December Wrap Up

I have a lot of phone pictures from December!  It’s a bit overwhelming.  So I’m not bothering to try and edit any of them, they will just have to be as-is.

The rest of the Christmas activities:

The kids got to open a present on Dec 1^st, which is always pajamas and a book.

Brooke and I decided to skip the mall-Santa this year since last year they refused to let us take any of our own pictures (ridiculously saying we were not allowed to use our camera ANYWHERE in the mall) and they said they would email us a free copy of our photo, which never happened.  It would’ve been cute too.  So we were on the lookout for a better Santa option.  Brooke went to this one last year, so when I got the flyer from the school I asked her about it.  She said it is super crowded (which I hate- ugh) but I thought maybe if we go early enough we won’t have to deal with the crowd as much.  It wasn’t too bad!  They had reindeer, and TWO Santas! So the line moved much faster, LOL.  Justin spotted the extra Santa at some point and was kind of chuckling about it.  Luckily the kids all pretty much know that these Santas are not the real one.

There was also this soldier there and since Kylee had just done her Veteran's Day program, she thought it was pretty cool.  She said, "thank you for your service."  They were collecting toys and canned goods.

I bought a bunch of candy when I was at Winco once in preparation for our neighbors inviting us over to do Gingerbread houses like they do every year.  Last year I was unprepared and had to send Ryan to the gas station for some candy.  Well, they didn’t end up doing it this year.  Instead they brought over their neighbor gift which was gingerbread man cookies with icing and candy to decorate them- super cute gift.  But what was I to do with all the candy I bought??  I decided to let the kids be their own architects this year with graham crackers, but my frosting didn’t turn out too well so it was kind of a flop.  Dylan took to making “cookies” which consisted of a graham cracker with as much frosting and candy as he could fit on it.  Whatever, they had fun.

These are the gifts I decided to give neighbors this year.  They were fun!  The tag said, “Spread Cheer, not Germs!”

Sadie had her Christmas program at Preschool.  It was very cute.  They sang some songs for the parents, sat on Santa’s lap and got a present from him (a book).  And then we decorated a little house.  Ryan worked from home so I could leave Kaden at home napping and go to her program.

Kylee had her piano recital, which she rocked.  She might be a little sick of her song now.  She played Gethsemene, which is a really neat song.  But any song gets old after playing it 1,000 times.

One morning I woke up a few minutes late and came out to find Kylee and Dylan both reading by the light of the Christmas tree.  It was pajama day at school that day.  I thought this was a much sweeter way to find them than usual- fighting and yelling at each other.

I wasn’t able to go to the Christmas parties at the kid’s school because of Kaden and his nap schedule.  But my friend sent me this picture of Kylee playing one of her games.  How fun!

I enjoy having all our Christmas cards spread out in my kitchen and seeing all the cute families.

Also, I forgot some pictures from Christmas day on the other post.  So here they are.

After Santa had come.

Trying out the new selfie-stick.

The puzzle we did, and will probably pull out every Christmas.

This mess.  This is why I have anxiety on Christmas eve!  Because I know there will be SO MUCH CHAOS.  So the house has to be free of chaos before that happens!  I had a bit of anxiety…  I blame it on my injury and not being able to run.

Speaking of, here’s the first time in five weeks that I met my step goal.  I think I walked on the treadmill and did a beachbody video this day.

I like my little hand weights for some of the videos I do.

And this!  All I wanted for Christmas was to run again!  And this was the day after and I am running!  There was a bit of pain, I limped a bit causing my opposite knee to get sore.  And I only ran a couple miles and walked some more.  But I was so excited!!

Kylee had been wanting footie-pajamas, which I don’t love.  But she wanted them so she got them. 

And then the debate started about whether this was a picture of a lion or a hedgehog.  It’s obviously a hedgehog.  But Kylee insisted it was a lion.  I’m sorry, but lion’s don’t wear glasses.  If they had bad eyes, they would be left behind or eaten by the better-seeing lions.  Lions are fierce, not cute/nerdy.  That’s my argument.  Besides the fact that the “hair” is brown and tan instead of yellow and tan.  And the mane is not a mane because it doesn’t go all the way around the face.  And don’t get me started on the nose.  Okay, I’m done.

