Random December

 December was a good month. A lot of warm days, obviously some cold days, and even some snowy days. Christmas preparations, Mario, crafts, decorations, cooking, Mario, friend time, new couch, Mario....here's a taste of what life looked like for us in December:

I searched for a long time online to find some art of Mary and baby Jesus to put up around Christmas, and I finally found the one I wanted. I love how simple and tender it is - perfect illustration of the love between a mother and child but also the humbling nature of knowing which mother and child this is. 

My dad with Sam and Krispy's pet lizard, Oogi

My mom was an all-American volleyball player at BYU and they featured her on their twitter account! So proud!

I love my parents : ) This is a picture of them in San Diego this fall but somehow it ended up in this pile of pictures. 

This can't be comfortable but I appreciated how committed Mario was to his nap. 

SUPER good goat cheese, lemon, and homemade pesto pizza on whole wheat crust. Another Run Fast, Eat Slow recipe.

The satisfaction of cleaning the cooktop

Mario was here to help Stockton finish his homework. (Or to beg for food.)

Jack the model

Sunshiny jammies girl

No couch in preparation for....new couch!! Practically the only brand new, previously untouched piece of furniture we've bought in our entire marriage. We LOVE it. The other couch served us well but it was definitely time to let it go.

It's been two months since we got it and the kids still obey the "no eating on the couch" rule! Amazing! We pick our battles and eating on furniture is typically not one we fight, but we figured we could start fresh by just limiting that rule to the new couch. 

"Mom, take a picture of me."

(The schools handed out gaiters with their logos on them for the kids.)

Sweet Stockton enjoying the treelights : ) with his Santa hat, no less

Even Mario likes the new couch. Actually I think he liked the other one better because it was a lot lower (super saggy) but he still hops up to be cozy with us once in a while. 

Big sky on a randomly warm day in December after school pickup 

Claire LOVES the big kid swings. She points very insistently at the swings and demands a lift, and then points aggressively towards the other swings (making me nervous that she isn't holding on with both hands) because she loves when everyone is swinging at the same time. It's very cute. 

I came out to tell Jack's neighborhood friend, Liam, that it was time to go home, and I found the boys up on the shed enjoying the sunset. I love how this captures the essence and freedom of CHILDHOOD.

Claire doesn't love her highchair anymore and will tolerate it sometimes, but mostly she just begs to sit at the table with us. More often than not, she ends up sitting on our laps. Which is cute, but a lot harder to eat and enjoy our meals haha. She loves Austin SO much. She gets so excited when he gets home from work and runs around with her arms held out until she can calm down enough to stop running and let him pick her up for a big hug.

We got some counting blocks to try to encourage Stockton to be more interested in his math homework, but Claire decided it was more useful for her to play with them in the bowls. My feet hurt looking at those blocks on the floor...somehow at least one always manages to not get cleaned up.

A note Jack wrote to his teacher all by himself: "I like school because my teacher is nice to me. Bye. Happy Christmas." 

From Jack to Webb hahahaha. He always calls her Mrs. Webb so it was amusing to me to imagine him just calling her "Webb." 

A series of Christmas post cards that Jack made. Aren't they so happy and cute? I thought the top left was a mushroom/toadstool, but he clarified that it's a snow globe! Genius!

Stockton's obsession with fire extinguishers continues. We got him a 12 pack of these mini plastic ones and he taped them up in every room of the house, just to be safe. Good thing Stockton is always looking out for safety!

A book Jack wrote with no adult help (I will translate below each picture, but I appreciate his phonetic spelling so much haha):

The Hungry Otter

Once there was an otter. He was very hungry. So he...

...looked for a river with fish in it and then he (found)...

...So he swimmed in it and he found all of the fish. 

Isn't that so adorable? I love Kindergarteners so much. I don't save a ton of papers/school work/art etc from my kids, but I do keep the special treasures, and this is one of them for sure haha.

The paper candy cane garland that Jack made for us for our Christmas decorations (remember his pumpkin garland from Halloween?) 

Aren't cozy stockings the best? And this year we actually have a FIREPLACE! And, LOOK AT MY BEAUTIFUL NATIVITY!!!! 

Ananda sent the kids a wallaby stuffed animal that they "adopted" and Claire immediately claimed it as hers. She calls it Roo and sucks on its nose. So cute. 

Claire is LOVING to color lately. She got a little out of control the other day and drew all over herself with a brown/red marker, and it looks like she has a nasty rash haha. We have to be so careful not to leave coloring materials out because our floors/walls have already been signed by her many times.

Stockton was obsessed with the Pixar short "Bao" for like a week and wanted to make his own dumplings like in the short. I had leftover dough from something and he was THRILLED! He even wanted to make sure he used the lettuce, like Bao does. I love when he is focused on a task like this. More evidence that he doesn't lack focus or intelligence, he just usually lacks interest, so we just have to find what he loves and is willing to work on both at home and at school, and then he is successful.

 

One of our favorite meals lately: biscuits and gravy mmmmmm

December was a good month. And now January has flown by. It's actually Austin's birthday today. Happy 31st, my love!