Abigail’s birthday was MUCH anticipated around here. Months ago Abigail had casually
mentioned she wanted golden number 16 balloons for her birthday. I took note and when she woke up on her
birthday she found her golden balloons and birthday sign displayed.
Abigail was most excited about getting her driver’s
license.She asked me to pick her
up after school and drive her straight to the DOL.Unfortunately, this was the most crowded I’d ever seen the
little North Bend office and due to a mixup with their “now serving #...”
system we got skipped over and it ended up being a nearly two hour process.We succeeded though and Abigail left
officially a driver!
After the DOL I finished up her cake and prepared her
requested birthday dinner of honey lime enchiladas.
We gave our dinner some time to digest before digging into
her cake.She requested a yellow
cake (who’s kid is this??) it was yummy but I’d choose chocolate cake any day over
yellow (what flavor is yellow, anyway?), but I love her so I gave her as she
desired and she enjoyed her cake for several days afterward.
Abigail wanted a small birthday party with just a few
girlfriends.We originally thought
we do an electric boat ride on Lake Washington; however, when it came time to
book it they were closed for a couple weeks and we weren’t sure we’d be able to
make the reservations on the day we wanted – Monday, January 15 – MLK Day. So
instead we bought a groupon for an escape room down in Tacoma.Abigail invited five friends to join
and everyone seemed to have a great time.Pictures were prohibited so I don’t have any of the girls working
through the clues to gain access to the different rooms, but I did take this
picture of the girls before we left the house.
After our excursion down south the girls came back here and
hung out until the evening.Totally low-key easy party and just want the birthday girl wanted.
Happy Birthday Abigail! So glad to have you in our family and grateful for the
amazing young woman you are!
Dec
5:December has been COLD!I
seem to be cold all the time these days – must be a getting older thing because
my Mom always complained about being cold too.Drew found a old mask in our winter gear and decided to put
it on one morning as we were getting ready to walk to preschool.This is the kid that spends most of his
days in only his underwear so I don’t think wearing the mask had much to do
with getting warmer.Such a cute
kid!
Reminded me of the time Katie wore the same mask to
walk Jason to the bus stop
And Jason wore the same mask while eating cereal
Dec
10:Attending the Nativity event hosted by our stake has become an annual
tradition.I think this was the
first year we didn’t volunteer to host during the event.We didn’t make it until the very last
night.Abigail was hosting that
evening so I insisted that we get our annual nativity photo taken before she
got assigned to her station for the night.I’m glad the kids still indulge me in this – I think they
actually enjoy it.
Dec
14:I
spotted a good deal on a Lego Friends advent calendar last month and knew Katie
and Drew would love opening up a new little Lego set each day leading up to
Christmas.
Dec
16:Tonight
our bishop hosted a ward council Christmas dinner and gift exchange at his
house.Dinner was great and the
gift exchange was pretty hilarious.Justin and I walked away with some pretty decent gifts and gave away some
junk that was just collecting dust around our house.
Dec
17:I
attempted a selfie during FHE tonight where our activity after the lesson was
to watch an episode of Masterchef Junior.I was tempted to just move these photos to the trash, but it’s actually
just another glimpse of life around here.Abigail didn’t want her picture taken at this moment so she was trying
to use Drew’s head to shield her.This morning Drew came down dressed for church wearing his church pants
and just this sweater vest up top.I convinced him to put on a white shirt underneath the vest for church,
but I kid you not within minutes of getting home he’d taken off the white shirt
and put back on the vest by itself.Such a funny kid.And then
there’s Jason, just being his 10 year old self.This is us even out of focus.
Dec
18:Justin had some extra PTO days he needed to take before the end of the
year so he took today off and we took Drew to see Ferdinand with some $5
T-Mobile Tuesday perks.It was a
cute movie.
Rough life for this kid, huh?
We then traveled up north to take advantage of a
two-for-one deal at Macaroni Grill.Turns out it was also kids-eat-free day so we totally scored.I thought we’d run a few more errands
before heading home, but Justin didn’t want to get stuck in afternoon
traffic.We also used our T-Mobile
tickets to go see Star Wars that night – IMAX, 3D - $20 tickets for $5.Thanks T-Mobile!
