12.27.15

We had a very busy week this week. A lot of it revolved around the finishing of Christmas gifts. Brett really enjoys wood working and made something for both S and me. I was able to help him with most of S's project...which took way more time than anticipated. 

the beginnings of S's gift

We had a special friend leave a nativity block for us nightly for the 12 days of Christmas. S was beyond thrilled each time she got to open one of them. She has kept them all lined up in a row. 

We have gotten an incredible amount of snow this week. S was my "helper" the last few passes of the driveway. Thankfully it was only the last part since it was harder to shovel with her. I loved watching her try to catch snowflakes in her mouth :)

S thinks that the symbol on this cape means "Super S". She loves the play superheroes, especially with her dad. I got part of this done mid week, but to finish we were up until the wee hours on Christmas Eve :)

Brett painted my project then brought it inside to dry, hiding it between two chairs with a blanket draped across it. He brought it inside while S was napping. When she saw it she ran over immediately with , "I'm peeking!"

Christmas Eve we spent with Brett's side of the family. S loves Papa and just snuggled him for a good chunk of time. Lots of us were quite envious of him. I very rarely get snuggles like that anymore.

Papa snuggles

cousin Hilary who was kind enough to sit with S at dinner

During evening festivities S kept snuggling with Devon. He was always a good sport.

When we got home that evening the baby Jesus piece of the nativity was on the door step. S was so excited for it that she instantly wanted to come in and play with it. I love that she is so focused on what matters most at Christmas :)

After we put S to bed Christmas Eve we went back out to the garage and started putting primer on S's gift. We decided we were ok with it not being totally finished for Christmas morning. We still needed to do the final coat of paint as well as as attaching doors. 

 Christmas morning was SO much fun with this sweet girl! She loved coming down the stairs and seeing what Santa left her in her stocking. It was fun to watch her discover what was left for her. We had told her previously that she could open her stocking, but we had to eat breakfast before her presents...she gets a serious case of the grumpers when she's hungry.

Opening her big present from mom and dad. She was thrilled by it. She pulled out all of the drawers discovering what was in each one. We had a few new dressups wrapped up for her in her gifts that she really enjoyed.

the unveiling

trying on her dress ups

the new tutu

We like to get S toys that help her use imagination. She has played with these magformers at friends homes before and loved them. They are on the pricier side, but when we found them for 1/2 price we knew it was worth it. We love how much she just sat and played with them. It was fun for her to be able to open and play...open and play.

Magformers

"hiding" in the dress up wardrobe

S has really come to love dolls and strollers. She always plays with them when she is at friends homes. She has run all over the house with it. I'm glad we found something she really loves. 

one of her favorite gifts...a doll and stroller

We went up to Jenny's parents the day after Christmas. We had intended to go up on Christmas day, but there was over a foot of snow for us that day as well as a winter weather advisory. The day after just seemed like the safer choice :) 

She got some fun gifts from grandma and grandpa. It was fun to see grandpa having so much fun playing with her.

Mr. Potato Head with grandpa.

12.20.15

We have had a lot of snow days around here...which often equates to hot chocolate days :) S had to make silly faces with her hot chocolate face while requesting pictures. I sure love this kid!

There were some days that we went out to play in the snow multiple times. She really was a trooper and didn't complain at all about it being cold. Granted, we had her bundled up pretty well. Hopefully this trend continues :)

making snow angels...she's even practiced on the carpet :)

Mom and S in the snow

We have been lucky enough to have someone think of us (S especially) for the 12 days of Christmas. Each day we have gotten a little block with a character from the nativity on it. S has really enjoyed opening them each day to see what is next. She's lined them up by other nativities and matched the characters up as we've gotten them :)

I got a gift card this week that I redeemed to get my hair done...it's been since May, and I only got a little trimmed off the ends, but I really like it. I had a friend watch S while I got it done. When I picked her up she gave me a big hug and started rubbing my hair. "Your's hair's so soft mom! I like it!"

This girl loves doing dress ups! This week it has been combining multiple costumes. There's also a candycorn tutu under that "Snow White" dress. Funny story...she brought me a tutu and asked for help getting it on. She kept calling it a "choo choo". I can see how those sound similar :)

This week marked the day I would've had a baby, had I not had a miscarriage and lost it 9 months ago. I have had some very thoughtful family members that have sent packages and flowers, knowing that this was a hard time. One of the packages had silly string in it. We (S and I) surprised dad while we was working...then he got me back. S really got some good laughs out of it :) The only picture I got was of part of the mess I got to clean up!

As we were trying to finish up Christmas shopping we had to make a stop at IKEA for some storage bins. S did pretty well and had a good amount of patience while we were there and waiting our turn to check out...I won't lie, the train table helped :)

I was determined today to get a better picture of her before we left...I sure love this girl!

Oh, her expressions!

12.13.15

This was quite a busy week for us! Brett went out of town on business on Monday, so we went up to spend time with grandma and grandpa. We met my mom at her school and helped with a few things. My dad wasn't off work yet so we went to a little local arcade and played games. S had the giggles doing things there more times than I could count. We all met up for dinner, then had time together before bedtime. She has so much more personality come out when she is the only one around. This night with grandma and grandpa was not exception.

On our way back home we stopped by great grandma's house to help how we could. We were there for about 3 hours and helped with cleaning and Christmas decorations. Great Grandma has little wreaths she wanted put around the bulbs on her chandeliers with ribbons tied around. S was a great helper handing me the ribbons to put up.

