Christmas 2016

There truly is no holiday we love more than Christmas! It is still so magical with the girls. I cherish the days of them still loving every little detail and their belief in Santa. I can honestly say I love Christmas Eve almost as much as Christmas Day. There is something so magical about Christmas Eve. This year we did our Gingerbread house, made a delicious dinner, opened a few presents, watched a Christmas movie, read Christmas Books...and even heard Santa's bells outside!! 

The girls both got what they asked Santa for, and plus some! Lilly really wanted a basketball, so Santa brought a pink one. And, Claire wanted hot wheels. She got lots of those, and a track for them. They also got big tsum tsums. Claire found a big one when we were in Orlando, and wanted it sooo bad. So, it was really fun when Santa surprised her with it. 

We got BLASTED with snow on Christmas Eve. I was planning on heading to church Christmas morning, but by the time we opened presents, showered and took into account the amount of snow outside, I didn't go. I felt really guilty for not going on Christmas of all days, but we stayed home all day and had fun tinkering around with our new stuff. Later that night, the girls and I went to my parents for their annual open house. 

It was such a great Christmas. I am always so sad when the holidays are over, but then a few days after I will wake up and be SO ready to take down everything. I look at these pictures, and they just make me happy. I love my little family more than I can express! 

Second half of December

This year, I was a little slow to get my usual December things done...like taking the girls to go see Santa. So, one Saturday we were driving home from Lilly's game and we were pulling into the neighborhood when we saw Santa drive by and pull into the Library's parking lot. I made Anton turn the car around, and go in and find Santa! He was thrilled! The girls were so excited to see Santa and ask for a basketball and hot wheels!

Robert & Rene giving the girls some Christmas gifts. Nicest people ever.

Nana & Papa's annual Christmas party & Nativity. Both girls were angels this year!

Sweet Ellie Belle is a talented little seamstress. She decided she wanted to make this darling bag and give it to Lilly! I thought that was the sweetest thing! Lilly is so lucky to have such darling cousins. 

Another perk of working at the school. I went and peeked in on Claire's class while they were making their candy houses!

Christmas sing-a-long at the school. They got to start the day off by wearing their jammies, singing songs, then watching polar express in their classrooms! Such a fun tradition for the kiddos!

Anton and I got together with some of my siblings and my parents and went and bought a bunch of toys to donate for the homeless. It was a humbling experience to go there and see how many people donated and to witness the goodness in people. I have such a tender spot in my heart for homeless children...so it was really neat to help out...even if it was a teeny tiny bit. 

First half of December

I just had to document how strange and funny Claire is sometimes. This day she had her shirt off, leg on the table and singing at the top of her lungs. She cracks me up!

Lilly's class got to go to Zions Bank and do their tree lighting ceremony. They sang a couple of songs, had some treats and then about 10 minutes later the program was over! It was short and sweet...just the way I like things in December :)

We got hit with a bug in early December. It seemed to go through us one at a time. Thankfully, it wasn't the stomach bug. I can handle anything but that!! 

Poppy our elf came back this year. The girls LOVE her!

Lilly had a really bad day at school a couple of weeks ago, and had her feelings hurt terribly. My sweet co-worker heard what happened, and left a little present for Lilly on the porch that said "to a beautiful girl". It meant so much to Lilly, and she couldn't imagine who would do such a nice thing! It really helped heal her bruised little heart. 

I love the drawings Claire leaves at my desk for me. I think she has such talent and creativity!

Lilly Basketball

Lilly started Jr. Jazz. Oh man oh man, she loves it. I didn't think we could find anything that she loved as much as Ice Skating, but I think we did. I love that she enjoys it! We didn't even think about signing her up, but her friends mom from school texted me and asked me if Lilly would be interested. So, I asked Lilly if she wanted to play basketball, and with a quick "Yes!", we got the last two spots on the team. It has worked out perfect! I snapped this picture of Lilly and Blake playing basketball together....something I am sure they will look back on and smile at. 

Thanksgiving 2016

I absolutely loved this years Thanksgiving. I didn't want the weekend to end! This year, we decided to have Thanksgiving with just our little family. I am so glad we did. The girls loved helping set the table (nothing fancy) & chop some veggies for our dinner. We cooked a small turkey, made the mashed potatoes in the crockpot (new favorite thing) and ordered pies from Kneaders. The meal was SO good. I was really proud of how good it turned out. And, the company was even better! After dinner, we went to my parents for dessert and to play games with them. It was just my parents, my grandma's and one of my uncles. It was fun to have it be just us. Sometimes when my whole family gets together, it is so chaotic and loud that you don't really get to visit with people. So, we always enjoy the one on one time with my parents. 

