be a fun life for Lesli if it wasn’t crazy.  To add to her craziness, she was called as the Primary President in our congregation at church. Once she got the hang of things, she has loved her calling and continues to try her best in enriching the children’s lives in the church. It hasn’t been a dull moment since baby number three came into the picture and Lesli wouldn’t have it any other way. We are so happy with Lesli’s energy and keeping us all alive and entertained.

JUNE: Little Lottie, as mom likes to call her, has continued  her sweet streak for another year. June turned five this past October and couldn’t be more happy about it. She was able to get her ears pierced and feeling so much more older. June has officially made her way into all girly things and learning the awesomeness of accessorizing and coordinating her own outfits. June is now on her last year of Preschool and continues to thrive. She’s picking up more sight words and writing nonstop! We find notes all over our house. She has picked up a love for music and singing just like her mom. She sings nonstop, even in not so appropriate places. She is singing in a little choir this year and performs later this month. June has also started doing ballet and tap dance. She loves learning the dance moves and prances all over the house. She keeps the mood light and happy in our home. She is such a huge help and is such our little sweetheart. It’s been a good year for little June. 


OWEN: The little mister turned three in October and rules this house with his crazy, handsome little self. Who knew so much spunk and personality could be in such a tiny little body! He keeps us in constant motion with his love of running, jumping and pushing his limits. He makes us laugh so incredibly hard with quirks and expressive attitude. Owen started his first year of preschool and has loved the environment and learning. He loves singing the alphabet and picking out letters in words. It’s something new everyday. He enjoys playing with his toys and anything Paw Patrol or Blaze. He is always finding new ways to bug June and then be best friends with her right after. He is such a sweetheart to his little sister and is always the first one to be by her side when she is crying. It’s so much fun watching his interactions with his siblings and friends.  We are so grateful for the huge amount of love and craziness he brings into our family. 

KATE: Our sweet little Kate Alma joined our family in January and truly is the happiest of babies. We are so grateful for her calm spirit and constant laughter. She is such a little pleasure and we are so happy she is in our family. She is doing all things baby these days with moving, eating and sleeping. She loves watching and playing with her siblings. Each month has continued to get better and better with Kate. We love her dearly! 

RANGER: The dog is still our best little buddy and basically another child. He’s learned quickly the advantages of having children in the house like the food that falls on the floor and the disadvantages like little hands tugging and pulling on his ears. We love Range and are so glad that he is part of our family. 

OUR FAMILY IN GENERAL: Our life hasn’t slowed down one bit this year, but we are grateful for all the joys we have experienced and have tried to learn and grow from the lows. We’ve done a lot this year; we have added to our family, we are building a new home in Roanoke Texas and will be moving next summer, and have traveled from coast to coast, spending time in California this summer and celebrating Lesli’s 30th birthday in New York. It’s been a fantastic year and we look forward to 2017. 

We truly wish you a Merry Christmas! We love you and we are so happy to have you in our lives whether you live near or far. Have a wonderful Holiday season and may you feel Joy and Peace as we celebrate the Saviors birth. 


Love, The Lancaster Family


Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Lancaster Family Pictures 2016

























November Randoms

Well hello and goodbye November! It was a fun month of just random festive things. 

Kate just being her awesome self at a play place one afternoon

My blue box at Tiffany's. Hahaha  It really was just to replace my old Tiffany's chain that broke, but still. Dan totally made fun of me for documenting it, but hey, It's not everyday that a girl gets a blue box from Tiffany's so yeah... I documented it. 

More Park Days. Owen got a remote control car for his birthday and beats that thing to crap. He loves taking it to the park and running it off of slides and ramps. I'm so surprised the poor car has survived so many crashes!

June was pretty pumped over her tree climbing skills 

Daddy using Kate to keep warm on a chilly park morning 

Every other Sunday I have Ward Council, which means Dan has to get everyone ready all by himself. I forgot to lay out their cloths the night before, but Dan totally nailed it! He did so great with dresses  and matching bows! I really just loved my family extra on this Sunday so I snapped a picture of them quietly sitting on the pew (which isn't  common) and eating their snacks. 

