MISCELLANEOUS MAYHEM

As the year comes to a close I wanted to include a few random pictures of everyday mayhem around the house.

Shane's super thumbs up

Shane likes to do these balancing acts on the teeter totter

Can you see what's wrong with Shane's outfit?

Raspberries are perfect for fingers

MLB in training

CHRISTMAS

Christmas is always a special time for me.  I think of our Savior and his birth.  Since having my own children I think a lot about Mary and what she must have gone through as the mother of the Savior.  I love the spirit that I feel at Christmastime.  I always try to get my shopping done early so that I can focus on the true meaning of Christmas.  This year we had several friends over.  One family came over and enjoyed tamales while watching The Forgotten Carols.  A few other families came over and our kids acted out the nativity.  We also had some investigators over to watch the Nativity movie the Church did.  It was so fun to celebrate Christmas with so many people.  As always, despite my enjoyment at having company I did not take any pictures of our get-togethers. 

Can you spot the addition Shane made to the Nativity?

Wrapping presents on Christmas Eve while watching a BYU football bowl game

Christmas Eve movie with the kids - Frozen 2

MIKE'S BIRTHDAY

We are always so excited to celebrate birthdays because we get to celebrate having people we love in our lives.  We did the traditional special breakfast and dinner.  Unfortunately the only pictures I got were of the cake.  I guess it's okay though because it was a very pretty and delicious cake.

SHANE RIDING A BIKE

Shane finally learned how to ride his bike.  He is so excited to have learned this new lifelong skill and I'm looking forward to family bike rides.

PAPA'S BIRTHDAY

In remembrance of my dad we had hot cocoa and graham crackers on his birthday.  My mom and siblings also did something to remember him: eat at red lobster, have clam chowder, get a blizzard at Dairy Queen, or have hot cocoa with graham crackers.

SANTA

The day before Thanksgiving we decided to get out and go to Cabelas.  They had a few things on sale we wanted to look at plus we always enjoy looking at all the animals and fish.  We soon found out that Santa was there and accepting visitors.  There was no line so we took advantage and let our kids visit Santa.  In return we got a very memorable photo.

SHANE TURNS 5

Shane was so excited to turn 5.  He picked out a special breakfast and dinner.  For lunch I took him downtown and Mike took him out to eat during my class.  He wanted to go rock climbing.  Neither Shane nor Alex had been rock climbing before.  It took them a bit to get used to it but they really liked it.  I was able to belay them so they were able to do more since they didn't have to stick to just the automatic belay devices.

We blew up a bunch of balloons to decorate for his birthday.  He decided to put them all on the couch and jump on it.

DONATING HAIR

Every few years I grow out my hair and donate it.  This year I decided to do it again.  I feel much lighter with 10" less of hair.  I donated my hair to Locks of Love. 

HALLOWEEN

For Halloween this year I made a jack-o-lantern pizza.  After dinner we went trick-or-treating around the neighborhood.  It was really cold and windy so we all bundled up with hats and gloves.  The kids loved it despite the cold.  Even Maggie was delighted at the idea of walking up to complete strangers while wearing a weird outfit and they would reward you with some candy.  After getting home when we started to take off the costumes we realized that Shane had taken off his regular clothes and had just worn his very thin costume cover-all.  Usually in the house he prefers to take off his clothes and wear just the one piece costume.  I don't have a problem with it.  I guess he didn't hear us when we said to put the costumes on top of their clothes since it was really cold outside.  We asked Shane if he had been cold since he had such a thin costume on but he said that he was not cold.

While at the store I came across some scary masks.  I couldn't resist scaring Maggie.

CAMPING

Our summer was busy with a long trip out west.  Many of our weekends outside of the trip were filled up with church parties, other church responsibilities, or must-do things around the house.  We were finally able to take a few days and go camping.  Unfortunately the nice warm weather through September took a dive in October and our camping trip was quite chilly, to say the least.  We had coats and warm clothing during the day, and we put several pajamas on the kids before putting them to bed in their blanket layered beds.  All of the kids slept well, but Mike and I had some thin summer sleeping bags and were a little cold.  Luckily we had each other to cuddle with and stay warm.  Our friends, the Skousens, met us at the nearby lake the next morning and brought their kayaks.  We enjoyed playing with them and having a couple of days away from the stresses of life.

Shane didn't want to smile so Mike burped.  Shane burst out laughing and Mike snapped the picture.

The weather on Saturday morning when we woke up

MISSING SUMMER

I looked outside and saw Shane in the kiddie pool.  It didn't have any water.  He was just laying in it.  We all love summer and I wonder if he was missing summer.

MISS INDEPENDENT

Maggie is entering the independent toddler stage.  She wants to feed herself.  She pushes stools and chairs around to be able to reach things.  She climbs up on the bunk bed and in and out of the hammock.  Maggie now has a new level of things that she can get into and that I have to defend.

She loves to put any type of ring on her arms