Christmas Eve/Christmas 2015/Dana's Bday/NYE

On Christmas Eve Emma got her driver's permit :)

This is her taking the test. I got in trouble for taking it for some reason. So here is the top secret room that driver's permit tests are taken in. Shhhhh! Don't tell!


She was pretty excited when she got the results!


Christmas Eve night was full of our traditions.
We went caroling in a rest home...


Opened Christmas Eve pajamas...


And performed the Nativity...


Christmas morning was awesome :)


Gifts from Santa included a ukulele for Emma, skateboard for Eli, longboard for Holly, and "Marble Run" for Sadie. Everyone was happy!

Here are some of my favorites...
Dot Dot Smile dresses for the little girls.


I would have died over the way these spin when I was little...


Love these super cute "Best Friends" shirts! And the girls in them :)


Best of all, Jeff and Carrie's family were able to come out. Grandpa Bruce wasn't doing well so my mom couldn't leave him, and Sally with a newborn decided to skip this year, but we'll take what we can get!


Baby Benny is just the cutest!


For Dana's birthday (#47) and NYE, we got together with family at Joe's BBque and then invited people here to party if anyone wanted. We had 2 families come- the Bennions our dear friends, and Jeff and Letta.


Happy New Year!!! Happy 2016!

December's "To-Do"'s

December is a special month. It's also the busiest month of the year. I tend to get overwhelmed by that December to-do list. Each year I try hard to not just check things off my list, but really enjoy them and to treasure the holiday season because it's over in the blink of an eye. I did better this year. It was a great month.

It started off right with Holly's first orchestra performance.


What adorable 5th graders!


Next, I got to take a little weekend trip on my own to get acquainted with my brand new niece, Viviana.


She was UBER precious. I just died over her. You can see why...


Lulu came and woke me up the next morning. She is just the sweetest.


And I loved hanging out with my buddy James back there too.


We got to celebrate Lulu's 2nd birthday too while I was there:)
And she finally got to hold Vivi which she was super excited about. (She was sick so she had to wait awhile).

So sweet! The weekend ended too fast but I had such a fun time.

To help us keep the true meaning of Christmas in mind and of course to help this family, we, along with our ward, sponsored a family coming to the US from Africa. It was a special experience that really reminded us how blessed we are and how important it is to serve others.

They were super thankful for the items we donated to them. They were coming to an empty apt and our ward provided everything they needed to live. A family in the ward even bought then 2 new bikes! They were a family of 9 so grateful to be moving into a 2 bedroom, teeny apt. It helps put things in perspective a little.


My awesome husband installed his second garbage disposal...

He gets handier every year!

Lots and lots of primary stuff happened (but it was managed a lot better than last year:)- including these gifts for the kids...


We had a lot of COLD but amazingly beautiful weather.


I found selfies on my phone that surprised me by how the kids are looking older.



Our neighborhood won ABC's "Light Fight" contest by having the coolest neighborhood lights synchronized to music. This brought everyone from AZ to our neighborhood to see "Christmas on Comstock". We felt grateful we could beat the traffic by walking there. We're so happy to live in this awesome neighborhood!

Zion for Thanksgiving 2015

We got to go to Zion "Ponderosa Ranch" with Dana's side of the family for Thanksgiving. It was a lot of fun and we were even surprised by snow!

It was beautiful!

Oh and we got to bring Scout too. He was in heaven exploring the territory whenever we let him out. Probably his first time in the snow too!



We stayed cozy inside alot because it was FREEZING.


There was a lot of lounging by the fire.


Especially by the teenagers.


The little girls pretty much latched onto Dale and Angie's kids and didn't let go.

They read them stories late at night and were such sweet big cousins. They're great kids and we love them.


Holly took this view from upstairs.


Our Thanksgiving set-up.


Wonderful family time :)

November 2015

At the beginning of the month there were try-outs for this year's elementary school musical, "Shrek Jr." Holly and her friends all got minor parts- which worked for Holly because she only wanted a minor part. They practice once a week after school but she sings the songs 24/7 :)
Waiting their turn to try out...


Emma continued to "WOW" us with her art talent. Kinda like the guy top left. (Can someone please figure out how to add emojis to blogs? I can hardly type a sentence without wanting to add one.)

All these pictures are made from words. Emma's is the little girl with the big brown eyes.

Eli had to get his annual physical to run XCountry. I was amazed at how he took up the whole table when just a short time ago I was sitting him up on the table as a baby in a diaper for his well-checks.

I was given tips once again from the nurse practitioner about ways to add extra calories to meals to help him gain weight. He pretty much eats constantly with no effect but we keep trying! He definitely has a "Giles" body type.

I took Sadie out to eat and we had her "special" talk about the miracle of life. We went to California Pizza Kitchen. This pretty much sums up how she felt about the whole thing. Hahaha :)

Quite shocked and had a thousand questions. Even now she'll sometimes say, "Mom, you know that weird thing..." And I know another question is coming. She's so funny. We had a great date and I need to remember to spend more mommy-daughter time with her because I could tell she really soaked it in.

Holly and Emma had fun taking selfies in the backyard one day.

Love this one...


Sadie was a "movie star" in the 3rd grade musical. She did an awesome job!


And one of the best parts of November? We got to start enjoying those cooler temps once again!