One rainy day we tie-dyed shirts that Nana and Papa Lancaster sent us! It was a huge mess and we were all covered in dye by the time we were done but the kids loved it!! 



Christmas Shopping online also means lots of big boxes comes through the house! Entertainment all afternoon

June's final product of one of her shirts. Owen refuses to wear his. He keeps saying they are dirty! Hahaha 

June was super into the election this year. They held an election at their school and she felt like she knew everything. She asked if she could stay awake with us to watch the results. Well it got to be round 10:30 so we thought it best for her to go to sleep. She was pretty bummed about it. Then Dan and I tried to stay awake. We got to 1am and then headed to bed ourselves. 

June wrote me a song. I truly love this girls love of all things music!

More days at the park



We played so hard at the park that we lost track of time! We had walked to our park that day and didn't get home until after dark. The sunset was really pretty that day though and made for a good walk home. 

June at age 2 and Kate at 9 months. Both wearing the exact same dress. It's crazy the different sizes the kids are!

Our Friends-giving was a success! 



 Getting ready in the mornings has turned into putting makeup on this little lady as well. 

More days at the park. Our weather has been weirdly warm 


One afternoon we made turkeys 

The more turkeys we made the more crazy they got. We ended up with Monster Turkeys 

I turn 30 next month. I have talked to many of you about this, but I am so ready for 30. I feel like I'm in that stage of my life where I just should be 30. I've never been one to look back and wish for the younger years... With that said though I wanted to do something that I have never done so if it were a huge mistake I could say I did it in my 20's. Haha Just like Dan did. His turned out awesome though so....
Anyways, I have never dyed my hair before and I wanted to do something super dark. I've always loved dark hair. My friend did it (who is a professional stylist) and we added a chunk of blue on  the bottom for my rebellious side. I love it. I love the color and I loved doing the blue. I'm going to add color to my hair all the time now. 

Days spent at home playing with toys and watching cartoons 

We had the kids Thanksgiving feast at their school. Our last one at Holy Covenant. So so sad. Dan came and we all were able to sit together. 



guys, it's pretty adorable that when the kids see each other at school they get super excited and hug. Their teachers tell me this all the time. And they get sad when one isn't on the playground. Hahaha they fight like cats and dogs but they truly are the best of little friends. 




We do a lot of yoga in our house. I'm pretty sure June does it more than I do. She is working on her headstand here and trying so hard to do it on her own. 

 Choir practice one day. Owen loved this little blue slide that was way too small for him. Haha but he just kept going down it. 

We played with friends 


Trips to Costco 

Early morning Ward Council led to a beautiful quiet morning. It was the first true frost of the year and it took my breath away. The air was so fresh. I had to stop and take a picture. 

June learned how to blow a bubble 

Kate got incredibly sick with croup. The worst croup we have had yet in our house. The first night we spent most of the night in the shower with steam and outside with the cold air to help her lungs and cough. 
This was at about 3:30am. He loves her so much. I'm so grateful for an amazing husband but I'm even more grateful for the love he has for his children. 

The next day we kept her home and Dan and our home teachers gave her a blessing. 

We were told night two would be worse and boy was it. We heard a horrible wheezing sound coming from Kate. When we went in to check on her she had the most panicked look on her face. She literally could not breath. I panicked but Dan of course remained calm and we ended up taking her to the ER. Croup and Stridor. We knew that but we knew she needed a steroid fast to help her lungs.

She is slooooooooowly on the mend. Her cough is still pretty wet but at least we don't have the barking cough and trouble breathing. It was horrible. 

Library Days 

And days just so simple but yet so enjoyable. 

Kate's first pigtails! Her hair is finally getting long enough to put them in rubber bands! And look how big she looks in this picture! She's growing like crazy!! 

A quiet night, writing Christmas cards and listening to Christmas music. Oh I love this time of year! The magic behind everything, the special feeling of comfort and love, plus all the festivities and food. It truly so the most wonderful time of the year. 

And more time with friends. We were eating lunch and they were all giggling because they each had their own apple. I don't get kids sometimes but they sure were making me laugh about it. 


It's been great November! Not bring on Christmas!!!