Christmas Card 2016

This year we added 3 more chickens, 2 cats, and 1 new baby brother to our family. Which means, we spent a lot of time researching bigger cars, rearranging bedrooms, and surviving the summer pregnant. Cal arrived in September and has been a happy, bright-eyed little guy ever since.

We're still trying our hand at being amateur homesteaders. One day the kids found 32 eggs under the wood pile where our rouge hen had kept them hidden for a month. We grew beets for the first time, and canned over 500 peaches.

The kids are keeping us busy with all their extra curriculars, but we love it. Aaron was able to leave the country for the first time, spending two weeks in Honduras for work. We are grateful for this time of year, and for each of you. Merry Christmas!

-Aaron, Krystal, Lincoln, Ivan, Adelia, Ollie, Ruby, and Cal

Sledding!

Back row: Kelly, Aaron, Chuck, Ollie, Lincoln, Ryan
Front row: Asher, Eli, Esther, Adelia, Ruby, Ivan, Krystal

We got a very white Christmas. About 10 inches worth in fact. So, of course, we had to do a little day-after-Christmas sledding! Aaron’s dad and brothers and their families came too, everyone except Debbie, Melissa, and Cal. 

It was Ruby’s first sledding experience. She was hilarious to watch. She was very stone-faced about it. No emotion whatsoever. And at the bottom of the hill she was like a dead weight. She wouldn’t walk up the hill herself. She wouldn’t hold on to you if you tried to carry her up, but she wouldn’t fight you either. And if you tried to drag her up in the sled, she laid as still as a statue and wouldn’t hold on to the sides, so she kept sliding out and laying motionless in the snow until someone came to get her. But if you sat her at the top of the hill she always asked to ride a sled down. And if you asked her if she was having fun, she always said yes. It was so funny. 

Ivan was like a little mini skeleton athlete. He kept zipping down head-first in his sled. And some people a few runs over had built a jump part way down their track, Ivan kept going over there and going down their run so that he could get some air. 

Adelia, I don’t think was feeling very well. She kept having emotional breakdown after emotional breakdown. Tears over everything. Poor girl. But Ollie and Lincoln seemed to have a good time. 4/5’s not bad. And sledding is always more fun with your dad and uncles and Grandpa. Aaron and Kelly and Ryan tried going down the hill in all sorts of creative ways, one being to lay on their back with their head pointing down hill, and then have a child sit on them. Aaron took a great video of himself and Ruby sledding this way. 

The best part was that the kids got all their energy out on the hill and were pretty calm the rest of the day. Haha!

Christmas 2016

 

I did not get a Christmas Sunday family picture of everyone in their church clothes like I wanted. But we had a lovely Christmas. The kids were excited about their gifts. And they didn’t put up too much fuss about having to leave them to go to church. 

It snowed buckets last night, which made the morning white and magical! Adelia said it was the best present of all. :) The older boys helped Aaron shovel before church. I'm grateful, for the one and only time this year, that we have one o'clock church, haha! 

I survived an entire Sacrament meeting sitting by myself with 6 kids, because Aaron was on the stand with the choir. (I’d love to ring the person's neck who thought having the choir stay on the stand the whole time was a good idea, they obviously don’t have two toddlers and a newborn.) Actually, the kids did so surprisingly well, until 2:15. And if the meeting would have ended on time all would have been well in Zion. But it didn’t. It went 30 minutes over. My kids’ good behavior deteriorated very quickly, and I wanted to kill someone by the time it finally ended. So much for the Christmas spirit, bah humbug. 

Aaron had to stay after church and do tithing, which is probably a good thing because it gave me some time to cool down a bit before we had to go mingle with other humans. 

We went to Aaron’s parents’ house for dinner. It was a very nice meal. The kids played with their cousins and the adults played Mad Gab. :) 

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve 2016

We had another wonderful Christmas Eve. This year Aaron’s parents, Ryan and Melissa, and Kelly and Esther and Asher and Eli came to celebrate with us. Our Bethlehem dinner was tasty as always, and set the mood for our nativity.

This year Ivan wanted to start the play off as Samuel the Lamanite prophesying the birth of the Savior. Adelia wanted to be Mary as per usual. And Aaron was Joseph. Cal made a darling ‘real live’ baby Jesus. Ollie wanted to be a Shepherd with Ruby as his sheep. Lincoln was a wiseman. Asher was an angel and Eli was also a shepherd (I think). The kids all did a great job and enjoyed picking their parts and putting together their costumes. 

Next we opened Christmas jammies. The kids even cooperated for a few minutes to let me get a picture of all of them by the tree. Let’s call it a Christmas miracle!

Then we turned on a movie for the kids and the adults played games at the table. I love playing games with actual adults. I’d almost forgotten how fun it is. 

Aaron and I didn’t have much to do after everyone left and the kids were in bed. I’d wrapped most of the presents while Aaron was in Honduras. And he’s been wrapping a few every night since he’s been home. So all the wrapping was finished. All we had to do was bring in the big presents from the garage (two kids’ kayaks from Gramma Tam and Papa Kerry, and one adult kayak from Aaron’s parents), and fill the stockings. Then off to bed for us.

Festival of Lights

Aaron’s back and we finally got to go do something Christmasy as a family. Spanish Fork decks out the golf course with a billion lights. And best of all you drive through, so we didn’t have to take Cal out into the freezing. The kids loved it. 

After we got everyone to bed, we made hot chocolate and popcorn and watched Sherlock. I might be slightly obsessed with Sherlock. Good thing the new season comes out in January. It’s just that it’s not very often that a well-done, clever show comes out. 

