New Year's and Tyler's birthday

We have always spent as much time as we can over winter break up at our cabin.  The problem was that, this year, we didn't have a way to get up there as a family.  Our Argo isn't working right now, and Christopher needed to get up there and fix the snowmobile, but we either didn't have time or he took his turn with the awful cold/flu bug that was going around.  He finally got well enough to head up just before New Years and fix it, coming back down to get the rest of us.

Thankfully, his brother decided to rent two snowmobiles this year.  That helped out a lot, and made the whole weekend a lot more fun.

The Chinese lantern flew a little better this year, but there was still too much wind.

Our midnight festivities were a bit early, this year.  We had a blast playing minute-to-win-it games, and then by 10:30, everyone was either asleep or really, really tired.  We made our own fake midnight and called it good.  I just love that Tyler laid down to talk to this tired doggie, and got too tired himself to get up again.

The next day we went sledding and sledding and snowmobiling and more sledding.  Kaitlyn and her cousin made about a dozen trips down the one mile road to get picked up and carted back up.  Christopher went with his brother on the rented snowmobiles exploring (and getting stuck a few times).

And we even played some games, too.

We had perfectly packed down snow for the whole time our guests were there, and then it snowed a lot more the night before we left.  They kids weren't really able to sled down to our car like they were hoping, since it was too much powder, but we had a great walk down anyway.

Unfortunately, I was starting to get sick myself by that time.  Everyone else had been sick the week before, and we were all amazingly well over the weekend, but I came back ready to crash.  The worst part was that it meant I wasn't up to much for a Tyler birthday party.  We talked to him a few times about if he wanted a friend party or a cousin party or a Classic Skating party or a party at home, and he mostly just agreed with everything we said.  I tried to ask which specific friends we should invite, and he would list one or two from different groups entirely and trail off.  As sick as I was, I just didn't push it.

So this year, Tyler only got a party with us at home.  He never complains.

I was so tired that I didn't even read the instructions right for the frosting.  It was only enough to almost cover the cake.  I just turned it around for the picture so you can't see the bare side . . .

I love that goofy kid.

Birthday snapshot:

*His classroom at school has two lizards for pets.  He talks about them constantly now, or at least interjects the word "lizard" into all kinds of conversations where that word usually didn't go.  I wonder what he talks about at school when he can actually see the lizards.

*He lost 4 teeth in the month after his birthday.  Keeping the tooth fairy busy!

*His handwriting is getting almost kinda legible!  I'm so proud.  I know it is really, really difficult for him.  I watched him read a spotlight form for church the other day, and write out the answers himself.  For him, that is huge.

*We read for 15 or 20 minutes in the car every morning.  He loves Fly Guy books, and books about Star Wars or Ninjago or Lego Movie.

*If I don't push him off, he will spend all day, every day on the computer playing Minecraft or Cool Math Games, or on his Kindle.  As soon as we put him in bed, however, he usually gets up and plays Legos until he gets tired enough to lay down in bed (with his light still on).

*He is the most kind and considerate person.  When I compliment him, he tells me "thanks for saying that!"  He loves to help when he can, and is just happy and kind to everyone.  Except Jasmine.  He is still sure she is the enemy.

*One day, Daddy was teasing him by pretending to not understand something.  Then Tyler unleashed his newest insult: "you not-knower!"  We love using that one whenever we can now.

I love my Tyler-dude!

Christmas

I remember that making these cookies felt like a victory.  In all of the craziness of December, we found time to make Christmas cookies!

Christmas Eve was held at the clubhouse by my Mother-in-law's new condo.  It was perfect, actually.  The space was big enough for all of us, with a nice tiny kitchen for all of the food and a downstairs room for the kids to go bonkers in.  Kaitlyn played Jingle Bells for the annual concert, and we played our Piano Guys song as a duet.

Jasmine played the part of Mary in the nativity play . . .

 . . . and Kaitlyn was an angel.

Christopher put the stack of music he bought to good use.  He even had a book that a violinist could follow along with, which was a nice addition.

This year, Grandma heard that Santa was a little too busy to come and visit everyone, so she dressed up and pretended for the kids.  The only problem was that she didn't fool a single child.  Tyler knew as soon as Santa walked in, and tried to talk to her and yanked off her hat.  Other kids loudly asked about it.  I pulled my kids aside and asked them to pretend for "the little kids" so they could be big and in on the secret, and that at least kept them from being too vocal.  It was really funny!

The next morning, I told the kids I needed a traditional "coming down the stairs" picture, so they had to walk slowly.

Kaitlyn likes to be the clown as often as she can, now.

But onward to important tasks.

Kaitlyn's wish list was short this year.  She wanted this exact American Girl doll, which was all of Santa's usual budget.  She was really, really excited.

