December 2017

Thought I would write about the month...not just Christmas.  This will be a long post....  Kaylie is sometimes so playful and loving with lots of giggles and kisses...glad K caught this on tape.

 Ashlee did Kaylie's hair like Minnie Mouse one day.  I thought it was so cute and looks like her cousin Kiera.

 Lula Roe has caught my attention.  One of my friends was selling her inventory at half off, so I got a couple of outfits.  I wore this one a lot during the Christmas holidays.

 We went to K's ward Christmas dinner.  Santa Clause and Mrs. Clause were both there to welcome us.  Kaylie did accept a candy cane, but didn't get too close.

  They also gave the kids an advent calendar that they could color and tape candies on to pull off each day.  She was so serious... Hard to get a smile out of this one.

 Kaylie loves to have "Elsa and Anna" braids.  I like to practice...sometimes, it turns out lovely....other times, not so much.

 Kaylie adores her older brother and vice versa.  the boys constantly are asking her who she likes better...her answer is different every time.

 We went to Liam Mason's birthday party.  It was a SPACE theme.  Kaylie actually fit on his bike...couldn't ride it yet though. 

 Liam got a set of dinosaurs and set them all up.  So cute!

 This is what happens when we take out the braids...

 We got a GINGERBREAD house from Costco and everyone took part in making it.  Kaylie would put one candy on the house, then eat a candy and so on and so forth.  The boys were getting a little irritated that she was eating so much candy, but they had a lot of fun decorating it.

 We went to the display of Nativities at the church by the temple.  They had live performances throughout the night and "Claire" was one of them.  She has become a little Youtube star here in Washington and is part of our stake.  They were asked to perform....there was standing room only!  I've never seen it so packed.  They even had people seated on the stand behind her.  She and her dad started out by singing and playing Disney songs.  It got millions of views and they ended up being on the Ellen Show, the Voice, sang with the Piano Guys...quite a repatoire for this 4 year old.

 They had the live nativity room set up, so we tried to dress up and take a nice picture.  Didn't happen... Kaylie would not wear a costume and the boys just offered silly faces...no serious faces.

 Some of the Nativities that were displayed...they had over 500 !

 The Primary room was transformed into this Winter Wonderland.

 A Moose Nativity

 A Peanuts Nativity

 Kaylie's been complaining that it hurt to go potty.  She went an entire day without going potty...probably because she was afraid it would hurt.  So we ended up taking her to the Emergency Room.  We were worried that she might have an Urinary Tract infection.  The nurse gave her a little stuffie and put a name tag on it.

 She was brave, but when they had to try and get a urine sample with a catheter since she can't pee on command.  Hardest thing to hear her cry as they tried to insert the catheter.  Finally a fountain opened up and she peed.  She hadn't peed all day, so it was a ton.  The nurse was able to catch a clean sample as it burst from her tiny body.  She had ultrasounds done on her kidneys and bladder.  Nothing was found to be out of sorts and her pee came back negative...no bacteria.  So still not sure why she is complaining of pain, but glad that nothing was found too.

One of K's friends gave us this wooden rocking horse.  Fun fun!

We had our ward Christmas brunch.  I got to make a egg, sausage, cheese souffle.  turned out yummy!! Santa Claus came to visit.  The boys did not want to wear long sleeve shirts,, but we made them, so their attitudes were on the frowning side...at least Santa is jolly.  ;)

and she took a candy cane from Santa.  :)

I teach the Sunbeams at church and I brought my Nativity dress up stuff and we acted out the Nativity.  We did it twice so they each could be 2 different characters. 
Kai was Joseph, Gracie-Mary, Caroline-Shepherd, Abbey-shepherd, Emberly and Miriam-angels and Elsie was our Wiseman bringing gifts to baby Jesus. 

They love holding Baby Jesus.

Then they switched it up and chose a different character.  Kai-Shepherd, Miriam-shepherd,  Gracie and Elsie-Angels, Emberly-Wiseman, Caroline-Mary and Abbey-Joseph.  At the end of the lesson, I gave each one an ornament that had a picture of Jesus in it to remind them of the reason we celebrate Christmas.  The TRUE gift.

Gracie as an angel...

We went to K's stake Christmas Concert that she sang in and had treats afterwards.

We also attended K's Ensign concert at Benroya Hall where they had a Christmas celebration.

