Whoa what a crazy week it has been! Here's a run down of what we have been up to good and bad! We celebrated Christmas Eve with my family. We had a yummy family lunch/dinner with G&G T and my brother Bryan and his family. Matthew was so excited for his cousins to see Sophie. After lunch we talked and played a few games. After everyone left we drove around looking at Christmas lights. The kids were a bit excited because as we were driving around it was snowing. We were going to have a white Christmas. Our favorite was the Layton City lights. They were really pretty and worth the 15 minute wait in line to see them.
After looking at the lights we came home and put on our matching jammies. For Christmas I like to sew everyone matching pajama pants. In previous years Black Friday usually has some good fabric deals going on. However, this year there weren't very good so, instead, I tried out buying some super cheap fleece blankets that were on super sale for Black Friday and cut those up to make PJ pants. It worked out splendidly I must say! Here's our family sporting our pants:
Matthew was pretty concerned that Santa wouldn't know which stocking was Sophie's so he wrote Santa a letter telling him that this was Sophie's stocking:
He also was concerned that Santa would miss his treats so he wrote Santa a note telling him that these were the treats we made for him and his reindeer:
He wrote Santa another note telling him that G&G T were at our house for the afternoon just to make sure Santa knew where they were.
He was busy writing all kinds of notes that day. He can be a sweet kid.
After getting our jammies on we played a few games. One was SkipBo where Aaron was the very first to play and went out before any of us even had a turn. I don't think he will ever let us forget that game...DOH! After Aaron went out the rest of us played the game.
We then read the Christmas story from the scriptures and sent the kids off to bed. They all crammed into Noah and Sarah's rooms for the night. It took them a while to finally fall asleep. The next morning I was shocked to see how much snow had fallen. We truly were about 8-10 inches deep into a white Christmas.
The snow drifts were about 12 inches deep so there was A LOT of snow!
It looked like Santa came to visit our house throughout the night:
The kids woke up bright and early, but they had to wait while G&G T drove over to our house that morning. Good thing it wasn't too long of a wait! Here they are anxiously waiting:
After we got G&G T in a safe place away from the crazy running kids we let them come see their stashes. Mark, set, GO!
We let them open their presents from youngest to oldest per Noah's request. Hmmmm he's a pretty smart kid since he is the youngest--haha!
Sarah's turn:
Daniel and Josh:
Matthew:
After the first few rounds Noah was enjoying all his presents at once:
After opening presents and breakfast we all started getting ready to go to church. While the kids were waiting for everyone to be ready they ate some of Grandma M's package she mailed to us with home made peanut butter balls.
She even sent some peppermint bark ingredients so Josh could make us some which he was excited about:
G&G T came to church with us and then left to visit my other siblings and their families. After the kids played with all their loot throughout the day we had some root beer floats that evening which was dinner--haha! I was sad we couldn't go out to Burger King this year as per tradition since it was Sunday, but root beer floats almost made up for it. You can also see the mayhem of the day in the background.
There is a comedy clip about a substitute teacher from the inner city who is coming to teach at a school in the suburbs and has a bit of a hard time. You can see the clip
here (there is some language in it so you have been warned!) It is funny and part of the clip he talks to an Aaron, but calls him A-A-Ron. Ever since that video came out Aaron's nickname at work is A-A-ron so when I saw this T-shirt I had to get it for him.
We had a great Christmas and the good thing about it being on a Sunday meant that Aaron got Monday off from work--wahoo! Of course the kids HAD to go and spend their FiiZ gift cards they got in their stockings to get a drink.
The next morning Aaron had to go back to work so I was left a lone parent to deal with the post Christmas cleanup and mayhem--haha! I had a hard time sleeping that night so I was up bright and early--4 am-ish--bleh! Insomnia is not fun, but I digress. It was a good thing I was up since Sarah had a round of the barfies, too. Ugh! Luckily, it was only a one time thing. She felt a bit under the weather the rest of the day, but was back to her normal self the next morning--thank goodness. When the other kids started waking up and coming to the kitchen for breakfast I was not really paying attention. That was until Matthew announced that he had used his new electric shaver that he'd gotten for Christmas to not only shave his mustache and beard, but he gave himself a haircut as well. When I looked up and saw this I gasped!
