December was such a busy month that I did two separate posts already--one about our Christmas and one about our Christmas countdown activities. But between the official Christmas activities, we had some wonderful moments that I want to remember 💗
Near Christmas, we went to Ben's family's Christmas party and the girls got themselves decked out for Christmas. They put on their concert costumes (Rylee got a red dress, since she didn't have a costume) and found these bows from our ward party present to the kids and had me bobby pin them into their hair. I thought they were so cute and Christmas-y, I had to get a picture and Oliver wanted to be a part of the picture with his sisters 💗
It was a really snowy year and we loved it!
The first picture was the first snowfall, and then it just didn't stop snowing ever.
The night of Ashtyn's piano concert was a very snowy night and the library was beautiful.
And after the concert, we decided to build a snowman, because the snow was perfect for it (and the girls made themselves thrones of snow to sit in).
Also, snow days with Grandpa! He pulled them on the sled and also played a game he calls "Survival Kids" with them.
I loved the snow, but I don't love driving in it. Sometimes, it's unavoidable.
So much snow! It made for a very white Christmas!
We also went through a spell of sickness (luckily before Christmas). Oliver was hit first and we did very independent school (this is the girls working on Christmas presents they made).
Then Oliver started feeling better and we thought we were through it.
But then Rylee woke up with a fever and Oliver got sick again that day.
Rylee and Oliver holding hands while feeling sick 💗 I can't even describe the feelings I had as I watched them comfort and snuggle each other through this.
Oliver and Rylee were the only two to ever really show symptoms (Parker got a stuffy nose) but it hit them hard and lasted for what seemed like forever.
My dream on Wordle came true in December!
I play Wordle every day and use the same starting word each day, I was very excited for my starting word to finally be the word!
We also officially owed under $15,000 on our house in December! It was so exciting to be on the last line of our chart!
Parker made these signs--two "do not enter signs" for Ben's office and Ben and my room and one "dafintlee enter" sign for the bathroom, pointing out that it has a toilet.
Ashtyn started making envelopes and addressing them (she must have picked this up from us sending things to family previously). She made up an address for me and even made a stamp for it. I love it!
In the summer, Ashtyn got a little glass bird from The Chalet and Rylee really wanted one. She saved up her money for months and bought one but lost it shortly afterwards. She was really sad about it, but The Chalet had put them away for the year so we couldn't just get another one. Ashtyn had the idea to give her bird to Rylee for Christmas and typed it out on my phone so Rylee wouldn't hear 💗
Ben and I did more painting in December. We finished touching up our original oil paintings and I fixed Mickey's mouth some--I was really happy with how it turned out. I forgot to actual pictures of the finished products of our other paintings, but I did a Tardis and Ben did One Punch Man, and we gave them to Jon for Christmas. We are having a lot of fun painting together.
Oliver is just the cutest boy. He's also so little despite constantly eating!
Oliver loves "jumping" with his sisters--both by himself and with Dad's help.
Blocks are one of our favorite winter, stuck-inside activities!
And of course, crafts. Ashtyn learned to make these origami dragon eyes. She also learned how to make dragons and swans out of paper.
This is Ben's cousin's kitty, who crawled onto my lap during a girl's movie night. So sweet 💗
I love Oliver's bedhead!
Oliver loves to see himself in my camera 💗
I wanted a picture of Parker's bedhead.
So then she wanted to take a picture of me 😂
And she took a selfie haha
Oliver loved wearing these glasses, but never kept them on long enough for us to get a good picture.
We got Oliver some shoes. I really wish I'd been filming when he first put them on, because he was super worried about even taking a step. By the time I got out my camera, he was more used to them, but it's still adorable.
Oliver loves to come sit on his sister's laps and I love it.
This book has a mirror on the last page and every time he gets to it, Oliver looks for the baby (ie his own reflection) behind the book and I think it's the cutest thing.
Oliver also loves wearing hats.
Oliver would take this plastic ornament that comes apart and put his ball in it and then close the ornament back up.
Rylee came down wearing every single dress she owns. I told her she looked warm and she said, "Yeah, I'm sweating a lot!"
Ben did a new haircut/hair style and he looks amazing!
Oliver loves to snuggle stuff. This is a very bad picture of him snuggling Ashtyn's unicorn.
My mom sent the kids each their own Christmas card and Oliver loved his. He kept carrying it around, opening it up and showing it to people (though he kept getting mad at me for filming him without showing him the video).
Playing out the nativity 💗
Ashtyn worked really hard on her Christmas songs and did a great job!
We made brownies for Brownies Day. Oliver and Rylee had been sick for days and we'd spent the morning shoveling out snow, so they tasted extra amazing (I also have THE best brownie recipe, certified by myself, a brownie expert).
Parker found herself an icicle lollipop 😂
Oliver and the girls got an early Christmas present from an adopted Grandma and this was Oliver's. It was perfect for him, he has been in heaven with it!
Christmas oreos! I make them every year from scratch and they are a big favorite in our family.
For our ward party, I made chocolate cake with chocolate pudding. This was a favorite dessert of mine growing up. I added snowman snowflakes to make it more Christmas-y but I wouldn't do that again since the sprinkles soaked up moisture from the pudding and looked very deformed by the time we went to the party 😂
Rylee loves to sing and this was a song she was making up about Christmas, I had to try to get it on camera.
Parker kept asking me to take pictures of her with a candy cane in her mouth. She loved how all of them turned out.
One morning leading up to Christmas, we watched the Nutcracker Ballet and got out the dress ups so the kids could dance along with it.
At Ben's family's party, Oliver loved chasing the remote control cars around.
Christmas Adam, we did breakfast for dinner and movie night. I made green pancakes with red (though it turned out pink, of course) whipped cream for the kids.
And Jon made us these yummy breakfast burritos. I thought I didn't like breakfast burritos, but Jon changed my mind!
Oliver is so cute in his Christmas pajamas 😍
At Grandma Dee's house, Rylee and Oliver were playing with cars.
I love these small moments of them connecting and playing together.
While we were in West Jordan, we went with Grandma Dee to the Museum of Curiosity at Thanksgiving Point.
Poor Oliver stayed home to take a nap, but he missed Mom and his sisters!
The kids had a ton of fun, though Rylee got a little overwhelmed by how many people were there. It was super fun to go!
Oliver giving Grandpa Luke a high five! It helped him warm up to Grandpa (Oliver was a little scared of him at first) and really sweet to see their connection 💗
Oliver loves playing peekaboo!
And it really helped him when we were in the car so much for traveling.
Parker posed her doll and wanted me to take these pictures of herself with it 😂
For my birthday, the kids wrapped themselves up as my present 😂
Honestly, they are the best gift I could ask for 💗
One very special gift we got for Christmas was a wheat grinder. Someone anonymous gave it to us and I am so grateful to them. I've been wanting a stone grinder for many years and my wheat grinder (which I've used since Ben and I got married and have loved) has slowly started to not work as well. I'm so happy to have the finer flour to bake with and to have a grinder that works well and doesn't make as big of a mess. It is a huge deal!
Oliver loves getting pushed around in things by his sisters!
He's fussing in this video because I started filming when he was about done and wanted out.
For my birthday, Ben and I got a babysitter and went to the temple and then dinner (it's rare for us to do both in a single date). It was such a wonderful date and a wonderful birthday!
The month of December was a great one, with lots of memories and fun and we were truly blessed.
I am very excited to move into 2023 and all it has in store for our family!
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