Cousin Jack came too...We have started potty training Kaylie this week and about every 20 minutes, she told me she had to go potty, but once we got into the bathroom and saw the toilet that wasn't a full circle, she did not want to sit on that toilet.  about 4 attempts.  She did have a diaper on, but she held it almost till we got home.

On December 21st, I went to Salt Lake City and watched Rylee get married to Justine.  So fun.  Makaylee has a new Baby Mason.  Full of scrumptious cheeks and snuggles.

Here comes Mr & Mrs Gamble!

It was so cold and windy.  We huddled together to keep warm when we weren't in the pictures.

Me and my sis Leah!

And then mom joined the fun!

Jon's new ride!  It is a monster!!!!  HUGE!

Julie and Jon served a luncheon after the ceremony for the families of Justine and Rylee

Cookie Monster salad.

brownies

And check out this cutie!  Little Mason...had to wait your turn to hold him.

Grandpa Jon and Mason

The Happy Married Couple

Back to Washington, we decided to go check out the ZOO lights.  Kaylie was excited to see the Peacock with EYES again.  I think she was thinking she would see a live one.  :)  But look what we saw first thing?

Penguins and Flamingo

You don't see just these two together very often anymore...

The Kitties or monkeys....

It was bitterly cold...we stopped at a firepit to warm up.  Kaylie told me she had to go potty here.  I took her into the bathroom and same thing...the toilet seat looked funny, so she did not want to sit on it.  I took her to the bathroom about 4 times and not once would she sit on the toilet.

This kid took off his shoes to warm up those little toes...lol  Mike went into the little cafe and bought 12.00 smores fixins that come with a stick and a hot chocolate for all of us to share.  The Experience!

Then we went into a warm building, not sure what we'd find, but it was a huge play area for a snowball fight.  We stayed in there for probably 45 minutes warming up and throwing yarn snowballs.  Kaylie found the fish tank.

Even Mike got into the fight.  The boys loved throwing the snowballs at him and me. 

Pure JOY!!

Then they had story time and they read about a Hibernating bear that got awoken by his friends and shared treats.  Kaylie snuggled in to Decker.

Then off to the Butterfly Exhibit.

The FROG

The GRASSHOPPER

The BUTTERFLY

The OWL

A BEE....BUZZZZ

After that, you could stand in and when it was your turn, make your own shadows with animal sillouettes on the wall.

Monkeys

The Peacock!

The GORRILA

Riding a cougar...

YODA???!!

KIDS and the Peacock!

It's a BEAR

We did see some live animals...One of Santa's Reindeers...

This was a cool image with the Hippo and the Giraffes at the River, then up comes some Elephants

and then the Elephants walked away...

Christmas Eve...I wanted to try cooking a Prime Rib.. I searched several recipes online and saw that you could put it in at 500 degrees for 30 minutes and then turn off your oven and leave it in for 2 1/2 hours...if your oven held the heat.  I also read to check your oven temperature 30 minutes after turning it off and if it was under 175, then you could just leave it on at 200 degrees for the remaining 2 hours.  It was cooked to perfection...I smothered it in butter infused with fresh basil, rosemary, garlic, sage and thyme.  Auntie K and Grandma Wood stayed the night to celebrate with us.

 
 
Cut off the ribs from underneath to save for later and here was the result.  Perfection!! It was delicious and so tender!!  After dinner, we were doing the dishes and I noticed some water on the floor by the sink...after further investigation, realized that our garbage disposal had sprung a leak!  On Christmas Eve when no store is open.  lol  Mike went to Craigslist and found two disposals-one had already been sold and the other was found down in Kent--40 minutes away on a snowy night.  We left the dirty dishes and started with the evening's program...and after the kids went to bed, Mike and Grandma Nickie drove down to Kent to pick up the Used Garbage Disposal for $35.00.  Quite the night!

And guess what surprise we had to get us even more into the mood??!!!  It snowed on Christmas Eve!  It was so magically beautiful!

Each of the kids got to open one present on Christmas Eve... Pajamas for each of them.

Kaylie didn't want to put her new jammies on.  The boys put on their Flash and Spiderman pajamas and had fun throwing webs and running up and down the hall in Flash mode.

Kaylie wanted to be like her brothers...so she was trying to throw her webs like them.

Finally, she decided she needed to put on her pajamas to be like her brothers.  lol

Then we acted out the Nativity.  Decker and Grandma were our Angels.  Kaylie didn't want to put on an angel costume...but she wanted to be an angel with them giving the good news to the shepherd, who was Auntie K...