Dec
19:Drew
made gingerbread houses today at preschool.
When I saw how yummy it looked I knew it wouldn’t
last long so I set it down by the window to take a picture of it.The cute little boy of mine laid down
right next to it and gave me a big ole smile.Why would I even think of taking a picture of a little
gingerbread house without a cute little boy in it?
Dec
20:Abigail swore she wouldn’t miss a single thing by skipping school the
last day before Christmas break so we let her play hooky.We ended up going out to lunch that
afternoon – I told her not to expect such a thing next year when she’ll be home
from running start by lunch everyday.She wouldn’t let me take a picture of us enjoying our MOD pizza so
instead I took one of Drew.
Dec
22:Justin took a few days off before and after Christmas.He and I went out to lunch today and
Abigail took it upon herself while we were gone to make up a batch of frosting
and let the youngers decorate an extra gingerbread man she had. To use up the
extra frosting, Jason and Katie wanted Justin to squirt a bunch of frosting in
their mouths and top it off with a gumdrop.
Sometime during the month Katie created a Christmas
tree at school and today, before disposing of it, she wanted me to take a
picture of it.Ok darlin’.
Dec
28:In
addition giving the kids spending money, my Mom sent us a big, heavy box full
of STUFF – the kids loved diving into the box full of goodies, treats, and
presents.Not very often the kids
get an entire box of fruit snacks to themselves.
Dec
30:Justin was able to get some inexpensive fitbits through work so we gave
both Carly and Jason a fitbit for Christmas.Throughout the day you’ll hear Jason ask Carly how many
steps Carly has so he can see if he has more.When Jason wants to give his steps a boost he’ll run around
the house in circles or run up and down the stairs.I took this video this morning of him running around my
bedroom.
I wish I had the same energy that boy of mine
does.Notice I’m still in bed –
it’s 10:25am and I have ZERO exercise or stand credits on my new Apple Watch –
which I love by the way.
Dec
31:We
rung in the New Year with the Reynolds and Sundwall families.Great food, friends and fun was had by
all.Benjamin was struggling to
get the Space Needle countdown on the TV so it looked like we would ring in the
New Year huddled around his laptop.He pulled it up with just 30 seconds to spare.
Memorable events not pictured:
My annual favorites things party with Snoqualmie
girlfriends & the annual Christmas pajama party with my Auburn
friends.I feel so tremendously
blessed with the amazing friends I have.
During break there were many movies (including the
whole family seeing The Greatest Showman in the theatre and then listening to
the soundtrack on repeat afterward), games, puzzles, kids getting together with
friends.The battery on the van
died twice during break and we had a leaky ceiling we’ll have to address this
week.The three younger kids
played together non-stop and it seemed that there was someone upset or crying
hourly, but thankfully they are always quick to forgive and forget.
The Gibbs had us over with a few other families on
Dec 29 for a fun family New Years Eve Eve party.We sure lucked out in the white elephant gift exchange – we
got rid of some stuff we’ve had laying around for ages (and some new protein
powder that I found disgusting) – and only came home with one gift we’ll regift
at a future white elephant gift exchange.
Carly made the last minute decision to go skiing
with friends today and the plan is for the rest of us to take down Christmas
and gear up for reality tomorrow.
As for me I spent a large chunk of time trying to
get caught up on the blog.Abigail
told me I couldn’t do it so I had to prove her wrong.She also told me I wouldn’t be able to finish the Book of
Mormon by the end of the year and I wrapped that up yesterday morning. Feels great to be on top of a few things
and hopefully I’ll be able to keep the blog updated.The kids have spent hours scrolling through the blog looking
at old pictures and videos – that is why I do this.I need to hang onto these memories and this has been a
wonderful way to do that for my family (I’m still confident that someday I’ll
get it all printed in books!)
What a wonderful year we have had – we have so much
to look forward to in 2018!
