Christmas programs 2024

    From Beau's preschool program to Charlie's 6th grade, and final, Christmas program at the elementary school, it's been a lot of fun Christmas songs and props.

Beau showed no fear at this years Christmas program.

Elliot stayed busy during the program.

Charlie was part of the '7-swans-a-swimming' for 12 days of Christmas.

    And bonus time, these three crazies came to play for a few hours while mom and dad had a little afternoon movie date.

December and we're outside with sidewalk chalk?!

And this poor girl kept hunting in the diaper bag for shoes so she could play outside with her sisters, but no luck.

    We're on to the final days before Christmas! School is officially done for 2024 and we're looking forward to our two week break before starting back in the new year. Only 5 more sleeps until the big day!

Christmas ready!

    We're nearly there and we're 90% ready for Christmas. I've got my official Christmas nails, decor, including tree, is up, and even Smalls is doing his part to make the house feel festive.

I picked a non-traditional color but the cutest Christmas tree art. 

He's the cutest and a good sport.

Simple but fun.

    A lot simpler week and we're really gearing up for Christmas. Nearly all the shopping is done and delivered and we have far less things to attend, which is great. Tomorrow is Beau's preschool Christmas program and next week will be Charlie's final Christmas singing program at the elementary school and then we'll be into our Christmas break. I can't believe we're this far into the year! 

    12 sleeps until Christmas and 160 sleeps until we're done with elementary school!

FIFTY, ONE and bonus festivities

    Well, it happened, another birthday, the big 5-0! I feel so bad for my parents, they must feel so old telling people they have a 50 year old daughter. That's truly ridiculous! But seriously, I couldn't have been more spoiled by my family and friends, and, despite threatening to leave town if anyone tried surprising me with some dumb party, I did get a surprise, but a surprise I wouldn't have even dared to ask for. My sister, Jackie and her family came from Idaho to celebrate with me, what a SHOCK AND HAPPY SURPRISE! And not only did they make a special trip for me, they brought my most favorite jelly-beans from Australia. I mean, there are really no words. Best. Birthday. Surprise. EVER! 

My friends brought over some amazing gifts throughout the day, and surprised me first thing in the morning with a fun collection of 50 dinosaurs and more.

Rachel put together a gorgeous bouquet of flowers for me and Isaac and Morgan bought me bridge-mix and a gift card for dinner. 

Greg hit all the 'points', a TV streaming device, rechargeable hand warmers, and some of my favorite candy.

An adorable gnome, courtesy of Kayli and the girls.

And here they are! My favorite Aussie's and Idahoan's! Charlie was just as shocked as I was.

    And then, to add to the fun weekend, we got to help celebrate Reese's 1st birthday! How has it been a whole year since she made her way into the world!? She's too cute!

 

 

 

 

 Best way to start the month of December for sure!

    And to top it all off, I got to go with my cute Wendel girls to the Festival of Trees. What a treat!

 

 Gnomes are my newest obsession, in case you couldn't tell.

Can't forget to visit Santa. 

And we ended with lunch at Chick-fil-A. 

    And yes, I did check Charlie out of school to go with us to Festival of Trees, and, you're right, I would never had done this with Kayli when she was in 6th grade. Being the youngest is definitely a different adventure then being the oldest. (Sorry, not sorry.)

    I also went to the Luminaria at Thanksgiving Point with our young women this week and I can't say enough good about how amazing their display of Jesus, the Tree-of-Life and lights are. Everyone should get to see it! So awesome!
    18 days until Christmas (WHAT?!) and only 167 more sleeps until elementary school is permanently out for me! So far 50's been good.

Happy Thanksgiving!

    We had a simple and enjoyable Thanksgiving. Yummy food, 4 out of 7 kids to help eat it and leftovers galore.

All the essentials.

 

Not the best photo but at least we have documentation of who was here.

    Now on to Christmas! Only 26 sleeps! And, if you were curious, only 174 sleeps until the last day of elementary school.

Cute girls

    We've had some fun times with the Grand-girls this week. Crazy Harley absconded with my phone and took a variety of photos. For some reason she's obsessed with Joey's phone and glasses. And the first hour of their visit turned into a beauty salon with matching nails and hair-do's. 

    And speaking of nails, I got my 1st set of Christmas nails and I love them!

Photos by Harley.

Salon care = happy girls.