 

 Cody was our serious Wiseman, bringing a gift for the Baby Jesus.

 I was the Narrator and Mary, while Mike was Joseph.

 Kaylie then wanted to hold baby Jesus...and he might have been a little hungry, because she put him in the highchair to eat. 

 Then off to bed for the kids, Mike and Nickie went to pick up the Garbage disposal and thank goodness I had done the wrapping during the previous weeks, because it made it so much easier. I went to bed around 1:00 and Mike got the garbage disposal installed and finished the dishes.  I think he went to bed around 2:00 a.m. 

 Christmas morning, Decker was the first to get up...around 8:30, by 9:00 everyone else was up. 

 Winter Wonderland...

 Auntie K slept in Kaylie's room in her little house.

 Kaylie's has figured out the unwrapping...

 New dress from Daddy.

 Auntie K gave her FROZEN pjs...they had a little trouble getting it on at first.

   You can see Decker in the background.  He got what he wanted.  a 2DS.  His came with Super Mario Bros and the Lego Movie game.  Cody's came with Mario Kart and Star Wars Angry Birds.

She never wants to take it off...

 Kaylie loves her LETTER puzzles

 This is a spy game where you set up an obstacle course and try to walk through the "Lasers" without touching them.

 They got new winter coats Cody's is RED, Decker's is GREEN, of course.  Jumping on the trampoline.

 Snow Angels...

 Roark came over to play in the snow too.

 They built a snowman out in the front yard.  Kaylie calls him OLAF.

 One of the funniest moments for me, was walking outside to see what Mike and Decker were doing.  They had Pandora playing Christmas music.  So as I am walking out to them, I see Mike and Decker hanging out by OLAF our snowman, keeping warm with the heater hooked up to the gas tank and "Frosty the Snowman" is playing on the radio.  Talk about Picture perfect timing!  Just so cute to see them hanging out together.

 And this is what I ate for lunch the following 3 days after our Prime rib dinner.  French Dip sandwiches with Swiss Cheese!  YUM!!!  Next time I'll have to add mushrooms and sauteed onions to the sandwich....(I had to buy a substantial piece of meat to get the 3.77/lb...enough for 3 meals.  I had the butcher cut the meat into 3 chunks...So I still have 2 more roasts for some special dinners this coming year.  :)

 We got new bedding...retired our Wedding bedspread that was 11 years old.  We love it!  We got the HEAVY Goose Down..love to snuggle under this.  ;)

 Cody, in addition to getting his 2DS, got this Hot Wheels track that the cars race on and Crash.  They had fun putting it together and trying out their different cars on it.

 Since we had the unexpected magical Snow storm, the dinner at grandma Nickies was postponed till December 26th.  Jon and Rachel came with Jack and Vinson and his family came over for the festivities.  We had this adorable Santa suit for the little guy.  So sweet!

 

 

 such a cute little ELF!

 We had deli meat sandwiches, veggie tray, jello, pie and cake for dessert.  Kaylie learned she likes onion dip and chips.  We watched her enjoying the chip table.

  Kaylie and Cody built this tall building.  Kaylie's favorite part is knocking it over.  LOL  this is a favorite toy at Grandma Nickie's house.  The boys loved it, now Kaylie loves it and Jack will be next. 

 Here's Vinson's boys with the newest cousin, Jack!

 Cody still loves baby's and loves holding them.  Too sweet!

I got some purple hair wax.  Cody loved it.  I put it in my hair at the bangs, but didn't take a picture.  Fun for a couple of days.  :)  Cody did it a couple of different days.

 Rachel and Jon gave me this cute chalkboard that I hung in the wall.  My first message...

 We went over to Auntie K's house and Kaylie emptied out her blanket basket and sat.  ;)

 

 And with the holidays behind us...time to put the tree away for another year.  Glad I have some helpers.

 (I got this ELSA dress from a Gifting Network I belong to.  It had some rips in the seams that I sewed up.  She loves it!

 And here's Kaylie in her new dress from her dad.  I love how she put the hair elastics on her wrist like bracelets....reminds me of Rainbow Brite, or Punky Brewster.  :)  This girl has done a fabulous job potty training over the break.  She is in panties full time except at night and naps.  Though will probably start wearing them during naps, as she has been dry for most of them.  She is growing up and trying to keep up with her brothers.  It is so fun to see her love for them and their love for her.