December

We got CRAZY SNOW in December.  It was interesting after having such a warm November.  The snow came down like crazy for a couple days straight, then it stayed.  I couldn’t get over how white everything was.  It was so pretty!  And then it got crazy COLD!!

We saw Santa and the reindeer early in the month.  It was COLD!!  But we didn’t have to wait outside for too long.  And they gave us hot chocolate so that helps.  The reindeer are cool.  Last year one of them only had one antler and it was sad looking.  They were better this year.

Just some random pics.  I love Kaden’s video monitor.  And I love how adorable he is in there just hanging out by himself.

It’s amazing how fun old toys can be when they’ve been put away for months.  The kids had a lot of fun with these after Kaden and I showed them what we made.

Kaden sleeps wherever he needs to.  He’s so dang cute!

Jax had quite the set up to keep him warm.  That first morning of snow it was quite the blizzard and had blown up and covered his chair and blanket with snow.  He was hopping around, crying and scratching at the door.  Poor thing!  I shook off his blanket and laid it back down so he had somewhere to be.  And Ryan put this box out there to help block the snow that blows up on the deck.

The primary presidency gave the kids candles to burn each night.  I loved that it was something other than sweets.  But it ended up being LONG and messy and Kaden was obsessed and always trying to hold it, which isn’t safe.  But they did enjoy it for the first couple weeks.  There was a scripture for every night we were supposed to read while they burned.  It was cool.

I've wanted to take Kylee to see The Nutcracker for a few years, but December is already so busy and honestly, ballet is kind of boring for younger kids.  But this year I found out that my friend Liz's daughter was playing Clara, the lead roll (the person on stage the most, but not the sugarplum fairy who does the hardest ballet moves).  So we got tickets for the night she was on and invited our neighbor/friends to go with.  Averi and her mom Jen came and we went to dinner first and then the show.  I loved it!  It was so fun watching Ashlynn.  She has grown up so much since Liz and I first started training for races together and she is a beautiful girl and beautiful dancer.  I knew Kylee would have more fun with Averi there so it worked out perfect!  I feel like it was just a bit looong, but the girls still said they really liked it.

I am blessed to have some really great friends!  We did a gift exchange and we laughed our heads off and I just love them.

 I also got some amazingly perfect gifts from some of my other friends.  I love thoughtful gifts!  This saying was an inside joke from our Park City trip where Gina said her husband showed her the clip of Parks and Rec where they treat themselves and her husband told her to "treat yo self" this trip.  So it was said often.  Marci got this for us and it was perfect.

Another friend got me a cute ceramic bowl with avocados, onion and garlic and a bag of chips!  How cute and perfect!  

I had to cancel on my Logan friends twice due to weather.  So we ended up getting together the same day as my family Christmas party.  We met for a later lunch, which ended up being really late because Herm's took forever.  The food was delicious!  But I'm not sure if that's because I was starving! Not sure if it was worth the wait or not.  Probably, just because it was great company.  I love my friends so much.

I planned and ran Dylan's class Christmas party with some mom helpers who were great.  It was super cute and we had fun. 

Kylee had a voice recital.  She had a piano recital too, but we were rushing and I think I only got a video of that one.  She had soccer overlapping it.  Busy girl.  Her voice is really sweet and beautiful.  She sang Silent Night and did a wonderful job.

Date night.  We are able to get out a bit more now that Kylee can babysit.  This night we met a group of friends at Cafe Sabor.

 Still in awe over the whiteness and the beauty.  Even if it was freezing!

 The day I was supposed to go to Logan to meet with my friends, it stormed.  So I cancelled that and took Kylee snowboarding instead!  So fun!

 It snowed the whole time.  I was quite nervous about driving home down the mountain, but it turned out okay.

The kids all got their own mini gingerbread house this year, which was fun.  But I'll be honest, I don't love this tradition!  It seems like all they want to do is pile as much candy as possible on the house instead of trying to be creative or make it look good...  It's just not my favorite.  They did okay, though.  There's just so many other treats at this time.  I might have to try the veggie house next year.  Have you seen that one?  Held together with ranch?  Or maybe cream cheese?

Speaking of veggies, this is the soup Kaden made and carried around for a few days.  The boy likes his green foods! Lol.  He actually kind of does.  He loves salads.  Depending on his mood, he will eat green beans or asparagus like crazy.  He loves coleslaw.  Broccoli sometimes.  But that's only when he wants to eat.  Like everyone else, he would rather just have "filler" food than real food.

 Kaden sure loves to shovel!  Who cares how cold it is.  He wants to be outside!  He helped us shovel the driveway lots of times.

We went sledding a couple times.  Kaden stayed behind both times.  We brought Averi along this time.  The kids have fun!  It's a bit rough on my bottom, I think I'm too heavy!

We got to have a slumber party with Lyndy's kids.  The kids love when they come to visit.  I love it too.  This time in particular, Ryan told us to go out to dinner to visit while he managed all seven kids.  We didn't have to be asked twice!  We even stopped at Target for Lyndy because poor Logan STILL does not have a Target.

So long 2016!!