Mostly Christmas...

 

He has been playing almost every night. <3

 

 

The father of Hubs' best friend from highschool and who is also a great friend was in town. He came over for a short visit. And it was just a special moment to see and talk with him. 

 

There is a field of cows across the street from our house. We had been watching this poor cow who was hurt. He never walked very far and we always felt bad for him. The caretakers would come out and make sure he had food so we felt better about him being hurt and alone. Then one day Oak runs to me and says someone came to help him. Well it was the butcher. After some tears from Oak we watched as the skinned and hung him to get him in the truck. It was pretty interesting. 

 

Oak really wanted to make Mac an apron for Christmas. She did a great job and she loved being able to use the sewing machine. 

 

Mac was wrapping a present and as you can see he needed a little guidance.

 

So I taught this cowboy how to wrap a present properly. He was surprisingly very attentive and good at following the directions on how to do it right. He is more apt to say ok and do it how he wants. 

 

The kids wanted to leave a little something for our postman. I loved what Mac wrote. So funny! And our sweet postman left us a thank you card. 

 

Goofy girl snuggling her sick mama. I don't know what was up but I had a really bad headache that felt like I had a balloon in my head then it would hurt so bad that it would turn into a migraine. This happened over and over for a few days. Thankfully my mom lives with us and was in town and she just let me relax while she took care of things with my kids and the house.

 

 I was feeling bad that I wasn't feeling up to getting ready for Christmas and I finally had a few hours of relief that we were able to knock out some Christmas cookies for Santa and friends.

 

I think this was my favorite moment. I was feeling very down all week, not enjoying life and then not feeling good on top of that. It was just nice to feel good again and enjoy making cookies with my kids. They were sweet and calm and silly. And I just loved it.

 

Oak made the pumpkin pies all by herself. She did a fantastic job. Her favorite part was making the crust fancy. 

 

We stayed home this year instead of going to my in-laws. Since my mom lives with us we will go every other year now. But we still keep the tradition of Christmas ever bowling. It was so much fun. It was the first time Oak has never thrown a fit and actually enjoyed bowling. We had a blast!

 

We read the Nativity and the kids acted it out. 

 

And Santa brought them what they wanted! Oak has been asking for a violin for two years and she finally got one. And Mac is always happy with an awesome Lego. 

 

This girl had a great Christmas and pretty much got everything she has ever wanted. She has been adoring Grandma C's American Girl dolls, especially Kaya and Grandma C got her her very own for Christmas.

 

Mac pretty much spent the ENTIRE day putting together Legos. He was in heaven. 

 

Our last Sunday photo for the year. I don't think I will do photos every year this next year. But I plan do still do them every once in awhile. 

 

Sunday 52.

 

The kids opened a few gifts before church and we saved the bulk of them for after church. It was so fun. The kids were so great the whole day and were just really content. It was such a nice day. 

 

Grandma C also got Oak and her doll matching outfits. SO CUTE!

 

This was a gift from mommy and daddy. A mermaid blanket. She loves it!

 

So we ended up getting Mac a cheap shelf from walmart to put his lego creations on. I seems like a dumb gift but he loved it and I knew he would. He has always loved containers and things to put his things in. 

 

A very happy girl. 

Some random and Mac turns NINE!

Oak was in a creative mood, which always leads to a big mess. This time she was making orange juice with Little Cuties.

Took Mac to go and get his pizza for Pizza Hut Book It! Oak didn't earn hers this month.

Making scones for dinner.

And then this happened! Our boy turned NINE! He had a lot on the agenda for his birthday. He wanted "biscuit" pancakes for breakfast, putting together his new Legos, make chocolate chip cookies to take to the homeschool center, go to the homeschool center, play Risk, eat dinner at Mongolian Grill, ice cream sundaes with all the toppings instead of cake and watch The BFG movie.

We woke up to this much snow on Mac's birthday. He loved it.

Mac's birthday tradition has ended up being a crown. And he loved having sundaes this year.

My sweet husband restrung my my guitar. I haven't played it in years but I was able to remember the only song I ever learned to play which is Puff The Magic Dragon.

I was on the commity to help with our Ward/Spanish branch Christmas party. I was only in charge of a very small part but I help with a lot of the other parts too. It turned out so nice. I was in charge of this shadow Nativity play. It turned out so cool.

Just enjoying my sweet girl really early one morning.

Sunday 51

A bit snow fall and a parade...

 

Once again I haven't been very good at taking pictures lately. Part of that is that the kids' behavior has been horrid since we got back from our Thanksgiving trip. 

Anyway...this is Oak's hair every single day. I thought getting it cut would help but it hasn't. 

 

We got a lot of snow in one night. I ended up shoveling the snow in our huge driveway by hand. It was hard but because I have been exercising consistently it wasn't as hard as last year.  The kids had a blast in the snow and I am so glad that we just recently got all their snow gear for the winter. We had to buy pretty much everything this year because they grew out of the stuff they had worn the last three years.

 

Mac's snowmen. 

 

Oak's

 

They were pulling me. And do you like me new snow boots that my hubby made me get. I am so glad he did because I almost didn't and I would have been miserable out shoveling snow in my rain boots..

 

Our town always has the best Christmas light parade every year. It was cold but fun. 

 

Sunday 50

Cleaning and Christmas tree hunting...

 

It's the season of hot chocolate. And Mac was attempting to read to Oak, but he isn't a great multi tasker. 

 

I was tired of the clutter around our office area and around our dining room so I got to work filing a years worth of papers and garbage. It took me the whole day, literally, but i love how clean it is now. So worth it. Clutter makes me grumpy. 

 

Our cleaned office area. We got a new computer recently and the Mister made me a little shelf underneath the desk to house the printers. 

 

Every time we got to Walmart there are people on the corner needing help. My kids love to give them what ever we have. So we decided we needed to put together blessing bags. The kids love doing this. This year we added little baggies with dog food and dog treats because it seems like they all have a dog with them.

 

Saturday morning we headed out on an adventure to eat breakfast at a cool restaurant on the other side of the lake called Herriman Springs. There dinner is not very good but there breakfast was SOOOO good. Mac especially loves there giant pancakes that taste like biscuits. The nice lady offered free hot chocolate to the kids since we were the only ones in the restaurant.

 

Then we went on a Christmas tree hunt. It took us a bit but we finally found it. We lucked out this year with the weather being amazing. 

 

Sunday 49