Dec 24 - 31

Monday, December 24 - Happy Christmas Eve! We were surprised with a fun announcement at Grandma Sharon and Grandpa Jim's - Katie is pregnant!!!! Yay!!!!! They have been trying for a while so we are so happy for them! We had an amazing prime rib dinner then the adults opened gifts. It was so fun to watch my family open the homemade gifts I made for them. I always love that! When we got home, we set cookies and milk out for Santa and carrots for the reindeer. Then, it was off to bed in hopes that Santa would stop by our house!

 (My favorite picture from today)

 Tuesday, December 25 - Merry Christmas! We had a great Christmas this year!! Simon spoiled me (rotten) and the kids were happy with what they got. We spent the day laughing and chatting with our family and visiting with everyone. I love Christmas because I feel like you can easily feel the love of Christ surrounding you. I hope all of my friends and family had a very wonderful Christmas!

Wednesday, December 26 - These girls love twinning! They were both thrilled to open matching jammies, matching purses, and matching church dresses! I am so glad that Kendra was blessed with a sister and Nick with a brother. I just love these little faces!

Thursday, December 27 - Simon took the week off so we are having some fun. We had a good snowstorm so we (and most of Herriman) headed over to Rosecrest park for sledding fun! Ricki and I are only good in the snow for about an hour but I think Nick and Zack could have gone all day long!

Friday, December 28 - I was given a $50 gift card to MegaPlex theaters so our family went and saw "Ralph Breaks the Internet". It was super cute and I love going out and doing fun things with this crazy bunch of mine. 

Saturday, December 29 - As you can see, there is a story behind this cake! Simon and I went to do some returns at Walmart last night and we ran into Regina and Steve Campbell. Zack had been invited to Eli Campbell and Max Robert's birthday party so they were there buying party favors and the cake. They asked the lady at the bakery to please write on the cake. She admitted that she wasn't "very good" at it but did it anyway. This is seriously what the cake turned out to be (top pic). When I saw that at Walmart last night, I about died! I told Reg I would bring my cake stuff to fix it in the morning. It isn't perfect (you can still see some of the red around the edges) but I think it turned out MUCH better than the before. Plus, they got a good discount so hopefully it was worth it! :)

Sunday, December 30 - I got them done! We used sparkly red card stock and my Cricut to cut out these shoes and then I sat and hot glued them together. It was quick and easy! So thankful for modern tools that make projects like this simple!

Monday, December 31 - Our fireplace tile is up! Simon does such a great job on these projects! Next up, the mantle. Tonight, we headed to my parent's for a New Year's party. I actually dropped my family off then went over to the TOSH Hospital for an MRA (like an MRI on the arteries in my brain). My neurologist wants to rule out an arterial problem as the source of my migraines. Both fortunately and unfortunately, it came back clear so it isn't that. Once I got back to the party, it was all pot-banging, junk food-eating, smooching fun!

Here is to a happy and prosperous 2019!

Dec 17 - 23

Monday, December 17 - It's crunch time! I buckled down and got Kenny and Katie's Christmas gift all done. I know they don't have a ton of decorations for the holidays yet so I thought it would be fun to make them something interchangeable so that they at least have one thing to put up. I hope they like this!

Tuesday, December 18 - It's super fun week at school! Zack was supposed to dress like the Grinch today so he wore a green shirt with a Santa costume over it. :) It was also Kendra's class party, which I was in charge of. They decorated cookies, wore jammies, and watched "The Polar Express". 

Wednesday, December 19 - It's Kendra's Grinch day so we dressed her up like Cindy Lou Who. :) Her fancy hair came out after about an hour. She said it was hurting her head, darn it. Tonight, the Mia Maids and Teachers met to make gingerbread houses. It was so much fun!

Thursday, December 20 - Ricki starred in her preschool Christmas program! It was so cute!! It melts my heart when these little kids sign the words to Silent Night while singing it. Not a dry eye in the crowd! Tonight, I secretly filmed Ricki crying for her bestie after she had already cried for about 30 minutes for her. I sent it to Penney Thomson, Ricki's very best friend in the world, and 3 minutes later there was a knock at the door! Penney is seriously the sweetest! She stayed and played with Ricki for about 30 minutes and even tucked her into bed! 

Friday, December 21 - This is a first in the Pearson household. Quinn, Weston, and Eva slept over at our house so Amie could go enjoy her work Christmas party. These kids were seriously so amazing! They were so good, I barely even noticed I had extra kids around! My kids LOVED having them here! It was a fun night with our great friends that we don't see nearly often enough!

Saturday, December 22 - Sweet Ricki brought home this gingerbread house. I never know what to do with them! I took this picture and then somehow "misplaced" her house. Glad I caught a photo of it though before it was lost. :) 

Sunday, December 23 - We always forget to have cookies on-hand for Santa so tonight, we baked and decorated cookies. The kids had a blast and I was grateful that they didn't even want to be on electronics during this time!

