My December

No idea why she took this picture, but it was too cute not to show, and a great lead into this post.  Adia & her baby....

The Christmas season officially began when we took the kids to be terrorized by see Santa.  Only one would sit on his lap, or even talk to him.  To be fair, the older kids are so far above Santa these days.  Like they are about most everything...

The outdoor mall we go to has such amazing light displays.  Lots of different colors and types of lights and fun ice sculptures at the beginning of the season.

We celebrated my mom's birthday and for some reason it turned into a spectacle.  (Get it?  :)  My nephew trying to imitate Professor Trelawney.

My grandma's trifocals.  Serious amazing horn-rimmed awesomeness.  My sister used them to be a cat lady last Halloween.  I have plans for them next...  :)

Dade and his cousin wrestling.  So nice for him to have someone else his age and gender for him to be rough with.  Sisters aren't quite so willing....

We saw this funny little trail while outside with Sol one night: first the bird tracks, then cat tracks (we saw the cat earlier), and my boot for reference.  Of course Sol nearly sanded his nose off sniffing their trails.

We have a tradition of opening one present on Christmas Eve.  No one was disappointed...

Least of all Sol who got next year's Halloween costume: a convict outfit (Homework Eater).

You gotta admit this is a patient reindog--he wore all sorts of hats, ears, and horns over the month of December without any complaint.  Except for the puppy-dog eyes that begged you to be merciful...

I was in charge of the Christmas party for Sedona's class this year.  We made Christmas trains with milk cartons & gingerbread fixings.  It was quite fun.

I always enjoy when I have a little one to tag along to the school parties.  It's especially cute when the older kids fawn all over them...

We had lots of extra stuff, so the other kids got to make one at home.  This is Adia's: she put the Polly Pockets to good use.

And Brynn's.  Looks sort of bloody...

And Ash's.

Speaking of Polleys, the kids went through a brief but intense Polly obsession.  Even Dade started bringing them to church and quietly whispering to himself and he fiddled with them.  (Note how cute he is in his Christmas sweater.)

We had Christmas dinner with my family this year and my brother & his family came into town.  I love my little niece!!  She's probably one of the cutest little girls in the universe.

My brother did the dishes...He needs a taller sink.  At least someone in the family got the tall genes.

 

That turkey always hits you like a ton of bricks.  The cousins pretending to sleep, in between bouts of wrestling the dinosaur.

And here is what a real post-turkey coma looks like.  No matter how hard they try, there's no way to keep those eyes open.

Even Derek succumbed.  Of course since he's always sleep-deprived, he always naps wherever placed.

 My niece with a borrowed baby.  Don't leave home without it...

My sister-in-law is a real artist.  She cleaned up and painted all 4 girl's nails.  I don't envy her backache after hours spent over disgusting little kid feet.

Sedona's snowmen.

 

 Ash's Christmas theme.

Adia just went with colors.

And Brynn & her best friend, who's a ginger.

My buff, ROTC brother had to carry a couple armloads of kids down since they couldn't wear shoes or socks with their fresh nails.  To his credit, he didn't drop anyone or anything...

We went to the Sacred Gifts exhibit at the BYU Museum of Art.   Had to get a picture of (most of) the cousins together. 

The exhibit is incredible.  Works from Heinrich Hoffman, Franz Schwartz, and Carl Bloch focusing on the life of Christ.  Some of my personal favorites that follow the Northern Baroque traditions of Rembrandt, Durer and the like.  I just love their dramatic use of contrasting lights & darks.  Really suitable for the subject matter.

I have this amazing daughter who plays the harp and ripped through her second lesson book in a year, a difficult and nearly impossible feat.  So we planned a harp concert for her at her grandma's care center again.

Part of the reason she has progressed so much is her amazing teacher.  She is the perfect blend of loving, firm and talented.  We couldn't have asked for a better teacher.

After her concert we stopped by to see the lights at Temple Square in Salt Lake City.  They were lovely as always--so much more so than even when I was a kid and that's saying something.

This was Dade's face as we watched the little Nativity Scene that monologues.  I still can't figure out if it's disgust or confusion painted across his features.

The temple Derek & I were married in.  So lovely.

We dropped by City Creek mall after since I had never seen it before.  It's truly lovely what they've done with the land there.  The creek winds through the outdoor & the indoor sections of the structure.  If only the early pioneers to the valley could've seen this all.

This took me back in time to when we used to walk along downtown SLC and look at the cute miniature scenes outside of the old ZCMI mall.  Reminded me of when I was tiny and we visited my grandparents.

Nothing in this world makes me quite as happy as Christmas lights.  We found this amazing treasure trove in South Orem one day while driving around.  It's to my everlasting frustration that I don't have the equipment to take good pictures of them.

The kids enjoyed the annual BYU Christmas party for kids at the Wilk.  Did I ever mention how much I love living in a family-friendly town??

Giving love to my new little nephew.  Does he not have the perfectest head?  (The baby, not my double chin.)

Those first smiles are so sweet, especially when you can tell they are trying so hard to copy you and only one side of their mouth goes up.

