December 2012 and then some....

For someone who used to post each week....I have gotten pretty shameful at blogging.  Back then I only had to neglect my own three children in order to get it done and now I typically have eight children running rampant through my home.  It may just be an excuse, but its the one I'm going to stick with for now. I have a hard time remembering what happened last week, so hopefully the pictures on my camera will be enough to jog my memory.

The month started off with a pretty big event...
THE RECITAL...*wish I could interject tense music "Da Da Da"

Ellie had her first dance recital. So fun right?!? Look at this angel. How could it be anything but  a wonderful night?
Well.......
She and I had a little disagreement over whether or not I should pin the mice ears headband for her costume onto her head.  She said it hurt and I said it was necessary. It shouldn't have been a big deal, but since we are both girls and mother and daughter...well it tuned out to be.  Check out the progression of pictures below to find out who won.....

It was so fun to watch her dance on stage. I do admit that I was pretty steamed as I sat in the audience and watched her ears fall off time after time.  I might not have joined in with the laughing crowd that night but I certainly laugh now when I watch the video.

The next big event for our family was Hudson's eye surgery. Hudson has strabismus, an eye condition he inherited from his mom. It basically means his eyes aren't aligned correctly, causing whats called a lazy eye. Having it myself, we never really thought much of it.  Aside from being teased as a kid it had never really caused me much trouble.  It was more of an endearing thing.  We always teased Hudson about his "wobbly eyes". Not to mention it was a really great indicator of when he was tired because it made the condition so much more visible. In truth we weren't even aware there was a surgery to correct it.  Hudson's Dr really encouraged us to go to a specialist and have it checked, so we did. We learned that it wasn't just a cosmetic condition.  It also causes problems with depth perception, vision, and headaches. The Dr assured us the surgery was no big deal with almost no risk.  I assumed it would be no big deal like the Dr had said so I tried to make is as fun of an event as possible.

We took Hudson to the store and bought him all the treats he told us he wanted; we even got him a whole bunch of movies to keep him entertained for what I thought would be a couple of days of just needing to "take it easy".

His recovery turned out to be a lot worse then we imagined.  It was incredibly painful and left him blind for two days.  The first day he cried non stop and would only lay in his bed with one of us next to him.  He said some pretty funny things like "when I find out who did this to me, I'm going to be so mad at them." He also said some pretty sad things When he realized we were the ones who had done this to him, he sobbed and asked us over and over "How could you do this to me?". It was heart breaking and we spent a lot of time crying as well. As with most things is passed quickly.  He recovered well, and is super happy he had his eyes fixed.

Poor guy couldn't watch the movies and didn't want to eat any of his special treats..  

                                     
The rest of the month was pretty consumed by Christmas.

We started a few new traditions this year.  We had enough Christmas books for each day of December.  I wrapped them all up and put them under the tree and each night the kids got to open one for us to read.

Thanks to Gram Andrea, Rosabell our "Elf on the Shelf" came to live with  us this month to make sure the kids were being good.  We had a lot of fun with her.  

 We were able to do some Christmas service one day and took the kids to Trafalga that evening to make it more special. They were so excited when we got there. They saw the small mini golf castle next to the freeway and shouted for joy "Disney Land!, Disney Land!" We didn't want to burst their bubbles so we just played along.

We tried out this 3D virtual ride.  The kids thought it was amazing, but it just made me feel sick.

We made our annual trip out to temple square to see the lights, with Gram Wendy in tow.
Sadly she never seems to end up in any of our pictures.

A friend gave us tickets to go to the Homestead for a sleigh ride.  Jenny and Ross came and we made a fun couples night out of it. 

You are never too old to sit on Santa's Lap

Christmas Eve!!!
I like Christmas Eve even better then Christmas day, because we have so many fun traditions.  The weather was really bad so we were trapped at home, but it was fun all the same.  We made yummy home made chicken noodle soup and with hot rolls and apple pie. We dressed up and acted out the nativity. We made Santa's favorite cookies to leave out for him.  We opened up our Christmas PJ's and put treats out for the elves.  While we got dressed we made sure to sing songs and be nice to each other, and sure enough the elves came and left us a game for our family to play. The kids were so worried that Santa might come and find them awake that they insisted that we all go to bed extra early.  We didn't argue with them one bit.

I know how silly this is and I don't care one bit. When I found these matching jamies early last fall I  started my Christmas count down.  I'm not sure I have ever been so excited.  Not sure I will be able to get away with stuff like this in another ten years, but I might just try :)

The Elves brought us Hungry Hungry Hippos.  The best part was that everyone could play.

