Christmas, New Years, and Other Stuff

Trying to finish out December.  I still have one more big post to get out, but I'm not ready to tackle that one yet.  Christmas was really good this year.  Like one of my favorites.  We spent some time with Greg and Tracy before we headed to Dad's for Christmas Eve.  We had a delicious dinner in the garage, which is kind of awesome.  Then we went caroling, this time just walking to a few houses.  Also awesome.  Then we had talents and testimonies.  Zack and Kate worked really hard to figure out Carol of the Bells with the electric guitar and piano.  They sounded pretty awesome I think.  My dad wasn't sure what to think about an electric guitar being played in his house, but I think they won him over.  It was a great night. 

Christmas Day Sage woke us all up at 7 to open presents.  That girl makes us all excited for events.  By 9:00 we were done with presents and breakfast, so we decided to go ski at Deer Valley.  Such a great day skiing.  The weather was great and we all had a lot of fun.  We finished up the day with some sitting in the hot tub at Red Ledges.  It ended up being the perfect mix of sitting around and enjoying the day with some fun activities mixed in.

New Years was a little different this year.  I have to admit that my introverted self really hates this holiday.  I feel all this pressure to be with friends, but usually end up not with friends.  Which I'm totally fine with every other day of the year.  My kids all had stuff planned this year, which was good.  Zack went to a church thing at the rec center.  Which he hated, but it was good for him to go.  He said "Next year I'll be able to drive so I can go where I want."  I told him that sounds great.  Kate invited a bunch of friends over.  They stayed until after midnight and according to Jake were, "very loud."  Sage got invited to a friend's house, but got home in time to ring the new year in with me.  And then we started off 2020 with, you guessed it, skiing! 

Other happenings in December:  Kate got her YW medallion!  In one year!  I'm proud of her!  The yw in our ward worked together all year to get their medallion before they went away.  They spent a lot of time, and not all of them got it.  Kate was a new beehive, but worked hard and managed to get it done.  Way to go Kate! 

Sage had a Christmas list of what she wanted:  Go to SLC, go shopping, give three meals to homeless people, get hot chocolate.  I was a little confused, but she said, "I love shopping!  And when I'm at the store I always see what I REALLY want."  So I managed to find a day in the middle of the craziness, and we went to Target in Orem.  I told her SLC was out of her budget.  I gave her a budget of $100, and then followed her around the store.  She told me I needed to set aside 8 hours for this event.  She managed to finish in 2 (thank heavens).  First we went through and she put everything she wanted in the cart.  Then we added it all up and she had to get it down to $100.  It was fun to watch her decide what to keep.  And she kept hugging me and telling me thanks for taking her.  We finished up at Olive Garden.  She told me it was the best day of her life.  I'm guessing this will become a tradition, which is fine with me:)

Jake got his camping mat out to be able to lay on the floor in front of the fire.  We used to have a rug before Chester ate it.

Sage and I started off the season at the Midway City lighting of the Christmas tree.  I love living in a small town!

the cute YW in our ward

Kate got her medallion!

Our kids artistic rendering of Revelation

Ginberbread house efforts

Sage's dance recital.  After which we promptly switched her back to her old dance studio.

Best day ever!

Definitely over budget

Company snowmobile party!

Jordanelle Christmas lights

Christmas Sunday

Awesome talents

Cute nativity

I love my nieces and nepwews

Christmas pajamas from Grandma Tracy!

Christmas skiing

Christmas legos

Watch

Cute sweater

New Years Eve day at Red Ledges

Christmas Bus!

The long-awaited day of the Christmas Bus.  How my kids love everything about this day.  If we ever missed it we would be in big trouble.  This year didn't disappoint.  We even had some excitement to make it extra memorable.  The performances at the care center were amazing as usual.  It's fun to hear everyone improve year after year.  Games at the church were super fun.  My kids loved every second.  And then we headed to Temple Square to see the lights.  We had a different driver this year.  No big deal though.  We can handle change.  We made it downtown without a problem, although traffic was a little worse than usual.  We enjoyed the lights and made it back to our meeting point with the bus.  And then we waited.  And waited.  And waited some more.  It wasn't a crazy cold night, but it definitely felt like winter.  The little kids were getting really cold.  The parents were getting mad.  Dad was calling the driver.  A lot.  No answer.  Called the driver's boss.  He didn't get an answer either.  Finally we all decided every man for himself and we all ubered back to our cars.  Right after we all left the bus finally showed up.  The driver was supposedly felt bad that we had all left.  I think she just felt bad that she got caught.  We still don't know what she was doing.  Getting a crown burger, drugs, taking a nap, only she knows.  But it made the night extra exciting and one we won't forget anytime soon!

The men's song.  Love it!

So cute nativity

Cute baby Gabby!

Make a snowman!

