Christmas

Christmas was a day at home in our pajamas. We spent the morning opening presents and going through stockings. The afternoon was peaceful as the kids played and built many different things they had gotten for Christmas. 

Grateful for this holiday season to reflect on our blessings and all the love and support we receive from family and friends. Life isn't always easy for us, but we sure make the best of it and appreciate what we have and what we get. 

 

Christmas Eve

Christmas Eve was pretty quiet and calm for us. We had grandma and grandpa come over for pizza. The kids had never seen Charlie Browns Christmas so we watched that cute little cartoon. It was fun to watch it with them. Then the kids opened their Christmas Eve present of pajamas. 

 We kept life pretty mellow at our house this holiday season. 

Christmas Lights

We haven't had too much of a bad winter so it was nice to get out and look at the Christmas lights. 

Our first attempt at Indian Creek lights didn't go so well. We were there for a clogging event on a weekend and the place was a zoo. We barely found parking in time for Caleb to be able to clog. We decided to not hang around and we would come back when hopefully it wouldn't be so busy. 

We made it back to Indian Creek on a week night and had a more enjoyable time. We were able to find a parking spot and be able to walk around without running into anybody. 

Then we made it to the Scentsy lights. It's just not the same when we don't go when they do the live nativity. We also miss Clyde the camel that passed away a couple of years ago. We still went but it didn't take us anytime at all to walk around. It wasn't busy at all by the time we made it over to see these lights. 

 

Dancing and Christmas Ornaments

December about killed me with all the extra performances the kids had for school things. In one week we had about three different performances and recitals to attend. I made it work and got all of them attended to. 

Caleb and Kyleigh were both in dance the first semester of school. Caleb's class had a dance performance that was jungle themed. After Caleb's performance Kyleigh had a dance in the first part of the Nutcracker. 

Kyleigh also danced in the Nutcracker last year. She was a little disappointed when the dance teacher switched up the dance moves this year from last. 

This year our ornaments came from our summer trip. When we were in Sedona we found a Christmas ornament store we bought ornaments from. 

Caleb bought a round cactus ornament this year for the tree and Kyleigh bought a Grinch ornament. It's fun to see the ornaments they have picked out from years past and what their interests were. It's also fun to remember the ornaments and the trips they have come from. Glad we started this tradition with the kids since they were babies. 

 

Crafting

I am grateful I have had the time and opportunity to go do some crafts at Hammer and Stain. This year I have been working on making decorations for a tiered shelf. These are things for the fall shelf. 

We also got a heat press and Caleb really thought this shirt would be fun to make. It sums him up pretty accurately too. 

My friend invited me to take this class with her at the library and make this cute little fox. It was fun to just get out for an afternoon and do something a little different. 

I saw this little fall flower thing on line and decided to make it. It was pretty easy and turned out cute. Sometimes simple is really better. 

This is the Halloween tier shelf that I was able to make for October. 

 The gnome was another fun thing I painted. It is six different layers of color. I also made one for Thanksgiving. I tell people that crafting is my second form of therapy. 

These ball ornaments are mini books. Kyleigh kept track of how many books she read this past year and we turned them into mini books and put them in ornaments. Obviously she read too much because I think most people get one ornament full; however, she had five ornaments full of mini books she had read in 2025. 

November Happenings

The high school had spirit week and Kyleigh loves to participate. For twin day during spirit week Kyleigh and a friend dressed up as Minons. There was also a decade day she dressed up for. The other days weren't as cute so I didn't get pictures. 

 We made it to the Burley Temple open house in November. We wanted to go during the first part of the open house; however, we heard how horrific the lines were and the long wait times. We decided it would be better to wait. We agreed to miss the last day of school before Thanksgiving break and go to the temple open house. They are always so beautiful and it is amazing to see what they have used for decorations that is common to the area. The Burley Temple used the potato flower. So, grateful to take the time and effort to let the kids walk through the temple. As we walked out of the celestial room one of the kids whispered to me about how strong they had felt the spirit. Those small things are why I do what I do for the kids. To have them recognize and feel the Spirit is such a testimony that we are living the way God would have us live. 

Halloween

I don't get too many Halloween pictures anymore. The kids go to the pumpkin patch with the youth group and they also carve pumpkins with the youth so we don't do this as a family anymore. 

Kyleigh is really into F1 lately so she carved her pumpkin with her favorite driver and his number. Caleb carved his pumpkin into a Lumos from Harry Potter. He has really gotten obsessed with Harry Potter lately. 

The kids were able to dress up for school in their Halloween costumes. Kyleigh was the Lorax and Caleb was Harry Potter. Unfortunately, Kyleigh was not able to go trick or treating with us this year because she didn't feel good. I took Caleb around to a few different places and he had a good time.