Camille and Cora come to visit

We were SO lucky this month to be able to host a lot of our favorite guests around Christmastime. Our first visitors were Camille and Cora, on their way from Florida to California. They stopped here for a few days instead of going straight to California, and we were glad they did. Dane and Graham both LOVED seeing their cute cousin, but Cora only had eyes for one of them. She was totally obsessed with Dane and followed him around everywhere. She was totally happy as long as she could follow Dane around and kept saying his name, way better than Graham ever does. It was so cute. And Dane was very happy to be the object of such adulation--he would run over and hold her hand and walk her to do things. It was adorable. 

Everyone just copying whatever Dane is doing. It's all about the big kid.

Dane and Graham like to play in the tub while I get ready, and Cora was happy to join in.

Cora and Graham decorating cookies together.

We got to see Brandon while he was driving across the country and stopped to visit us. Hooray!

We went one night to drive around and look at the fancy Christmas lights in a neighborhood near us that always goes above and beyond. The kids all really loved it, especially when we got out to walk around and look at the lights up close. 

This one house had lights that were timed to go with the music on the radio and it was SUPER EXCITING. They were all dancing to the music.

I loved having all three of these kids together!

Giving hugs before Cora had to go home early the next morning. 

Thank you to Camille and Cora for coming to visit! Of course I didn't get any pictures of the actual adults, because why would I want that? I really need to get better at doing that and not only getting pictures of the kids. It was really fun having Camille here though--I wish we could get together more often.

Joy School in December

I have to say--I have loved Joy School this year for Dane. I think it was the perfect thing for him for this year, two years before he goes to kindergarten. He has a regularly scheduled activity with his friends, and these are three kids we see each week at church and at playgroup too, so they are three of his best little friends. I am going to be sad to have it end, because he gets so much fun out of it. However, it is definitely not academic at all--which I have loved for this year, but I think he will REALLY love learning some new things at a real preschool next year. So we've decided to put him in a regular preschool somewhere around here, although we haven't decided where since they are all ridiculously expensive and have weird schedules that don't work for me. But for this year, Joy School has been perfect. And December has been a great month for Joy School. 

I organized a couple of Christmas-oriented service activities for this Joy School kids this month. I was inspired by the "Light the World" video that came out that weekend and thought doing some meaningful small projects would be more manageable for me than feeling pressure to do something every single day. I found out that Frisco Family Services does service projects for small kids, ages 4 and up, and I emailed the lady in charge and asked her if we could participate from home somehow. We filled stockings with toys and things for kids in the community that wouldn't get any. I tried really hard to talk to them about helping these other kids and they were so cute and happy to do it.

Dane helped me deliver the stockings to Frisco Family Services. 

I also got the idea to decorate Christmas cards for the residents of the senior center right outside our neighborhood. A friend in our ward said she did that with her kids a few years ago, and I thought it would be perfect to do with Joy School. We needed 50 cards though, and I thought that might be a little much for our four little kids. So I organized a party for our ward playgroup, asked all the kids to decorate a card or two, and then we decorated cookies. It was a fun, cute activity for the kids, and we ended up with all the cards we needed to deliver!

Then, at Joy School, we walked down the street to the senior center, brought the cards, and handed them out to the residents as they ate lunch. It was so very sweet. The residents were so nice and happy to get the cards, and they thought the four kids were so cute. And each of the four kids were so sweet handing out the cards. We practiced having them each smile and say, "Merry Christmas!" when they handed out the cards. It was a VERY sweet activity for them. I loved it. I would love to do this each year. 

And then! The true highlight of the Christmas season this year for me was the Joy School program. They acted out the Nativity scene, and did an amazing job. I was so amazed. They each had parts, and lines, and did a great job walking to their spots and saying what they were supposed to. It was absolutely adorable. My friend Amanda had these life-sized hand-painted animals that her aunt painted for a live Nativity back in California, and a lighted star, and it was a beautiful warm night in their backyard--it was so perfect. After the Nativity they sang a few Christmas songs and did a great job on that too. 

Dane was Joseph. This is him and Millie getting "married".

After the baby Jesus was born.

I swear, is there anything cuter than these four kids? I seriously loved it so much. I am so happy that we got this cute picture.

Tommy turns the big 3-2

Thirty-two sounds pretty old for some reason. I am way, way younger than almost everyone we associate with (this is what happens when you have kids starting young) so Tommy is much more average-aged with everyone we know, but it still seems weird that he is moving closer to his mid-thirties! I still feel like we are grad students, but in the last two years we have totally moved away from that life and are full-on suburban parents with a house and a minivan and 2.5 kids. Ha! It sounds even worse when I say it like that. 

Anyways, Tommy's birthday was the day after we got back from Houston. I was thinking about his birthday all month of November and wanting to get him something good and thoughtful, but he is so hard to buy for. Even he doesn't know what he wants! I got him a few things but then showed my love through making really good food for his birthday breakfast and dinner--which meant literally 4-5 hours in the kitchen between all the different aspects of what I planned. But I was really happy to do it to hopefully give him a happy birthday. It was a quiet, normal day--he had to go to work, and I cooked my way through naptime and the afternoon, but he got his favorite stroganoff and salad and grasshopper mint pie like he wanted. For everything Tommy does for us all every day, I wanted him to at least have a good dinner and dessert on his birthday!

