December in Review

Well Christmas is over, and I always feel a little sad, because I love all the parties, shopping, music, service and giving leading up to Christmas. However, this year...not so much. I don't know if the older you get the more you stress about it or what, but I was definitely more stressed this Christmas than in years past. I swear during the last days leading up to it, I was going to Walmart twice a day!! I got to the point were I refused unless Spencer drove me to the entrance and waited in the Fire Zone with the kids. I do love Christmas though, no matter how dramatic I'm being, we had wonderful Christmas Season and here are some of the things we did in December. I apologize in advance this may be long...

At the beginning of December my parents took us to The Forgotten Carols, it is a family tradition and I grew up listening to the songs, so it is a lot of fun.



Earlier this month Gavin's Mom/tot class had a Christmas Party, well towards the end Gavin was getting super impatient. He decided he wanted a cookies NOW! Unfortunately we weren't at that station yet, so he had a tantrum and the picture below is him pushing on the gym mats which were separating parts of the gym, well you can guess what happened. Yes, he pushed it down, causing domino effect and knocking down two other mats!! Including the garland and decorations hanging on them. I seriously wanted to strangle the kid.
Here he is happy eating his dang cookie, standing next to him is his sweet friend Addie who is so calm and well -behaved, he needs to take some lessons from her.

Brookly performed the last day of school the song "Must be Santa" she did really good, (it's a reeaally long song!) She doesn't look thrilled in this pic, but she did great singing!

A few days before Christmas, Spencer had to travel to Moab for a job and work for a few days. He told me if and when it snowed I would have to get our 4-wheeler out and plow the snow, to which I replied "absolutely not!" But as the inches of snow grew taller and taller I realized there was no choice I had to at least try. So I did it! I was super nervous, I never really ride our 4-wheeler (by choice). I think I did okay.
Notice the huge barriers of snow blocking the trailers, fortunately Spencer fixed that when he came home, so he was able to get his dump trailer out ;)
We also were finally able to make our first snowman. Brooklyn was so disappointed in me because I didn't have a carrot for the nose or anything really for eyes and a mouth...I know how lame am I?
Christmas morning we finally woke our kids up around 9:15 because we couldn't wait any longer to see them open their presents!


Gavin got a tool bench and was on cloud nine, everyone knows Gavin is a sucker for tools!!!
Aaaah...even if they fight all the time I can still get them to take a convincing picture that says otherwise!

Lexi, Ams, Alyssa, Ash, Whit

Later to my Parent's house for dinner, this is all the girls but Leesh :( She had to wait for her bro-in-law calling from his mission.)

This picture says it all for Spence...looong day!

The day after Christmas we went with my Dad and Ry to the church and played a little ball. Gavin mostly like playing with the pump the whole time.

Well, that is some of what we did this month...

The "JOY" of Gift Giving

It is the Christmas season, and many of my neighbors have already brought us many delicious gifts this year. Of course, I always procrastinate and usually end up delivering mine on Christmas Eve. Christmas is one week away, and I am determined to get mine delivered before Christmas Eve. I would actually have to finish my gifts in order to deliver them, so, since it was a snowy blizzard today that's what I did. Here are the finished products:
I used my Quikcutz Silouette to make these. As Spencer would say, "it is all about the tools." I would definitely agree having the right tools make some things so much easier.

Snow Fun

This is totally staged, they aren't as loving as they appear!
But I love them anyway!

Today we woke up to snow! Which I am completely okay with considering Christmas is next week, and it just isn't the same without snow!
After I picked Brooklyn up from school the sun came out, and it was so beautiful. I've realized that it is going to be a looong winter cooped (sp?) up inside, and we need to take advantage of all the nice days we can. So, we got all bundled up and I promised Brooklyn I'd help her build a snowman. Sadly enough I have never done this with Brooklyn before, and she's five! Spencer is good that way and usually he does that stuff with the kids. I have to admit I'm kind of a baby when it comes to being cold, I just don't like it. Unfortunately the snow wasn't wet enough and was just really fluffy, so the snowman didn't work out however, we did build a big mound that Brooklyn called her snow castle. Which is pictured below, with her pretending she's a dragon by the swamp, guarding the castle, etc.(she's very imaginative...her teacher says she is really good at creative writing)

Building the snow castle

Snow angel :)

Happy Birthday Spence!

Today is Spencer's birthday, and though he doesn't really think birthdays are that big of deal, I do. This year has been a hard one for him since his accident. I witnessed a side of him I never thought there was. Spencer is a pretty tough guy, never really sheds a tear. His brother Stewart likes to tease him and say he has a "tin heart." However, the pain he endured this summer brought him to his breaking point. It made me realize how excruciating his pain really was. I realized how much I depend on him and how our little family missed having him run around with the kids. He really is the more fun one of the two of us. He is the one that will jump on the tramp with kids, or go down slides, he is such a great Dad, and we are so glad he has gotten so much better. Even though he has some more healing to do, it feels like he is back to normal. Thanks for all you do, we love you and hope you have a Happy Birthday!

Conversations with Gavin

Me: Gavin, you ready to say your prayers?
Gavin: No...I don't wike to.
Me: We need to say our prayers, Jesus like us to talk to him every night.
Gavin: I don't wike him.
Me: Him who?
Gavin: Jesus...I don't wike him.
Me: Why?
Gavin: Cause he don't wike me...cause he's hiddin' me (hitting)
Me: Hitting you? Where?
Gavin: cause he's hiddin' me at church mom.
Me: Jesus never hits anyone Gavin, did you know he is your big brother?
Gavin: No!....No Mom....No way!....Get outta here!
With conversations like this at age two I'm scared for the future, he has somewhat of an active imagination if you know what I mean.

Thanksgiving in Malta, Idaho

The Fam

Ry and Whit

Lex & Ash

As is tradition, my family spends every Thanksgiving at my Grandparent's ranch in Idaho. My Grandparents are actually serving a mission in Nauvoo, but Thanksgiving isn't the same as it is in Idaho, so we decided to spend the weekend there anyway, and of course it was a blast. We took our annual shopping trip to Twin Falls on Black Friday. We stopped in Burley first, and scored by getting a front row parking spot at Walmart, getting the stuff we wanted on the blitz in under 15 min, then checked out at the photo center, while the rest of the people there were in a ginormous line that wrapped around the first half of the store :) Then on to Twin where we spent the day shopping. So much fun! The rest of the weekend was spent having a huge movie and eating fest and enjoying each other's company. The boys had some fun paintballing and doing a little hunting. All in all a successful Thanksgiving vacay!