Early December

December 2:  Carly was recognized at the 1st term award ceremony for earning a 4.0 and Athlete of the Week for volleyball.

Drew was so excited to show me the “Mickey” cookies he had created {each set is Mickey’s head and two ears}.

I shared this picture on Instagram of Drew sitting on the kitchen counter while I was making some muffins.  The kid really does get away with just about anything.  Good thing he’s so cute.

December 5:  We got quite a bit of snow on Sunday, December 4th – usually school is cancelled for even the slightest bit of snow so it was strange that there wasn’t even a late start for the kids, though the girl’s buses were on limited routes.  Jason and Katie were probably the only kids that still had to walk to school that morning, but I figured they’d be safer on foot than with our car sliding all over the slick roads.

Turns out there was quite the incident on the road the kids walk down.  They don’t recall seeing any of it, but for all I know they could have been the kids the lady rescued. 

I was pretty impressed with the way Drew had entertained himself this afternoon.  I had no idea he would pay any attention to the colors of each card and I was impressed with how neatly he laid them down – usually he’s much more messy. 

December 6:  Justin took today off so I could chaperone Jason’s choir field trip into Seattle.  Justin got the kids off to school - I was upstairs and heard Katie mention she didn’t feel really well, but neither of us thought too much about it.  Within the hour the school called to let us know Katie had thrown up.  I think this is the first time we’ve had one of our kids puke at school.  Justin went down and picked her up and I headed off to Seattle Center in a bus full of 4th and 5th graders.

The music teacher crocheted bow ties for the choir boys – so adorable!

After our mini-concert the kids ate lunch and then as we headed out to the buses we stopped to listen to a street musician playing the saxophone.  It was so neat to see dozens of kids captivated by Christmas music and joining in on the vocals.  I think we made the guys day.

Back at home Katie didn’t throw up again, but apparently she slept most of the day. Justin had set her up with quite the barf bucket – just in case.

I still kept her home the next day since it hadn’t technically been 24 hours, but she was totally fine.

Tonight we went to the Bellevue Botanical Gardens – perhaps not the best night considering Katie wasn’t feeling well, but it was the last free admission night and we wanted to see the lights display since we didn’t make it last year.  We brought our big old stroller though so she wouldn’t have to walk.

Then we were crazy enough to take the whole family to Red Robin for a late dinner (on a school night!) – gotta admit we were persuaded to go because we had a free appetizer (Thanks T-Mobile Tuesdays) and a couple free shakes to redeem.

December 8:  My friend Laura convinced me to buy some Lipsense – I took a bathroom selfie to send to her and apparently Drew, who was taking a bath, couldn’t resist getting in the picture himself.   At least he was modest.

December 9:  Tonight was the much anticipated annual Girlfriend PJ Christmas Party in Auburn.  One of my most favorite events of the year.  And it snowed and snowed and snowed.  I did nothing all day but watch the weather and worry about how I was going to get myself 35 minutes south without killing myself.  I knew I could take a longer route and avoid Tiger Mountain, but even just getting out of my neighborhood would be really tricky. I posted this picture on Instagram with the caption:  I’ve never wanted a rain storm more that I do right now (or 4WD!)

In the end Jen decided to skip her husbands work party and go down to the Auburn party instead.  With her shiny new 4WD Highlander I knew we’d be fine – though we took a change of clothes just in case we had to spend the night.  We left Snoqualmie a few hours early to avoid any traffic issues on top of the weather issues and hit up Walmart in Auburn before the party – which was so, so fun!  I think I’m prohibited from posting any pictures or videos from some of the crazy activities, but this posed and composed photo shouldn’t embarrass anyone – except me who apparently has crazy glowing eyes in every picture we took.

I think I crawled into bed around 3am with a happy, happy heart.  I love these ladies so much and I’m grateful for their continued friendship after all these years – some I’ve known for 15 years!

December 11:  Another annual tradition is visiting the Bellevue Nativity our stake puts on each year.  Justin and I were volunteer hosts on Friday the 2nd and we didn’t make it back with the kids until today – the very last day.  We went early to avoid the evening crowds.  I think this was the first year Jason took the scavenger hunt seriously and was set on finding each and every nativity on the list, even if that meant asking our old Bishop Smith {who was the high councilman in charge of the event} for hints on several occasions.  And of course, we had to get a family nativity picture.  Drew advanced from Baby Jesus to Joseph this year – though don’t tell Drew he wasn’t Mary.  He had is heart set on being Mary. 

Looks like we have enough family members to cover all the major roles.

December 16:  Abigail was in the giving spirit this year.  She put a lot of thought into buying gifts for each of us this year and made all of her friends a fun candy train.  Carly was happy to go in with her on purchasing the supplies and make some trains for some of her friends as well.  

December 17:  Our ward Christmas party was this morning.  Each table had a gingerbread house kit on it and since my family takes up an entire table, we were on our own to create our gingerbread house.  In the end we didn’t win any prizes, but I thought we did an awesome job – though I guess not awesome enough to take any pictures of the finished masterpiece.