Bits of December

:: I turned 28 the day after we got back from an epic trip to Seattle. It was filled with laundry and unpacking, but Robb found time to make a birthday cheesecake before leaving for work and then surprised me by taking half the day off. 

:: This lovely lady turned two the next week. I can't imagine our family without this sassy, affectionate, little girl. This is what happened when we told her to blow out the candles:

 She needed a little help in the end

 :: I taught Colby's preschool group the next week. We had a "frozen" and "Frosty the Snowman" theme and after a short discussion (6 four year old boys...enough said) on what happens to water when it gets cold they took turns freeing toys from an ice block using warm water and salt.

Colby helping me make banana snowmen for snack

:: Everyone in our ward was talking about a house with the BEST lights in Sahuarita (which is saying something because this area believes in going all out for holidays). So I got the address and we bundled the kids up in the car. The surrounding area was pretty dark, but we turned the corner and there it was.

My favorite part of the light display:

Christmas with a little South-Western flair :)

:: All of the Hays' clan gathered in Montana  this year for Christmas. We were the last to arrive and they waited for us to get a tree

Unfortunately our kids were still recovering from a day of travel and missed naps. There were a few meltdowns.

We watched the new Star Wars movie that afternoon. Robb has seen every news article/blog post/movie trailer for The Force Awakens since it was announced and two grumpy kids weren't going to get in the way of this long awaited viewing. We bought a large container of popcorn and hoped the constant supply of munchies would keep the kids calm. It worked on Colby, He polished off 90% of the bag by himself. Alice wanted to chat, move, sing, pat my face, basically anything but sit quietly and watch the movie. Hays and Hays give the movie two thumbs up and Robb thinks we need to watch it at least one more time in theaters...sans kids. 

The snow was perfect. Dad hauled out a couple inner tubes and we trudged through the field to the empty pond and went sledding. Alice went down a couple of times with me and a few times with Robb before she was done, but Colby could've stayed there all day. He went down by himself, accepted the face-fulls of snow that came with crashes, and had an amazing time.

I love the expression of joy on our sweet boy's face

Dry snow is great for sledding, but not really for building snowmen. We tried for five minutes to make a decent snowball and then settled on stacking one chunk of ice on top of another. Robb tried to jam in a carrot, but it shattered on impact. Eventually we wedged a bit of it in and found a couple rocks for eyes.  

Christmas Eve in our matching pajamas

Some of the chaos of Christmas morning. Santa had quite a job laying out presents for 20 people.

Christmas morning cinnamon rolls

:: Our flight was delayed and after waiting for the plane, waiting for our luggage, waiting for the shuttle bus, and driving two hours back to Sahuarita, it was 1:00am on the morning of the 31st. So we welcomed the new year by going to bed early.