S with Great Grandma. S loves visiting Great Grandma. I have to take advantage of the pictures I can get with them while I can :)

We have several nativities out that are child friendly. S has loved playing with them and talking about them. This morning she looked at me and said, " Mom! Baby Jesus is playing hide and seek!"

About a year ago my two sisters (Jessica and Heather) and I went on quite a spontaneous road trip when my grandpa was admitted to the hospital. My dad was up there (in Idaho) already and having a hard time. Because my mom had already missed so much work with her dad and his passing she couldn't be there with my dad. Anyway, while we were at the hospital this mom and 3-4 kids walked up to us (me, S, and James, my nephew...my sisters were upstairs visiting grandpa) and told me they were doing random acts of kindness. I said of course, and they handed the kids colored pencils and a coloring book. It was a HUGE blessing. I had nothing with me to keep these two little kids happy so late.

I decided that this was something I should "pay forward". I wanted others to feel of the love and goodness that we had experienced. I literally cried that night, so grateful for the thoughtfulness of others. I took S to the store and let her pick out gifts for other people.

The next day we left to go to local hospitals to hand them out to people who were there waiting for loved ones or there themselves. She was SO excited and did such a great job giving things away to others. 

She walked down those halls like she owned the place. S is a fairly timid little girl. She would walk up to complete strangers, hand them a gift, and say "Merry Christmas"! I'm hoping that we made a difference for others like someone else did for us. I'm thinking this might need to become a tradition in our family! 

One evening we just needed to have a mom and S movie night. She pretty much requires popcorn with any movie. What a fun little night watching Christmas movies together.

We had Brett's work end of year party one evening. I called at least 7 girls to babysit, but with it being this time of year and all, I couldn't find a soul...so S got to go play with one of her little buddies. They even got to stay up later than her friend's big brothers...which really confused the boys. We're so grateful for good friends that are willing to help us out!

Brett wanted to make Christmas treats together. His idea was sugar cookies. S loved it, especially all the cookie dough as well as the things we were decorating with. One of her favorite things is helping in the kitchen :)

On Saturday I went up to my parents house (yes, that drive twice in one week:)) for our annual Christmas baking day. S requested that we see the temple while we were there. She talks about the Brigham City temple often and "being sealed together forever" there.

When we arrived my mom had been crying. There had been an accident while making peanut brittle and she had severe burns on her right hand. Since I have had severe burns on my leg (2nd and 3rd degree) my mom requested my help. It looked really bad, but we were able to bandage her up well. It's going to take a few weeks to totally heal I'm sure! 

I had to try to grab a few pictures of her in her Christmas dress. Unfortunately I forgot until we were at church, but they will do :)

12.6.15

We had a very busy week this week. We had something every night from Tuesday through Friday, so Monday was our only chance to get a tree. We had to meet Brett on his way home from work, but it was great. We picked something out rather quickly and there were no meltdown in the cold :) We have bought our tree at Home Depot for the past 3-4 years. They had a fun painted cut out this year for customers to take pictures in. So fun! 

S and Dad

S and Mom

When we got home S helped cut the netting off the tree and had a great time of it. She was total hands on getting the tree up :)

I have a friend that I am so grateful for. We have been going walking every morning at 5:45 since the beginning on September. I checked the temps one morning, and it was only 16 degrees. It was SO cold! Here's to hoping we'll have some warmer mornings in the near future...meanwhile I'm so thankful I have a concerned husband. He did some reading up and got me to order some of the best rated "leggings". I don't do leggings, but they are marketed as a "warm layer"...which means that I have been comfortably warm since it got so chilly :)

Tuesday evening I had a class for my professional development credits I need to keep my license. I went to a workshop on Normal Rockwell at the Museum of Art at BYU. They have a fantastic display through February, and I really learned a lot from it.

We got out lots of Christmas things this week. This is a super cute finger puppet nativity that a friend was selling. We have 5 kid friendly nativities, and S is thoroughly enjoying all of them :)

Sometimes you have to take crazy selfies together while playing in the jungle at the Museum of Natural Curiosity. The day we did this was SO fantastic! It almost felt like we had the place to ourselves. It was a great experience all around.

hanging like a sloth

My dad took a day off this week and asked if we wanted to hang out. We went to a special store doing some Christmas shopping. Grandpa wanted to go to lunch together, but it wasn't quite that time yet, so we went to a mall close by. Grandpa found a cool candy store. He walked around with a bucket and let S pick out anything she wanted...within reason (aka no atomic fireballs). She was in heaven! 

Grandpa thought that S would love going to Chuck A Rama. It's not my favorite place, but he thought she would love picking out whatever she wanted...so we went...and she totally did. Especially since there was ice cream involved.

ice cream with grandpa

Friday night Brett had a primary party for the kids he has been teaching this year. They are really great kids. We did home made pizzas and a movie at his parents house. They have a theater in their basement, so it just seemed to be the perfect place :)

Saturday started off great! We had bought tickets for a kids production of A Christmas Carol at 10 that morning. S did really well. She got a little scared when Marley came in, in chains but just asked Brett to hold her. For the first several years of our marriage Brett and I went to a production of it in Salt Lake. This was a great middle ground. I was impressed with how well the kids did. I would definitely do it again.