December

 December was a busy month, we started out with Cereal with Santa.  This is a community event where you donate either to the food pantry or Toys for Tots and you get to meet Santa and eat cereal.  It was nice.

 Later that same day Tremonton had their big Santa to do.  We went on a horse drawn carriage ride and sang Christmas carols.

 Then they had lots of crafts for the kids to do and smores to make and eat and hot chocolate.  For the younger kids they had a candy cane hunt.  They separated the kids into age groups and got to pick up as many candy canes as they can/wanted.  If they found a blue candy cane they got a special prize.  Mia and Abby both found a blue candy cane.  Lily really wanted to, but didn't.

 Then Santa came riding in on a fire truck.  We did not stay since we had already seen Santa that morning and the line to see him was super long.  This day reminded me of the movies/TV shows you see that show small towns having these fun activities, it's just like that.

Later on this month I tried my hand at making sugar cookies, but not the kind I regularly make.  I attempted the frosting that you pipe on and is suppose to look really nice.  They turned out good for my first time I think.  Tasted good anyway.

 The girls had an art fair that we attended, it included all the elementary schools in the district.  Mia and Kyla both had projects selected by their teachers to have on display.  Kyla was also in the choir that was singing for entertainment.  She had a solo too!  She did awesome!

Mia was sick so she didn't get her picture taken with her art.

Kyla and her friend Maddi who both had solos in the same song.

Kyla and her art

It was parent week at the dance/gymnastic studio the girls are attending.  Lily, Abby, and Mia all have class on Tuesday one right after the other.  Lily and Mia were super excited to have me be able to stay and watch them, but the logistics of it all was difficult because Abby gets home before Lily is done with dance and Kyla and Mia stay after school for play practice.  So Abby just had to be home alone for a few minutes until Lily was done and then we went to Abby's dance class for a few minutes then ran home to get the other girls once they were done with play practice then we watched the last little bit of Abby's class then all watched Mia's class.  After 3 hours of this stuff Lily was very done, but even though it was a long day it was fun to watch them and see what they are working on.

Abby is definitely the most flexible in her class

The girl's elementary school is teamed up with Domino's for a reading contest.  Each kid has a personal goal they set for minutes read each month, then each class has a goal and then the entire school has a goal.  The prizes are mostly winning pizza parties, but a few specially selected kids got the opportunity to go to Domino's and make their own pizza.  Mia was chosen from her class and got to make her own pizza.  I only got a few pictures because the parents were encouraged to leave which I don't blame them because there is not a lot of room.  The kids could choose 2 toppings and Mia chose pepperoni with extra cheese.  She had a lot of fun.

We made a trip to see the lights at Temple Square in Salt Lake City with my brother Rich and his kids.  It was a chilly night, but still we had some fun.

They loved taking the escalator at the mall when we went to eat dinner

So to take a break from the cold and let the kids have some fun we stopped at the family history library and the kids played with the toys and activities they had there.  There was a green screen that they let you get pictures with and they had all sorts of different backgrounds to choose from.  Eric and I took a picture with the Tegucigalpa, Honduras temple.  Abby chose Paris, France and Kyla picked some beach I can't remember the name of.

Our library had a Polar Express party that we went to, there were crafts to make like ornaments for your Christmas tree and a hot chocolate reindeer and they had the movie playing if you wanted to watch it.  They also had the conductor there who was handing out trains made out of candy.  It was a little crazy and crowded because our library is so small, but it was still fun.

Abby had her 5th grade program.  She got to sing in a group with 3 other girls.  I didn't get pictures of her singing because I was busy recording her, but she did a lovely job.  I was a little stressed out because I was recording the whole program and Lily decided she needed to go to the bathroom.  We were right next to the bathroom so I told her to just go and she left.  She came back after a couple of minutes and insisted that I go with her. I had no idea when Abby would be singing so I was fortune enough to be sitting next to someone from my ward and asked if she'd continue recording for me while I took Lily to the bathroom.  As we got to the bathroom I found out why she didn't want to go in there...it was a horror show!  Poop everywhere in two stalls and pee all over the floor, so we moved to the end and found a clean stall.  Come to find out that she had already peed her pants before we had gotten to the bathroom so she had to endure the rest of the program with wet pants.  I luckily didn't miss Abby's singing, but it was a little stressful for me.  Lily even went to the bathroom right before we left so I'm really surprised that this happened.

That same night Abby and Kyla had their first piano recital.  They did awesome.  I know they had all their music memorized, but they put it up there because they were nervous.  Kyla was the last one to go in the program and I think it's because of her special surprise she had at the end.  She played her last song upside down!  It was neat to see her shine like that.  Lots of people talked to her about that afterward and I think it made her feel pretty special.  Both of their grandparents and uncle Jon came up for the recital and that made them feel pretty special too.

The next day was  Share a Little Christmas, a fundraiser that the dance studio puts on.  Lily and Abby both had dances they performed and Lily was so excited to be on a "big stage" and perform.

All of this happened in the first two weeks of December!  As we got closer to Christmas it came time to do our 12 days until Christmas countdown, a tradition we started a few years ago.  We have a special activity we do each day as a family until Christmas.  I didn't take pictures of all the things we did but some of the things were making snowflakes, eating a candle lit dinner, watch a Christmas movie in Mom and Dad's bed, delivering a 12 days of Christmas to someone in our ward secretly, making neighbor treats and then delivering them while caroling.  Most of the things we do are the same each year, but one thing that seems to evolve is the activity I try to make around snow.  I never know if there will be actual snow or not, if there was we would go build a snowman or have a snowball fight, but in case there is no snow I have a backup plan.  This year we made our own snow!  The girls actually really enjoyed this activity.  Here are some pictures of some of their creations.

Eric had a birthday!  We had brownies made by Abby and he opened his gift.

We also had our ward Christmas party.  The young women presidency was in charge of decorating and it is becoming very clear to me that I am not a decorator at all, like I don't even really enjoy it.  But, fortunately there are some who do and also have lots of decor to use.  The primary children did a skit of the nativity story, Abby played a shepherd, and then they sang songs and played the chimes, which Kyla got to do.  The kids were awesome, then at the very end Santa and Mrs. Clause came!

Lillian also had a birthday!  She's now 4 years old.  She is so funny, for several days after she had her birthday she kept asking if she was still 4.  She wanted a unicorn cake with wings.  I tried my best to comply.  I really do enjoy trying to make special cakes for my girls, even if they never look professional.  Hopefully they enjoy it too.

We finally did get some snow and when we did Abby and Mia built a snowman, they had some help from some neighbor kids because it was just too big to do on their own.  Lily just wanted to get a picture with it.

Kyla's cookies for Santa she made extra special for him.

Christmas Eve we attended sacrament meeting and then headed to Eric's parents for the Christmas Eve party.

We had a program of music and the nativity story.

Randy playing his accordion

The Durens

Ashley and Laura playing a duet

Ethan who just recently started playing the violin a few months ago.

Kyla also played the piano and Abby and I played a piano and flute duet together.  Hailey and Ashley played piano/ violin numbers too.

Lily was glued to her newest uncle all night long.

Lily played the angel

Kyla was Mary, Mia was the star, and Abby was a shepherd.

Then we made gingerbread houses.

We had a very nice Christmas that we just spent at home.  My mom and brother came to visit us for a little while and we just relaxed and played with our new things.  The girls had the rest of the week off from school and we really didn't do a whole lot, just played at home.

One of Eric's awesome Christmas gifts.