I mean, how cute is that gnome!?

    Now on to Thanksgiving festivities and possibly our first big snow storm of the season. (DUMB!)

    Happy Thanksgiving!

Somebody turned 52!

    It was Greg's turn to be celebrated. He got his Traeger all fired up and smoked some ribs. We had a fun visit from Kayli and the girls and our great friends stopped by with a perfect gift for the birthday boy. I think Greg's birthday was a success.

 

A drink and cookies from the grand-girls.

Best friends bring great snacks!

     And this is how fall is going. Lots of leaves from someone else's trees.

This is at least the third time Greg's 'vacuumed' the grass, so far, this fall.

    And I got this adorable photo this week. How cute are these two!?

Baby Reese is nearly ONE!

    What a fun week we've had celebrating Greg!

The best/worst Halloween treat

    So, we have a fish! One of our new neighbors had the 'brilliant' idea to hand out live goldfish to all the neighborhood kids trick-or-treating and Charlie was only too happy to bring one home. My older kids will tell you I made them return goldfish in the past when they won them at the local carnival but, of course, the baby of the family gets a fish and, what does mom do, orders all the supplies in a hurry and has this fish swimming pretty in Charlie's room in just a couple short days. And if he dies, yes, I will replace him. (Insert maniacal laughter here.)

 

Welcome to the family, Finn!

    And another new gel nail compilation to enjoy!

 

    And Greg's birthday gift arrived a few days early. He's pretty 'fired-up' about turning 52 in just a few short days.

 

    And the cat is quite fascinated with our newest family member. 

I can't tell if she's standing guard or trying to catch a snack.

    So, as I mentioned, we're just days away from celebrating Greg's birthday. There's only 195 more sleeps before Charlie graduates from elementary school. And only 47 sleeps until Christmas! Oh, and the results of the election came back more positive then we hoped, now lets just hold tight to hope until January 20th when it all becomes reality.

Birthdays and Halloween

    Lots of fun activities this week. We celebrated Isaac's 22nd birthday, twice. Charlie had her last Halloween parade at the elementary school and a few other things.

Pumpkin carving with her favorite people.

    Isaac got a 22-rifle for his 22 birthday! 

 

Baby Reese and her sister Georgia all ready for Halloween.

A movie afternoon on Joey's bed.

    Isaac's 2nd, 22nd, birthday celebration, courtesy of Morgan.

New shoes, t-shirt and a hand made card. Spoiled!

Morgan's mom even treated Isaac to German chocolate cake! Yum!

    And, I guess, Isaac's going through a cowboy phase, he bought himself a custom-fit cowboy hat, now all he needs is boots.

Howdy partner.

My 23rd year attending the Halloween parade at the elementary school. I'm DONE!

    There you have it, the last week of October is in the books. 

Short post

    It's been a slow week with only a couple of highlights to share. First, the cutest photos of Reese were shared with me and I wish I could just pick her up and squish her. She's getting so big!

She's the spitting image of Rachel, especially the sleeping photo.

    Isaac is days away from turning 22 so we took him shopping for a new rifle. I don't know if he wanted to be part of the birthday shopping trip but, oh well, he was home and didn't have plans so, might as well.

Fun times!

        Now we have Halloween to look forward to. And we'll officially celebrate Isaac's birthday Sunday with cake, so more photos will come next week of our handsome 22 year old. 

    How is it nearly November!? (And how do I have so many adult children when I'm only 19?)

fun and sweet

    My latest set of gel nails are too fun! 

How cute is that ghost?!

    Charlie's become an expert, Sunday night, niece-bather. 

Pjs all ready to go and three happy, clean girls.

    And look at these yummy donuts! And what's even better, they were free. I got blocked in by a delivery truck, and when I went on a hunt for the delivery driver I found he was at the Lehi Bakery making a delivery and the bakery owner was very apologetic and brought out these donuts for my inconvenience. Totally worth the 10 minutes I waited in my car trying to decide what to do.

This was a testament that when you ask kindly for help instead of blaming and getting fired up for someone's 'nonsense' you fare far better.

    So that's all the photos I've got but there was also a great adventure for Greg, Brock, McClane and Charlie. They went on a little camping adventure out west, along with several other families and, sadly, due to some extreme wind and cold temperatures they had to come home a day early. So much for having a couple days home, mostly alone!