Dec 25 - 31

Monday, December 25 - MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! I just love Christmas! Especially with children - they make it magical again!! I am so thankful for the birth of Christ and all He has done for us. And I am forever grateful for our family traditions and being together on this special day!

Tuesday, December 26 - My parents and Simon's parents came over to see what the kids got and to visit. I love this picture of mom and Ricki. If Ricki ever wants to know what she'll look like when she's an adult, she can just look at my mom!

Wednesday, December 27 - Bratzeli's! Woot woot! I love our family tradition of getting together to make bratzeli's. I also love that Simon is off for a week after Christmas so he can join us for these fun events. 

Thursday, December 28 - Simon bought me new pots and pans for Christmas but he wanted me to pick them out so we went to Sam's Club together. It's actually kind of sad throwing out the old ones and bringing in the new ones. I've spent a lot of time cooking in those old pans!

Friday, December 29 - We went to dinner tonight at Olive Garden then over to the movie theater to see "Wonder". It was a great show and so much fun doing this together as a family!

Saturday, December 30 - The lumber for our basement was delivered this morning at 7:00 am. Yay! Let's get this party started!!

Sunday, December 31 - We had a weird New Year's party. We had it at Jenni's house...but the McCullough's were in St. George! Kenny & Katie were staying there to house-sit and it's such a great halfway point for everyone. We played games, ate tons of Christmas treats, and smooched at midnight. It was fun but we missed our McCullough clan!

Dec 18 - 24

Monday, December 18 - We went to West Valley tonight to celebrate Grandpa Jim's birthday. These kids sure do love their Grandpa!

Tuesday, December 19 - Now that my other Christmas crafts are done, I have moved on to our teacher gifts. We are giving them these "santa-tizers". :) I always love checking things like this off the to-do list.

Wednesday, December 20 - Ricki had her Christmas program for preschool today. She loves Miss Angie so much! Their program was so cute!

Thursday, December 21 - This morning was Kendra's Christmas program. She did a wonderful job! We were excited to have Simon there with us - he worked late shift all week.

Friday, December 22 - Little Ricki and Bridget are BFF's. They hung out at the school during the 4th grade program then Bridge came over today to be babysat while her mommy volunteered at the school. I love that they are good friends.

Saturday, December 23 - How is she comfortable enough like this to nap!?!?

Sunday, December 24 - We were happy that Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday this year. We had our annual traditional prime rib dinner at the Muffett's. Yummmmm!!!! I can't believe that Christmas is already here!

Dec 11 - 17

Monday, December 11 - We went to see Brielle in her gymnastics performance this morning. It was so darned cute! She did a great job!! I would really love to get my girls back in gymnastics again. Maybe after the holidays! :)

Tuesday, December 12 - We took the kids (and Savannah) and met up with my family at the Christmas In Color lights display. It was so beautiful but super duper foggy. We had Jim and Sharon in a car in front of us and the McCullough's and mom and dad in the truck behind us. After we drove through the display, we went to McDonald's for ice cream and hot chocolate. 

Wednesday, December 13 - Julie Lattin invited us to a gingerbread house party at the church. The kids loved it! They had a great time running around and playing with their little friends in the gym after we made their houses. The only tears came when Zack's house flopped off his plate on the way out to the car. :*( We initiated 10-second-rule and it was totally fine!

Thursday, December 14 - I went out to lunch with Jenni and Mom and then I begged them to come hold my hand while I got a daith piercing done. Daith piercings are a new form of acupuncture in which you are pierced through a pressure point that is known to relieve the symptoms of migraines. I suffer so much with my migraines, I would try just about anything to get rid of them. I sure hope this works! Thanks for being there for me mom and sis!

Friday, December 15 - So many gingerbread houses, so little time! I went to Zack's class to volunteer to help make their gingerbread houses. Isn't my boy the cutest?!

Saturday, December 16 - My Grandparent's of the Year parents took Zack and Kendra to the Zoo for Zoo Lights. They did actually invite the whole family to go but I just couldn't bring myself to want to be outside. It is SOOOOO cold!! They got snowed on a little but bundled up tight and had a lot of fun walking around, seeing the lights, and seeing the animals that are more active during the cold season.

Sunday, December 17 - Christmas is almost here and I have been trying to get all of my crafting done. I finally finished the last few ties on this garland and got it hung up tonight. It was a lot of work, more than you would think, but I am happy with the results. I love Christmas!

