Happy AnniVERsary! HAAPpy AnniversArY!

On January 10, Brian and I celebrated our 6th wedding anniversary! Woo hoo! It also marks 7 years since we met up for the first time following our missions. It's a big day. And the traditional gift for the 6th anniversary is candy. Brian got me my kids, and I got him Peanut Butter M&Ms. 

  We wanted to do something special, and we debated back and forth about what we would do. Lea kindly agreed to take our kids Friday (January 9) night, and all day Saturday (the 10th). We had pros and cons lists going for getting a hotel in Salt Lake or having a Stay-Cation. They Stay-cation won out, and it was awesome! We went out to dinner on Friday night, and then we came home and watched TV or a movie. It was awesome--but we did miss our kids when we passed their empty rooms on the way to bed. 

The next morning, we slept in, and it was glorious! We had a super lazy morning. Then, we got dressed up nice and hit the town! We hit up Rod Works to look for some bookends. I talked in a British accent the whole time--well, at least until we ran into someone from our neighborhood, and then it kind of got dropped, but at least we had a good laugh over it. 

After Rod Works, we headed to Murray and checked into the Cheesecake Factory and then visited some of the stores while we waited for our table. We ate dinner, hit another home decor store on the way home, grabbed our kids, tucked them in bed, and then watched a movie together, after taking our traditional anniversary photo:

Some might think this was a super lame way to celebrate, but after all the traveling and stressing we've been doing/having, it felt so nice just to give ourselves an excuse to do absolutely nothing except hang out with each other. It was long overdue. Happy Anniversary, Brian! I'm so glad that I have you to do everything--and nothing--with!

Happy New Year! Now Get To Work!

On New Year's Eve, we kicked Ethan out helped Ethan move to Logan so that he could start school at Utah State. Taryn was kind enough to watch our kids so that we wouldn't have to worry about them. She even met us by the freeway so we could be faster. We helped him unload his stuff

  

 And then took him out to eat. It seemed appropriate. We don't know. It's our first time sending a kid off to college! And we got root beer shots to celebrate:

Then we hustled on home, stopping in Ogden to retrieve our kids, so that we could be ready for our guests to arrive. My parents and Taryn and David came to our house for New Year's Eve. Because we hadn't had enough fun together yet. 

 We held our traditional early countdown for the kids, although this time, we used a short video compliments of Netflix. The kids had fun dancing around for that one.

 We let them drink some sparkling juice. I forgot to get plastic goblets for the kiddos. Next year...

  

 We tried the cute little wrap your arm around each other's arm to drink our sparkling juice. And we laughed at how much we struggled with it. My mom had to remind us! It was pretty funny. So, here we are, trying not to laugh:

 After we put the kids in bed, Mom, Taryn, David, and I played several games of bowling on the Wii while Brian picked my dad's head about the shelving unit we were planning to build. After lots of bowling, we counted down the new year, and then went to bed. Yeah, we're party animals.

The next morning, it began--the real reason my parents came to our house after just saying good-bye to us. We needed an in-house carpenter, and my dad is AMAZING! We've been planning and designing and re-designing a built-in toy storage unit for our playroom in the basement. In December, we got a few bids--and they were more than we hoped. We'd go down and look at the wall, measure, puzzle over it, and say something like, "We could build this if we were confident about making doors." Long story short, we decided to see if we could get my dad to come down and help. We found cupboards at IKEA that would work for where we wanted doors, but we still were a little out of our league; we needed the big guns for this one. So, we bought their gas (a great bargain on this consultant), and my folks came down to help.

On New Year's Day, my mom, Taryn, and I assembled the IKEA cupboards while the boys headed out to buy supplies. When they got home, the got to work. First thing to do: build a toe kick

 Next, add the IKEA cupboards. Mom and I had to model our work:

 David and Taryn extended there stay to help more, and it was so nice having them! David took woodshop in high school, so he was a huge asset. I don't think we could have made such quick progress if he hadn't been there.

Getting things ready:

My mom was awesome too, She helped entertain kids and make dinners and lunches. We had to keep those boys working, so we made sure to keep them fed. It was so nice having her there to help with dishes and meals. 

