December really is such a great month. We had so much fun celebrating the birth of our Savior. I already wrote about most of the things we did this month but I am going to expand on a few things.
We had fun doing all of our activities for Christmas. Some of the things were a lot of work but they were totally worth it. I made cookies and both of the girls really enjoyed helping me. We did really good until Brynlee helped my put the flour in. Annalyn moved her head right in the way and Brynlee spilt almost the whole cup of flour on Anna's head and that made it go all over the kitchen. I don't think it really fazed Anna at all. She just jumped down from her chair and had fun playing in the four.
The girls and I spent one day putting up our Christmas tree. We got a free artificial tree from someone and I figured we would save the money and use that one this year. It came with so many pieces and it was complicated to put up so I was really proud of that little tree. As soon as we got home, Joel didn't like it. He thought it was too little and he wanted to get a real one. It definitely wasn't as nice as a real tree but I wouldn't let Joel take it down. It was too much work to put up. Joel had a meeting to go to that night so we ended up decorating most of the tree without him. I am not very good at putting up the lights on the tree. It did look pretty sad. Joel helped us fix it a few days later when he had time and it looked much better. He ended up almost redoing the whole thing.
A week into December, Brynlee came down with a really bad cough. The next day, Annalyn started coughing too. Then she kept getting a low grade fever so I set up a doctor's appointment for her. As soon as I set up the appointment, Brynlee started crying and saying her ears were hurting. I called them back and set up an appointment for her too. It was a good thing I did because they both had ear infections in both ears. They had to take antibiotics for 10 days. I gave Brynlee the medicine first and she took it fine, but then she threw up all over my carpet. After that Annalyn didn't want anything to do with the medicine. Brynlee took it great the rest of the time, I just had to make sure she ate first. We bought Twizzlers and they both got one after taking their medicine. Towards the end of the 10 days Annalyn took her medicine just fine too but for a while I felt like we were torturing her. The day after we took the girls to the doctor, I got sick and then Joel got the cold too. It was pretty miserable. A few days later I got pink eye as well. So for almost two weeks, the girls and I didn't leave the house at all. Luckily we all got better just in time for Christmas.
As soon as we were all feeling better, we went to grandma's house and made gingerbread houses with real gingerbread. They went together much more easily than the graham cracker ones. I think the girls both ate more candy than what they put up on the house but we all had lots of fun. Joel really liked the gingerbread and Annalyn kept eating all of the candy off of it. I didn't have my camera with me when we were making the gingerbread houses so I told Joel not to eat it until I got a picture with the girls and the house. That is when he informed me that he had already eaten half of the roof. I still got a picture, I just turned it to the side and I got a side picture. Between Annalyn eating the candy and Joel eating the rest of the house, that thing didn't last for more than three days.
We also got to go to our ward Christmas party and the girls got to sit on Santa's lap. Annalyn wasn't so sure about the whole thing at first, but once I told her that he had candy she was more than willing to sit on his lap. Brynlee just whispered in his ear telling him what she wanted for Christmas while Annalyn sat there. Once I made Anna get off, she was not at all happy. Once we walked out of the room Santa was in, with Anna's candy, someone came up to her as she was crying and told her how scary he thought Santa was too. He couldn't believe it when I told him Annalyn was simply crying because I made her get off of his lap.
It was snowy and cold this month so I am not sure how Joel survived working outside. I know he was really grateful to get a week off to celebrate Christmas. This is the first time I can remember Joel getting a whole week to spend at home playing with us. It was so nice to have him home. He helped clean the house and he just spent a lot of time playing with the girls. He didn't really have any big projects that he had to do. He really needed that break. During his first day off we all went and played in the snow. Joel made a snow dinosaur for the kids to sit on. My dad stopped by for a few minutes while we were outside. It was a lot of fun. Brynlee really wanted a snow dragon so Joel made her a little one to sit on. Annalyn got on the dinosaur and Brynlee sat on the dragon and they were as happy as could be. ( my camera battery died before I got a picture of the dragon.) The day when we came home and discovered that our snow had melted was devastating for Annalyn. She was so distraught. After we made some snow creatures, Joel got out his four wheeler and had fun taking the kids for some rides. They loved that too.
Later that week, we took the kids sledding down a hill that is close by and they both loved that. Especially Annalyn. She would go down the hill with Joel and then he would pull her up the hill on the sled. Brynlee went down once with her dad and the rest of the time she went with my cousin Ryder. She loved going down the hill but she hated having to climb back up. They had a small crash on the last run too but that still didn't stop her from wanting to go again. I mainly just watched but it was lots of fun.
On Christmas Eve we spent the evening with Joel's family and we went on our annual caroling trip. This is one of Joel's favorite things to do. The girls went willingly and they got into the singing a little bit but they didn't really know the songs. It was still fun. When we got back to grandma's house, grandma had a gift under the tree for all of the grandkids and they loved that.
We spent a lot of time visiting family, playing games, and playing with our new presents. Joel went shooting a few times with the guys a few times. On one of Joel's days off he built a sensory table for the kids and we filled it with oatmeal and let the kids play in it. They love that thing. I just need to teach Annalyn not to throw the oatmeal and then they would spend hours playing with it.