Christmas morning finally arrived. Jake and I woke up at 6:30.  We lay in our bed full of excitement and anticipation waiting for the kids to run into our room. We lay there and lay there and lay there. Finally at eight o'clock they showed up.  We snuggled for just a moment and then headed to the living  to see if Santa had come.

Catching the first sight of the tree.

I love the look on Hudson face as Ellie opened the gift he picked out for her.
It makes me feel  as happy as he looks.

 Everyone got roller blades for Christmas.  So we enjoyed a family skating party on Christmas morning.
In true Hudson fashion, he had to make it a little more exciting by trying to ride his scooter with skates on his feel.

 Grandma Wendy and Grandpa John joined us for brunch...and again I forgot to get pictures.  We had Christmas dinner in Highland with the Powells.  The next day with went to the temple and then lunch with Ross, Jenny, Sam, and Erin while all kids stayed with Grandma.  It was sure nice, but we wished Nate and Kim could have joined us.  We spent the next bit of the Christmas break in Blanding with the Palmer's.

In Blanding we had some fun sledding behind Grandpa's truck.

Hudson road with Kate for a while and then decided he needed to try it alone so he could do his best to make it scary.

At this age I imagine they are watching me sled with Aunt Teal thinking I'm cool. In a few years they will probably just think I'm weird.

It was so cold!!! My face hurt.  

Even Grandpa joined in the fun.

 I turned 31! To celebrate we got to do some of my favorite things.

We got to go hiking......

We built a fire....

We had fireworks.....

We ate treats...

I got to spend the day with some many of the people I love!

A few days later Jake turned 31 too! He spent the day going to work.
Poor Guy!
Luckily he loves his job, and when he came home he had a house full of people who adore him waiting there.  

November

November brought us the first good snow storm of the year.  There is just something so fun and almost magic about the first snow if the year.  We were lucky that it came on a day that we had nothing going on.  We were able to spend the whole day playing in it, until we were so cold we had to retreat in doors for some hot coco just long enough to get all toasty and then back out for some more fun. 

Ellie loved sampling the fluffy white snow.

As always Hudson had to come up with ways to make the sledding a little more exciting.  He built some pretty good ramps, and had some pretty good wrecks.  Even Ellie enjoyed going over the ramps he made.

Autumn loved sledding, and true to her nature was not scared a bit.

The next day I had fun dressing the girls in their cute snowflake dresses.

A magical thing happened on Monday. Jake had the day off for Veterans Day which would normally be awesome, except for the fact that I would still be trapped at home watching my daycare kids.  I was pretty sad until....I got a text message saying that they would not be coming!  So we threw the kids in the car and headed out for a day of fun.  Our first stop was a trip to MARS.....

Then we stopped off at the Moon.....

Actually, we just enjoyed a trip to the planetarium, but it was so much fun. The kids loved the exhibits and the star show on the universe left Hudson and Ellie mesmerizer with a million more interesting space facts.

 After the planetarium we headed over to Scheels to let the kids ride the ferris wheel.  Autumn was too small to ride so she and I got to watch the others go around and around. I think Jake was the most scared out of the three.  It was such a fun day to spend together. We were so lucky to have it work out for Jake and I to both be free on the same day.

Before we knew it Thanksgiving was here.  The Palmer s came up to our house to share the holiday with us in hopes that Aunt Liz would have little Afton in time for them to see her before they headed back down to Blanding, but babies are never convenient and she decided to come just two days after they left.

Liz was such a good sport to come stay at our house and sleep on an air mattress even though she was just about to pop.

We were lucky to have Teal come up a few days early.  The kids loved playing with her almost as much as I did.  She and I had a pie fest where we made almost as many pies as we had people for dinner.  Its a Palmer family must!  We also got pretty excited to deep fry a turkey for the first time.  The boys headed out fishing and left the frying to us.

One night Teal and I went out for some girl time and did a little shopping.  She helped me pick out my fist pair of skinny jeans and this cute sweater.  We liked it so much we both got one.  Wish I had a pic of her in it too!

 We burned off some of our Turkey dinner with our EPIC game of soccer.  Most of calories that were burned off were from laughing so hard, because we were all pretty terrible.

Even Autumn played.

We all felt pretty lazy after a day of soccer and turkey.....and lots and lots of pie!

Hudson preformed a Thanksgiving program at preschool.  He said he was thankful for the whole world and his family.  We sure have a lot to be thankful for this year.  Too much to express really.  I am especially thankful for the fact that Jake was able to get a job he loves that brought us back to Utah where we could spend time with so much of our family.  We sure have some wonderful people we are related too.  I'm especially fond of the sweet bald guy and the three little monsters I get to be with everyday!

We are so thankful our sweet little Afton got here safe and sound, and we are so happy for Cam and Liz.  They are going to be awesome parents.