Christmas 2013

 I'm super sad we just don't have very many pictures of our Christmas morning!  My phone was acting up and this is all we have to show for Christmas.  We had a really fun morning, the kids were super excited with everything they got.  Both Cameron and Ryan got these mega Nurf guns.  Those were a huge hit.

 Ryan was so excited because he wanted a cowboy outfit really bad.  He was happy with what he got and I'm happy I could go down to the local Wal-Mart and find it all for him! That cowboy stuff is expensive!

 Blake showing off his new watch.  He ended up returning it and putting the money toward an upgraded iPhone.  We had to redo our contracts a few days after Christmas.

 Ry with his huge Nerf gun.  I am so sad I don't have any pictures of the girls opening their gifts.  Ashely was so excited because she had a Harry Potter theme Christmas this year.

 After we were done opening presents, I made a big Christmas breakfast.  After that I was so beat, I went upstairs to have a nap.  About 45 mins into my nap I started with a really bad stomach ache and being sick.  I was sick until about 4 in the afternoon and then it was like it went away and I was feeling better and could join the family back downstairs.  It was really weird.  Poor Jason didn't get a nap all day because he was with the kids and playing with them so at about 7 that night he crashed.  I was feeling back to normal so I got everything cleaned up and hung out with the kids so he could go to bed.

I usually take Christmas down the next day but the kids begged me not to, to wait an extra day so I did.  I don't remember what we did the day after Christmas but I know we went and did something.  Dang it, this is what happens when you don't blog right after a holiday!

I do know that Jason went into work two days after Christmas.  He likes to go in the office for a while since no one is there to get caught up on a few things.  I thought it was perfect since I was going to be taking down everything and wanted to get the house cleaned out.  I was almost done taking everything down when I went to take down a candle that was on a big candle holder on our mantle.  It fell and landed on my finger and this is what my finger looked like after.  It felt like I needed to pop the tip of my finger, it hurt so bad.  I knew it wasn't broken because I could bend it just fine.  I showed my sister Libby my finger while she was working at the InstaCare and she showed one of the drs to see if I needed to come in or not.  I just had to ice it and keep it elevated to let all the blood go down.  It took about a week for it to go down but I couldn't wear my wedding ring for almost a month!

More December Misc

 We were super late taking our Christmas card pictures this year.  I really didn't want to do it but I knew we had to.  I finally got everyone to get ready for church a little early so that we could take a few shots.

 We also went to Temple Square to see all of the Christmas lights.  Not all of the kids wanted to do this and it was more of a forced family evening together.  Jason and I were feeling super sentimental since this is our last Christmas before Blake leaves.  We got to the temple early this year before all of the evening crowds got there and it was so perfect.  We left about 1/2 after it got dark so we could see the lights. I think this is how we are going to do it from now on.  It's empty during the afternoon.

I still hadn't made any neighbor gifts by the middle of December and I wasn't sure if I was going to make any.  I just wasn't feeling it this year and it is so so much work!  Jason decided to take measures into his own hand and he made some chex mix.  He wanted a Christmas treat so he did it himself!  He's gotten really good at the chex mix.  The only problem?  He doesn't like chocolate in his.

 The last week of school before Christmas break, Livy was coming home with nice gifts from her friends!  What the heck? She was so concerned about giving her friends something so I printed off the mustache things and we had all the makings for the bottle cap necklaces.  I was able to put these together in about an hour, while Jason and I watched a show.  Livy was happy with the results the next morning and I told her no more gifts!

 I found this cup in the tree one afternoon.  Jason decided our Christmas tree was a good cup holder.

Olivia's class had a Christmas program at school one afternoon.  They did a bunch of little scenes from a bunch of plays.  It was cute, super long but Livy was so excited to be Sleeping Beauty in one of the plays.

December Misc

 I hate making sugar cookies.  It's such a pain but the kids begged me to make some dough so that they could finally use the Star Wars cookie cutters I bought over a year ago.  They had fun and it wasn't so bad.

 Blake earned the Thomas S. Monson Scouting Award and this is the award he received.  I have to admit, I don't like it.  It's like a dog tag the military use and it's just kind of weird.  Maybe it's just me? I'm proud of Blake for earning it, he said he was done earning Scout stuff when he got his Eagle.

