DECEMBER

Dec 5-

I got a kick out of  Murphy sometimes. Especially on this night when I was getting ready for bed and he laid down under the robes. But then when he sat back up and looked at me he was wearing Jesse's robe on his head. I sent Jesse the picture while he was at work. And Jesse wrote back "Haha cute dog! He misses me so he is in my robe" 

Dec 6

Again while I was getting ready for bed Fynn passed out in our bed waiting for me. His big brothers were at Jenny's house watching the Utes get their butts kicked.

When I came back over to the bed I saw him passed out on the couch and just couldn't believe how big my baby is getting.

Look at the squishy sleeping face. He's adorable huh?

Dec 9

Murphy climbed into the bed while I was making it and it's like he wanted me to make the bed wth him in it.

We attended the Annual Ugly Sweater Party with friends in our ward. Seriously so much fun! Everyone there makes me laugh and we have such a good time together. I wish I would have gotten a photo with everyone there. I remembered to do it when there were only the 4 couples left.

We also all bring a white elephant gift and the gift that Jesse brought, Jeff ended up with it. The fat belly fanny pack. It went well with his "World's greatest farter" shirt.

I was happy Jesse wore the reindeer full body sweater that I found  at Walmart.

Dec 11

I'll tell you what, you know you have a good dog when he's constantly getting laid on and roughed around with by Fynn and Murphy does NOTHING! He's such a tolerant dog.

Always good to attend the Temple with my YW presidency. We needed to figure out new advisers and specialists to request to be called. So we go and discuss stuff in the celestial room. It's been unifying for us.

Dec 12
Jesse was really sweet and bought me this poinsettia plant. And that morning I noticed that it was totally wilted. I was so sad I thought I had killed it. But I gave it a bunch of water for one last saving grace. Then the next time I looked at it, I noticed how perked up it was again. Oh I was so happy that I sent Jesse a text telling him it was resurrected!

Dec 13

So the boys wake up to get ready for school while I'm at the gym. Usually by the time I get home they are close to being all done and we can read scriptures. When I got home from the gym that morning and I walked in to Cyrus cooking eggs I was so proud of him. 

Dec 14- ZOO LIGHTS

Heidi had a pass for all of us to get into the Zoo Lights and she made arrangements for us all to get together on a day that we all could get together. Andrew and Emily happen to be down from Logan as well so we all got to have the cousins together at the Zoo Lights!

These are some of my most favorite people. Even though they aren't my blood family they treat me like I am. I feel more love and acceptance from any other "in-law" family around. I feel like they are home to me. I love being with them and they love being with me. I feel like I can be myself and their is no judgement. It's such a blessing in my life to have married into this AMAZING family!

Dec 15
Mike played his trumpet in an orchestra and we got the chance to go listen to him. They played songs from the Handel's Messiah and it was so Angelic and just perfect for this Christmas Season. The boys were so giddy every time they heard the trumpet playing.

After the concert we drove to Draper's "Tree of Life" and stayed long enough to get a picture or 3 before we froze our butts off.

Dec 19

That morning Ryker had wrapped a gift for his secret Santa at school. I took the boys to school and came back to get Fynn ready for school. I found him wrapping something and he told me that he was wrapping a surprise for his friend at school. He was so proud when he was done.

I was able to peak inside one of the corners to see what was in there. And Fynn had wrapped our broken kindle tablet. Haha. He was super insistent on taking it to school. He put it in his backpack and everything.

When I dropped him off and his teacher came to the car door to get him out he was telling her all about the surprise that he had and that someone was going to win the prize. He walked into school and I had to explain to her what was going on. I told her I just didn't have the heart to tell him that he couldn't take it to school. I told her what was inside and not sure what was going to happen from all of his planning.

We were both just laughing about it and how cute he is.

I never heard what happened at school. But he never came back  home with the broken tablet, so I'm assuming one of his friends ended up with it? Haha.

Dec 20
Holiday Sing Around to ring in the Winter Break for the boys. Gosh I just smile the whole time these boys are singing. Each grade, starting with Kindergarten and working their way up to 6th grade usually sings 1 or 2 Christmas songs and then a song in Spanish.

The whole 6th grade class. Can't believe this is Ryker's last year singing in an elementary Christmas Program. I remember just awing over his first Preschool Christmas Program and now he's 8 away from JR. HIGH! Eek.

And cute little Cy singing his heart out about "Mr Grinch".

The whole 3rd grade class.

