December Happenings

 I'm trying to persist in getting caught up.  Someday....

December was fairly low-key.  We never have lots of family things, friend things, or recitals.  Obviously we're super cool.  We did have a fun Christmas.  Although the 2.5 week long Christmas break about did me in.  Who plans a break that long in the middle of winter??

We did our annual neighborhood food drive.  Mostly just the old people come, but we still love it.  My friend and I that is.  Not so much my kids.  Kate had a piano recital.  She's getting so good at the piano!  We made some yummy Christmas cookies.  Not sugar cookies.  Learned my lesson with those.  And we went to a family Christmas thing with the Wrights.  We don't see them very much, so we had a great time catching up with everyone.

On Christmas Eve we went to the Johnson's for yummy dinner and fun.  We even went caroling to a couple of houses without Dad there to make us do it!  Funny the things you find yourself doing when you don't even have to.  Some of the families did a talent.  The Ditto's won by burning and goat and dancing around it.  Not sure how anyone will top that!  Christmas day was epic in that Jake and I were the first ones awake.  You know you're getting old when...  We opened presents, had a good breakfast, and then went skiing.  I love skiing on Christmas because it breaks up the day.  Still time to play with new presents, but not too much time.

New Years happened.  By far my least favorite holiday.  Definitely not a holiday made for introverts.  The girls both invited friends over and had lots of fun.  Jake and Zack let me watch the new James Bond movie with them.   And then I think they were both in bed by 10:30.  We party hard here.

The only picture I have of the service project we did.  In addition to the food drive we did, we got to help distribute the food this year.  Loved it!

Seran wrap ball!

The live nativity in Heber gets better and better every year.  This year they even had a camel!

The YW who came.  Notice they're all young.  It's mostly impossible to get the older girls out.

Kate's piano recital.  Her teacher looks like one of the kids.

Christmas cookies!

Jake dressed up for caroling this year!

A really blurry picture of the goat dance.

Christmas pajamas!

Zack and Kate both got new coats.

Sage got a sherpa.  She looks like a walking blanket.

Christmas day skiing!  Yes it was cold.

Sage got up one morning and made pancakes from scratch, cut up an orange, and had hot chocolate.  

I didn't get a picture of all the girls at our house, but you can tell they were here.

The only New Years picture I have.

November Happenings

 November was a fairly low-key month.  The highlight was probably the weekend we got to spend with family right before Dad and Kathy left for their mission in New York.  The Dittos were kind enough to offer up their house so that we could stay for the weekend and not just be there for a few hours.  The adults had great fun hanging out, and the cousins had a great time.  Sometimes the teenagers are unsure what to do with themselves, but they survived.  It was great to have everyone together since it's going to be a while before that happens again!

Thanksgiving was pretty uneventful.  We were supposed to go to Moab, but that ended up not happening.  We went to Greg and Tracy's for Thanksgiving dinner where we ate lots of delicious food.  Then we spent a lot of time working at the office so we could get footings in before the ground froze.  The glamorous life of a contractor.  We'll all be really happy when the office is done.  For a lot of reasons...

The Spjute Family!  Minus Dad.  We kind of forgot him...

A YW activity making truffles.  I had to include it since YW takes up a lot of my life right now.  Thank heavens both of my girls are in there!  Makes it so much better!

Two years later we finally got to go see Frozen.  Worth the wait!

We took the kids to a trampoline place so they could get some energy out.

This is Zack climbing up to that steel beam.  The one that's really high.  He proceeded to jump into the foam pit and almost break his back.  It's a miracle that more teenagers don't die or become disabled from stupid decisions.

All of the grandkids!

A sunny picture of our annual turkey trot.  There are no words for how much my kids complain about this.

This was Thanksgiving dinner.  Even though it looks like Christmas

Sage looking way too old.

My grandma who's still going strong!  She's amazing!