Merry Christmas!

 This week started a little rough but ended up really lovely. Tuesday night I took Aaron to a late night doctors appointment to discover he had influenza A. That threw a wrench in our Christmas plans! We were going to have my family over for Christmas Eve and spend Christmas Fay with Bill’s family. I’ve never seen Aaron so sick before. It was awful. We canceled the Christmas Eve event and just watched how he felt and if anyone else got it each day. Chloe picked up a little cough but that was it! And it felt like a Christmas miracle when by Friday Aaron was better. He literally never got out of bed the entire day Tuesday and I had to carry him from point to point to get him to the doctor on Tuesday. And there was no Tamiflu to be found and no children’s pain relievers. I had to get regular strength Tylenol and just have Aaron take one, which worked but so scary if your kids aren’t old enough to take that dose. 

We were able to do our normal Christmas Eve dinner and program, just not with family there  and Chloe lost her first tooth during dinner! She is six and a half and I have wondered if she was ever going to get around to losing her baby teeth, lol. She was pretty excited.

All day Saturday Bill and I worked on our garage. I reorganized, moved a shelving unit I built when we moved in and didn’t like the location, moved my workbench, moved and reorganized an epic pegboard, moved the freezer, moved the kids’ backpack and jacket hooks around, and reorganized our basement stuff that is currently in the garage. Bill worked all day on insulating our garage door. Hopefully that helps the kids rooms stay warmer. 

I also finished my table I’d been building for the plants in my bedroom  I love how it turned out, minus the clear coat, which some day I’ll have to redo because it’s awful, but it looks good from a distance so that can wait.

Christmas turned out so lovely. Everyone was feeling good. We had a fantastic time opening presents. We got the kids some pjs and slippers and a few other things and they were pretty excited and then we let them open the big gift of the year, a Nintendo Switch and some games. They were so excited! It was so fun. Spencer tackle hugged me and Bill. Aaron held it over his head shouting with joy. It was pretty epic. We spent the rest of the morning playing on it. 

Our church was at noon. I played the organ and we had a bunch of individual musical numbers. They culminated with me and a friend doing an organ/piano duet of Hark the Herald Angels Sing while the congregation sang as normal. It felt like the whole ward was our choir. The arrangement was so beautiful and my friend rocked the very intense piano part. It was a perfect cap to the morning festivities. 

Since we weren’t sick anymore, we all went to Herriman for the afternoon/evening. It was so nice, as always. Suzanne’s sister and brother in law have moved to Utah so they were there too. We ate way too bacon and sausage and hash browns and crepes and Christmas treats, relaxed, and just generally had a great time. 

I made these little cranberry tarts. They’re always a man zing. I only make them. Christmas, which makes them fun. All around it was a GREAT day! And whole weekend. 

So much snow

 It’s been snowing off and on for two weeks. We’ve gotten more snow this year than I’ve seen since the fall of 2012 right before we moved away from Utah and it snowed every day in December. That was QUITE the Utah send off. It hasn’t snowed that much this year, but still, so much more than the last two years, which is great. The drought here is no fun. 

I’ve been working on building a table to go under my bedroom window. It’s going to be two shelves and the shelves are done but I got these connectors called standoffs that ended up being too tall, so I ordered another shorter set and am waiting for it to arrive and then I’ll add the second shelf on. For now I’ve got it setup half done.

We had a super fun Christmas party at church this week and the kids sat on Santa’s op. Spencer wasn’t interested, but we got these cute shots with the other three. 

Genevieve had a band concert this week. They only played one song and it was…interesting…but I’m still glad she is playing and enjoying her flute still. 

Chloe loves her new gymnastics class. 😍

Too much fun for pictures

I always start my posts by grabbing pictures from my phone. Except this week I hardly took any pictures. I guess we were having too much fun. I do have these nativity pictures Chloe, Genevieve, and Spencer drew for decorations at our stake’s nativity event. They host it every year and gather nativities from everyone that is willing to lend theirs in the stake so we can all go and see all the beautiful nativities. This year the stake president read the kids a Christmas story, which was quite the tear jerker. The kids made some crafts. We got an ornament to match the one we got last year. It’s a nice event. 

Chloe had her first gymnastics class on Monday. She loved it so much. Aaron is still really liking his karate class. Spencer loves his art class and Genevieve skipped this month but wants to start back again in it as well. It’s pretty busy, but I love that my kids are finding hobbies and activities they love. 

Bill and I worked on a table we’re building to go under the window in our bedroom for all my plants in there. I don’t have any pictures yet. I’m staining the wood pieces now. 

December is flying by, but it’s really going well and I’m happy for all the cool experiences we’ve been having. 

 

Happy December!

What did we do this week? Why, decorate for Christmas, of course! Usually we cut down a Christmas tree that Saturday after Thanksgiving, but it felt really early this year, so instead we put up all our non-tree decorations that day. We went tree hunting yesterday instead, and got a cute lil tree for our house out east of Kamas. It was a fun trip. 

I collect nativities. It took me a few years to get all the pieces of this one, and I love it. They've really climbed in price this last year or two, so I'm glad I got all the pieces I want for it. 

Setting up the lego nativity. 

Front entry way. 

Living room bookshelf. 

Dining room sideboard. 

Dining room. 

I put that picture of Santa in front of mine and Bill's pictures on our wall and I'm tickled by the dual meaning of that. 

Living room. 

There was plenty of snow where we went to pick a tree. We drove Bill's dad's truck just in case we needed to drive up snowy dirt roads, but that didn't end up being necessary. Lots of snow angels were made. 

Plenty of general flopping in the snow. 

And the kids helped carry the tree out. The spot for the tree in our living room is quite petite, so we opted for a narrow tree. 

It fit perfectly in the truck! I adjusted it a little after this shot and was able to close it no problem. 

And done and decorated! Suzanne and her sister and husband Marianne and Stan came over and helped decorate while Bill and I took Spencer to his first activity for Young Mens. It was a great Sunday. 

Bill and I bought snowboarding helmets on Black Friday. Chloe wanted to model. 

I made some sugar cookies today and the kids helped me frost them. I didn't have any red food coloring, so that made it really easy, lololol. They had a great time and ate entirely too much dessert today. That's what December is for, right? And Halloween. And Valentine's. And basically like one holiday a month. lol. Good times.