Dec 24- CHRISTMAS EVE

It wouldn't be Winter Break without the boys being sick. Cyrus fell asleep like this for a couple of hours. I kept telling him he should go to his bed and he just was happy to sleep on the table chairs. Haha. ok then.

Also Jesse had to work on Christmas Eve. So didn't really have plans with anyone except to visit Jesse that night. We had dinner together and played a few games. One of the other fire fighters had his wife and toddler there. It was nice to meet her and talk with her and play games with her.

While we were there that night Jesse's captain said to Ryker "When we get our next call Do you wanna ride along?"
Ryker was all about it.
No joke, not even 60 seconds after that conversation ended a call came in. We were all chuckling about it. It was a motrocycle accident and Ryker got to be on scene with his Dad. Thankfully is wasn't too bad of a call he just got to wear a vest to show he was part of the gang. They were gone about 30 minutes and were back.

It doesn't always work out to have Jesse home for the Holidays, but we are a Firefighter Family and we make the most of the schedule that comes along with it.

We were going to go see the Lights at Temple Square but Cy still wasn't feeling great. He was cold and just tired. When we got home we got a fire started and watched a movie  all snuggled up in our Christmas jammies.

I took the whole week off for Christmas and I was just loving to have time with them all day everyday. I think about the blessing each one of these boys are to me and I get choked up everytime. They are my whole world! I love you Ryker, Cyrus and Fynnie.

Dec 25- CHRISTMAS

Jesse didn't get home from work until about 9am. The boys were SO PATIENT waiting for him. As soon as he walked in the door I thought that they would go crazy wanting to open gifts. But I was making Crepes for breakfast and they were hungry. So while they ate breakfast Jesse read them the Christmas story from Luke Chapter 2.

Then we wee ready to go to town on Christmas gifts. They started on their stockings first.

Murphy got a gigantic bone that he really was very excited about.

DOG PILE!!!! haha

One of the last gifts they opened from "Santa" was a box with construction paper, a stapler and a message with a clue to start their Treasure Hunt. They went on a hunt through the house looking for the next clue and each clue had a gift to go along with it.
The second clue gift was sunscreen and aloe.
The third- Swimsuits for each of them.
The Fourth- Each got a new set of luggage
The 5th - A Miami Beach puzzle
The 6th- Snorkel gear for each of them.
The 7th- A boarding pass for a Family Cruise!

That's right come April time we are going on a Family Cruise to the Caribbean. We are all VERY excited!

By 12:30pm we had to cut our chill time and head to my parents.

We played a few Christmas games and then opened some presents before we had to head off to the next place. Our desired Christmas Day isn't to run around to different family members houses. But I caved this year and tried to please everyone. I will not be doing that next year. My boys are getting older and we just want to have time with them all by ourselves. We are growing out of the run around on Christmas Day Phase. We are ready to embrace the stay at home in your jammies kind of Christmas Day (or run away all together on a vacation haha).

We left my parents house (in Layton) to head back home to pick up Murphy and to get out to Cottonwood Heights. We wanted to go to the Assisted Living Care Center to sing to some people that don't get very many visits around this time of year. But by the time we got there,we didn' have enough time to do all that before Tyson and Tayler had to leave for their next stop.

One of the funniest parts of our night there was our Texas Hold em' White Elephant game. It ended up lasting way longer than we thought. Every time someone lost all their chips then they got to pick out a gift. The next person out could steal that already opened gift or pick a new one. And so on until the final surviving player was left and could steal anything they wanted.

Dec 29
My birthday was not exactly how I would normally like to have celebrated. 1). Jesse left that morning for a 48hr shift. 2). It was Sunday, we had church to attend to. I had a YW lesson and meeting to attend to. 3). I'm extra mom-ing without Jesse around to help get boys dressed for church etc. 4).The boys made my morning/afternoon very "Pleasant" (sarcasm added).

Needless to say I was pretty grumpy half of the day. As the day wound down and the boys realized they should be nicer to their mama her birthday. They did get a little talking to from the father to shape up. Things were looking up. Heidi had also text me and knowing that I was alone on my birthday she offered to make me dinner and play games together. So I took the boys out to her house that night.

I read through several texts and posts and letters from close friends and family members that helped me feel loved that day. It helped me come out of my grumpy attitude and see the good people God has blessed me with. Especially my 3 boys! As much as they can get me feeling grumpy, they truly are the biggest light in my life! They are the reasons to make it to each birthday every year!