A Relaxing December

This has been an absolutely perfect December so far.  I was thinking about it the other day and realized that we have moved every December for the last four years. FOUR YEARS! I am so happy we are not moving around Christmas again.  

Just after Christmas, on Danny and my anniversary in fact, my brother in law Bryce is getting married! That is the only craziness this month:) We're going to UT the 26th and staying through the new year. I've loved hearing about the wedding plans and finding wedding outfits for our fam. The sisters-in-law are throwing a bridal shower for Ariel just before Christmas which has taken most of my time.  We are so excitied to welcome Ariel to our family and get to know her better.

We started the month with Dad's birthday. We met him at Chipotle for lunch (which is a weekly thing but still manages to feel special. Bless you Chipotle) and then celebrated that evening at Grandma and Grandpa Jacob's home. The babies had their own crystal plates! (frightening yes)

 The Northgate 1 Ward party was awesome this year. The kids were very excited to see Santa and Mrs. Claus. I could not manage to get a good photo of my kids together, but was happy that they were happy:) The nice thing about the party was that they planned for little kids! They have great "kid friendly" food and had a play dough table for the nursery age kids. We sat as close to that as we could and my girls just played all evening. Awesome.

Thanksgiving in Utah

On Friday after school got out I threw these cuties in the car, picked up Katy and Grandma Karen, and started the drive to Utah.

We drove to Winnemucca and spent the night. I don't usually like splitting the trip up over two days, but it was actually very nice this time around. We arrived in Springville on Saturday around two and had all afternoon to play with Ruby and Jane. 

My girls hadn't met Jane yet! They cooed over her, patted her head and called her baby Anna for the first few hours.

When anyone asked me what I wanted to do in Utah on my trip I said "Bajio". I have a strange emotion attachment to Bajio that I can't explain. I just LOVE it. My family was very nice and went out of their way to encourage my Bajio trips and for that I am truly grateful.

The highlight of my trip was seeing the Dr. Who 50th Anniversary special in the theater with my sisters. We are all obsessed. We watched the BBC America coverage and documentaries all week in preparation. Katy introduced Becca to Dr. Who a few years ago and I only started watching it this spring. I finished my the last episode on the drive to Utah, so I was prepared for the special and it did not disappoint. I saw Becca in tears multiple times, and even heard a few happy sobs from Katy. We all beamed with happiness throughout and it seriously made my week.

I think Becca enjoyed having more people around to hold this adorable baby. This girl loves to be held, and we all acquiesced.

Another tooth lost!

One evening we went to the Riverwoods (and Bajio:) and visited Santa. Lydia decided she didn't want to, but Joyce felt very comfortable chatting with him. I was surprised when she told him she wante da "Chupparella" (what they call Cinderella) doll. He had no clue what she was saying, but she was very cute:)

Did I not mention that Danny was in CA this whole time? We missed him terribly and I after five days I was very sick of being the only parent.

He arrived just in time for Thanksgiving! Danny loves a sleeping baby.

Only Thanksgiving morning we went for a walk to Becca's local park.

There are horses across the street from Becca's house. My girls are always fascinated.

We had such a fum trip. I think it was especially fun becuase we didn't try to do too much, we often did one outing a day and spent the rest of the time playing at home. Becca's good friend Kelsey lives upstairs from Becca and she kindly let us stay in her home while she was out of town. It was so nice to have a home base so close for our things and be able to run back and forth.

We left Sunday morning after a full 8 days in Utah. We miss Ruby, but were glad to be home:)

November catch up

Well, I hear Christmas music in the background, but I still need to get through November!

In November the soccer season finally ended.  Lucy really liked her first year of soccer. She played with two friends from school, Sarah and Claire and I loved carpooling to practice:) Danny was a monitor for the games (referee on the field) so the babies and I got to watch together. Danny hated monitoring, so i promised I wouldn't volunteer him ever again.

Lucy scored her first goal during her last game! Unfortunately I was looking down and missed it...but I hear it was awesome! She was not an aggressive soccer player this year, so I was very proud of her for being proactive and taking an opportunity to kick the ball!

After school Lucy surprised me with a "holey" grin:) This child is losing teeth left and right. The tooth fairy really needs to hit an ATM.

One weekend we went on a fun outing with Grandma Marilyn, Grandpa Steve and the Blodgett boys over to a fun Berkeley park. Lucy had a riot going down the concrete slide and the babies loved exploring.

This year the Thanksgiving decorations were lost in the storage unit, not that we have lots of Thanksgiving decorations to begin with! I made a quick wreath that I actually didn't end up liking very much, but I did like having Lucy write down the things she's grateful for.  We need to work on her spelling, but some things she listed include : cousins, Ruby, Grandma, friends, sisters, Dad, Mom.

Katy and I got to go to the SYTYCD 2013 Tour! It was all the way in Santa Rosa and we were leaving for Utah the next morning so it was a little hectic that day, but we had such a great time. Becca and I went a few years ago and saw the show in the ARCO arena. This was a totally different experience because it was in a small theater. We had perfect seats with a fantastic view of the stage. We just loved seeing some of our favorite performers dance:)

At intermission we looked at each other and our faces were stuck this way!
 Best birthday present ever Mom! Thanks!