I made myself some Darth Chocolates for my birthday. I got a huge kick out of them. I also made some white chocolate storm troopers, but they weren't as punny.
I convinced Nate to take me to our brother-in-law Austin's band's battle-of-the-bands concert in Provo for my birthday. I thought it might be fun, and that maybe I could feel young again despite being 32. Turns out the opposite was true. Well, it was still fun, but I am too old and we left early. But it was still an Experience, and I enjoyed it.
Hanging out waiting for it all to start.
Just how I like my selfies, dark and blurry.
I told my friend and only blog reader Diana that there were too many man buns and slouchy beanies for me to feel comfortable at the concert.
Nate's wife: Ale, Austin's wife: my sister, and my sister's wife: Jessica.
I believe the band is setting up here.
The boys threw out a tshirt and it landed right behind me in Nate's hand. He knew how much I wanted a free shirt for my birthday, and he gave it to me, and I put it right on. It was a magical evening.
Nate's Great Aunt Margie passed away and her husband sent each of the great great nieces a piece of her jewelry to have. Kate felt very special and grown up.
Jude showing off his "glubs," and then getting made because his fingers weren't in the finger places.
We finally got some real snow! The kids were overjoyed.
Ugly Sweater and Crazy Hair Day at school. Since I don't own any ugly sweaters, Kate pulled this gem out of a DI bag from a neighbor. Her hair was half little braids pinned up with crazy bows, and the other half was a side ponytail.
I put the rest of Kate's hair in little braids after Crazy Hair Day. She wanted her hair to be big and pouffy for Pajama Day.
Well, it didn't turn out too pouffy, but she was happy with it. I felt like it was NOT worth the effort.
More snow! I did a lot of shoveling over the course of the week.
We went to my in-laws on the 19th to watch the BYU football game and open cousin presents. At this point in the BYU vs. Utah bowl game I wasn't too sure if I wanted to continue to watch and/or live. Turn out the game wasn't as big of a disaster as the first quarter led me to believe it would be. Also, I like my jersey.
We waited for hours for Scott to get home from work, but he never did, so we finally opened presents without him. Hannah was Hannah Claus and handed out the goods.
Jude demanded, and was given, an apple.
My husband is a turd. I wonder where my kids get it from.
Kids opening presents.
I got a sweet Darth Vader sweatshirt. Fun!
And then it was Christmas Break! Fun, right? Well, it was for about a day, then disease struck our home once more.
Marble run was/is a big hit at our house.
Kate came down with pink eye on Sunday, I think. I eventually took her to the doctor for some drops because her eye was so swollen and gross.
So, I had a car accident Tuesday after dropping Colin off at a friend's house. A guy wasn't watching and backed into me as I drove by. It was raining and I didn't see him until it was too late. Thankfully, everyone was okay. I scraped the side of my van along his bumper, but my car was fine. He was visiting from out of state and had a rental car. I was freaking out thinking I was going to be in huge trouble and have to pay and insurance companies and police and whatnot, but he was the nicest guy in the world and took responsibility for everything (which he probably should have anyway, but I was feeling partially to blame too) and because of his credit card company he didn't have to get insurance companies involved and the damage was small and my car was fine and no one was hurt and he even called again to apologize and double check that everything was fine. I was a mess the rest of the day, but seeing Star Wars with Nate helped me calm down a little.
White out! There was a crazy storm/blizzard one morning. Wednesday, maybe?
I made banana bread bars to take to the neighbors, but Colin is a turd and he kept snitching the frosting along the edges. It didn't matter how often he got into trouble for it, he kept on doing it! Blerg!
My kids were in heaven with two large cardboard boxes, courtesy of Uncle Grant and our new water softener.
Granny was kind enough to make pajama pants for our family for Christmas. The boys all match, and Kate and I match.
My pants are a little on the large side. I think I could fit three of my legs in each pant leg.
I both love and hate cinnamon rolls. I love eating them, but I hate making them. I'm not sure the love outweighs the hate, simply because it takes SO DANG LONG to make them. Maybe I'll do it again in a few years. I made these for Christmas Eve Breakfast Dinner at my brother Grant's house.
Christmas Eve morning Santa Claus came to our neighborhood to visit the kids. He was very sweet and kind.
More fun with boxes!
We got together with my family on Christmas Eve because my brother had to work the rest of the week. Colin loved playing video games with his uncles.
Kate loved playing with her baby cousin. She loves babies.
I was very vigilant with the hand sanitizer to try and prevent the spread of pinkeye. Also, I thought pinkeye was pretty much over. I was so wrong.
More presents! I swear, at this point I felt like the things I had bought for them were completely superfluous.
Christmas!
I left out some books and a flannel board nativity for the kids to play with while they waited for everyone else to wake up. It didn't work out that way.
Colin and Kate dove into their stockings and the family basket before the rest of us got up.
Jude loves candy canes. I think by the end of the day he had eaten 4 of them. Plus a lot of other candy. (And no, I didn't give them to him. He definitely snuck and stole them when he was poorly supervised. I can only guess at how much he ate based on the wrappers and candy bits I found under his bed.)
The kids got a big kick out of watching Nate open the presents they picked out for him. Nate was convinced every present was socks, because that was the only thing he asked for and knew he was getting. But the joke is on him, because the socks were in his stocking, not any of his presents.
We are so cool. I didn't realize what a hipster I was until I looked at these pictures.
Photobomb.
Fun with Legos.
Fun with lacing cards.
Jude preferred to drag his lacing cards around while singing the instructions.
Christmas was great. It was low key and enjoyable. And aside from the spread of conjunctivitis, it was perfect.
