December=so much fun=tired & poor

What a month! We start December out with a bang with Ava's birthday on the 1st. She's six! 

Her current interests are: Shopkins, Lego Friends, American Girl dolls (she doesn't know the difference between Target dolls and American Girl dolls, and we're going to ride this train as long as we can), Play-doh, etc. She's funny and sweet, loves friends, mac n cheese, and snuggling. 

We start birthdays out first thing in the morning by opening presents. Then Nils takes the birthday kid out to breakfast. They usually want to go to Kneaders, and Nils loves it, because he looooooves their french toast. 

Friends from the old 'hood and new 'hood at the birthday bash.

All of the party guests hit the pinata about 4 times, and nothing was happening. I took a swing and it exploded.

Clearly, I was surprised by this, which amused Nils greatly.

Birthdays out! For 36 days!

The kids had lots of performances this month. Aani had her first class play, Character Matters 2. She was amazing, of course. I mean, she really killed it as Little Red Riding Hood!

And Gretel!

Anders had his Christmas band concert. The boy's doing pretty well on that ol' French horn. He was promoted from beginning brass into concert band. We pray he continues to love band, and the horn, so they will pay for his college. SCHOLARSHIP INSTRUMENT!

Lucky kids to have a Nana, GrandPar, and Grandma come to their stuff.

Addie's class performed "A Christmas Carol", and Addie had like 6 parts. She's quite the little actress. Addie has grown up a lot in the last year or so. She's got a solid group of friends and seems like a pretty happy kid. She's currently filling the role of walking encyclopedia, as her brother did in 5th grade. He had the same teacher, who fills these kids with fascinating facts that they MUST SHARE AT ALL TIMES.

Nana was captivated!

Umm, we got solar panels? Nils is very excited by this, and I'm pretty on the fence. If our power bills decrease significantly (as promised), then I'll be excited too. :)

I wasn't feeling like braving Temple Square this year. Too cold, too crowded, too lazy. So we drove the Thanksgiving Point lights instead. They're pretty good, but no Temple Square. Next year!

Christmas Eve:

Holiday weight gain? Bring it.

Hey look, it's Nils!

Weirdos

Christmas Day:

Best Christmas picture ever.

Electric guitar and amp. Guess who can't wait for the basement to be finished? (Me!)

All they wanted for Christmas!

Ava with Sophie and Ginger. She wanted to name the red head Pumpkin, and we were able to convince her the Ginger was a good name, too. Haha!

2015 has been a crazy, tiring, productive, and blessed year for us. We feel settled in our home and have worked hard to get to that point. We are in a near-constant state of awe at all of our blessings, and hope that we can continue to recognize them and remember where they come from. We're not the coolest, richest, most attractive, or most popular people ever; but we consider ourselves pretty darn lucky, and know that the big man upstairs gets the credit.

Happy New Year!

Thanksgiving Goodness

We had a delightful Thanksgiving. I love me a good Thanksgiving, and this year did not disappoint. 5 of the siblings from my family attended, as well as my mom, Nils' parents, and my sister-in-law's sister, who may as well be our sister. I think there were 35 people crammed into my brother's house. It was fantastic!

(Please don't mind my stink-face in the pictures below. This is my "concentration face". I was concentrating on fitting as much food as possible on my plate. I couldn't have the gravy touching the Jell-O, no way.)

Kevin and Tonya, the gracious hosts

Year 2 of Uncle Greg putting together a relay race. Families compete against each other to string a necklace, shoot soda-can turkeys with a BB gun, and eat something unreasonable. This year, the winner family took home a garden gnome to keep for the year. They also get to host Thanksgiving next year. :) 

Rodger was happy he won (before he knew winning entailed hosting, haha!)

I found this cute "Minion reasons to be thankful" idea on Pinterest and thought it would be fun for the kids to make their own minions. Nils spent about 5 hours getting all the pieces cut out on the Silhouette. It was worth it, because the kids loved it, and they turned out super, super cute. Thanks, NilsyNils! 

So much dessert. Nils and Natasha had a contest all night to eat the most desserts. Natasha started out in the lead, and every time Nils would get another dessert, she would get one. Nils capped out at 12, Natasha at 13. I don't even know how this is possible. 

We put up Christmas decorations tonight. Crazy that it's that time of year already! 

I made these stockings, and they turned out pretty cute, in my humble opinion. I got my sewing fix for the decade. Sewing really does stress me out. I don't know how people craft to de-stress. It honestly makes me crazy. I have the ability, and I enjoy the finished product, but I don't enjoy the process. I don't know what to make of that. Can someone analyze me, please? 

(The small stocking is for the dog, FYI, haha.)

This dog

Love these little snots. They're good little snots. 

Ava turns 6 tomorrow, and I'm trying not to be sad about it. They're growing up a little too fast.