December

Here is a brief recap of the month that seems to be very busy and goes by very fast....

Temple Lights





Acting out the nativity story with cousins





Christmas-

My dad made this AWESOME kitchen piece for the girls!!!


Christmas morning before the kids went downstairs to see what Santa brought


Lilly LOVES Elmo right now

Afton with Ernie

Afton and Lilly learning about opening presents. Afton loved it and wanted to open anyone's gifts. Lilly, well she didn't really care.



Proof that our plan may be working :)

The new haircut
If you scroll down a little bit more you can see a before shot. They had to basically shave him down and we will start all over because he was so matted and his hair was just in awful shape.

7 day trial

We have a daughter (Lizzie) who is to put it lightly, petrified of dogs. Jim and I have talked about this for quite awhile about what we should do to try and help her. We knew getting a dog might be the best option to help her calm at least some of her fears. Yesterday on quite an impulsive decision we loaded up the kids and headed to the Humane society. We have this dog to keep until Christmas Eve and then decide if it would be a good fit for our family or not.

Lizzie has been as brave as she can. She absolutely freaked out at the Humane Society (kicking, screaming, etc.) Finally agreed that we could take it home for JUST ONE DAY (Lizzie's words). She has spent a majority of time since we brought him home on Ethan's top bunk. I would call that progress though :)

The dog is very cute and is so mellow. He is a two year old cocker spaniel mix (which means no puppy stage and it is already house trained). It is in a desperate need of a haircut but we will see how things go here on the homefront first.

As a extra bonus we have also found out Afton and Lilly (especially Lilly) also seem to not like dogs in close proximity to them.

marshmallows

This is how I found Afton one day recently when I ran upstairs to grab something. I guess she thinks (or would like to think) marshmallows are one of the four food groups. At least she has dinner ready though :)

thoughts

It seems like December is my month to think and ponder things more than usual. Here are some things rotating through my mind. Sorry, no pictures on this post.

- Oh, how I have missed my running and my music. Although it is terribly time consuming it has been so nice to be running again. I have forgotten though how hungry I always am when I am in running mode. I am ALWAYS hungry right now and have been having second dinners around 10 at night lately :)The sad thing is I am not even running long distances yet and am always hungry.

- Two years ago this month (right before Christmas), I was put on bedrest for 15 weeks!! I am forever grateful to all that helped out by coming to our house, taking care of Ethan and Lizzie, dinners, thoughts, prayers, phone calls and so many little things. I have these two precious souls to hold and love. Thank you.

- Christmas- Oh, my gosh... is it already the 7th? We have the kids done ( their yearly dose of pajamas and a Caldecott book) and Santa has told us he has wrapped three gifts for each of the children. Whew!!! Jim and some family and neighbors still need to be crossed off the list though.

- And finally, CAN I JUST SAY I HATE THE COLD!!! I have decided that one of my life goals will to be one of those older people that spend their summers in Logan and winters in Arizona. Yes, that sounds nice.

Okay time to go eat some food and watch Seinfeld or Scrubs.