December 2015 little things

We had a few mishaps letting the kids have full-reign of some of these tasks, so if you didn’t get one and you should have, we’ll try to be more organized next year!

My car turned into a little office to get those puppies ready to dump in the mailbox.

Lots more about that back HERE.

Lucy got to go to a little American Girl birthday party which, as you can tell, she was over-the-moon about.

I am so grateful for Lucy’s sweet friends.

Claire looks a little more excited than Lucy does…

Claire got sick in December.

Super sick.

We found out it was strep throat, poor girl!

By the time we actually got the antibiotics she was actually able to smile which sure was a great change.

We sent some little Christmas things to Max’s friends and my nephew on missions.

Love those boys and their wonderful examples filling my email inbox every Monday.

…some came with some very festive sweaters:)

We got haircuts from our favorite hairdresser Aubrey:

Dave and friends got into Pickleball, and had some pretty competitive matches.

Took the girls on a special date to the Nutcracker.

(back HERE)

There we go:)
She’s sitting here right now as I type this laughing her guts out at that funny face.

Claire is joining on the artist-bandwagon and I have found some cute drawings around.  Here are some sketches of some of her friends:

Speaking of friends, boy, we love these ones who used to live on the same street as we did back in the “golden days.”

They came over for a little visit which we loved.

I am such a lucky mamma.

It was gorgeous Fall in December.

Lots of rain which is weird for the desert, but because of that we adore rainy days.

We got to soak up a bunch of them.

Grace had cheer pictures:

(My sister-in-law lives not too far away from BYU and has those college kids come up every first Sunday of the month.  They all love it.  Thanks Julie!!)

Had a couple lunch dates with my big girls:

Got a new calling and got to have all these great girls over for a Christmas dinner (back here):

Elle got her first acceptance letter:

Hooray!!  So exciting…waiting to see what happens with the others, she was still working on her Boston University application until the 4th of January, who knows where the future will take that girl.

Claire and a bunch of girls showed up bright and early to go on a surprise birthday hike for her friend.

They hiked up to the wind caves:

I thought that was such a great party idea and the girls loved it.

I did Art Masterpiece in Lucy’s class.  One of the kids was new and was the most polite and sweet boy you’ll ever meet.  Turns out I’ve actually met him before in North Carolina years ago, he and his family moved to the desert and I didn’t even realize it.  Is that a small world or what?

Later that same day I went back to bring some things to help with Lucy’s class Christmas party.

Lucy has the best class.

Grace’s friends put our little sport court to good use.

I thought this was such a cute neighbor-gift idea:

The last day of school before Christmas break was pajama day and “Doughnuts with Dad.”

Now, I’m not sure you could get a more exciting day, at least in the eyes of these girls.

Love how excited they were…Lucy’s expression tells it all.

Love this expression too…

She cracks me up.

My friend sent me this pic of Claire and friends decked out in their pj’s:

Our street was full of Fall glory.  It takes my breath away every time I turn in.

It sure looks a lot different now…all the leaves are GONE and piled up at the foot of each tree, but that’s a January post 🙂

My parents helped Max clean out his dorm and check out of BYU, bless their great hearts.

I about had a panic attack that I couldn’t be the one to do it, I wanted to be up there so bad, but I reminded myself that sometimes I need to calm down a bit.  It was so great to have them soak up each other, especially since they can’t come to his farewell next week (they’ve had a prior engagement set for over a year, but oh boy we’ll still miss them!)

They took Max out to lunch at Los Hermanos in Provo…a place I think every one of my siblings who were living in Provo went to before their missions.

Meanwhile we went with a bunch of friends to see Star Wars.

Good times right there.

And sunsets .

And parties.

Man alive there were sure a lot of White Elephant gift exchanges this year!

Nana was busy as usual with her traditional “Nana sleepover,” “Teen party,”

…and Talent Show/White elephant gift exchange.  Of the great parties she did with the grandkids, that one up there is the only picture I got, gosh darn it.

I know there was caroling and pizza and staying up late, late, late and fun gift exchanges.

I am so very grateful for that woman and how she makes these kids’ eyes light up so.  The teenagers came home with just as glowing reports as did the elementary-age kids.

I wrote about the family party back HERE.

This is a random picture, but isn’t it weird how little kids can navigate technology so well?  Sometimes I just think it’s so funny to watch them and wonder what technology will advance to by the time they’re adults.

Elle with her University of San Diego State acceptance papers:

The sunset out our window:

Our court system is very interesting.

Love these two cute cousins.

Made gingerbread houses (here):

…and love these girls too.

Elle took off with friends one Saturday to take advantage of the snow.

Great group of kids right there.

I don’t think she had any fun at all 🙂

A selfie:

Grace had texted us to go look at it and we were already there on top of the situation.  (We have a group family text and I think the majority of it is texts from random days to go look at the sunset…with a little emoji with hearts for eyes 🙂

One Saturday we took the whole family to the orthodontist (who happens to be our good friend).

And also happens to have some pretty great games to play in the lobby.

Dave and Max were pretty quick to suggest Denny’s.

We went to see the temple lights (back HERE):

We got really serious about Saturday jobs.  Lucy did a great job organizing the exercise closet and was pretty darn proud of it.

We went with a bunch of friends to pack food at Feed My Starving Children.

It is such a cool organization and was fun to be back.

Lucy took her dumping-rice-job very seriously.

Dave proclaimed the 23rd to be our new family tradition: “a sleepover under the Christmas tree.”  We started out with games.  A few of Elle’s friends were here so they joined in too.  I just caught the last part where only Grace and I were still at the table but just picture a bunch of us around that table playing away…as more and more of Elle’s friends poured in.  I guess she forgot about the family sleepover but man I love having her friends around.

We watched a movie and ended up opting to sleep by the little tree in the more comfy game room…

…which really didn’t turn out to be all that comfy…do you like how Elle is sleeping right on the ground?  I think she claimed she actually slept the best out of all of us though.

On Christmas Eve morning they had a brunch at a manufacturing place that Dave helps manage.

Kind of a crazy time to have it but it was awesome to get to check out this great company.  Max has worked there before (last summer…remember all those pictures I took of him filthy-dirty when he got home?  Let’s post one real quick right here:

 Ok one more:

Yes, it was a dirty job, and he learned a ton.

They had a slide show of all the things they do there and it was impressive I tell you!  These cousins were pretty delighted to be there together.

And Elle stepped up to squeeze a huge gallon of fresh orange juice for us.

Then it was on to the Christmas Eve evening festivities.

I had to take a picture of our chicken tikka masala spices I was making for Christmas Eve dinner because don’t you think those colors are just so beautiful together?

I wrote about Christmas Eve HERE

…and Christmas Day HERE

and then on to Hawaii to soak up our boy HERE…

Phew, December was a good one.  And you’re a champ if you made it through this massive post.