December 1st
Pictures with the Big guy in Red.
The kids were actually practicing their toy list in the car (which consisted of 2 toys Each back then) to make sure they didn't forget anything. It was funny.
Daniel got his first picture with Santa
December 3rd
First dentist visit
Andrew had his first dentist appointment. This boy has a BIG sweet tooth, which is the complete opposite from Josh. Josh will devour a vegetable platter, where Andrew could seriously eat an entire bag of candy. He'd eat candy for breakfast, lunch and dinner if we let him.
Thank goodness he had no cavities
I don't think he trusted that green paper bib
Julia's Christmas program
Julia was so excited about her Christmas program. Where most kids had to sing and dance she actually had a speaking part, which she had to say in the microphone in Spanish!. She practiced her lines over and over at home to the point that I memorized them. At night she wanted me to rehearse the play with her. She is so committed. Needless to say she did awesome, no stage fright or nerves of any kind.
December 7th
Making cookies
Before Spencer got really busy at work we decided to make some cookies. We did it for Family Night and the kids had a blast!. Andrew of course couldn't wait to eat his cookie.
December8th
Our Ward Christmas party
Flying solo this morning again. We had breakfast at the church at 8:30 this morning. I thought it was too early but the kids were starving by the time we got there( they usually eat breakfast by 7). They had amazing breakfast casseroles, orange rolls, fruit and chocolate milk. It was delicious.
The kids from primary got to play the nativity scene and Brother Billings from our church played the pipes in full costume.After breakfast we heard the fire engine's siren going and I remember that Santa was going to be riding on the fire engine around our neighborhood that day, so we bundled up and went to the corner of the street to wait for him.
It was freezing that day but the kids wouldn't have miss this for the world
Santa came by with sirens going full blast. He waved at the kids and threw taffy candy at them. They were so excited!
Although we were icicles by the time he drove by, it was so worth it.
I love this picture of Julia bundled up with the boys to keep warm as they follow the sound of the fire engine
I promised the kids later that night that if they did all their chores without me having to remind them we would go to see the lights at Layton park. The plan backfire at me, I was expecting a fight to get their chores done, just like any other Saturday, but as it happens they were done in an hour.
So out we went on a snowy day to see the lights.
We rode our car through the park and then walked through it. I have to admit the snow made the lights look magical.
A nice surprise
Spencer has been trying to become a manager for the longest time and last month it finally happened. He got a text telling him that they were going to be revealing the person they had picked for the job. He usually calls me at least once from work, but there was no phone call this day. I didn't dare call him to ask him how the interview had gone.
That night the kids and I made him a special dinner; the kids insisted we get him root beer. I figured if he got good news it would be a celebratory dinner and if he got bad news the dinner would cheer him up.
When he came home that night he didn't say anything but surprised me with a dozen roses which he sneakily tried to hide behind his back.
Here are the beauties, the most special flowers I've ever gotten from a Deli Manager
December 13th
Tabernacle Choir Concert with Alfie
Spencer noticed on the Sunday paper that Alfie Boe (the guy that plays Jon Val Jon in Les'Mis the 25th anniversary edition) was coming to town to perform with the Tabernacle Choir. To get tickets you have to enter your name into a random drawing. In my personal opinion, the role of Jon Val Jon in Les'Mis was meant to be played by him, so I was so happy to find out I had actually won two pairs of tickets. We went on a double date with Spencer's parents.
The concert was amazing!. Spencer kept telling me we were going to be in the upper balcony since that's what our tickets stated, but we actually got to be seated pretty close to the stage.
Alfie's voice is so moving. He sang a couple of Christmas carols and "Bring him home"(from Les'Mis).
December 14th
Julia's field trip to the Tree House museum
I managed to get a spot to be a chaperon in Julia's field trip. It was great riding the yellow bus to the museum. I was amazed at all the friends that Julia has and at her confidence to play and be herself.
She had an awesome time.
She got picked during story time to be a bunny and her big smiles says exactly how she was feeling.
December 15th
Employee night at Costco
We went to Spencer's work for a fun night. We got to sample one of Spencer's deli made croissant platter and I had some diet coke(yes!). After dinner the kids got to play a couple of games around the warehouse and I even managed to buy Spence his Christmas present
December 19th
Temple Square
December 20th
Pajama day at N.D.P.A
Julia got to wear her pj's to school this day. She also got to take her favorite stuff animal (unicorn pillow pet), favorite blanket and favorite pillow(princess pillow) and a couple of books to read.
I get a call from the school's office 30 minutes after dropping her off and she starts talking to me. I immediately think something happened to her but she just says: "mommy you forgot to give me my books can you please bring them to me". It was so cute to hear her talk so grown up like on the phone, of course I drove back to bring her some books. I picked Pinkalicius soccer and if you give a Moose a Muffin, She was happy about my choices.
The same day Joshua had his Christmas program.
While playing elf, elf, Santa (duck, duck, goose) Josh got picked by a girl, but instead of going around the circle he came back to me and said loudly:"but I don't want a girl to chase me" too bad I wasn't recording the game but it was hilarious.
December 21st
Our Annual Christmas Party
Every year Spencer gets a turkey from Costco and we shared it with his family. I make some Ecuadorian hot chocolate and stuffing and some potatoes and all the families bring something to complete our feast including Martinelli's sparkling cider.