Dec 10 - 16

Monday, December 10 - Mountain America had an event where employees and their families could go to the new corporate office and check it out. They had fun activities to try out on each floor, had a Santa letter-writing station (complete with elves), and Santa even showed up for it! We had a fun, albeit exhausting, time in this gorgeous new building!

Tuesday, December 11 - It's official! Kenny has legally adopted Kam as his son! His name is officially Kameron Michael Howard! So happy for my brother and his sweet little family!

Wednesday, December 12 - I know this is kind of a silly picture day but I have been shopping...a lot! It's funny how between Christmases, you forget how stressful it can be to get ready for it. I usually like to be done before now but here I am with a lot more to do! P.S. The inflatable antler toss game is for a white elephant party gift.

Thursday, December 13 - I needed another small gift to give my parents with their Yardzee game and I found these darling customized mats on Etsy. Luckily, the Etsy shop was just in Lehi so I was able to go pick this up from the shop owner and saved on the shipping fee. Win-win!

Friday, December 14 - We have been planning our daddy/daughter shopping date for a couple of weeks now. We decided to meet at Walmart then hop in dad's car and ride together from there. We walked into Walmart and I mentioned that I would like to quick check my blood pressure because it has been a little high lately. For some reason, I think this gave Jenni a huge dose of anxiety because right after I took my blood pressure, she grabbed my arm and I could see by the look in her face that she was going to have a seizure. I helped lower her to the ground before it began then she and I had a nice little lay-down session right there on Walmart's floor! Eventually, we had them call 9-1-1 because honestly, it's scary! A few things. First, I do not have PTSD from this experience like I did with the choking session she and I had together. My emergency-mode kicked right in and I knew just what to do! And I didn't have nightmares tonight so... Second, Walmart was amazing! Like seriously, so great! I have so many complaints about the Mart but honestly, having an emergency situation there was just an eye-opener of how much they really do care about our safety and well-being. I actually had a manager sit on the floor with me until the paramedics arrived. She was just so great! Third, first responders! Just...wow! Luckily, Jenni recovered pretty quickly and we were able to take her home and have BJ take care of her for the rest of the day. It was a bummer missing out on our fun day with dad but we're both just glad she was okay and that we were there with and for her during this event.

Saturday, December 15 - The event of the year; the Olson's Christmas party! Funny enough, Simon and Kyle showed up as "Cousin Eddie" twinners! I was Katherine from Christmas Vacation. It was so much fun! The Olson's always do such a great job! I'm just sad it's over...until next year! 

Sunday, December 16 - On Friday, the church came out with a huge announcement that rather than waiting for youth to turn 12 to join young men or young women's, they will now enter the program in January of the year they turn 12. In addition to that, young men will get the priesthood in January rather than at their birthday. Because of these very significant changes, our presidency has decided to move New Beginnings from mid-February to January 2. So there is a new rush on getting ready for that! I offered to help make sparkly red Dorothy slippers as a handout. This is one of my attempts at cutting the template on my Cricut. I love my Cricut!!

Dec 3 - 9

Monday, December 3 - The floor is done! And I LOVE IT!!! It is so hard to pick out the flooring that will cover an entire basement just based off of one or two small pieces in a showroom. Now that it is in and done, I couldn't be more pleased with the one we chose. Yay!

Tuesday, December 4 - Happy birthday to the best sister in the world! I don't know how I lucked out to not only have such a wonderful sister but also best friend. Love you Jen! Tonight, our family got the Christmas tree up and decorated. The goal was not to break any ornaments. But then Ricki helped. So we didn't reach our goal. :) I love these fun memories though!

Wednesday, December 5 - Oh these boots. They have caused much drama and contention with my eldest daughter. Kendra came home from school on Monday complaining that her feet are always freezing because none of her shoes are waterproof and they get wet at recess. *Trying* to be a good mom, I went on KSL and found these darling boots, perfect condition, for $20. We went last night, before decorating the tree, met the guy in Draper and bought them. She wore them to school today and came home saying she doesn't want them anymore. What? Why? Because of the fur. It's too fluffy. Seriously?!?! They are the cutest boots ever! No longer *trying* to be a good mom, I told her that they are hers, they are new, and they are not going anywhere so she may as well get used to wearing them! Otherwise, she only has herself to blame for wet feet!

Thursday, December 6 - Simon bought this drone a year or so ago thinking that he would love having it. While he did use it and enjoyed flying it, he didn't get as much use out of it as he thought he would. Tonight, he finally made the decision to put it on KSL and stick with the smaller version his friend gave him for helping with electrical work in his basement. It only took 2 days before someone snagged this deal. Goodbye, our first drone!

Friday, December 7 - The quartz slab for our hearth came in today so Simon went on his lunch break to get it. Just another step in the process.

Saturday, December 8 - Simon had time today to get our hearth top on! Yay!!!!

Sunday, December 9 - Happy birthday Grandpa Jim! We love our grandpa and are so happy to get to celebrate his special day with him at Sunday dinner!