The Week After

You know the week after where you're not sure what day it is or what you should be doing? Yep, that's us right now. 

Most years we decide to do nothing over Christmas break, but this year we decided to start remodeling our basement. Why? Because Tyler doesn't start his job for another month and we know he will never have this much free time. See, one of the things I love most about Tyler is that he knows how to do it all. He can build, do electrical, paint, and make our house look amazing. I'm so excited for a basement upgrade. I will have to post pictures of the whole process for next year's blog, but right now we are in a huge mess. 

Makayla got a Starbucks gift card for Christmas and it was just burning a hole in her pocket, so we had to stop before dance so she could get some overpriced fruity drink. 

I don't know if I should be proud or scared of the mini me I have created with her designer bag, Stanley in one hand and a Starbucks in the other hand. On second thought... proud is the word I would use. 

Tyler and I went out on our favorite date of the year where we talk about the previous year and set goals for the upcoming year for ourselves and our family. We had really good, deep conversations while we enjoyed our P.F. Chang dinner

The last of our break was spent at The Land. We played games, ate lots of food, and the kids got to play all day long with their cousins. There has not been a lot of snow this year, so our trip was a little different, but this gave us the perfect opportunity to try a new adventure: we drove up the hill and shot guns. 

Makayla and Caden have never shot guns before. I was proud of them for trying something new. Tyler and Grandpa Craig helped us all with gun safety, and then they all got to try it out. 

Caden and Makayla said they liked shooting, but they didn't like the kick back on the shot gun. They preferred to hit soda cans with the 22. 

Tyler is still the champion shooter, although Carson and Colton are getting pretty good and might give him a challenge. 

Back at the Land, Brynnli and Camden set up Sodalicious. They sold all sorts of drinks and every yummy rock food you could imagine. Some of the food was rock hard (get it), but we all had a great experience with a very cute waiting staff. 

And somehow we ended up at the last day of the year: 

New Years Eve was so fun this year. The funnest part of the trip may have been playing with Caden's new gel blaster guns. They are basically Orbeez so they don't really hurt when you get hit, but you can feel it. The kids played capture the flag all day and then at night they played fugitive with the glow in the dark orbeez. I would say Caden's new toy was the hit of the week. 

New Years Eve we played games and then played 31. 

About midnight the kids were hungry again, so we cooked chicken nuggets and counted down to the new year. 

Back at home we spent the last day of our break with a family day at the movies. We saw Wonka and we all loved the message at the end about working hard and having a good attitude even when things are tough.

I think that's a great motto we can take into the new year. 2024 here we come!!

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

This Christmas Eve and Christmas Day were filled with family, food, fun, and lots and lots of memories. We started out Christmas Eve by going to church. They had a musical program that reminded us all of Christ's birth and set the mood perfectly. I am so grateful for my Savior and for the example of love, kindness, meekness, humility, and forgiveness He shows us through His example. 

The kids got to open some of their gifts from us. The kids know this is an outfit and they all used to hate it, but as they are getting older and becoming more teenagers, they like this gift (well, Brynnli told me she still prefers toys, so I guess not all of them like clothes yet).

We took our Christmas family photo

Then we were off to Grandpa Craig and Grandma Terry's house for the Collard party. We only had time to play the $5 game before we had to leave for our next party. Brynnli won the funniest gift of all... it was a "shave with me Barbie". It had a men's shaving kit with a Barbie that had hair all over her. Brynnli thought it was a Barbie that she could actually shave, and was pretty disappointed when she found out the Barbie was just a gag gift. 

We picked up pizzas and then headed over to my parents house for dinner and the Christmas Eve party there. The kids were spoiled with a lot of gift cards, Barbies, and salt gun. It was so weird to think that this would be the last Christmas Eve at my parent's house. Next year they will be in their new house and we can make all sorts of new traditions there. 

After a few hours at that party, we headed back to Craig and Terry's house. Tammy bought a bell set with a video we could watch to play Christmas songs with bells. It was extra funny because some people were getting ornery with the loud noises, and if you know anything about this family... once they know you are ornery, they will do the thing even louder, or more obnoxious just to be funny. So every time a song would end, everyone would ring their bell frantically and Tracy would do some sort of gymnastic move with her feet and arms in the air that seemed to get more exuberant and funnier each time she would do it. 

then it was off to the talent show. Brynnli sang a song, Caden read a book, and Mason counted to 100

And believe it or not... Tyler and the kids did their choreographed dance... with the promise no one would record it. (There may have also been another promise to get Makayla the app BeReal if she did the dance). Let me just tell you I have never seen people laugh so hard! I thought Craig was going to have a heart attack. 

Good thing I have a talented husband because not only can he dance, but he can play the accordion too. Sorry ladies, he's taken. 

Basically my only talent is taking selfies with Makayla wearing reindeer ears. 

We opened presents. Brynnli got a huge Barbie set from Bruce, Caden got a new basketball and Utah Jazz stuff from Tracy, and Makayla got a sweatshirt from Karly.  Tyler got a Jazz sweatshirt from one of the Joneses, and I got a Target gift card from Rico. 

It was getting late, so we headed home so we could telly Kitty the Elf one last goodbye and give him a hug. This is always one of the hardest parts about Christmas Eve, but we know Kitty will be back next year. 

We set out cookies and milk for Santa and carrots for the reindeer, then it was off to bed. 

Christmas morning we woke up to lots of presents

Before the kids could look at their presents we took our traditional stair picture. 

Then they were off. Bella even found her stocking right away and tried to get the surprise in it. And here's all the kids by their gifts. 

Bella was so happy to find Santa left her favorite bone in her stocking. 

Caden's big gifts were gel blaster guns, headphones, and a Lego set

Makayla's big gifts were a Lulu Lemon bag and a gel nail kit. 

And Brynnli's big gifts were a Barbie plane and a boat. 

The girls had a combined gift this year that is perfect for them: a tumble track so they can practice their gymnastic tricks at home. 

After opening presents the kids love to organize their stuff. 

And this right here might be my favorite picture of all. You know those moments that are glimmer moments... where you get a glance into the future and you just know that these three will always be there for each other? That was my favorite part of Christmas this year. 

Bella didn't really want much to do with her presents after she discovered her bone, but later on she was very happy to discover her new heated sleeping mat. 

We had one last surprise for the kids from me and Tyler. To figure out what the surprise was they had to go on a scavenger hunt around the house to find more clues. 

They found clues in the piano room, the laundry room, the fitness room

And finally the last clue led them upstairs to the playroom where they found...

This clue: 

"Oh golly! You've cracked the code. The mystery's solved, down the road. Pack your bags and hold on tight. To Disney World, we take flight! 

That's right... we're going on a 7 day vacation to Florida to visit Disney World!! We are so excited! We leave January 14. We figured that would be the best time to go since Tyler will be starting his new job the end of January. 

The rest of the morning was spent like any good dad would do... putting the many stickers on Brynnli's new Barbie toys. 

And playing with all our new toys. 

Later that day the Evans family, along with my parents, came over for lasagna dinner. We talked and played games and opened more presents. 

We all played Makayla's new game: Taco, cat, goat, cheese, pizza. Its a weird and funny game. 

The next day is our favorite day. We don't have anything planned other than to hang out around the house. 

Sometimes I wonder why the kids get toys when they would rather play with the boxes

One of our new traditions is to have Philly cheese steak sandwiches the day after Christmas. It started during the covid year and has just stuck. 

Well, as you can see we had a wonderful Christmas this year. I love this cute family of ours and the many old and new traditions we get to do during this season.