Proof that we did ride the bus

Waiting for our Uber

Grandma Great Marion

I don't think I've ever had a busier December than I had this year.  I was just going through all of the pictures and there's a lot to get through.  We started the month off with a funeral.  Jake's grandma died after a long time of not feeling great.  Poor thing didn't have an easy last few years.  It was great to get to know more about her early years at the funeral.  She was a hard worker with some definite spunk that never left her.  It was pretty amazing to watch her kids sacrifice to take such good care of her the last few years.  She didn't want for anything.  We have some pretty great relatives, both here on earth and on the other side.  So blessed.

Love this picture of Grandma Great and Grandma Tracy 

Dave, Jackie, and Tracy

Thanksgiving In Boise

We got to go to Boise this year to celebrate my grandma's 90th birthday and Thanksgiving all at once!  Pretty awesome.  This celebration has been in the works for 2 years.  No lie.  I've had an invitation on my fridge for 2 years.  I decided I wasn't taking it down until it happened.  My dad and his siblings did a great job planning everything.  I'm sure they were all exhausted at the end of the weekend.  It was great to see aunts and uncles and cousins who I haven't seen for years.  But the greatest part was seeing my grandma and how happy she was to have everyone together.  She's one of the greatest people I know.  There are about 150 family members for her to remember, and remember them she does.  She doesn't just know everyone's name, but also what they're busy with, what they enjoy doing, and even what they're struggling with.  She sends a gift and a card for every single birthday.  Yep, all 150.  Every single member of the family feels loved by her.  Zero judgement, just love.  Jake may not have been excited to go to Boise, but when I reminded him why we were going he couldn't complain.  She's the best.

The weather tried to keep us from going.  There was a huge storm almost the whole week in Utah.  Jake tried to say the roads were too bad to go, but I reminded him that we frequently drive on horrible roads to go skiing so I'm sure we could manage.  Miraculously, Parley's wasn't awesome, but otherwise we somehow slipped through in between storms.  Definitely felt blessed for that miracle.  We got to Boise just in time to eat lots of yummy food.  We caught up with family and got to watch an awesome slide show of my grandma.

We stayed with my cousin Jenn and her family.  They were so great to let us stay.  They live on 5 acres with farm animals, so I thought we would fit right in.  They even let us ride horses.  My kids were sooo excited for that.  In keeping with my bad animal experiences, I may have fallen off the horse.  People wonder why I don't like animals...  We got pictures taken as a huge group.  They went impressively fast.  We did lots of swimming in the hotel pool.  Swimming with Uncle Toby is enjoyable for teenagers and little kids.  And we made it up to Ann and Brian's to see their awesome land and have a delicious breakfast.  All in all a pretty great Thanksgiving I think.

Amazing decorations

Look at all of those people!

Watching the slide show

All of the Mark Spjute Clan

Even the teens were into swimming baseball

Pictures at the capital

Sage finally got to ride a horse!

True love to walk someone else's kid on a horse in the freezing snow

Devouring pizza after swimming.  Let's just say they ate a lot

Cute grandma telling us all how happy she is to have us all there

Singing Spjute Family songs

Who can get the balls out of the box fastest?

October Happenings

October was a pretty busy, but good, month!  We got to go to the annual witchy-poo party.  Such a great event.  Dad and Kathy always go all out and the kids love it!  Pretty awesome to have grandparents who do stuff like that.  And we made it through Halloween.  Definitely my least favorite holiday.  Zack was on candy duty (not that anyone really comes to our house).  He asked if he could just put the bowl of candy on the porch.  I told him he could handle answering the door since he had nothing else to do.  He managed.  Kate dressed up as Rosie the Riveter.  She's at that in-between age where she's not sure what to do for Halloween.  She and her friend came trick-or-treating with Sage and I.  They didn't last very long.  And Sage dressed up as and archery person.  She and her BFF made a map of where they wanted to go trick-or-treating.  It was very intense, as is everything with Sage and holidays. 

Jake randomly decided to dress up in old costumes

Jake participated in his first press conference for the Gary Sinese Foundation.  He gets to be the general contractor for the project.

Scary Sage

Scary Joker 

The kids at the witchy-poo party

Donuts on a string

Grandpa made slime.  I can't even express how happy this made Sage.  Grandpa will forever have a special place in her heart.

Sage's haunted house.  She won a prize for her hard work.  Winning a prize plus slime equals the best witchy-poo party ever!

Carving pumpkins got serious this year!

Zack somehow carved this mountain bike.  And then a deer ate it the next day.

Sage did this one all by herself.

Jake did a Jeep pumpkin.  He is all things Jeep.

Sage ready to go on Halloween

Rosie the Riveter

Happy Halloween!

Sage and her BFF with their candy haul.  And their map.  They insisted on weighing their candy when they were done.