What's Been Happening

We are busy with normal life as always. Adam and Tessa are working so hard in school and Gwen and Caleb keep things busy at home during the days.
Here's a quick glance at what's been going on at our house lately. 

Adam won his class Geography Bee. He was so thrilled to get a certificate and ribbon for his achievement. I totally forgot to study with him (I won't be winning Mother of the Year) but thankfully, he's a smarty pants and did a great job on his own. 

I will never get tired of seeing him sleep with his Santa hat. 

 This was our new decoration for this year. I made a Santa wreath. Someone in my ward wanted to know how I was going to wear it. Uh....it's a wreath. The door wears it, not me. 

 We have all been sick at some point the last 3 weeks and it's been miserable. Poor Caleb was just a sad, sick little thing. For some reason, being sick made him forget how to eat, so we are fighting the food battle all over again. 

 The girls love their red, sparkly Christmas dresses. When we leave Sacrament meeting, our bench is covered in glitter. 

Mommy's drug of choice after a long day. Mint Hot Chocolate!

 Keeping it real....this is what some mornings look like so Mommy can get a quick workout in.

 No matter how many times I fix the nativity sets we have, the kids always set them back up with all the "characters" surrounding the Savior. An important lesson that the kids didn't even know they were teaching us. We should all be wanting to surround and face the Savior. 

 We have the craziest sleepers. Seriously... I have no idea how Gwen slept with Adam on her guts.

 Mommy and Daddy tried to have a much needed date night. We went to the movies and took Caleb. We have always taken our babies to the movies around this age without any problems. Well, we made 2 mistakes. We went to see a space movie, so it was silent throughout parts of the movie as they floated through space, and it was the longest possible movie we could have picked. Caleb was Mr. Jabber Jaws and just wanted to "talk", babble, and laugh through the whole thing. That resulted in he and I sitting in the theater hallway for about 2 1/2 hours while Daddy watched the movie.

Sorry, Caleb. That was your last movie for a long time.

More Christmas Countdown Activities

I can't remember what numbers each of these activities go with, so we are going to stick to the days of the week. Eric asked Adam this past weekend what some of his favorite Christmas traditions were and he said that our countdown activities are one of his top 3 favorite things to do at Christmas time. That made me so happy to hear!! My hard work has paid off. 

Last Monday, we had the Riley's over for another fun gingerbread house making party. I love watching the kids work so hard on their houses and I love hearing them all play together. I am so thankful we have such good friends that are really more like family.

 Adam made a school house, Tessa was most proud of her pumpkin patch, and Gwen loves the funny face on the side of her house.

 I'm so thankful for this beautiful girl!! We have been friends for almost 15 years. Crazy how fast time has gone. 

 Wednesday we started a new tradition that I will have to improve upon, but we had a North Pole dinner. Everything we ate was red and green. We even made our spaghetti noddles green! My dream is to have Christmas dishes someday to make these fun meals more festive.

 Thursday was Festival of Lights! The kids loved seeing all the lights. We missed not having any snow though. Afterwards we took Daddy out to Salem Pond to show him those lights too.

 Friday night, we had our Polar Express party. Forgot to take pictures.

 Saturday we went to Spring Haven for the Nielson Family Christmas Party. We had a wonderful time as always and the kids loved having a pinata to destroy this year. It was fun to spend time with our wonderful Nielson family!!

This weekend we also had a reindeer breakfast, complete with reindeer pancakes and reindeer milk. 

4 Months Old

This adorable little boy turned 4 months old yesterday. Where does the time go?! He got sick about 2 weeks ago and for some reason, that made him forget how to eat all over again. So, the last 2 weeks have been a struggle, but other than that, he is seriously the most perfect and happiest baby you will find. He has discovered his shrieking voice, his tongue and his feet. He loves to see his siblings and he loves to see his Daddy walk in the door after work. Our Caleb is simple delightful!!

Saturday Adventures

Our activity for Saturday was to head up to Salt Lake to see the Christmas windows at the Grand America and then head over to Temple Square to see the lights. 

We loved the windows this year! Gwen was hard to keep wrangled, but the older two loved them.

 Gwen showing us the lights outside. 

 This giant gingerbread house is made from real gingerbread!!!! It was crazy amazing!

 Getting to Temple Square was the adventurous part of our evening. We got stuck in horrible downtown traffic. It took us over 30 minutes to get from the hotel to even close to Temple Square. Then we got stuck in a protest marching down from the State Capitol (hence the traffic). Then once we finally got parked, Gwen barfed all over the parking lot. And finally every person in the state of Utah seemed to be at Temple Square that night. It was so packed we couldn't get to anything. We eventually made our way to the very edge of Temple Square by the Church Office Building so we could take some pictures. We go every year and have never seen crowds like that. It was nuts, but it will definitely be a year we remember. 

Gwen was amazed by the lights and the "Castle Temple". The older kids were really sad we didn't get to see the nativity or go into any visitor centers. We might have to go up during an afternoon so they can see those things this year. All in all, the lights were beautiful and despite the crowds, it was nice to feel the peace of Temple Square. (Especially after getting caught in an angry protest.)

 We had a fun evening together making new memories.