Dec 26 - 31

Monday, December 26 - The McCullough's called us and invited us to go to the park by our house to go sledding. I wasn't super excited to go but once we got there and got playing, I was SO glad I did! We had a blast taking turns going down the hill. Trevan got a new snowboard for Christmas so I got to witness his mad snowboarding skills! It was just overall a really great time!

Tuesday, December 27- For $5 movie day at the theater, we took Dave and the family to see Sing. It turned out to be a really cute show. Who am I kidding, I love going to the movies no matter what is playing! :) I love when I have my hubby home full-time!

Wednesday, December 28 - We met my whole family at Las Glorias for dinner and then we all went over to the Draper Tree of Life. I have seen it in pictures but it was really spectacular in person! I am so glad we were able to do this before it ends in a couple of days.

Thursday, December 29 - What is a week at home for Simon without house projects?? I had a bunch for him to do and he got so much done! We finally got Zack's real fire hose Z on his wall! We have had the fire hose for over a year now so it was for sure time!! Speaking of Zack, he had his cute little friends Chase and Anna over to play. I just love these three faces!

Friday, December 30 - I can hardly write this post without bursting out in tears. My very good friend that has only been in my life a few years is moving to Arizona. Elise and I met when she moved into our ward about 3 years ago. We were pretty soon assigned as visiting teaching partners. I got to know her well through the stories she told and the conversations we had while on visits. We are kindred spirits and became fast friends. She is who I call when I need help, advice on decorating, and she held me up when I was falling apart with everything going on with my brother. She is amazing and I will sorely miss her now that she's in sunny Arizona. However, I wish her and her beautiful family the best of luck in their adventure and I know we will stay friends. We are forever connected now.

Saturday, December 31 - Welcome 2017! I can't believe that 2016 is already over!! I am excited to see what 2017 will bring us. :)

Dec 19 - 25

Monday, December 19 - Anna invited some friends over today to make gingerbread houses so we went over before bowling. It was really cute. Jenny had gotten milk cartons from the school so they just pasted graham crackers onto the cartons with frosting. Zack had a blast with his friends and Ricki enjoyed eating lots of candy!

Tuesday, December 20 - A few ward members and friends were in a production of Princess Academy so we took our girls (I also brought Quinn) and we saw it. It was so cute! We all really enjoyed it.

Wednesday, December 21 - Zack's preschool Christmas program was the cutest thing ever! I love when they sing and sign Silent Night. There is just something so special about 3-5 year old kids signing such a beloved song. I also love his gift for me, Zack's mistletoes! 

Thursday, December 22 - It was ugly sweater day at MACU and Simon went full-fledged! He was Cousin Eddy from Christmas Vacation. Someone even had a moose mug like the one in the show. He looked hilarious and won 2nd place in the whole office!

Friday, December 23 - It seems like every year on Christmas Eve we are struggling to find Christmas cookies to leave out for Santa. I wasn't having that this year so we made sugar cookies. I let the kids each have three to decorate themselves.

Saturday, December 24 - Well, it's happened. The one thing I always worry about with little kids...the eventual self-haircut! Simon told Ricki we needed to cut out the elastics from her hair to get ready for baths. She took that as an invitation to try to cut the elastic out of her hair herself! She cut a big chunk of hair out. I got mad at first but then decided this was a picture moment. Ricki's first-ever haircut. The stylist? Ricki! :) Tonight was our annual Christmas Eve prime rib dinner at Grandma and Jim's. We also exchanged some gifts to make Christmas morning easier. When we got home from dinner, we tracked Santa, set out cookies and milk, then got into bed so that he could come! Merry Christmas Eve!

Sunday, December 25 - Merry Christmas! This has been a fun and wonderful day! I love my family and friends so much and am so grateful for all those that are in my life.

Dec 12 - 18

Monday, December 12 - We bought these stockings last year after Christmas and I called around to a bunch of places to try to get our names embroidered on them. Most places wanted a fortune or couldn't do it so I gave up and started looking at letters to attach to them this year. I bought some at Walmart that were really cute but I couldn't find an 'R' for Ricki. In the process at checking at each Walmart, Marisa texted me and said a lady was advertising embroidery and specifically stockings on Facebook. I gave her a call and sure enough, she said she could do it for $5 per stocking! Heck yes! She did an amazing job and it was only $30!! Score!

Tuesday, December 13 - Nick had a presentation this morning about his heritage and where he comes from. We let them sample English Marmite - which they all hated. :) He did a great job on his presentation and on the project as a whole. After the kids and I left school, we met Grandma Howard at Chick-Fil-A for lunch. Afterward, we went shopping for the kids' Christmas gifts. It was fun being with grandma. We never do this anymore.

Wednesday, December 14 - I spent a lot of the day wrapping gifts. I thought this was funny. The big giant red gift is for Jenni and the tiny little gold gift is for BJ. The funny thing is that I actually think they cost the exact same amount of money! #actuallylovethemboth

Thursday, December 15 - Dad's business rocks! He got tickets for Simon, Amie, him, and I to go see the new Star Wars movie: Rogue One on it's premiere night! I was a fun hubby/daddy/BFF date for me! The show wasn't bad either!

Friday, December 16 - Traditions! Mom, Jenni, and I got together today to make candy. I spared you the picture of the awful microwave caramels that we made but everything else turned out wonderfully! I don't know why we only make candy at Christmas! It's fun and oh so yummy!!