Dylan got a book called Candy Experiments for Christmas.  He’s very much into experimenting with his candy and making “potions”.  We tried a few of them.  We even looked up what happens when you heat a jawbreaker (since the book tells you not to).  Apparently it can explode in your face.  This poor girl had burns all over her face and arms.  Don’t try and soften a jawbreaker by microwaving it!  Anyway, the rainbow one was cool.  We made it with Skittles.  We used more skittles for the colors on the bottom than for the ones on top, so the water was denser with sugars, so that’s why it didn’t just mix.  I thought this was very cool.

Speaking of Dylan, here’s a fort he made!  It’s very hard to shop for Dylan.  He hasn’t played with half of his Christmas presents for more than a few minutes.  And a couple of them not at all.  He would rather be doing Perler beads, playing in the snow, or playing his phone.  It’s frustrating.  Of course he wants presents, but then he doesn’t use them.  But I love his little creative mind.

His poor feet, though.  Something is seriously wrong with them.  I'm working on it...

We’ve had lots of snow this year!  Plenty of opportunities for snowmen and snow forts and snowhill fun.

Kaden is going to love Spring time when he can run around outside.  He loves being outside even now.  But I am going to have to stay on my toes.  That little guy loves to wander away!

Kaden is still making messes every chance he gets!

But he also loves to clean {insert crying/laughing emoji}

He has loved my Norwex envirowand and mop since I first got it.  He will pull the mop out and start pushing it around almost daily.  He also loves playing with the dryer balls in the dryer.  Of course, he loves any balls.  Or ball-sized object.  He throws my onions and squash around all the time.  It’s a problem.

He plays hard, and occasionally gets tuckered out.  He’s cute when he’s sleeping.

I keep his baby food drawer stocked!  He likes to go get a baby food whenever he’s feeling a bit hungry.  Then he walks up to any of us going, “uh?”  I hope he figures out a few more words sometime soon.

He had to have immunizations and a finger stick at the beginning of the month.  Here are his stats from that visit as well.

The kids were all playing by the fireplace after school one day and I was thinking how blessed I am to have a warm home and healthy, happy kids.  So I pulled out my camera.

It was COLD for a week or two.  Really cold!

But the sunrise is sure beautiful!

I went down to Logan to visit with my dad and to have dinner with my life-long friends.  We had a wonderful chat and I loved it!  It was a quick trip, but I didn’t have any kids with me so no stress!

On my way into Logan I literally had my breath taken away by the scene of the mountains and blue sky shining off the water.  This is a scene I have been wanting to photograph for years.  It’s not easy to be in the right spot with your camera on a day when the water is calm and the sun is shining, but not too high in the sky, etc, etc.  It’s especially hard to stop when you have kids.  And there isn’t a very good place to pull over on this very busy, very fast road.  I drove for about another mile before I finally convinced myself that this day might be my only shot in a long time to get some pictures.  I didn’t have my camera, but the phone works quite well outdoors in the sunlight.  I pulled over and had to walk quite a ways since there isn’t much shoulder.  But I was happy I did.  I love it!  These mountains will always be home to me.  And this swampy area as well.

Speaking of home- Lyndy and her kids came up to visit us!  We love it when they come.  My kids get so excited!

And last, but not least… actually, yes least.  This is the least important of the rest of the pictures {insert squinty eye smiley emoji here}.  I went to the Dillard’s New Year’s Day sale.  It was crazy!  I’ve never seen people actually almost trample each other, even at Black Friday.  I guess it’s the handbags that are crazy good deals.  Not worth it.  Even if you can sell them on ebay for a good price.  Anyway, I got some jeans, some sheets, and a heated blanket all for a really good price.  Ryan went there later and got some good stuff for himself too.  But I didn’t have to trample any old ladies to get it.

And now that I've ignored my kids for two hours to put this post together... 

That wraps up December AND 2015!