December 2016

Once again, I have fallen behind in posting our monthly journals but here is a quick picture recap of December (at least what I can remember of it). 

Kami had her dance recital at the Festival of the Trees here in Hurricane. I could have died from all of her cuteness. She did great! 

In early December the girls and I took a quick trip with my parents to Monterrey to visit Amy's family (evidently I didn't take any pictures while we were there haha) while Dan and Cason stayed home because of work and school.  It was a really fun trip for us girls. I always love a chance to be around my sisters and to let our kids play with their cousins. It was also a good excuse for Dan and Cason to have a boys weekend. In this picture Cason is helping Dan rake the leaves at the house of a widow he home teaches. 

They also raked a lot of leaves at our house! Dan is a such a good dad and take every opportunity to teach our kids to serve others and to work hard. Also, I wonder when we'll get used to raking leaves in the same month we celebrate Christmas! 

Christmas cookie decorating! 

Showing off their new Christmas shoes from Grandpa Tony. 

The kids had a lot of fun playing in all the fallen leaves this year. 

This was a picture taken at the company Christmas Party. It was a bowling and pizza party at Fiesta Fun. I snapped this picture while my parents were giving out prizes because as Dan and I were sitting at the back of the room it hit me how many people they employ and Dan is in charge of managing. 

I pulled the kids around the neighborhood to deliver our neighbor gifts this year. As I kid I remember hating when we had to deliver neighbor gifts, our kids definitely don't share that opinion. The LOVED it! They thought it was the funnest thing ever and were very concerned with who got to carry the gift, ring the doorbell, and talk at each house. They also cried if they thought they weren't getting as many turns as each other. There is never a dull moment with these kiddos. 

Kami and Ellie decided to give each other "makeovers" with markers while I was in the other room. They were so proud of their makeup and I couldn't stop laughing. Thank goodness for washable markers. 

Over Christmas break we took our kids back to Fiesta Fun arcade with leftover gift cards from the company party. They obviously loved it. It is right up there with Disneyland in their eyes. Earlier in the day we took Cason and Kami (Ellie stayed with Grandma and Grandpa) to see Moana at the movie theater which is also a huge deal for them. Movie theater visits are a rare treat for our family. It was definitely a family fun day!

On Christmas Eve we invited my parents over for a little Christmas program. We had treats, had the kids act out the nativity as we read from Luke 2, and a Christmas story read by Grandma. My mom reading to us at Christmas time is one of my favorite childhood memories and I was excited to pass it along to my kids. It was a great night. There is nothing better than Christmas with little kids. Helping them learn about the true meaning of Christmas and the importance of the Savior's birth definitely is a sweet experience for me and helps me appreciate the holiday so much more.  

For some reason, every year after the kids are sound asleep and we finally have the presents all wrapped and set out and I take step back and look at the whole scene I get a little emotional. I am so grateful we have the means to provide a happy Christmas for our family. No fancy, expensive gifts required. 

I didn't do a very good job taking pictures while they were opening presents, there was too much excitement to stop and pose for pictures but I at least got one before the chaos began. The kids were thrilled with all of their presents. It was a magical morning. 

Every year my mom gets all of the grand-kids Christmas ornaments and she wanted to get them all a container to keep them in so she bought them each their own popcorn tin that we could store them in once the popcorn was gone. Needless to say they loved them! They thought it was so cool to have their very own and loved eating lots and lots of popcorn over the next couple of weeks.  

After Christmas, the Uhrich's came down to visit my parents so we went with them to go tubing up by Kolob. We had a lot of fun. Our kids don't get to play in snow much and they thought it was pretty awesome. 

Well, there you have it. December in a nutshell!