 My uncle died very unexpectedly in Dec.  I'm not close with my dad's side of the family, they are all crazy and when my one aunt gave Blake beer when he was 3, I told my dad I was done going to his families things.  I saw everyone at my Grandma's funeral 7 years ago and that's it.  But Uncle Del who was married to my dad's sister Pam, they were the only normal, nice ones in my dad's family. They would come and visit us in CA when we were growing up and Del was just a really good guy.  Plus my Aunt Pam has been to sweet and good to my mom through this whole divorce.  She even came to my Nana's funeral to support my mom. We are so sad Del is gone.  All of my siblings and I along with my mom got together to go to Del's funeral.  It was really hard because it was the first time we have seen my dad with his new wife, ( he married the mistress) and it was the first time I've seen my dad in a while.  I've chosen not to have a relationship with my dad right now, it's too hard and so dysfunctional.  Anyways, we were all stressing about seeing my dad.  We asked him not to come by us which of coarse he didn't listen.  The funeral was very nice, a really great tribute to the amazing man my Uncle Del was.  After the funeral, we all told my Aunt it was too hard to go to the luncheon with my dad there so we all hugged her and we went to our own lunch.  It had been my mom's birthday the day before so it was a perfect time for us all to celebrate with her.  After lunch we headed to the outlets at Traverse and did some Christmas shopping together.  We had such a good time!

 I gave blood for the first time in many, many years.  It all went great until I sat down at the recovery station to eat my cookies and drink my juice.  I guess right before I passed out I told the lady across from me, "I'm going to pass out if anyone needs to know".  I don't know how long I was out, I've never passed out before!  After trying to recover for 2 hours, Blake had to come and get me!  Jason was out of town.  The blood drive was at our church so a lot of people I know were there and saw everything.  I was so so embarrassed!  When Blake got there, two men had to walk me out to the car and that's when I text Jason and told him what happened and then said I did the walk of shame out of the cultural hall.  I was still having a hard time when I got home and I had to miss Ashley's choir concert that night! I was so mad but thankfully, my mother in law went to see her so she had someone there to support her.  Let's just say I won't be donating blood anytime soon!

 Blake and Kyle had to go hand out at the mall a couple of Saturdays to take a poll for that Stat's class.  They wanted to find out what super hero was best and see if wearing their Batman shirts would sway anyones answers.

Christmas Concert, Parties, Sledding and Sushi

 Cameron and Olivia had their school's Christmas concert.  It was so good and only 25 mins long.  Finally, someone has gotten it right. It's almost time for the end of school year concert and then next year Livy said she doesn't want to do choir again.  She likes singing in it but she doesn't like getting up early 2 days a week to go to practice.  She has decided she likes sleep better.  Smart girl! Cameron will be in Jr. High so he will continue on.

 Jason and I made it out for a date to finish our Christmas shopping.  We went out for sushi before we went shopping and Jason took this awesome picture of me.

 We also had our ward Christmas party that we went to, well part of it.  It was the same night at the kids concert so we went after.

Because we had so much snow, I finally took the kids sledding with some friends.  I don't like to go sledding, it's always so blasted crowded and we don't have the best luck with sledding.  Someone always breaks something.  No one got hurt and everyone had a good time.

Birthdays, Baptism, Christmas, Snow and Pioneer Women

 December 2nd is my mother in laws birthday and we happened to have Jazz tickets for that night.  So I told Jason to take him mom and have some one on one time with her.  She loved the idea and I'm super impressed Jason remembered to take a picture of themselves at the game! KD is a huge sports fan so they had a great time.

 Livy and Ryan spend tons of time playing with our Fisher Price Christmas village every year.  This year I wasn't going to put it out because it's so much clutter but they both flipped out.  Livy was not happy I took a picture of her playing with it.

 The first weekend in December, we got to go to our cute neighbor Mason's baptism.  He's in the middle of the picture.  Mason lost his dad this summer, (Jason's best friend) so we knew we wanted to be there to support him and his family.  This was the first big milestone Brian would be gone for.  Mason had so many people there to support him!  He also asked Jason to be a witness for the baptism and to stand in the circle during his conformation.  It was so sweet the way he personally asked Jason.  I bawled through the whole thing.  I was so happy for Mason and his choice to be baptized but I was so sad for his sweet family who doesn't have their dad with them.  It was a very sweet morning and the Spirit was very strong throughout the whole thing.  I know Brian was there with us, supporting Amelia, Mason's mom, giving her the straighten she needed to be strong and happy for Mason.

