Merry Christmas 2016

     We started out the month of December with a lot of plans but life got in the way and a lot of them never got done. We did focus the month on "lighting the World," by doing service and trying to light the world the way the Savior did. While we ate dinner we would all talk about the things we did during the day to light the world. It was a great way to bring the spirit of the Lord into our home and it helped our kids to see how they could be like Jesus just by doing little things to help those around us. Even if we didn't get to make gingerbread houses and go Christmas caroling we still had a wonderful Christmas.

We decorated our tree the day after Thanksgiving but waited to put any presents under it. It was hard enough to keep Summer from playing with all of the decorations on the tree. We also went and watched the Kuna night lights parade one night. That was pretty cool to watch. It was short and Annalyn was in a pretty bad mood but we still had fun.

      Our family did get to decorate sugar cookies and we enjoyed doing that. Everyone got five cookies and they all did a great job at decorating them. Annalyn made sure to save four cookies and help decorate them for Alesha. We invited Alesha over the next day to get her cookies and at that point everyone else had already eaten their cookies and had been eying the ones for Alesha all day. Annalyn was so excited to give Alesha her cookies and then she took one of them since she knew Alesha wanted to share. Then Kyla and Brynlee took one leaving Alesha with one tiny little cookie to eat. Haha!

     We did a few other Christmas crafts and watched some Christmas movies this month. We made some puppets one night and then Brynlee found some boxes and made a little puppet stage and each girl took a turn putting on a little puppet show for Joel and me.

     The girls all got to sit on Santa's lap at our ward Christmas party and nobody cried this year. Summer seemed a little unsure about the whole thing, I set her next to Anna and she seemed to be just fine. Annalyn and Kyla and I ended up getting at the end of a very long line to see Santa and Kyla was not so happy about having to wait. She decided to go up closer and stand by Brynlee. The next thing I know she came up to me and she was eating a candy cane. She snuck up there and cut in front of everyone without me even realizing it. I was a little bummed that I didn't get her picture so I figured I would sit her back up there and recreate the whole thing when it was Anna's turn but at that point Kyla had run off with Joel and was nowhere to be seen. Luckily another mom took a picture of Kyla and sent it to me. Thank goodness for good friends. The primary kids also sang a few songs during the program. Kyla was really bummed that she couldn't go so another mom took her up there. Kyla stood right on the front row and waved and smiled at everyone the whole time. She didn't sing but she jumped up and down and sure looked cute up there. Brynlee and Annalyn also sang but Kyla kind of stole the show. When she came back to me she had the biggest grin on her face and she said, "that was so Fun!" I love her enthusiasm and excitement for life. 

     We spent Christmas Eve with Joel's family. It was too snowy to go caroling so instead we ate tacos, opened presents, and watched  a movie while eating ice cream cones. It was a fun night. Joel's mom gave us a hand painted saw that we put up in our kitchen.

 
     Christmas day was on a Sunday this year so as soon as we opened presents we went to church. Annalyn was super excited because she got the Num Noms lip gloss truck that she has wanted all month. Brynlee made out pretty well too. She picked out a lot of her own clothes so she didn't have as many surprised but she still made out pretty well. Kyla woke up and was eating candy that she got from grandma Hirtle. She seemed pretty chill about the whole things and never got super excited. She just took everything in stride. After church we visited a neighbor and then went to my mom's house where we enjoyed some yummy food, we played lots of fun games, and the kids got to open more presents. My sister in law Heather made up a game where you had to unwrap prizes that were stuck in a big ball of saran wrap while you wore a Christmas hat and two oven mitts. It was fun and challenging.

I am so grateful that we got to celebrate the birth of our Savior surrounded by so many loved ones. Merry Christmas.

Summer at Seven Months

     Summer is now sitting like a pro and rolling and scooting all over the place. She does the cutest little crawl thing where she gets up on her hand and knees and then lunges forward while scooting her legs across the floor. Then she gets back up on her hands and uses her hands to pull her legs forward. I think she will be doing a fast crawl any day now.

     Summer likes to grab my nose and rub my face every time I hold her or put her in the baby carrier. She kind of pinches and hurts but she likes to feel my nose and know that I am there. She also gets the reddest little cheeks. Especially when she gets hot or when I hold her at night. She gets red knees as well, the doctor said it was just sensitive skin. Summer loves eating big people food and loves to sample everything the rest of us are eating.

     Summer has been opening and closing her hand over and over again lately. She got an ear infection and was on antibiotics which she really liked. She would get so excited while I was getting her medicine ready.

     I wish I had written this post sooner because now Summer is already eight months old. Time is just going by too quickly. For now I am just going to leave you with a few pictures and then write a longer post next time.