 Day two of shelving: Actual shelves! (They had done a lot of prep-work the day before)

 Putting it in:

Chelsea came with her kids on Friday, and it was nice to see her. While the guys worked hard downstairs, we hung out upstairs talking----and playing Trivia Crack. Yeah....

 The kids loved having Grandpa and Grandma back:

Taryn and David decided it was time to move on to bigger and better things. Thanks for all your hard work!

 Day 3 brought more work--and more progress:

 And while Brian took a break to virtually hang out with Adam in Texas, I got drive a few screws.

 More shelves:

 And you can't be working in the playroom with Grandma and Grandpa without having an impromptu dance party. I'm pretty sure it is in the rules somewhere:

 My dad helped Brian with a few of the face frames, and then my mom and dad hit the road as well, feeling confident that we could handle the rest on our own.

 Ta da!

We've been working down here in our spare minutes and we still have a long way to go! A week or so after they left, we finally got the crown molding up:

And I sanded and filled holes and sanded and filled holes and then started priming and found more holes and filled those and sanded and primed. I'm still working on priming, but I think I finally have all the holes filled and the sanding done. And now, you can all anxiously wait for us to get our playroom all done so you can get the final update. We're really excited about how our playroom is coming along. It's going to be awesome!

Oh yeah, Happy New Year from the Us! Next year, we're building an entertainment center for our party--Who's in?

Also, we miss Ethan. 

 

Simply. Having. A. Wonderful. Christmas. Time

Despite loads of good intentions that I would get all my Christmas gifting/sewing done early, the night before we were set to head up to Idaho (December 23), I was up super late stressing and sewing. But, hey, I finished sewing before Christmas Eve, so that's something. This year, I decided that even though Michael was with me when I bought fabric for our Christmas jammies, I would still try to keep them secret from him, which meant I only worked on them when he was at preschool or in bed. And since other things tend to take priority during the few hours of preschool each week (like shopping), and I tend to be done with life by the time the kids are in bed, that meant a few late nights when the deadline came demanding those late nights. In the middle of the Christmas prep, we were still trying to get things done in the basement, even after our original deadline for finishing the playroom was Christmas was dismissed. (By the way, we still have a LONG way to go on that room, but it's slowly getting there.)

On Christmas Eve, we tiredly got up, finished packing, and loaded up the car full of our clothes, kids, but mostly presents. Unfortunately, since we were so tired, we ended up snapping more and getting frustrated with each other. Oh yeah, and I decided that the bathrooms HAD to be cleaned before we went to Idaho. I had hoped to be on the road by 10, but I'm pretty sure it ended up being between noon and 1 before we hit the road, and by then, I was such a grump! The stress had really gotten to me, and my tired self couldn't cope. (I also realized that's why my parents often seemed a little grumpy on Christmas Eve when I was a kid). So, when we grabbed lunch at a fast food place, I told Brian to order just the two of us ice cream. Something about trying to eat ice cream without our kids noticing released a ton of tension, and by the time we hit the Idaho border, I was in good spirits again. After delegating the Christmas Eve Live Nativity script to Taryn, I had no more pressing deadlines, and started to relax---and it felt SO good! I'd been running constantly since--well, probably October! And I'm pretty sure I wasn't the only one that was tired:

The car ride was, thankfully, uneventful. We picked the last good day to go to Idaho--a snowstorm hit during the night that night.

We got to my mom's and unloaded all our presents, adding to the already enormous stack! We shared our Christmas Eve tradition of opening jammies with my parents, siblings, and nephew; I didn't want anyone feeling left out. I was originally going to make jammies for Ethan, since he was living with us, so I bought Utah State flannel to do it. Then, when I went to cut them out, I realized that Ethan doesn't really like pajama pants, so I decided to make them for Cal instead. We bought Ethan USU basketball shorts, and my dad BYU sweats (he's not much of a pajama guy either), and jammies for Taryn's family and my mom. And this year, I threw in slippers to our jammies. Michael and Brian were pretty excited about the slippers.  

After the kids got changed into their jammies (and my brothers--that made me feel pretty good), we headed over to my Grandparents' house for the traditional Christmas Eve program. This year, we decided to read Christmas children's books, sing songs in between, and then do a live nativity with a script taken straight from the scriptures. Taryn cast Rachel as Mary and Michael as Joseph, and my cousins were angels and shepherds. 