 That next week I was outside taking Sadie to do her business and my neighbor came out to talk to me.  She said she was embarrassed to ask me something but her husband made her ask me.  She said that Pioneer Women was coming to Salt Lake for a book signing and wanted to know if I would want to go.  I of coarse said Heck yes!!  I was so excited!  Taryn and I have been talking about her recipes, show and blog and we love her stuff.  I was telling my sister Libby about it and she got super excited and said, I'm inviting myself to go along!  So we all pre ordered our cookbooks and our place in line to meet her.  The next week UT got the worst snow storm and of coarse it was on the day we had to drive an hour to Salt Lake for Pioneer Women. Thankfully, I have an all wheel drive car so I drove us up there.  My mom came along also.

 We stood in line for about 1/2 hour and then it was our turn to meet Ree!  She was so so so nice!  She didn't rush us at all while we talked to her, she acted like she had all the time in the world for us to ask her questions, get pictures with her anything we wanted.

 I kept joking and still say that if we lived by each other we would be best friends.  She just doesn't know it.  I know, I sound crazy but it's the truth.

 After we met Ree, we went to dinner and talked about how amazing meeting Ree was.  My mom kept saying how ridiculous we were acting and that she just a lady but I don't care.  She was so very nice, it was just an exciting night.  Just as we were finishing dinner, Libby got a call from home that Claire's elbow had popped out of place so she had to rush off.  Me, Taryn and my mom started our long snowy drive home.  We had an uneventful drive until after we dropped my mom off and we were on a bridge to get on the freeway and we hit some ice and we spun out.  Thankfully we didn't hit anyone and we could keep going to get home.

 That week we got so much snow and it was freezing!  I don't like zero degree weather and  that what we had for a couple of weeks.  It was miserable.  The only good thing was we knew we were going to have a white Christmas.

Ashley is very into hash tagging everything.  This is how she looks most of the time.  Hashtagging whatever is going on.

Blake's Surgery and Thanksgiving

 The day before Thanksgiving, Blake had surgery on his shoulder.  His shoulder kept popping out of the socket, a lot so the dr had to go in and tighten up all the tendons.  Everyone kept asking what he did for it to start coming out and to the life of us all, we have no idea what the first initial injury is.  It has always come out.

 When the surgeon came to talk to us after the surgery, he said there was a lot more damage than they had thought.  When they put Blake under, they had his arm out so they could get the surgery ready, and with Blake relaxed and out, his shoulder wouldn't even stay in the socket.

 The surgery went perfectly, they were able to fix everything and now he's been recovering.  Amazingly, Blake recovered pretty quick from this.  He was only on pain pills for about 4 days, he went back to school the following Tuesday and has been progressing well.

 We kept Blake down like this for the first 4 days.  He was going crazy but we didn't want to risk anything.  Plus, he had to be connected to the ice machine at all times.  We went through so many bags of ice it was crazy.

And as usual, he had hoards of girls coming and falling all over him, checking on him to make sure he was recovering well.  Now, Blake has been doing physical therapy every week, twice a week since December. He just got moved down to once a week and should be cleared to do all actives in a month or so.  It is amazing to me at how quickly young kids can recover from things so much quicker than us old people!

Because of Blake's surgery, I stayed home with him on Thanksgiving while Jason and the kids went to his parents house.  I didn't take one picture the whole day! It's shameful!  Blake slept the whole day and I cleaned the house and set up Christmas.

Washington DC

 Blake had the chance to go to Washington DC in November with his high school.  He was gone for a solid week!  He went with his friends Marissa and Jessica.

 I'll have to have Blake come back and fill in where he is in all these pictures.  I don't know a lot of them.  I do know Blake had a great time.  He text me at one point and said, I'm just so hungry.  They great food the school raved about that they would be eating was gross or they would eat at McDonalds.  Blake said he thought he was losing weight because of all the walking around they did and how little he was eating.

 Jason and I were not thrilled to find out at one point in the week that Blake's ex-girlfriend had decided to go on the trip and was trying to get Blake back the whole week.  To our utter disappointment, he let it happen... UGH!

 He did text me one night this burger.  He said they finally got to eat at a good restaurant and he swears this is the best burger he has ever had in his life.

While he was gone, I text him these pi's and asked if this is what he wanted for his Christmas jammies. He's very into Batman and a one piece pajama set? How could he go wrong?