Dec 2021

 December is soooo full of soooo many things! Fortunately, all of them are very fun! 

Lyla has another unfortunate encounter with the bunk bed! This one did break the skin. It's healing fairly well, but she is very swollen and it hurts every now and then. 

We started the month off with Lego nativities at Nana's house, they are very fun, but also challenging for the boys. I get to help. A lot. Don't mind the Santa hats. They are a constant once Thanksgiving is over. I mean like they where them every. day. in December. 

Our next tradition is decorating Christmas cookies to give to neighbors. Our list this year was the highest it's ever been! 15 plates means I'm gonna have to start making a double batch. Tyler suggested only making white frosting. The rest of the family disagreed. On principle, Tyler used ONLY white frosting one EVERY one of his cookies. I was impressed by his creativity with sprinkles. 

 

There are so many things I love about this next picture. Nolan coming up with an idea, Grayson being the grunt work and Lyla just full of life! We obviously got a good amount of snow, it was all gone before Christmas. 

I treated myself and paid for haircuts, again! There was a sale and I couldn't resist not having to do the work by myself! The family has eaten more than their fair share of Crumbl that Tyler bought the cutter so they could all be shared evenly.  

 

I found an oreo holiday house kit at Sam's Club and we had fun decorating them. We love to use the old left-over Halloween candy to really make them shine. Tyler made #4 and won the Facebook vote for best holiday house 2021. Lyla and I made #1, Nolan #2 and Grayson #3.

 

My cousin Billy and his family were in town for a basketball tournament. We saw them THREE times and the only picture I got was my kiddos loving Jody's homemade caramel popcorn. One afternoon, I went to lift the toilet lid and Lyla said, "I don't want you to open that....". Only to find that she accidentally dumped all the haircutting things into the toilet. Thank goodness the people had flushed. More often than not, they "forget". It was soooo fun to clean up!

 

One of my favorite things about Christmas is Christmas music! We got to support Kendra at her Christmas concert and it was great! 

Tyler turned 33 this year! He got a new Apple watch, a mini Leatherman and some thermals. We went on a date to Tucanos in Farmington. The service was great, but the food was just ok. Tyler wants to take a redemption trip to Rodizio. The kids played at Nanas while we had a birthday date. I made him peanut butter whoopie pies that he ate before we could sing to him. 

Our next favorite day in December is Christmas Eve. We LOVE making gingerbread nativities and we LOVE Christmas dinner. Some of us like acting in the Nativity play more than others and we LOVE opening fun PJs. This years PJs, were super fun onesies. 

We also love to play Vindi Vindi with Tom. Vindi Vindi is a pool-like game from Fiji. 

On Christmas day, I was HORRIBLE at getting pictures. We are just together enjoying the day and each other. There are videos.... but blogger won't do videos. Our family has grown so much! Tyler made this fun collage to look back on. 

My family got together on the 26th. My brother-in-law works at a real fancy event company and scored some really fancy dinnerware for us to use. Even better, you send everything back dirty! The company washes it all for you! 

Lyla's karaoke machine is a fun favorite. There were SOO many Lego sets to build and organize, I actually enjoy playing with Legos. 

We spent lunch bowling. I never beat Tyler.  Even with two strikes in a row, he still beats me. 

Tyler got a Rodizio redemption day. We spent New Year's Eve day with Tommy and Emerie in Provo. They live super close to a Rodizio and went to lunch with us. On our way home we stopped at the Outlets and saw the BIGGEST Christmas tree, EVER. 

Most of the people are done with sickie things and we got to hold Wesley. He's tiny and cute. 

We love Throw Throw Burrito/Avocado and playing games with cousins. 

Now, these kids are loud. But when Nana buys New Year's noise makers, these kids are LOUD!

This many excited kids means that accidents happen. Nolan got his finger slammed in a door and had a nasty cut. It wasn't fun, but it's already looking and feeling better. We are grateful for a Papaw who is GREAT a fixing boo-boos. 

Now, we are headed back to real life. Tyler saves his vacation and has had the WHOLE Christmas break off with us. We love this time of year to spend together. 

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Until next time...