2 Weeks

Aaron went to Honduras for two weeks on a work trip. He had a lovely time, I’m sure, and he’ll have to tell you all about it if he wants it documented. 

For me, it was two weeks from hell. Ivan, Ollie, and Cal got croup. Ruby woke up at least 6 times every single night, Ollie at least twice, and Cal basically only slept if he was in my arms or in the bed with me. So basically I didn’t sleep for two weeks, held a croupy baby for two weeks, and tried to console a croupy toddler, while making meals, doing homework, breaking up fights, running kids every conceivable place, and attempting to pack in all the extra holiday everything that goes on at this time of year, and on and on. 

I did go to Hooper one of the weekends, and that was nice. And Aaron’s parents came over lots to help. And I’m pretty sure those are the only reason all six children and myself made it through those two weeks alive. 

Here are some pictures. 

The kids and I made 3D snowflakes.We watched a youtube video to learn how, it was a little bit time consuming, and i ended up finishing Ollie's, Adelia's and Ivan's, because they each lost interest at one point or another. 

During the weeks Aaron was gone the kids made 2D snowflakes and recreated our "Hall of Snow" from last year. I guess that's going to be a tradition. :) 

Cal is 3 months old. Seriously though, how cute is he in this hat?! Love this kid!

The second night Aaron was gone was Monday, so I attempted FHE by myself. For activity and treat we made gingerbread cookies. It is so hard to cook with five children in the kitchen and one in the bouncy chair at your feet. Yikes! Definite exercise in patience. But we survived, and the cookies were delish. 

Sooooo many helpers.......

We managed to make it to the weekend, and then we hit the road for Hooper. What a relief. We were supposed to get a big snow storm, but the weather held out for me and we made it safely there without so much as a snowflake.  Cal loved laying under Gramma Tam's fancy tree and watching the lights twinkle. 

My mom and Kerry were doing the 12 days of Christmas to my Granny Jan at her assisted living place. They asked each of us kids to take a turn doing something. So today we want as the "Seven Swans a Swimmming" (see what I did there, haha!) And we sang Christmas carols to Gran. Ivan was all over it, he organized the songs, made everyone practice, and even did a solo part. He was happy as could be....until I made him be in the picture. This was Gran's first time meeting Cal. We had a really good visit and only managed to break one finger off of a wiseman in Gran's nativity. 

 

Ivan and Lincoln checked out some new Calvin and Hobbes comics from the library. Ivan was very excited to show me this one. It accurately describes how it feels to have Ruby sleep in bed with you. (She did sleep with me for at least a little bit every night that Aaron was gone.) 

What a goof. I'm loving the lopsided grin and that baldy head.

Ruby did her part to make sure that I never got one single second of alone time the entire time Aaron was away.....not even when I was using that bathroom.

In that middle of everything, I started another painting project. Because I desperately needed an outlet, and for whatever reason, painting is a good outlet for me. I started doing the girls' room. I'm doing it light yellow and light teal, possibly with some coral polka dots. I love it so far. Every time I paint something in this house, I notice how much I hate the original neutral color the builders put in. It's dark. But you don't realize it until you paint something lighter and suddenly everything feels bigger. Crazy. I got two walls and most of the ceiling done while Aaron was gone. 

 

And this little buggy.....he's so cute. Even though he's been croupy coughing and miserable, he still smiles at me. I'm beginning to seriously rethink his Type. I have always sort of thought he was a Type 2, but now I'm wondering if he might not actually be a Type 1. I guess we'll see....

Ruby is 2

When Ruby woke up this morning I said to her, “Happy Birthday Rue!! You’re two today!” To which she responded with her most recent favorite phrase, “No! Don’t like it!”

Gotta love two-year-olds. 

But don’t worry, she came around. 

Gramma Tam came down to play. We went to the Provo Rec Center indoor playground, and stopped in for Pier-49 pizza on the way home. 

While Rue took her nap, I made her a German chocolate kitty cat cake. It would have been cuter, but I messed up the icing somehow and it was really runny. 

Grandma and Grandpa Swan came over for dinner. We served haystacks, which is one of Rue’s favorites. 

It’s hard to buy presents for child number five. I feel like we already have “all the things”. It’s also particularly hard to buy presents for child number five mere weeks before Christmas. This year we opted to get her a mattress and bedding to go on her big girl bed. *Don't mind the airplanes on the wall, they are left over from when Ollie used to sleep there. :) 

That’s right folks, Rue is out of her crib (her doing, not mine), and now occupying the bottom bed in Adelia’s bunk. Surprisingly, the transition has been seamless. It’s like she decided she wanted to sleep in a real bed and so she is. Done and done.  I love that about Type 3s. I can only hope that potty training goes equally smooth when we get to that point. 

At any rate, HBD baby girl, I sure do love you and I’m so glad your fire and spice personality is part of our crew.

Habitat

Ivan has been working on a chameleon habitat for the last couple of days. He used karo syrup mixed with blue food coloring for the waterfall and river. And the chameleon he did using Aaron’s 3D printing pen. I think the whole thing turned out really nice. 

First Snow!

My kids were pretty pumped that it finally snowed. They’ve been wishing for it since August! Unfortunately, Ivan and Rue are currently taking a turn being sick, so they had to stay inside and watch Kipper instead. 

Ollie and Lincoln and Del thoroughly enjoyed it though. They jumped on the snowy trampoline for awhile, made a few snowmen, and threw snowballs at the fence. 

And everyone got hot chocolate after, even the sickies.