December- all good things, all good things

I say it every year, but December and January are the craziest. I guess it's good cuz it distracts us from all the darkness, but man oh man, it's bananas.

Two Days of Ava

Ava turned 8! What?? This kid has been talking about getting baptized for the entire year. She just loved that she turned 8 on Dec. 1 and got to be baptized on Dec. 2. She was all smiles and giggles during the whole baptism. She was the only baptism for our ward that day, so the program was all done by our families. It was very personal and lovely. Nils and I bawled our eyes out, and Addie was really emotional, as well. Ava saw Addie crying and gave her a big hug, which made everyone cry more. Very sweet day.

In spite of my best efforts to persuade her to not have her birthday party on her birthday, what with having to throw a baptism party the morning after her birthday, she talked me into it. 2 parties in 12 hours, yo!

Birthday breakfast with Dad

 Early morning opening of the presents

Birthday party! We made pizza, played games, had a scavenger hunt, opened presents, and had cupcakes and Creamies. Creamies are the way to go for ice cream! Everyone loves them and there's no scooping involved.

Big Baptism Day!

We love this kid!

Performances Galore!

Anders' Wind Symphony Concert

 Addie and Aani's orchestra concert. Aani is in the elementary orchestra "Saratoga Strings", which is taught by the middle school orchestra teacher. She's learning the violin. Addie is in beginning orchestra at the middle school, and is very committed to being a great viola player. Get it, girl! 

We sat through the 5th Grade version of "A Christmas Carol" for the third time, and I think we need to start getting paid for this. It's clearly an exercise for the children- they do everything from the sound, script, acting, props, etc. and boy does it show. Two hours of not hearing anything. TWO HOURS.

But they love it! Which is why we sit through it every time! 

Ava's tumbling show off day. She's almost got back handsprings!

Couples Bunco! 

This was awesome! All the men-folk came in coerced and wary, but they had the most fun of all. There was more screaming and excitement from them than there is at regular bunco by far. Nils got SIX buncos and won the grand prize! This picture makes me happy- good friends and neighbors. Fun stuff. 

Christmas At Last

 It kinda snowed the other night, and Aani and Ava were having a ball playing in the 1/2 inch. 

Christmas Eve at Grandma's

The present aftermath. Everyone made out juuuuust fine.

 A White Christmas morning

Homemade Kneaders french toast for Christmas breakfast. Ridonkulously yummy. 

Christmas Dinner at Nana and GrandPar's house. They pulled out all the stops with this meal and it was fabulous. We all got fatter on Christmas. :) 

Anders left this morning for a week in Pasadena for Rose Parade preparations with the marching band. We're heading down in a couple days to witness some of the events and enjoy the warmth. Pictures will surely follow! After we all get back, BIRTHDAY MADNESS begins.

November Sum-up

St. George

We took a lovely trip down to St. George for Anders' final marching band competition. He went down for several days with the band and we never saw him, other than when he was performing on the field. We didn't get any pictures of the actual performance since we had crappy seats, but someone else recorded it and did a mediocre job! You can watch it here: (I know you want to.) 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xO4NLNrW2nc

It was a fun little getaway, and fun to see the marching band do their thang. We also watched about 15 other bands perform. They were all very impressive. 

Pioneer Park

The line we were in to get into the competition, hence our crappy seats. It was still fun.

 We had a grand time swimming.

Adventure with Ava

Ava got really sick one night, and was throwing up non-stop all night. She slept the entire next day, and didn't get out of bed except to throw up and go to the bathroom. I took her to the doctor the day after, because her throw up was lime-green, even after throwing up so much, and that was a little concerning. She had eaten a fun-dip the night before all of this started, so I didn't think too much of the color, until a day later when it was still lime green. Sorry about all the throw-up talk. Anyway, the doctor had me take her to the hospital to get an x-ray to make sure there was no bowel obstruction. By then she had perked up 100% and was starving, but we wanted to make sure everything was A-ok, which it was! Nils met us at the hospital and we all went to lunch afterward. Fun times! :) 

Misc. Haps

A member of our ward hooked us up with some free aquarium tickets. There were enough that the youth were all able to go, and we took Aani and Ava. They were so excited! The only way we'll go to this place is if it's free- it is totally not worth $17/person in my opinion. Aani had never been before, and I think everyone else in the fam had been here on a field trip except her. She was so excited and loved it! And we loved it because it was free.

