December 2017

December always seems like such a fun and magical month. There is something so exciting about all of the lights and Christmas excitement that despite the cold and sickness that our family had, this was a pretty great month. We started the month off by decorating sugar cookies. The kids always love this activity and they are getting pretty good at decorating them with cool details.

During the beginning of this month we helped my sister Alesha move into her new house. Later that month she had all the girls over to her new house for a movie night so Joel and I got to go out to eat and we went and watched the new Star Wars movie. It wasn't my pick but Joel loved it and can't wait to watch the movie again.

 I got invited to go to a parenting class that some of the people from my old ward are doing and it has been a great thing to talk about parenting and learn from the other moms some new ways of doing things. It has been fun to go to that. It happens every Tuesday.

Brynlee got sick several times the month and missed several more days of school. She kept getting stomach aches so I took her to the doctor and we tried some acid reflux medicine which should have fixed the problem but Brynlee still got sick and threw up a few different days while she was on the medicine so she stopped taking it and I took her back into the doctor. This time they did all kinds of allergy testing and they tested for bacteria. The doctor said she was pretty thorough in checking every possible thing she could think of and everything came back normal. Brynlee has still been getting stomach aches a few nights a week and she just hangs in her room feeling miserable. She ended the month with a cough and a fever. Kyla got the fever too but no one else got it. I feel bad she has been sick but don't know what to do to help her. Joel got sick with a migraine one Sunday and had to miss church. Taking four kids by yourself is no easy feat but I somehow managed.

To get ready for Christmas we did our Christmas advent calendar again. We watched Christmas movies, read books, went and looked at Christmas lights and walked around looking and the lights around the Scentsy building. They had a light tunnel the kids had fun walking through.The kids all loved looking at the lights.

 I went to Annalyn's Christmas party and helped in her class at school. The kids made Christmas trees and it was a lot of fun for them. Brynlee had a school Christmas program that we got to go and watch.  I made Christmas candy with the kids but our family ended up eating most of them so they never got delivered to anyone.

Our family got to help clean the church this month. Joel has been wanting to put beams up in our living room since the day we moved in and finally bought the wood and did it one Saturday when his dad had the flu and wasn't working on his house. The beams look really nice. Joel's dad now has a buyer for his house which is great for them and I am glad there is an end to this project in sight. The house closes in March. Until then most of Joel's spare time will be spent helping his dad.

Kyla got to go to dance class with her cousin Remi and she loved it so much. She has been talking about it ever since. My brother Josh got to come home from his Army training for Christmas so I went with my family to meet him at the airport and we had fun going out to dinner together. It was good to have him home for Christmas.

The girls had school until just a few days before Christmas and then got two weeks off after Christmas. We had a wonderful Christmas spent with family and then we got to spend a lot of time relaxing. We played in the snow, the kids played hard with all of their new toys, and we had a great time off of school.

My vacuum broke the day before Christmas and it took us a while to get the part. Then Joel broke the plastic piece to it but he was able to melt something back together for me. There were a few days when our carpets looked pretty bad. We had some friends over to play with a few time, I took the girls to spend their Christmas money. That was a fun ordeal but everyone got to pick something out.

We ended the month of December with everyone being sick. New years eve was on a Sunday and both Brynlee and Kyla had a fever and Annalyn and Summer had a bad cough so I left them all home with Joel while I went to church without them. I was home with them being really whiny and grouchy all day on Saturday so it only seemed fair. Since everyone was feeling kind of yucky we stayed home and went to bed early. Not the best way to end the year but such is life. In a way it was kind of nice to be at church by myself. My row was nice and quiet. 

The girls got to see Santa twice this year. At least Annalyn and Kyla did. Joel watched the kids for a half hour one Saturday while Summer was sleeping and I ran Kyla and Annalyn over to the library to talk to Santa and do a craft. Brynlee didn't want to come. We went to our ward party and the kids sang some songs and we ate some good food. Santa arrived at the end of the party. The line to see Santa was super long so I stuck all of my kids on his lap at the same time.

It snowed a few times this month and the kids had fun playing in all of the snow. The first time it was mostly just a light dusting that was mostly in the road. There was not a lot of snow in the grass and it melted pretty quickly. Summer still doesn't like the snow and preferred to be pushed in the wagon when I made her play outside. 

We made gingerbread houses which is another fun tradition that my kids love. All four of the kids got their own little house to decorate and they turned out pretty cute. Summer was grabbing handful of candy and just dumping it on her house. Kyla and Brynlee took their time and did a great job. Annalyn had so much candy on her house. She left wrappers on most of her candy too so she could eat them later. The houses didn't last long.

The girls had a blast decorating cookies with grandma Hirtle and some of their cousins. Joel's sister Jaime also sent us some Gingerbead cookies and we had fun decorating them.

Joel helped the kids build some more cool snow animals this year. They made a turtle, a unicorn, and a bear this time. The day before that Brynlee and Annalyn went outside by themselves and built their own snowman and Brynlee made a cute little cookie monster. I love that they made those all on their own. It is nice when the world is so beautiful and covered with snow but I am glad the snow didn't last for long this year. A few days later all the snow was melted.

I really do love this great little family of mine. It has been a great year and we feel pretty blessed. Life can be crazy but it sure is fun.

Christmas 2017

Christmas Eve was on a Sunday this year. We went to sacrament meeting at 11 and then everyone went home to celebrate the holidays. We changed clothes, Summer took a quick nap, and then we headed over to spend the evening with Joel's family. We went Christmas caroling first. Summer stayed with grandpa while the rest of us got to go and sing to some of grandma's neighbors. It was kind of cold but we had a good time. Then we had some tacos and played some games. Grandma made everyone a homemade gift this year; everyone got their own jar of jam and then grandpa gave all of the kids a card with ten dollars. We went home after that and put the kids in bed so Santa could come.

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We had a fun and magical Christmas day. The girls were so ridiculously excited about the whole thing. Brynlee was awake at 5:30 to see what she got for Christmas. She got a My Generation girl from Santa. Annalyn woke up next and then Kyla and Summer woke up a little bit later. Everyone was awake by 6:30 and they were way too excited to change or eat breakfast so we let them open up presents right away. Summer loved unwrapping things but she really didn't want anything to do with any of her gifts. She only wanted the doll that Annalyn got and kept stealing it from her. Brynlee made her a cute little doll cradle that she loves. She kept trying to put Anna's baby in it. Annalyn got some Shopkins and I gave her a package of diapers and some clothes for her baby doll which she was really excited about. Kyla was excited about everything she got. The whole day was magical for her. After we were done unwrapping the presents the girls played for a bit while Joel took a nap on the couch. Then we headed over to my parent's house where we ate a wonderful Christmas dinner and then played and had a fun time. 

Later that night we headed over to Grandma Hirtle's house again so Brynlee and Annalyn could spend the night with their cousins. They had a great time doing that. 

The best present the girls got this year was this doll house that Joel made for them. The kids knew about it but Joel told them it was a rat house that we would give to a family that had rats. I think Kyla was the only person who believed that and her reaction when she found out that she got to keep the doll house was the best. She gasped and was so excited. The girls love this thing. It is huge so they really like to climb on it and hide in it. Joel didn't measure before he built it so it wont fit upstairs, which is where I wanted to put it so for now it is sitting in our living room. 

We had a wonderful Christmas. I am so thankful for the birth of out Savior and for my family.