The angle of repose. I can't believe she slept like that. Three pillows plus an enormous bear.
Beautiful princess.
We got a bit of snow. Twelve inches in one day. The roads were terrible that first day. Icy, slick, unplowed. It's a miracle I managed to take Colin to and from school without killing us all. Seriously. Why did they build that dang school at the bottom of a ridiculous hill?! And why are all of the other parents at that school huge morons with a death wish?! Blerg.
We put the Christmas tree up on the 4th. The kids were good, patient helpers. They loved adding the ornaments. And then they loved removing all of the ornaments and strewing them about the house.
Kate loves to hold Jude. Gray gets jealous.
Kate whacked her brother in the face with her (hard) plastic doctor bag. He got a real good shiner. I don't think I took any pictures of it after it spread to darken his entire eye.
Happy happy happy. Jude has the sweetest temperament. If he slept well at night and didn't throw up everything he ate, he would be the perfect child.
One exhausted Gray. I guess Kate's not the only one who sleeps in strange places.
New outfit, new picture. That's how I roll.
I made fried chicken with Wingers sticky finger sauce for dinner the night Brad and DeAnna got into town. I had to text Brad a picture to entice them to come over and visit us.
Brad and DeAnna stayed with us for a few days at the beginning of their trip. Since Caleb's family is living at Granny's house, there isn't a lot of extra room for guests. We don't exactly have extra room for guests either, so it's a bit of a toss up. We were happy to have them though. My kids went nuts to have their cousins around. Donovan is always the favorite when he comes to visit.
Monday night, the 9th, we had all the cousins come over to eat dinner and build gingerbread houses. I bought the candy earlier in the day, and I had the inspiration to divide it up before giving it to the kids. Not a single complaint or argument over the candy. A Christmas miracle indeed. We even made legit icing to keep the houses together. I think everyone had a good time. I had to disappear for a while to feed Jude.
Scott certainly had a good time.
Hannah played with Jude.
After all the little ones went home/went to bed, the big boys played a game together. High School Musical 3 Mystery Date!
Nate, Ethan, Brad, and Scott.
Brad was the big winner. He found all the necessary accessories to score a date to the prom with Zac Efron. Huzzah!
After Brad's family left for adventures in other parts of the state, the kids were sad and lonely. I pulled out some shaving cream and baking soda, and the kids made exploding indoor snowballs. (The exploding part came when we got out the squirt bottle full of vinegar.) It made an enormous mess, but they were happy and entertained.
Still handsome. He looks so much like his daddy.
Thursday the 12th was my 30th birthday. I celebrated by eating all the Birthday Doughnuts I wanted to, thank you very much. (Four. I ate four amazing doughnuts all by myself. The sprinkled ones went to the kids.)
My sweet boy giving me some birthday smiles.
Nate asked me what I wanted to do to celebrate my birthday. I told him that what I didn't want was to invite a bunch of people over to my house, have no one show up, and then cry. So instead I chose to bake myself an amazing homemade triple layer chocolate birthday cake with peanut butter frosting and chocolate ganache (with the help of my sweet daughter). We had homemade pizza for dinner together as a family, and I got 2 hours to myself to run Christmas errands kid-free. It was a great birthday. Really.
The cake recipe actually made a total of 6 cakes of various sizes. I took the small one to a little girl in my ward who shares my birthday. We ate the medium one that night with Nate's mom and sister. And I snacked on the big one for the next couple of days, guilt free. It was amazing. I am a fantastic cook!
My birthday gift to me. I had to throw the clothes I bought myself in a bag so the kids could see me open a present.
The next day was my mom's birthday. She took the big kids to see Frozen at the theater. It was Gray's first movie. They all loved it. That evening we had our ward Christmas party. The dinner was great, the program afterward was too long, and then we stood in line to see Santa, which took forever (and we were like the 5th ones in line!) In an effort to speed things up, I insisted that we all jump in for one picture together and then move on. Gray was scared, Kate was mad, Colin was excited, and Jude was asleep.
And then the next day we had a bridal shower at my house for my fake brother's fiancee. Here are some pictures of the tissue bridal gown game. The models are my fake brother's actual brother and former mission companion.
The winning dress! My team won.
And the next day was Jude's blessing. We left most of the bridal shower decorations up since they were silver and blue. I changed the banner to say "HEY JUDE."
The kids put on mustache tattoos after church.
My sweet boy in his blessing outfit, courtesy of Granny Silvey. He looked very dapper. The blanket is from Ireland, courtesy of my sister who pretended to go to grad school there for a month.
The blessing was wonderful. And a sweet sister in my ward wrote it down for me, so I can treasure it forever. I was kind of an emotional wreck for most of the morning: we were late (well, later than I wanted to be) to church, and when we got there none of my brothers were there. One showed up just before the meeting started, one showed up after the blessing, and one didn't show up at all. I spent a good portion of the meeting trying not to cry. And my kitchen wasn't as clean as I wanted it to be (see the bridal shower above.) The floor and counter were gross. The one condition on letting them use my house for the shower was that they clean up before and after. No such luck. And then, to cap it all off, none of the friends we invited were able to make to our house after church to celebrate with us. (See previous posts.) (Also, they were sick, so it's not like no one likes me, but that's still how it felt at the time to an irrational, emotional mother.) Our family was there, and I did appreciate that. Really. I know I sound like a huge whiner, but in the moment it was a big deal and I was really upset. I knew I was being ridiculous about insignificant things, but it took me a while to get it together. I'm not proud of this. Anyway, that's how the beginning of December went. And now, on to Christmas!
No comments:
Post a Comment