Ava loves her bear, Mr. Fluffypants. She shares her Cinnamon Life with him, even. True love.

Primary Program bribery: 30 pizzas for after the Saturday practice. The program went really well in spite of a few major hiccups, like the music leader leaving town, etc. Primary is never boring!

Nils made a visit to the MTC for work. Such a cute missionary!

Thanksgiving Goodness

We made Kneaders french toast for breakfast with buttermilk syrup, and it was to die for. 

Turkey shoot at Gram Gram's.

Worst dog ever who ripped apart the pillow and blanket in her crate. Now she doesn't have a pillow or blanket in her crate, because she is the worst. We got this crate because she's so naughty when we leave.

Forced family fun behind the house. WE WILL BOND!

Today is our 3 year house-iversary! Cray cray!

Halloween 2017

We made it through another Halloween fairly unscathed. This was accomplished by mostly just pretending nothing was happening, which worked out well for us! The girls had lots of fun trick or treating with friends, and Anders hung out with friends at a couple of parties. Nils and I watched Stranger Things 2 in between handing candy out.

I managed to go to the school Halloween parade and help in Ava's class party, and I didn't even hate it that much! Ignoring Halloween until it's actually Halloween is the best.

Documentation:

Ava the witch

The 5th grade teachers as the Hogwarts faculty

Aani the "creature"

Ava's class par-tay

Anders and friends all got horse heads. Not scary at all. The band teacher managed a nice photo bomb...

Annual picture of the kiddos in costume. Momma's phone wall paper for the next year (tradition)!

(Addie was a midnight hag with her fellow Shakespeare nerd friend)

Happy Halloween!

My dreams have come true

There are 12,000 reason why we love our house. We feel very lucky in many ways, considering we went into this whole purchase pretty blind and went off of a gut feeling that it was right. We truly had no clue what we were in for project-wise when we moved in. It's been non-stop projects galore, but it's okay because it keeps us out of trouble, and it keeps us from saving any of that pesky money. I mean, who wants to save money anyway? 

We have a huge yard, but it's a weird shape and has this hill running along the entire back and side. We didn't know what to do with it initially, and we couldn't afford to do anything, since our first priorities were sprinklers and grass, and then finishing the basement. 

Not to be dramatic, but this hill has been the bane of my existence, as it has served as nothing more than 2,500 square feet of weeds. It's driven me insane. I've weeded that hill so many times, and every time when I finished, I have been very traumatized. It's true, you can ask any member of my family. So, I've been wanting a terraced rock wall for about 3 years now (that's 3 years of weeding the hill, thanks), and my wildest dreams have finally come true. We had the rock wall man come give us a bid in April or May, and he was just able to get to us this month. 

It was a magical experience. I loved every second of watching these two guys tear apart that hill of tears and make it beautiful. When they finished 8 days later, I felt like they were my best friends and didn't want them to leave. 

He dug a hole for the trampoline and dug it way too big,  so we're enjoying that massive pit until we can get some more dirt to back fill it all the way. Who knew putting a trampoline in the ground was such an ordeal? Holy moly!

(I really wouldn't recommend burying a trampoline unless it's absolutely necessary. We live in a very windy place, so it's necessary for us. I just need everyone to know that it's a huge pain in the butt and stupid expensive.)

We all loved watching them work! It was seriously so cool.

LOOOOOOVE.

Now we just have to put the yard back together, and do a wee bit of landscaping on those terraces. That's gonna have to wait till spring. That there shop you see has now been moved to priority #1.