We got our first snowfall that weekend, and the girls loved playing in it. I love that they are getting old enough that I can just send them out the door to play...that way, I can stay in the house and stay warm and dry! On Friday, my parents invited all the grandkids to go see Moana. Such a darling movie! We also had our dear friends the Larsens in town. We miss them so much, and it was so good to catch up with them. We picked up right where we left off, which is the sign of a true friendship. We hated to see them go, but enjoyed the time we spent with them!

We all had a rough time going back to work and school the next week. I am so thankful for my little family. They truly are the very most important things in my life. It was a happy Thanksgiving indeed!  

Phone Pictures

Little Claire entered an art book (it ended up going into Literature because it was a book) into Reflections, and she was really proud that she got the Award of Merit! Lilly left it to the very last minute, and didn't even start hers until the deadline was due so I told her she couldn't enter it. I felt terrible, but she needed to learn she can't wait until the last minute to enter things like this. It was fun for Claire, so hopefully both girls will do it next year - and not wait until last minute!

My sweet Granny's birthday. She is having such a hard time not being in her home. Her spirits are low, and she can be a little grumpy, but she was darling on her birthday. She was so happy to see us, and get some flowers. She means so much to me and I am grateful for the enormous role she has played in my life. 

I was super thrilled when I pulled up to get Claire from her friends house, and she looked like this. Fresh, thick paint. And it was everywhere. I was thrilled when she got in the new car like that and the paint got on the seats and on the seat belts!

The girls have had such a hard time being separated from some of their favorite little friends. I miss them too. Thank goodness for technology! I think they were on face time for like 30 minutes. They loved it!

Oh Maddy! This dog is SO loved. It's because she is always doing cute things...like this. She always likes to look down on us when we go down the stairs. Then she runs down after us. And, there is the lovely banister. It's almost done! It feels like it has taken us 6 months. Actually, I don't think I am far off on that assumption!

One of my favorite things is to tag along on the girls field trips. We walked to Dan's and they got a tour of the store, got lots of samples of things, and then got to scan something at the end. They loved it!

My thoughts

I have felt so out of control lately, and I feel like I just need to sit down and write down my feelings and document a little bit of life! All is well, and life is good...just so busy. I don't do well with chaos or lack of organization and order. So, because of my busy schedule these days, all I feel is chaos. I feel like my life has changed a lot over the last few months with taking my job and being thrown into a new calling at church. Not only that, Anton is so busy and stressed with work and all his traveling and the girls schedules are picking up. I sometimes need to remind myself how blessed I am, and how sweet my life is, even though it may be a little busy. I have healthy children who are happy and sweet. I have a husband who works so hard for us. He treats us amazing & I never ever doubt that he adores us. I live in a beautiful home and have cars that function.

Since taking my job, my little "bubble" that I've lived in for so long has been burst. There are legitimately sad and hard things in so may peoples lives...and they live in my little community! My eyes have been opened to how others live, and I can't help but look at my life and realize how lucky I am. I feel so blessed. I love my job, and I am grateful that I have it. It gives me a little life outside of cooking, cleaning, laundry and grocery shopping! But, with that being said, if I don't have everything else in order....I can feel really down about my job. My cleaning gets pushed off, my laundry gets piled up, and then I start to feel overwhelmed. So, it is a fine balance. And, I think I need to keep everything in perspective. It isn't permanent, and I need to remember that if I stayed home every single day I would probably go crazy!

So, things are a little busy. Then I get called as Primary President. Holy smokes. I was silly in thinking it wouldn't be much different than when I was in the primary presidency. I was wrong. I came back from a Stake Meeting the other night, and finally just cried. I cried all the way home, and cried when I got home. Poor Anton thought he had done something. He was relieved when I told him I was just feeling overwhelmed with everything we have going on. I wanted and thought my calling would be to show up on Sunday and love those children. That's easy! All the other stuff, and the meetings, and the planning and the getting everything organized for the new year, and not having any sort of training or support from the previous president kind of threw me over the edge. But, thankfully I have the worlds best counselors. I really do. I would be SO overwhelmed and lost without them and their constant willingness to help me. And, sweet Anton has been so encouraging and patient as well.

I complain sometimes about how busy things are. But, when I really get thinking about all that we have, I feel grateful. I truly feel like we have been blessed in so many ways. Unfortunately, we have had a significant family relationship go sour. We have been sad and angry over it. We have mostly been sad for our girls. But, I know my prayers have been answered in a way. So many people have stepped in and have filled that void for our girls. They shower them with love, bring little treats and trinkets over and want to see them in costumes or at their games. We never asked for that! I can't begin to express how grateful I am for these people - and it isn't just one person, its several. Tender mercy indeed.

Life isn't perfect. We don't have the perfect life. I struggle with not being the perfect Mom and wife and not having the perfectly clean house. But, I am slowly learning that in the end, all will be OK. This time of chaos and stress will go. I just need to be patient and constantly remind myself that even though I may get down or stressed, we are so lucky. We have so much. We have each other. We have wonderful friends, and incredible family. And for that, I am truly very very humbled and grateful!