Santa got Jasmine a real guitar, since she loves to play with her dollar store one that she named a "guntar".  She hasn't learned much yet, but she likes to walk around and play on it.

And as usual, Tyler was content with the first item or two he opened.  He found a cool LEGO set, and then sat down to work on it.  The box in front of him is a Santa box that he hadn't opened yet, even though his sisters had been done a while ago.

Christmas fell on a Sunday this year, which is my favorite.  I love interrupting present chaos to go and listen to Christmas songs! I think it makes the whole day perfect.

Heading into Christmas

I felt like there was a lot to get ready for Christmas this year.  On a whim, I posted on a yard sale group on facebook that I was selling embroidered toilet paper for gag gifts for $7.  In one day, I had people request over two dozen rolls.  Not all of them showed up, but other people ordered later, and I ended up selling 27 rolls before Christmas.  And 9 hooded towels. And I did a custom order, putting 12 names on separate tags for her to make Santa sacks for grandkids.  That kept me rather busy.

After Thanksgiving, we wanted to put up the Christmas tree, naturally.  We had sworn to ourselves (back in August, when we put off the task) that we were not going to put the tree up on carpet.  We needed to rip out the carpet and put down the new floor first.  So, Christopher got that finished as quickly as he could.

The two converged, of course.  I had people coming to pick up toilet paper rolls while he was working away.  Having the dining table in the front hall was almost convenient for that.

Thankfully, the floor really was a quick project in comparison to everything else we've done lately.  No baseboards, since we'll want to paint those outside in warm weather, but those baseboards are the very last step for everything.  We hope.

One thing that took up a lot of my time was being asked to play for the Ward Christmas Party at church.  Christopher and I enjoy playing duets together, and he's frustrated that he can't play in church on Sunday.  I'm glad they asked us to prepare something for Christmas, in that case.  Christopher was so excited that he went shopping and came home with an armload of books. We could have picked an easy one, and we did have those in mind as a backup, but instead, we worked and worked to learn a Piano Guys song.  "Oh Come, Oh Come, Emmanuel".  It was just too pretty!  It was a huge task, but I am really glad we learned it.

Jasmine danced in her first ballet show.

She told me that day that she wasn't sure she wanted to dance on the stage.  Once she remembered that she would get to keep her mug, however, it was decided.  She wanted her own hot chocolate mug from her "Hot Chocolate" dance.

Her best friend Avery is in a different class than her, but the same level.  Love these girls!

A few days later, we had the biggest change for us in a long time.

I don't know exactly why, but I had been feeling for quite a while that it was time for our family to have a dog.  Personally, I'm not a pet person, exactly.  And yet, I found myself researching and looking at ads every day.  We made a lot of decisions.  No puppies.  Those are too much work, and I don't know how to train a dog well enough.  No big dogs.  I actually like bigger dogs, but no one else does.  Christopher wanted a pug, but I think they are odd looking, and the only one we went to look at was intent on biting us over and over. I didn't think I could handle a shelter dog, who was probably traumatized, so we hunted ads for "I love my dog, and just need to find the perfect home for him." Which is exactly what his ad said.

Chewy spends most of his time sleeping on our bed.  I was a little sad that he doesn't want to play with everyone, but I can't be upset because he is the easiest dog ever.  He is perfectly potty trained.  He had one accident the day after he got here, and one during a crazy birthday party when a dozen kids were running around crazy.  Both pretty stressful times.  He loves walks and table scraps, but otherwise is completely chill.

And loved.  At first, he followed me around, since his last owner was a single mom my age.  Christopher fed him enough table scraps of smoked meat to change his mind.  Now he follows my husband around any time he is home. I'm not sure yet why I felt so prompted that we needed this little doggie, but he's part of the family now, for sure.

Family pictures

I had told Christopher that we weren't going to do family pictures this year.  We had a lot of things going on, and I just didn't feel up to matching outfits and dragging my crew through that.  Unfortunately, when I started gathering pictures to make our Christmas card, I realized that I didn't have a single good picture with all of us together.  One at Arches National Park with us in mismatched camping clothes, and one in Legoland when I hadn't done my hair or makeup or anything that day.  So I told him that he was stuck doing at least the bare minimum in the cold and snow.

I posted on facebook that I wanted someone to trade with, and thankfully a neighbor also wanted family pictures without paying for them.  So we met at the same location, took pictures of our own kids, and then took turns taking pictures of the other's family.  Perfect.

Photographer's trick - they were blowing instant potato flakes.

It was really, really cold, though.  The kids were not all that happy, despite the smiles I managed to get on camera.  The girls were mostly upset about cold toes as they waded through a foot of snow in dress flats.

I think that picture sums it up.  Oh well!  I got what I needed- a few good shots for the card, and to hang on the wall for a year.  Sorry sweetie!