Furry cousin dogs.  It's nice that they like to wrestle together still, but have really calmed down a lot and can sit in the same room without getting too crazy at times.

The kids had a piano recital at their wonderful piano teacher's house.  They've really been working hard and have both moved up a level in their books.

Both Adia & Sedona qualified to go to the Cross-Country Nationals in Texas.  Their grandma took them--sadly, I have no pictures of Adia since she was the photographer.  

 

Sol with his doggy-mama.  They are so cute together.

This crazy dog loves the snow.  He eats it, romps in it, and gets totally encrusted in it.

Dade's first black eye.  I say that because I'm quite sure it will not be his last.  He's just a crazy kid.  I think he got this one falling down the basement stairs--like everything else he does, we rarely witness it, just get to deal with his injuries.  Poor kid.

Dade is a master puzzle solver.  He can finish the United States in a matter of minutes.  I must admit, it's one toy that I enjoy too, and that I rarely mind cleaning up...

Poor little kid got hit in December with a number of nasty colds.  One, a gram negative bacterial infection, sent almost all of us to the doctor for antibiotics before we ever got well.  I caught him asleep in front a the fire several times with Sol snuggled up beside him and his bunny.

The funny thing is that he denied sleeping most of the time.  I think he didn't even realize that he had fallen asleep.

Such a good dog to snuggle up with Dade and not eat his bunny.  That was the part that really amazed me.

One of my newest addictions.  You can find this baby at the BYU Bookstore.  You're welcome.

You can also find an awesome rubber ducky collection at the book information desk in the BYU Bookstore.  I guess the man that works there gets ducks from people from all over the world.  He had a crystal one from Poland, loads of silly ones in different costumes, and all kinds of international ducks.  It was nothing short of amazing.

Ah, laying in front of a nice hot fire, even if you have a stinky dog next to you.

Remember that infection we all had?  This was the end result.  Lots of snoring bodies draped across the couch any given day of Christmas break.

Stupid dog was in heaven snuggling with me.  I finally picked up some antibiotics myself and felt amazing for about 5 days before the next cold hit.  ;)

Some days I go and delete hundreds of pictures like this off of the iPad.  

What was Apple thinking when it created the PhotoBooth app?  Or more aptly (pun intended) why weren't they thinking?!?

Sorry for the nightmares that they picture will give you.  I know it's one that will haunt me forever.

We finally picked a light off-white color for the basement bedroom and painted it.  It looks so nice and smells so much better without the gross pink paint it used to have.  I wore my Grandpa's work (leisure) suit for painting.  I couldn't ask for better painting clothes (thanks for the idea Jacob!).

Once we finished that, Derek & the kids started stripping that nasty pink textured wallpaper in the basement.  We'll paint it the same color as the bedroom once that's done.

Our Christmas tree this year.  I especially love the tree skirt--my mom made it years ago and then was getting rid of it last year.  I happily snatched it for my home.  Our poor little tree is getting absolutely loaded down with ornaments.  We gotta have some kids leave home and take their ornaments soon...  OR get a bigger tree.

One of our favorite things to do in the winter is play Band Hero.  This year we got another guitar & microphone so we can have some harmony with the Beatles Rock Band disc.

 

Derek is going to start allergy shots again.  His body has a nasty habit of reacting like a teenage girl to every possible allergen out there.

 While Adia & Sedona were at Nationals, Brynn got to sing for the Christmas concerts with their amazing school choir.  Their choir is seriously better than most middle school choirs we've heard.

Derek took the two youngest on a date to the BYU Paleontology Museum.  Not pictured: the full tyrannosaurus skeleton with a Santa hat on.

Dade had a preschool play they had prepared.  Dade spent the entire play in my arms refusing to participate.  He's become so shy since turning 4 and really dislikes being in the spotlight for anything.

Winter started early and we had tons and tons of snow.  Derek, the creative one in our marriage, made up snow Pac-Man.  It was really fun, even if the stupid dog kept running across the board and ruining the paths.

I think those are rocks for his eyes, not potatoes.

And this is the angry snowman.  Wouldn't want to meet him without a blow dryer in hand...

One of our favorite things Santa brought this year was an awesome Lego treehouse set.  Seriously, how cute is the little tiny bucket and the other tiny accessories.  Proving once again that everything is cuter when it's smaller. 

Brynn got some face painting crayons which she and Dade put to good use.

It took a couple days for the color to truly fade, no matter how hard we scrubbed with my make-up removal wipes.

Adia painted this at girls' camp last year so I framed it for her room.  Like all of her siblings, she is artistically talented.

Brynn went skiing for the first time!  She was really nervous, but it helped that most of the instructors were cute college-age boys.  (She denies it, but she has always been a littel boy-crazy.)

Grafeeti

We always celebrate the New Year with confetti.  Usually we count down at like 7pm so the little kids can go to bed on time.  Then I pull out the vacuum and try to get as much of the confetti as I can.  Of course I still find pieces of it for months afterwards.

My baby who is not a baby any more.  We all went a little deafer after all the horn blowing that evening.  What a way to meet 2014!!