Christmas 2019!

 It was another fun/memorable Christmas. Cute matching pjs, hover boards, new clothes and yummy food.

    

Christmas morning line-up.

A snapshot of their gifts.

    Our sweet friend gifted us this super nice Christmas decoration. We paid her a visit a couple weeks ago and I told her how amazing all her Christmas decor was and that I could take a 10th of it and probably not have room for it so she decided to give me 1%, which is a perfect addition/amount!

    And there's no denying this was the perfect gift from Kayli and Tanner.

Cute Wendel family.

    Now a photo documentation of the sibling gift exchange for 2019.

Christmas cocoa and cash for the Wendel's.

She was over the moon for her new mermaid costume from Kayli and Tanner.

    And this cute girl is all smiles!

    Greg got sucked into this cool puzzle of Alpine that was a gift from one of our neighbors. He's a patient man!

     Christmas dinner was DELISH!

     So there you have it! Some how these kids made it on the nice list once again, but barely! Now let the New Year festivities commence!

Fun, hot, and new arrival.

     We've had another eventful week. Movies, piano 'recital', neighborhood fun in the winter, dogs, cats and more. The boys went and saw "Ford Vs. Ferrari" while Charlie and I saw "Frozen 2". Both movies get 2 thumbs up from us!

    This was the best piano recital. We showed up at the assisted living center and they played their pieces with just us as the audience plus their piano teacher and then went home. They were all pleased with their quick/painless performance.

   Sometimes Greg gets so hot he just can't bear to keep his shirt on. What a weirdo!

     And when it's cold outside but you still want to gather with the neighbors we just bust out the burn barrels and socialize like it's summer. It was actually a request of our neighbor as a celebration of his early graduation from high school. I love our neighborhood!

    We spent a couple days with this big girl! She's really just a big baby and pretty sweet!

It's a good thing Tanner's so 'buff'!

    And welcome Sapphire! She's 3 months old and pretty cute and Smalls is dying to be her best friend and she's slowly warming up to him. I don't know why but I've been wanting a cat for the past few months so when this kitten needed a new home and Greg gave his approval I jumped at the chance and so far she's been a fun addition to the family and all the kids love her.

    These three went a little crazy decorating the gingerbread house. It's pretty gross and they already have destroyed it and started eating it.

    Here's a couple more photos of the new kitten and her tolerance of Smalls. He just follows her around and stares while wagging his tail. She lets him get close but definitely has ways of sending him away when she needs her space.

Allergic he claims, yeah right!

They were holding paws by the third night.

     So that's our week. Can you believe it's less then a week before Christmas!? Let the Christmas break/chaos begin!

Date night, flashback, bowling, Christmas cuteness and lost teeth

     It's been a fun week. Greg and I, along with some neighbors, visited our other neighbor at work/fire department after dinner with even more neighbors. It was fun and we have some great neighbors.

     I found the perfect Christmas outfit for cute baby Beau!

I love red and white stripes!

    With a portion of our Christmas money from G & G Baker we decided to have some fun as a family and our first outing was bowling. It was fun but one kid/McClane, was more interested in the arcade portion of the afternoon.

I can't remember who won but it wasn't me!

     And Greg and I keep reminiscing about our fantastic time in Australia and I realized there were several photos Greg took that should be shared/saved on the blog.

Mega pineapple, the rainforest and our first leg of the journey/flight.

I sure miss these girls!

Our last couple days in Brisbane and at the beach.

      So how perfect did this outfit go with Beau's first encounter with Santa and Mrs. Claus?! She's a perfect sidekick for them.

And after weeks of a snaggely tooth we finally got the second front tooth out of Charlie's face and made room for her permanent teeth to move in and they're already growing in quickly.

    For our second family fun adventure with our Baker grandparent Christmas cash we took the train to Temple Square.

We rarely have more then 4 kids with us these days.

 A little rainy but a perfect night.

We even treated ourselves to a visit to the mall and food court.

    We also wanted to share some of our monetary blessings and had the chance to visit the Giving Machines in the Joseph Smith Memorial building and bought 200 meals for people in need. It was fun and hopefully a new tradition to add to our Christmas celebration.



     I may have been confused at first but it was still pretty quick and easy. Tonight we're headed to the movies as another fun Christmas money adventure. Thanks mom & dad, Grandma and Grandpa, we really appreciate your generous Christmas gift!

My birthday and a little more

     I already had a never-to-be-forgotten birthday celebration in Australia but, since my birthday was really on the 30th and we were back in the states, friends and family decided we could celebrate it again with my favorite Mexican restaurant and yummy bundt cake.

For some reason my friends and Greg thought the restaurant staff should know it was my birthday so they serenaded me and brought me ice cream.

That's 4-5 NOT 5-4!

    Smalls also got a little attention this week with a much needed haircut and bath. He's so much handsomer with a haircut! Isaac got a haircut this week too and also looks very handsome but he's got it covered up in the video below so you'll have to tune-in to a future post in hopes of seeing the handsome version of Isaac.

    I also thought I'd better document the Christmas decor now that we have a tree.

I love when Kayli gets the decorations out and all I have to do is rearrange what she puts out, ha ha. (She was slightly offended by my rearranging but I do have my issues!)