We had a lovely night. Opened presents and played games, too bad I was not able to take more pictures of this evening
December 22nd
Letters to Santa
The kids were so anxious to write their letter to Santa. They had a great time telling each other what they were going to ask for and reminding each other about the toys they had previously discussed
The day before, Julia came home very excited because she had written a practice letter to Santa at school. This conversation took place:
-"Mommy did you know we are getting a puppy?
no, I had no idea
-yes, mommy, we wrote a letter to Santa today and I asked him for a puppy, so we are getting a puppy!
I don't think you know how that works honey
-Yes I do
No, I don't think you do. Santa calls mommies and daddies to make sure things are OK from your list and you know daddy doesn't like dogs
-Well but it will be my dog not daddy's
yeah but they cost a lot of mommy
-Well I am rich, I can pay for his stuff
The conversation kept going and going and you guessed it, it ended up in tears.
This little man was so tired of waiting for mommy, he just took manners on his own hands and fell asleep on the couch
Kitty was nice enough to keep him company while we put the kids to sleep that night
Almost Christmas
With the kids out of school I was encouraging some nice playing between each other. We were doing Secret Santa, where the kids had to draw a name and do nice things for that person everyday. It was great to see my kids helping each other set the table and get drinks and made each other's beds.
I had also talked to the kids about doing something nice for a person who does service every week for us. Immediately the guy who drives the garbage truck came to their minds.
The boys love to watch him pick up our garbage on Thursday's. Whenever they hear that truck coming down our street, they dash over the windows to see him. In the summer time they even go outside to wait for him and wave as he does his work in our street.
The decision seemed fitting, so we placed a big treat on top of a paper and set it on top of our garbage can and waited for him to show up that morning.
Right as he was coming down the street I pulled my camera and realized that my battery was done for I tried to get my backup camera but I was too late. When I heard Joshua screaming to him "Merry Christmas" I knew I had missed the moment. The boys were so excited though and talked about it the entire morning.
This day, all four of them were playing house.
They put Daniel inside of one of Julia's stroller.
My poor little chunky barely fits on that thing, but he loved being part of the fun and the free rides.
He was such a good sport. Julia got tired of pushing him around first
They also played with the Ipod for hours....
Later that day my little man had some fun while taking a bath. He can roll over now so this is what he did. Have I mentioned that he is getting his little bottom choppers?....I bet that felt good
December 24th
Christmas Eve
We had a good pack of snow on the ground, so we decided there wasn't going to be a better way to wait for Santa than to go play in the snow.
Then we made our ginger bread house. I put the icing on and the kids went crazy decorating it with candy while Andrew ate the supplies. They did really good.
After all this fun, we had our Christmas Eve Feast just in time for Spencer to come home and join us.
Every year the kids get presents for each other and they are wrapped and placed under the Christmas tree. On Christmas Eve they get to open one present before heading to bed. Our rule is that they have to watch the Living Scripture movie about the Nativity first (which according to Josh was way too long) and get ready for bed and do a whole lot of other made up stuff that Spencer comes up with to make them anxious.
Finally they headed to the tree for the good stuff, but no pictures because I decided to record them instead.
Josh got Andrew a set of bulldozers, Josh got his first transformer from Julia and Julia got a barbie doctor from Andrew
The kids set a special cookie and some milk for Santa and left it by our tree. Julia made some drawings for Santa to take back with him to the North Pole to JINGLE(our elf) .
December 25th
CHRISTMAS
Finally the most expected day of the year came.
Out of all the days to sleep in the kids chose this one. We had to wake all four of them up at 7:30 mainly because I couldn't wait any longer. ,
This was Santa's compromise about the puppy idea
Expressions that morning were priceless, they loved seeing the cookie gone and the cup with milk empty. They were in aw to see so many toys waiting for them on our living room couches.
Joshua's big surprise from Santa was a rocket ship that he didn't ask for. "I guess Santa knew that I needed a space ship". Julia's reply: "I guess we must have been REALLY good this year". Andrew went straight to Joshua's pile but was excited to see that there were toys just for him. Especially his new Toy Story 3 collection
I got the best present ever. Wrapped inside 2 layers of wrapping paper and a layer of huggies diaper was a mini Ipad. It wasn't the Ipad that got me but the inscription that Spencer put on the back of it. It read:"To the best mom in the world", and all the kids names were engraved under it.
Santa made a deal with Spencer and Julia ended up inheriting my old Ipod but Santa brought Julia a cute princess cover to make it special for her.
After a fun morning and some yummy breakfast, we finally headed over to Spencer's parents around 2 for some delicious brunch
December 31st
New Year's Eve
We were ready for this crazy season to be over with and get our daddy back. Spencer has basically been living at Costco this past couple of days. It was not a good time of the year to have him as a manager, but oh well we are just going to have to get use to it.
The kids and I spent our entire day watching movies and eating popcorn until 10:00 pm. Although we did take a break and headed over to Warrens for dinner. Spencer met us there.
For the first year ever we decided to eat our gingerbread house. Andrew of course led that party.
At 10 pm we skyped with my parents in Ecuador(midnight their time) and got to listen to the party that was going on over there. I heard my ants calling my mom on the phone and saw my cousins on the camera too. I really miss that!.
We then went to our back door to watch the fireworks show that our neighbors were putting out.That's it folks; a great year deserved a great ending to accompany it. So happy and blessed to have received 2013 surrounded by the most important people in this world to me: Spencer and our kids (Glad to have all four of them here).
Hope 2013 bring as many blessings to all of our families and friends
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