December is always a very busy month, trying to get the fun traditional things in, finishing up school for winter break, and just enjoying life. I'm not going to lie, I had a few hard weeks in December where I felt like I was just going through the motions and feeling down and struggling with that because I have so much to be grateful for. I felt tired a lot and was getting almost daily headaches. I know lack of sleep and dealing with sickness after sickness with the girls didn't help this at all. There are going to be days and even months like that, but I just kept trying everyday and looking for the simple joys in the life. So here's some little moments and also some planned and fun things we did so far in December.
Christmas tree photo shoot- McCall is so much fun this Christmas. It is truly magical and I love her little "wows" with all the Christmas lights.
McCall has realized the joy of jumping in puddles and it's the cutest thing! She always comes in soaking wet and now goes straight for puddles when we go out on a walk. I may have to see if I can find some little rain boots.
Paige is looking so grown up and like a teenager these days.
For one of our combined activities for the young men and young women in our ward, we did an etiquette night and it was wonderful. It was so fancy and it was nice to be part of such a lovely evening.
We had two concerts one night that we got to attend. Baylor had a winter concert and it was so funny to watch. Being in kindergarten, pretty much all of the songs had hand motions and she refused to do any of them. She did sing which was great, but it was so funny to watch. Then Paige had a winter orchestra concert. They did so good and it was beautiful to listen to.
Paige had two gymnastic meets in December. The first one just Nate went to since when I picked up Baylor from school, she had thrown up at school and was pretty sick. Paige is loving gymnastics and is loving doing the beam and is improving every week.
McCall loved playing in the sink and was soaking wet by the end of it. :)
One Wednesday afternoon right after school we went up to Bellevue to see all their nativities. They do it every year at the church next to the temple. The set up is INCREDIBLE! They have a Christ room which is so amazing and I cried as we walked through it. I was just filled with so much love for my Savior and for my sweet family that I get to experience life with.
Then Paige and Baylor worked together on a little scavenger hunt to find certain things within all the nativities.
Then we wandered through the different rooms in the hallways. There was a craft room and a snowflake room with even more nativities.
And a cute little dress up room.
Then afterwards we walked around the temple for a bit.
Then the following Wednesday, I took Paige and Baylor and Paige's friend Emily and her little sister Natalie to go "shop" and wrap presents for the forgotten children's fund. I've done this every year for awhile now and it is always a fun experience and it's neat to shop for someone in need and think of them and imagine how excited they will be when they open the presents on Christmas.
Paige had another meet and this time we were all finally able to go and watch. She is amazing and it is incredible to watch her. She is graceful and so brave.
We had our ward's Christmas party which is always a highlight for this time of year.
And we always have the best Santa pictures. Baylor is still not a fan of sitting on Santa's lap at all
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We had our annual cookies and caroling with the youth and I spent most of the day making a couple different cookies and some maple twists for the youth to enjoy after we were done. My kitchen was a disastrous, but everything turned out good.
Usually a quiet McCall equals trouble and a big mess to clean up but found her playing with the dolls.
Baylor had spirit week the whole last week of school and one day was take anything but a backpack and she was so excited to take the shopping cart like Paige did last year.
Poor Paige had quite the ordeal last Friday and got four permanent teeth pulled in preparation for braces. She has absolutely no space in her mouth for all her teeth so the best option was removing permanent teeth to make room for it all. She ended up also having a baby tooth removed that was in the way of one of her permanent teeth and that was already loose. It was her first time getting at IV and that wasn't a good experience for her. They had to do it twice because they couldn't get it the first time. They ended up giving her some laughing gas to help calm her and then she was out. She did so good and was incredibly brave. Her recovering has gone by much faster and better than I expected which has been amazing.
Nate has been growing his hair out for years now and it is longer than all of his girls. It was getting a big straggly at the ends and so he let me give it a little trim and it looks so much better. Paige got to trim some and she ended up trimming my hair and I gave her hair a trim too. I'm a little jealous of how incredible Nate's hair is and how naturally curly it is. I so wish my hair was more like his and hopefully our girls have his hair and not mine.
Now to enjoy two weeks of family time and Christmas!!!
