we got up Saturday morning and went to our favorite sledding hill at the Junior High. We got new sleds from Santa, they are ones that you stand up on, kind of like a snow board. We had fun trying those out.
We came home and the twins and Lydia played out in the snow all day, they came in and switched gloves a few times because the other ones were too cold and wet, but other than that they were out there most of the day. They built a giant snowman and a couple of slides.
Our Christmas was really good. The girls got up really early, we let them talk and play and Marc and I got up at 6:00. We always start with our stockings, everyone got all kinds of fun things in them. Then we exchange family gifts, the girls all picked one of their sister to get a gift for, they all got very thoughtful gifts for each other. The girls also made all kinds of fun things for each other and Marc and I-bracelets, and fun crochet crafts. We stopped for breakfast after that. We always have this really yummy apple french toast casserole stuff that we all love and we have a glass of egg Nogg. Then we went back to see what Santa left. He left us all some really fun gifts, we had a great time opening everything, we took our time and tried things on, and opened things and really looked at them before going on to something else.
Hailey had Katie she got her a really nice jacket
Katie gave Lydia cupcake making stuff
I got this warm fuzzy mickey mouse shirt
All the girls checking out the bead set Katie got
Nicole got all the embordery floss that she wanted
They all got a new calendar-they love looking at all pretty pictures
Lydia got a big lego set-they have had fun putting it together
They all got a stack of books-they have been doing lots of reading
Lydia got a big scooter
A fitbit smartwatch for Hailey
And for the twins rollerblades-they were so excited. We moved the cars out of the garage and they turned it into a skating rink and skated all afternoon. I even put them on and showed them my rollerblading skills.
We got to talk to Kyle in the afternoon. He is doing good, he is still in the same area, but is with his second companion. They played football Christmas morning, which is kind of frustrating for him because most of the guys dont know how to play. They ate dinner at a members house on Christmas Eve so that was fun. He has had to give a talk in all three wards that he is over in the last couple of weeks. He loves PDay his district wins king of the court basketball every time. He is planning a fishing trip with one of the investigators this week, so he is excited about that. They were given permission to join a gym so he really likes that. A lot of the time they are pretty bored but are trying to make the most of it.
We got a white Christmas, it started snowing around noon, so they girls ran out and played in it once there was a couple of inches.
Christmas Eve was really nice. We hung out at home all day. We did some fun activities. We played a Christmas present guessing game, the girls were really good at it. We played Christmas Charades and Christmas Scategorries. We finished a puzzle. We all worked together on making a very yummy dinner. After dinner we watched the churches nativity video, and talked about the birth of Christ. We also opened up our new Christmas PJs- this year they were all a different plaid. We put out cookies and milk for Santa and then the girls went upstairs and watched a movie-Marc set up a projector and showed the movie on the wall-they all slept in the big room together.
We spent the month of December doing all kinds of Christmas things. We watched lots of favorite Christmas movies, danced to lots of Christmas music, played Christmas games, did Christmas art projects, did Christmas puzzles, made gingerbread house,and made lots of yummy christmas treats.
Nicole had some Doctors appointments in Seattle on Monday, she was having her Hemangioma looked at by a specialists and Childrens hospital. Since we were heading that we decided to head to my parents house on Sunday and visit them and then drive up to seattle on Monday. It was a great little visit, we played lots of games, told stories, and made wood puzzles. Everyone loved being able to see Grandma and Grandpa.
playing with the yo-yos, they still need to stand on a chair to be tall enough
We drove up to Seattle Monday morning-it was raining like crazy-the roads were terrible. We made it to the first apointment in Bellvue where she had an ultrasound done, it was pretty quick, then we had to drive to the main hospital in Seattle where she saw the doctor. They didnt tell us a whole lot that we didnt already know, there are 3 kinds of hemangiomas hers is the kind that got smaller after birth but didnt go all the way away. There is a lot of blood in it, so they did some blood work to look at clotting factors, the doctor will talk to other doctors on her team and see if they recommend a MRI. Nicole doesnt want surgery we were just wanting to know if it something that we need to be concerned about, if there is any risk factors or if it is nothing to worry about. The drive home was awful there was so much water and rain. We made it and were glad we drove home when we did, we found out that all that rain turned to snow a little later and they had to close the pass.
December is one of our favorite months, this year is a little different, but we are still making the most of it. We are getting in the Christmas mood. We listen to lots of Christmas music, watch Christmas movies, Christmas art projects and puzzles, we even made some Christmas goodies. We also really enjoy participating in Light the World in December, we have had lots of fun doing that.
Yakima put on a drive through light show, so we decided to do that Friday night, we loaded up on hot cocoa and drove over to it, just to find out that there was a massive line, everyone else had the same idea we did, we decided to wait it out, it took us about 3 hours to get through-was it worth it? probably not, but we made the most of it and had fun in the car together.
