Cookies, pirates, and a play set

Way back in May we bought a play set to put in our backyard for the kids. Unfortunately, we had to wait a good 6 months for our tree guy to cut down some trees to make the room, so here we are in December finally constructing it.

We asked the missionaries to help, along with our friend Sam Knight who happens to be a contractor. I don't know what we would have done without Sam's help! 

I had assumed it would take all of 4 or 5 hours to put it together.



Nope. The missionaries stayed for a few hours, then George and Sam spent the next 10 hours in the freezing cold drilling holes and screwing things together.

That same day, George's parents came to visit with Der and his son Owen. It was nice to visit and to meet Owen for the first time.

Sara and her kiddos stayed and played all day (we loved it!) and finally around 11 p.m. the guys called it quits.


There were still a couple slides to build and attach and a few other odds and ends, but it was almost done! Yay!



It wouldn't be the Christmas season without baking and decorating some sugar cookies. While the boys were at school, Lily helped me roll some out.

I love this stinker of mine. She's loud and crazy and has more sass than her tiny body can hold in, but if you catch her in the right moment she is as tender and sweet as can be. 

Every year I love watching the boys decorate their cookies. They each have their own way and it's fun to see how their personalities shine.

Jude with his "larger than life" personality was gung-ho about decorating and made sure to cover every single bit of cookie.

Lily would decorate one, eat it, and move on to the next. 

Why save it for later when you can enjoy it now?

Cole decorated all of his blue. No surprise there. His favorite color is still blue, but he recently told me that his favorite colors are "blue and pink and red and green." Way to branch out, buddy.

I was decorating cookies to give away:


Cole saw mine and thought they were pretty neat and went to work creating his own.

It turned out perfect! Cole is quite artistic and is a bit of a perfectionist. 

I had the pleasure of attending a special musical performance by the 5th grade. Lance and his classmates dressed up as pirates and got to sing several songs. I thought it was great!

We were supposed to come up with a pirate outfit and poor Lance was really worried his wouldn't fit the ticket, but he ended up thinking he looked the best out of his friends. Woo Hoo! Mom win!

Striking a "pirate" pose:

In other news, Lily had her very first dental check-up and everything looks good! She even sat (mostly) still while they cleaned her teeth.

I'm still plugging away in the Primary Presidency. Most Sundays George is working and the kids and I are running late, so we sneak into the Primary room and listen to Sacrament Meeting while we set up chairs and rearrange for Sharing Time. The kids like this because they can draw on the chalkboard and I like it because I can get things ready for Primary AND listen to the talks at the same time. It's a win-win! 

Our elf Ze has been doing silly tricks as of late. He's appeared in Jude's snake's tank one day...


...and even in Lily's boot!

He's a sneaky one!


One Saturday night we all got together as a family and watched "The Santa Clause" movie. It was most of the kids' first time seeing it and I was excited to share such a fun movie with them.

Popcorn, blankets, and a warm daddy to snuggle makes everyone happy!

We are counting down the days until Christmas!

2016 Family Christmas letter

No more mole for Cole!

Cole was born with a birthmark on his left temple close to his eye. It started out flush with the skin and small, but had become raised and larger as he grew. While dermatologists and pediatricians assured us that it was benign, Cole had mentioned a few times that he didn't like it and wanted it to "go away". George and I debated the removal for a long time and finally decided that sooner was better than later.

December 7th was the day. Cole was a little nervous and told me that he now wanted to keep his mole, but after a pep talk and some snuggles with our Elf on the Shelf pet "Paw", he settled in for the pre-op wait.

He was such a trooper and was in good spirits while they took his history and got everything ready.

Thankfully, Doctor Daddy was there to help him with his awesome hat.

Snuggling with Lily while they watched cartoons and waited for the doctors to come in.

They tried to give him so medicine to "relax" him before taking him back, but Cole refused. George and I held him while we squirted it down his throat, but that ended up being a bad idea. He vomited most of it. Poor guy! Some must have made it, though, because by the time they were wheeling him back to surgery, he was pretty dreamy.

George stayed with him in the preop as they prepped him while I took the girls to the waiting room.

It was less than an hour before we were being called back to the preop room. Surgery was over! They were able to get the whole lesion in one go.

Cole had a hard time waking up and was sad for a good 90 minutes before he finally "woke up" and was his normal sweet self. Man, I don't know if most people react this way to anesthesia, but both Cole and Lance have had rough experiences coming out of it. 

It looks good!

Babies, trains, and Elf pets

December is my all-time favorite month. Even though it leaves me exhausted and wishing there were more hours in the day, I love the excitement and all the activities.

This little girl is now almost 6 months old! She is army crawling really well and when she says "da da", we're pretty sure she means George.

She's also trying to sit up on her own!

Lily is a good big sister (when she's not laying on top of her or "loving on her" with her feet). I think these two are going to be fast friends as soon as Lexi can keep up.

Cole is still Polar Express obsessed and is convinced he's getting an O-gauge Polar Express train set for Christmas. If you look closely,  you can almost see the words Polar Express going from right to left in this picture, along with a plate of train-shaped Christmas cookies and carrots for the reindeer.

Can you tell what this is a picture of?

Can you tell he's in the Christmas spirit? Cole will sit for an hour at a time at the kitchen table and draw. He used to draw mostly trains, but lately he's been drawing Santa, elves, Christmas trees, and other Christmas-themed pictures. I love it!

Speaking of the Polar Express, we finally broke out our train set and this little boy was in heaven!

It just wouldn't be Christmas without this guy:

My Grandma Brewer sewed this Santa for me when I was a baby. He's old and yellowing, but I love him! 

Our Elf Ze made his first appearance on December 1st, bringing with him a Lego Advent calendar. We'll have to see what awesome shenanigans Ze gets into this year.

Aunt Jen got Lily these cute slippers over the Thanksgiving holiday and she spent a good week wearing them everywhere. No real shoes for this girl, just her "claw slippers".

Cole isn't the only one who enjoys driving the train!

We were at Michaels one day and Cole saw this cute dragon and asked for it for Christmas. This boy loves baby animals and the color pink. Blue is still his favorite, but pink is a close second.

Christmas list ideas from the kids:

The kids had been begging for Ze to get a pet, and one morning we woke up to this:

Yay! We were worried we wouldn't be allowed to touch the deer, or he could lose his magic like Ze, but luckily, the book that came with the reindeer said we can totally snuggle this guy. Cole immediately adopted him and insisted on the name "Paw". The other kids had their own ideas, but finally gave in. Welcome to the family, Paw!

Whispers of Christmases past...

Decorating our Christmas tree is one of my favorite Christmas traditions. I have inherited all my ornaments that have been collected over the years, and every Christmas we get them out and select our favorites to hang. It's like a walk down memory lane: the snowman bell my Dad individualized for each child by drawing different patterns on the scarves; the sweet red satin bird my Grandma Brewer sewed; the cross-stitched rocking horse my Grandma Allred made; the brightly painted wooden birds from Guatemala, sent when I was tiny while my Grandparents served a mission there; the homemade quilted balls from the year all our decorations were in storage right after my family moved from Ohio to Virginia. We have wooden reindeer the kids made from clothespins, glass balls painted by tiny hands, picture ornaments from each year of each child's life--more ornaments than our tree could possibly hold.

As we've done since I was little, we turned on some Christmas music, put a pot of hot chocolate on the stove to warm, and decorated our tree with the whispers of Christmases past.

Cole was very excited to find a star and insisted he hang it at the top of the tree. Because that's where the star belongs.

Even though our tree could never hold every ornament, each one holds a special place in my heart--a perfect reminder of family, love, and togetherness.