Saturday, December 17 - Simon had to work this morning and the kids were restless to have some fun. They put together the gingerbread house kit that my mom gave them. When they had their fill of candy and frosting, they put on their snow gear and went outside to play. They had a blast until Nick hit Zack square in the face with a snowball. Tonight was the Olson's annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Party! I look forward to this party all year! I made our shirts and, although mine was pretty naughty, I won the prize! What a fun night with some fun friends!

Sunday, December 18 - Alexis needed some pictures of Finley with Dave & Viv and they were so cute, I just had to snag them from her. Look at that sweet little face!

Dec 5 -11

Monday, December 5 - The kids and I hadn't been to Gary and Alexis's new house yet so they had us over for dinner and family night. Their house is beautiful! It's in a cute little neighborhood in Lehi and they have a huge kitchen/dining/family room area. In addition to getting to see their new house, we got to see this little sweetie. She's the happiest baby - always smiling! We love Finn!

Tuesday, December 6 - The kids were really sad that I never bought those cheap nasty little chocolate advent calendars and I felt really bad! It is kind of a tradition. So...I improvised! I bought little white boxes and a foam board from the dollar store and made my own candy-holding advent calendar! The best part was that the candy was SO MUCH BETTER! Rolo's and KitKats and Kisses...yum! As you can see, the kids were okay with this replacement calendar!

Wednesday, December 7 - I took this obnoxiously close up picture of Ricki's face because I was worried she may be getting hand, foot, and mouth. (See those red bumps right under her bottom lip?) Well, it never turned into anything, thank heaven, but I actually like this picture of her. It's the first time I've seen her look much more like a child and much less like a toddler. I also love that it captured the depth of her beautiful blue eyes. Those eyes melt my heart!

Thursday, December 8 - Marisa watched Ricki for me today and when I went to pick her up, I got to see and take a picture of Charlotte's cute nails. Ricki and Bridget wanted their nails done too so I sat and painted Ricki's while Marisa painted Bridget's. It was a fun impromptu nail party! :) 

Friday, December 9 - When I look through the pictures on my phone, I sometimes get a little surprise...like my kid's face in a perfect selfie! I love this guy!! He helps me so much. I can't wait for the big kids to be off track so that I can spend my days in actual conversations with this kid.

Saturday, December 10 - Mom invited our whole crew to their ward Christmas breakfast. It was amazing! The decorating was just over-the-top gorgeous, breakfast was yummy, and they even had a professional photographer take our picture. Simon had a bunch of stuff he was working on so he didn't make it with us. That was a shame because I really like this bottom picture of the whole fam. Everyone has cute smiles. Activities like this one really put me in the Christmas spirit!

Sunday, December 11 - I did steal these pictures from yesterday but this event was worth having it's own post. Plus, we just stayed home for dinner and nothing much happened on our lazy Sunday so I didn't take any pics. Anyway, we got tickets to go downtown to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas Concert. It was a nightmare getting there and getting home but once we were in the conference center, it was amazing! They did a beautiful job!

Nov 28 - Dec 4

Monday, November 28 - Leave it to me to wait until late the night before I have book club to finally making a treat to take. I was in a hurry (obviously) and got tired of dipping each pretzel so I decided to just dump a bunch of pretzels into the melted chocolate. They look kind of gross her but trust me, they were way yummy!

Tuesday, November 29 - We read "A Christmas Carol" by Charles Dickens for our November Book Club. Andrea hosted our meeting and made a yummy drink that was frothy on the top. We got a kick out of the mustaches they left. Love these friends of mine!

Wednesday, November 30 - Tonight was Simon's work Christmas party. They spoiled us at Top Golf with as much play time as we could fit into two hours, dinner, and dessert! It was so much fun hanging out with Simon's coworkers and their spouses for the evening. We had an interesting thing happen on our way out to the car. A car started rolling backward right in front of where we were walking. At first, I was a little annoyed that the driver didn't stop to wait for us...until we realized there was no driver! Simon was able to stop it before it smashed into two other cars and he and I stood there and held it until security came! It was a crazy ending to our fun night!!

Thursday, December 1 - We had a fun-filled day! First, Zack had a preschool field trip to the movie theater in Jordan Landing. It was actually super interesting. They took us upstairs and let us see the projectors that the movies play from. They also told us how they schedule the movies and how they start automatically - no operator required! Then, they took us downstairs to the XD theater which was equipped with full leather reclining chairs. There are 18 speakers in that one theater so the sound is unbelievable. We weren't able to watch a movie but they showed us a bunch of trailers of movies coming out and handed out free popcorn. 

Tonight, the kids and I picked Simon up from work and headed to Christmas in Color. It is a drive-through light show. It was really cool how they set all the lights to the music. They even had a singing snowman that I got a kick out of!

Friday, December 2 - It's time again to send out Christmas cards. I have been working on putting our pictures together and deciding what pictures to use. I found a great deal through Sam's Club so I am so excited to get these back and start sending them out!

Saturday, December 3 - This is our ward adult-only Christmas party. We were worried about the turnout...it turned out just fine! We had a progressive-style dinner where you ate salad at one table, switched to have the main course at another table, then switched to a final table for dessert. We also played Family Feud-Christmas with the computer and a projector. I think everyone had a good time. Heck, even I had a good time but I can't say that a big part of me is excited and ready to move past this night and start really enjoying Christmas!

Sunday, December 4 - Happy birthday yesterday to Katie and tomorrow to Jenni! I am so lucky to have such great sisters in my life! I hope they both have a wonderful birthday!!