Bacon, eggs, and banana-chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast. And egg nog!

Dane wrapped up a couple of sticks in Tommy's blue robe (at the bottom of this picture) and gave them to him as a present. He really really wanted to paint them with Tommy as his present to Tommy, haha. It was super funny how serious he was about this random present.

Dane also spent maybe 45 minutes making a blockade in front of the door so Tommy couldn't come in when he got home. He has interesting taste in birthday surprises. It took another 45 minutes for us all working together to clean it all up.

The pie--which Dane helped to make! And he really wanted Tommy to match him with their Denmark shirts, haha.

Singing happy birthday to Daddy.

Graham was trying to blow out the candle from his seat. So cute.

Tommy is truly the best. I always want to make birthdays so exciting and awesome, but usually in real-life expectations that isn't possible. So as low-key as this was, I was trying to show him how much we love him. He deserves the best birthday! 

Thanksgiving 2016

Up until about two weeks before Thanksgiving we still weren't sure exactly what we were going to do. We had gone down to Houston the last two years for Thanksgiving, and always have SUCH a nice time there, but the thought of packing up and driving there for a few days just seemed like too much work to me. We went too many places this year and I didn't WANT to do any more trips. But we decided to go for it and enjoy the family time. It would have been more work to organize a Thanksgiving here anyways. My aunt Kaylene is always so nice and says, "Just make two pies and come!" So we show up with our paltry contribution and eat our hearts out. The day before leaving to go up I was seriously regretting the decision, because I was just dreading all the work of leaving the house--cleaning everything perfectly, putting everything away, making the pies, packing ALL THE STUFF for the boys. Someday they will be able to pack for themselves, right? And they won't need bags and bags and BAGS of stuff? We always have to bring so many random little things, like toothbrushes and pacifiers for Graham and socks and sippy cups, and this time we had to bring about 5 types of medicine along with us. Gahhh.

But it was of course really fun once we were there. The Thanksgiving meal itself was perfect, and we got to spend the weekend with my cousins and their kids, which was all we could ask for. Dane and Graham were in absolute heaven the whole time. If we could just live there and go there all the time, they would be so happy.

These were the two pies I made this year. I was so proud of that apple pie. It looks gorgeous, right? And someone was eating it and telling me how it was absolutely amazing (without knowing I made it), and it felt awesome. To be honest, I cried while I was making them because I had to do the crust a couple of times because I put in about 4 times the amount of water it required on accident. It was the worst. And then it turned out we had 3 apple pies and 3 pecan pies! So mine weren't even needed, haha! But it was actually fun to make them, once I got over that hurdle, and I want to make more of them.

Tommy made a totally amateur parent move (ha!) and gave Dane a plate full of the amazing Thanksgiving food. Dane ate about three bites of mashed potatoes and a roll before running off to play with the other kids. 

We ate pie for the next three days straight. So awesome.

Most of the group that was there. Lots of distant relatives.

The kids were being whacky later that night, and Tanner took them and told them stories for half an hour. They were all so into it. 

Dane's face during the story. WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN!?

The day after Thanksgiving, we went to Brazos Bend State Park where they have an alligator preserve. I've heard about this place from the Colemans for over a decade and never been. I was nervous that Graham would get snatched by an alligator or something, but that was a super over-active imagination. We saw about four alligators, but from a distance and in the water swimming. It was mostly a nice walk around the little lake in some really gorgeous temperatures.

Everyone looking for an alligator.

Dane and Graham walked holding hands for a long time. Graham was cackling with joy like he couldn't believe his good luck being treated like a big kid.

The Colemans, Bodines, Colemans, and us. Fun crowd!

It was some beautiful swampland.

I love this picture. These kids were so cute.

They got to pet a baby alligator at the nature center there too.

Graham really liked Truston and kept running up and trying scare him. So funny.

On Saturday we drove into Houston and met Tommy's old mission companion/roommate and his family at the Houston Arboretum. We walked around there and just chatted with them. It was fun.

Chris's sister and her family were there, and between the three families there were 11 kids we were keeping track of. Graham was actively trying to climb down into the water where the turtles were. We saw some pretty awesome ones.

They were mission companions 10 years ago--crazy.

Graham had a rough day that day. He fell about 10 times and got so many scrapes on his face. The worst was when he fell off the ladder on the bunk bed--or something like that, we weren't actually in the room and are going off of the four-year-old's explanations--and got his first black eye. His face was all swollen. We let the kids just watch Paw Patrol the rest of the day and they were all super happy about that.

Poor Graham! He was a good sport though. We were glad we brought the baby Tylenol to help with his swollen face so he could sleep.

In the end, it was totally worth the trip. We had a great time with all the family and friends we saw. We drove down Thursday morning and came back early Sunday morning, and made great time both ways--I think that's totally the way to go to avoid the traffic. I am so glad we went, and I am also glad that we are not going anywhere for Christmas this year. For the first year ever! But this year, the party is coming to us, and we are really excited about that.