Dec 4 - 10

Monday, December 4 - Simon got an awesome invitation to go to the new Hale Center Theater for their first production on the new stage; Aida! If you know me, you know this is my VERY FAVORITE play ever! When Simon called and told me they had two tickets for him, I about screamed! This was such a wonderful night!

Tuesday, December 5 - And just like that they're off! Kendra is done with round 1 of her braces. They had to expand her upper pallet and pull her front teeth together so that there is space for her canine teeth to come. I told Dr. Rosvall that I had to have mine pulled down with braces and he said that this is what they can do to avoid having to do that. Hooray for getting braces off...until round 2 begins! :) Also, happiest of birthdays to my sweet sister!

Wednesday, December 6 - We had a really fun Young Women's activity tonight. Carli Bringhurst (one of the girls in our class) came and taught us calligraphy. She does the fancy watercolor calligraphy art that is so popular right now. It was really so much fun! The girls loved it...and I kinda did too! :) 

Thursday, December 7 - I am working on Viv's 2018 calendar for Christmas. I asked Ashley and Alexis for Christmas pictures of their family this year. I realized that was asking a lot since it's only December 7 but Ashley sent me this. How cute is this Pearson family?!?

Friday, December 8 - Nick was invited tonight to a pizza/gingerbread house making party at the Nyholm's. I am so thrilled that Nick has these friends to hang out with and that they are getting closer. I also think Jenny is brave and kind to host this without it being someone's birthday! Haha! :) 

Saturday, December 9 - This morning was our ward Christmas party and guess who showed up?!? SANTA! My kids were thrilled...but not as thrilled as I was that now we don't have to go to the mall to see him. :) I love the ward parties and I love hanging out with this crew...Santa included. 

Sunday, December 10 - Because I'm miserable at remembering to take pictures on Sundays and because I had to include this special picture of Brielle, this is the pic of the day. How sweet and innocent is little Brielle in this picture? Jenni posted it and it is now one of my favorite Christmas pictures. I love my 'Rellie. 

Nov 27 - Dec 3

Monday, November 27 - We decorated the Christmas tree tonight for family night. This is one of my favorite traditions and always gets me in the Christmas spirit! We did find a few of our ornaments broken AND a spider in our ornament box. Simon realized that he had dropped that particular box last year and forgot about it until we found a broken glass ornament with sand all over the rest of the ornaments and bottom of the box. Oops!

Tuesday, November 28 - I got a scary call this morning from my mom that Jenni had a grand mal seizure in bed around 5:30. Thank heavens she sleeps next to a medical professional that knew what to do! He called 911 and she went by ambulance to the UofU Daybreak ER. Once there, they tried to take her back to CT and she had another grand mal seizure on the way. They made the decision to transfer her up to the main hospital for more testing. So...back into an ambulance and off she went. Up there, they did a lot of testing and of course, put her on heavy anti-seizure medications. After sleeping overnight and many tests, the doctors felt confident in their diagnosis of epilepsy. Now that she thinks back, she is sure she's had it since she was about 14! What a scary experience but we're thankful that she will be okay. Now, on to no driving for 3 months!

Wednesday, November 29 - With all the testing they did, they glued a bunch of electrodes in Jenni's hair. Unfortunately, it looked like huge white flakes in her black hair! I stopped at Sally's on the way to her house and got a clarifying shampoo to try to strip some of the glue out of her hair. She doesn't remember anything from yesterday, the seizures, or her family around her all day and she's super tired all the time but other than that, she's doing well. 

Thursday, November 30 - In the process of having her horrible seizure, Jenni bit the edges of her tongue so badly that it is numb. She says it feels like she burned her tongue and now it has that burned/numb feeling all around the edges. She doesn't know it yet in this picture but she also broke at least one of her bottom teeth. Poor thing. I'm so glad she's on the mend!

Friday, December 1 - This morning was the super fun and always special with my kids..."Moms and Muffins". I went to school with the kids at 7:30 and got to enjoy muffins and chocolate milk with them before school. Ricki got lucky that dad worked the early shift this week so she got to go too. :) 

Saturday, December 2 - This is one of my favorite events of the year - the Olson's annual Christmas Party! We had lots of fun with this group. These are some of our very favorite people!

Sunday, December 3 - Today is Katie's actual birthday and Jenni's is in two days. We had fun celebrating my sisters!! After they were done opening gifts, I gave Katie and Kenny their Christmas gift. I made an advent calendar for them throughout the year so that I could have it ready at the end of November/beginning of December. It was fun to hand it over to them.