December

Darth Vader needed a friend so we made him a BB8. Brynlee and I had a good time throwing snowballs at each other (kind of), making snow angels and just hanging out in the snow. We shoveled the driveway too so Dad wouldn't have to. 

Finally got our Christmas present put together. A new bed frame and mattress. The old one we gave to a family in need and it was time for an update for us. It was the same bed I had had since I was 15 or 16 years old. This was kind of a funny story though because the first bed frame we got was a bit wonky. Some pieces didn't fit right and it wasn't really stable so we called to get new parts and they just sent us a whole new bed! It was awesome and this one still had a few problems but Ty rigged it so it was more sturdy. We gave the other one to Ty's parents and he rigged that one too so it didn't have any problems anymore. Their bed was even older than the one we got rid of so it was a good update for both of us. 

Necklace workshop at the Land of Salt with these beauties. Erica is such a successful business owner and so talented. I'm proud to call her my sweet friend. I cherish each piece of jewelry I have from her because they're all made with love. 

Traditional Luminaria with the Williamson's and it was complete with hot chocolate and gingerbread cookies. Yum! 

 

  

  

Ward Christmas Party. 

 

Ty's least favorite Christmas tradition, gingerbread houses. Or ours is more like a village. He gave up once his fell apart and I had to finish it for him. We had 4 houses so we invited Kambria over. 

 

More High love. Classes are still going strong and it is still such a fun thing to teach with this girl. 

Mommy Daughter Activity Day activity. It was really enjoyable. It was fun sitting next to her.

Her leader Ashley Butler asked all the mom's to come prepared to share a characteristic about their daughter. I put a lot of thought into it and decided the one I wanted to share about Brynlee is she is very forgiving. I shared the story about when I was late to pick her up from school when we lived in Magna and she was so brave but forgave me easily and quickly. She's not one to hold grudges. It made me cry and I hope it made her proud. We ate yummy home made cinnamon rolls and homemade hot chocolate. 

 

Santa Spectacular for Mimi's work with TyTy's family and the W Crew. We hit up dinner before the activity at Blaze pizza which was sooo tasty. It was fun to get to meet Santa, write a letter to the North Pole (receive a letter back too!), decorate foam trees, make your own bell necklace, do a trivia activity and eat donuts and chocolate milk. Brynlee asked Santa for a desk for her room and a Nintendo DS. 

  

WesTech work Christmas party at This is the Place Heritage Park. 

It was soooo fun to spend some time with Tyler and getting to know his coworkers. They had a delectable hot chocolate bar that we indulged in before catching the train up to the little village. We visited a store with lots of handmade knick knacks, a bakery with gingerbread cookies, and just walked around under the lights. We had dinner with the company in the barn and the trivia questionnaire was super fun with our table. 

   

Brynlee thought the writing on this present was pretty awesome. It says:

To Miss Brynlee Jade.

Queen of Squishies

Lover of dogs

Rollerblading Rockstar

Wearer of leggings

Ponytail Princess

and our Perfect Sunshine

Love, Mom and Dad

Apparently 9 years old isn't old enough to not be happy to blow out other people's birthday candles. 

 Christmas in Color. Driving around at the slowest speed to gawk at flashing Christmas lights synced to Christmas music, while watching the kids be crazies. 

Mimi and Papa planned an adult Christmas party with a yummy catered RandR dinner with lots of crab. We played games, did our white elephant gift exchange (I gave suckers with bugs in them and Uranus soap, Ty gave a hairy belly fanny pack. I got wet dog food, can't remember what Ty got). Mom and Dad surprised us with Hale Center Theater tickets to see A Christmas Carol. I love stuff like that so it was super cool plus it was such a good time to just hang out with the adults and not have to worry about taking care of kiddos. 

Christmas High Fitness class with breakfast at Kneaders afterwards. Such a fun group of people! We gave all our participants some lightning bolt earrings from Erica's shop (The Land of Salt) and a bath bomb. 

 

Kid's Christmas party at our house. We did a white elephant gift game, decorated sugar cookies, and watched How the Grinch Stole Christmas. They were all obsessed with the frog squish ball. Brynlee busted it the next day and had and absolute meltdown saying he was her favorite and seriously was screaming her lungs out. It was not one of our finer parenting moments but it was like pure devastation. 

  

 

Christmas Sunday

I was lucky enough to get to speak in Sacrament the Sunday before Christmas. I found out the night before that I was the only speaker. No pressure.  I've now spoken on Christmas Day, Mother's Day and my Birthday now just add another Christmas Sunday to that list. Ty says I owned the room, ha. Not sure if that's true or not but I felt I did fine.

  

We surprised Brynlee with an early Christmas present and surprised her with tickets to Hale Center Theater to see Wizard of Oz on Christmas Eve. She was so excited. I ordered the tickets far enough in advance that we got row 1 seats 1, 2, and 3. It was incredible to be that up close to all the action. 

 

Other December festivities:

I went to see my sweet friend Jill Rasmussen that had a kidney donated to her back in October. Wow. Her experience is humbling and she's a champ. I am so proud of her and her perseverance through something so incredibly hard. 

Merry Christmas 

From

The Thomas 3