      Beau was here this afternoon for a visit and I thought I should capture her uncles interacting with her for posterity. They're pretty silly but cute with her.

Thanksgiving week.

     So I really slacked on photos this week. We had hoped to spend Thanksgiving with the cute Baker family in Idaho but the snowstorms predicted changed our plans. We still had a fun and festive Thanksgiving with Greg's family but I failed to take any real photos but I got some great selfies with Greg and Beau! She's such a doll!

Those bug-eyes are the best!

     It's hard to believe it's already been a week since we returned from Australia, did we even go!? I finally feel like I'm back to normal, sleep-wise, and I'm back to my daily schedule. The snowstorms have forced Greg to work during his holiday but that's always a blessing in disguise. Let the Christmas chaos and cash depletion begin!

The Australian finale!

     Our last several days in Australia were just as great as the first week. We hit a couple different Harley stores and bought ourselves some cool t-shirts. Next time we need to plan to rent a bike and go for a ride along the coast line or something.

      I couldn't believe they still have pay phones. I saw several and I assume they work.

Did we travel into the future or the past?!

    The rain forest was beautiful and we saw lots of pademelons, which are basically tiny kangaroos and adorable. I can't wait until all animals are like pets and I can have a cuddle with all these cute animals without fear of being kicked or bitten.

Poor quality photo but you get the picture.

   We finished with the rain forest just as a rainstorm came in, which helped clear up the sky some. There are the most amazing views all over!

     After the rainforest we went to the neighboring town, Maleny and had a snack and checked out a couple different shops. The girls were really whinging for ice cream but had to settle for crackers instead. We stopped and got an ice cream treat on the way home though.

    There was nothing more fun then going to my photos on my phone and finding 'selfie gems' from the girls. Halle is a pro!

How do you say no to that face!?

     Greg isn't much for games but he can't say no to these girls and spent a good portion of his Sunday afternoon playing Australia's version of monopoly.

     Below is a collage of Jovi's skilled selfies. She's 10 going on 18!

     We visited the city one more time and the haze was mostly gone, thanks to the rain and hail that fell over the weekend, so the city views were much clearer than the week before. We also treated ourselves to a ride on the City Cat, which was fun but a longer boat ride then we anticipated and the poor girls were left waiting at the school for us for about 40 minutes, which was a bit traumatic for them and I think Jackie too.

   I sat next to a nice woman from Melbourne who was a passenger on the cruise ship. A cruise sounds fun!

     Halle was over the boat ride after about 10 minutes but she's always ready to smile for a photo.

    And it doesn't hurt when she can put on a 'little' lipgloss to pass the time. I've never met a 3 year old who's so skilled at applying lipgloss. Look out for teenage Halle!

    Meanwhile, back in Utah, there was some cuteness going on with Charlie and Beau. Seriously, how cute is she in that beanie?!

Big smiles!

     On our last day the Aussies were so kind to celebrate my birthday a little early. There were cards, decorations and yummy foods, which is more then I ever get from my own kids. It was a great day! We visited the Sunshine Coast one more time, had yummy pizza for lunch, and an even better dinner, home cooked steak, potatoes and veggies and the finale was pavlova for dessert. There's no comparing this treat with fruit from Australia compared to fruit from Utah. It was AMAZING!

Such a perfect day for a stroll along the beach.

A little more wave action compared to our first visit to this beach.

We took a little stroll through some shops and Halle was more then happy to be the model for my photos.

    After the beach Jackie and I went for an impromptu pedicure, which was better then expected. I'm generally not a fan of pedicures but this one wasn't too rough or uncomfortable.

Fancy toes!

    I couldn't resist buying Halle her own mirror and lipgloss. I think she was happy. Her tube of lipgloss was nearly gone by the end of the night and she generously applied some to my lips more then once before the night was through. She's so stinking adorable!

Our last night dinner, so good!

Seriously, all this fruit was SO GOOD!

    So sad to leave, we had the best time and can't wait for our next visit! (Now who's going to convince Tanner and Kayli to watch our kids again?!)

    Coming home went relatively smoothly. TSA gave me a hard time about all my jellybeans as I left LAX, which was so lame since they'd seen the exact same bags and contents just the day before and said NOTHING but whatever, at least they didn't try to confiscate them otherwise this update may have come to you from the prison computer, ha ha! I definitely think some changes should be made to flight travel. Why in the world do I have to figure out if my seat is assigned or if I need to pick it?! How hard is it to choose a flight and then immediately be given the option of what seats I can choose from. I can pick my theater seat for a movie without confusion and those tickets only cost about $10. Totally lame! And why must we walk by all the 'special' people in first class as we board the plane!? Seriously, do they enjoy watching all of us walk by them as they sit in their comfy seats as we bang against their elbows with our bags. If I was flying first class I'd want on the plane last and off first, but that's just me. Stinking rich people!! Anyway, minus that last leg of our journey being a bit frustrating the overall trip was truly amazing and a trip of a life time but hopefully not the only trip of my life time! Thanks Ben, Jackie, Jovi, Shae, Kirra and Halle! You're my favorite Aussie's! We had so much fun and we love you all heaps and heaps!!