 The best part was when my grandpa read, "And the days were accomplished that she should be delivered," Rachel said, "Uh oh," and dropped something onto the ground. It was hilarious!

 After the program, we feasted on Grandma's pastry---my favorite part of Christmas Eve.

 SOOOOO good! She makes cherry and huckleberry. Cherry is my favorite.

 There were other goodies there too, but the pastry is the one that stands out.

We went home and put our kids to bed. By then, it was kind of late, so we didn't end up getting a family picture with all of us in our Christmas jammies. But, I did get Michael to pose in front of one of the piles of presents.

There were more under the tree and along another wall. It was ridiculous! And awesome.

Michael and Rachel slept in my dad's screen-printing room, and Brian and I shared a room with my two brothers. That night, it was pretty awesome. We watched Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles--well, they watched and I conked out. Still, it reminded me of Christmases from our childhood, and that was pretty fun. Taryn and David slept in the other room with their little boy.

We should have discussed appropriate waking up times, but I honestly didn't think it would be a problem. Michael woke up at 4 a.m. and then he woke his sister up and got her all riled up. Yeah, after trying to get them to go back to sleep, we gave up the fight and let them get up and look at what Santa brought them. With all our noise, my parents woke up and joined us. But, we weren't sure when to get Taryn up, and we worried about what Aaron would be like if he got woken up. So, we waited. Finally, I put my tired self back to bed. When Taryn and David woke up, the brothers and I woke up and we opened presents. David felt bad because he was pretty sure he woke my kids up when he let his dog out. Oh well!  

We had dinner at my Grandma's house that afternoon. It's a good thing they were only around the corner from my parents because it had snowed a good 6 inches the night before and the wind blew it across the road. We were worried about my brother Cal driving back to Utah in that weather, but he made it home safely. After dinner, we went back to my parents' house, and Rachel and I took a nap together. It was amazing. After that, there was probably more treats, and maybe a movie. 

The next day, Taryn, Mom, and I headed to the DMV, because that's what you do on the day after Christmas. Just kidding. It was my mom's birthday, and she needed to renew her license. Then, we went on a hunt for snow boots and snow pants. We went to Rigby and then to several stores in Idaho Falls. Taryn was unsuccessful, but I found both. We ordered pizza and headed back to Mom's, much later than we anticipated. After eating pizza, we got snow gear on and headed out to go sledding. 

 My parents watched from the warmth of the suburban.

 The hill was a little pathetic at first, but we still had a ton of fun.

Surprisingly, Rachel made it longer than Michael. It was so fun sledding with her because you could hear her just giggling the whole way down. 

 After hiking up the hill a few times while dragging a child in the sled, we decided to make use of the suburban sitting right there watching and made them play ski lift for a few runs. It was pretty funny, and made the whole thing much more enjoyable. The second to last run, Rachel was done. I think she got a little too much powder in her face. So, we passed her over to my parents and went for a final run.

We went home and ate Chili. There may have been a movie. By this point, we figured out that Michael and Rachel needed to fall asleep in separate rooms, and then we'd move Michael to his bed after they'd both been asleep for a while. But that didn't stop them from waking each other up bright and early in the morning.

On Saturday, we went out to lunch, and then Taryn and David headed home. Brian and I took my Mom and Ethan to see Into the Woods for her birthday while Dad took the kids home. And after Into the Woods, Brian and I got new phones and switched back to Verizon. We were tired of the subpar reception with T-Mobile. There may have been another movie that night. I can't remember.

On Sunday, we woke up to even more snow. My parents' 89-year-old neighbor dug out her driveway with his snowblower. The kids thought it was pretty entertaining. He plowed my mom's driveway and front walk.

 We went to church, and it was good seeing so many old friends. We debated back and forth about whether we should stay another day or not because of the roads, and after checking a few traffic cameras, we decided it wouldn't be too bad. The worst section was in Utah, and it wasn't too bad.

My poor exhausted kids didn't last long before they were both snoring in the back seat.

Michael slept for 2 and a half hours. He had a little too much fun at Grandpa's house. 

 We were so happy to be home, and we were happy that the roads were good. We got the kids in bed and unloaded the car, and who cares after that. We had a very wonderful and merry Christmas, and we're so glad we braved the Idaho Winter Road Lottery to go see my folks for Christmas.