OH
MY
GOODNESS!!
I asked him why he did that and he responded by saying that he thought his hair was getting too long and he tried to cut it himself. DOH!! I had no idea he would attempt that with his new shaver!! After that we had a long talk about what was appropriate to shave and what was not appropriate to shave. I then had to give him a haircut. It is not the best, but considering what I had to work with it looks better than it did before the haircut!! Here's the after:
You can still see some bald spots, but what can you do?!
What a crazy kid. I should have known that my day wasn't going to be a good one after starting out that way. Anyway, Sophie had an appointment at the groomers that morning. I tried to let her go a bit longer in between grooms, but it wasn't working out. She was starting to have a few dingle berries hanging on her long fur/hair by her bum after going potty outside. ICKY!! So she really needed a groom because that is gross!! While she was at the groomers I decided to run a few errands. I was driving in Layton when Aaron called me. I had talked to Aaron about a minute when the Suburban lurched, sputtered and started driving really rough and then the check engine light came on. Thankfully I was talking to Aaron already so he got to hear the play by play as I limped along into a parking lot. He is so hard to get a hold of at work so I was really glad he was on the phone with me when this happened. That way he knew he needed to come rescue me. He came over and I drove the truck while he drove the Suburban. We were going to drive it home, but when Aaron hopped in it it was driving super rough and couldn't go very fast so he decided to drive it over to the dealer so they could take a look at it. Bleh! This has been the year of the car repairs for us--ugh! Anyway, we were able to get it to the dealer since I was already close by when it started having problems.
Unfortunately, we didn't have an appointment so they weren't able to get to it until sometime the next day which meant I was stranded without a family vehicle. Since Sophie was done at the groomers all while this was going on I had to call the groomer to tell her I was stranded and that I would pay her as soon as I was able to get home. So she wouldn't have to baby sit Sophie during that time I sent one of the boys down to pick her up. Luckily, I was able to pay her about an hour after Sophie was done so she didn't have to wait too long. Sophie did look cute when I got home, though. Sophie got a jacket from Santa that she surprisingly doesn't mind wearing. I was just happy not to have any more dingle berries from her long bum fur--haha!
Anyway back to the car problems....just to see what our options were we spent the rest of the day out car shopping. We were both done with car problems so we were really looking to buy to replace the Suburban because it was not a very reliable vehicle anymore. When we started looking it was then we discovered how much Suburbans had gone up in price since we bought ours 6 years ago. DOH!! I really loved the Suburban, but couldn't justify paying so much for a family car. For the same price as a newer USED Suburban we could buy two cars--a mini van and a car for Aaron and still come out not spending as much as a used Suburban would be which I think is crazy. We finally decided we might have to go back to being a mini van family again. I HATE car shopping--playing the games at a dealer is not my idea of fun. After visiting a few dealerships we decided to visit a smaller family owned dealership which my friend, April, recommended. It was amazing. The place sells mostly Toyota and Honda cars that are lease returns so they are pretty new with low miles. The nice thing is they only mark up each car about $600 above what they get it at auction and that's the price you pay. We found the mini van we wanted after test driving a few of them. It was amazing we were done with all the paperwork and out the door within 90 minutes! That was the best car buying experience I have had without the games. Jeez, I sound like a commercial for them, but it really was a good experience. Rand's Car Sales was great! Here's what we ended up with--a charcoal Honda Odyssey.
We have paid more in car repairs this year than any car payment would have been. So even though we have been car payment free for almost four years it was time to start making them again, unfortunately. As for driving the new van it has taken some getting used to as for driving. Everything is in a different place than it was in the Suburban. Hopefully, I will have a good LONG time to figure everything out in this car before we even have to think about another one!
The next day we decided to take the kids down to Salt Lake so they could ride in the new car. We looked around a bit at the City Creek Mall as we made our way over to Temple Square. They had a few interesting Christmas stuff still up that we looked at.
It was at this time we got a call from the mechanic about the Suburban so Aaron had to step into a store so he could actually hear the conversation. While he was on the phone I took the kids over to the Apple store so they could play with the electronics while we waited for Aaron to get off the phone. Unfortunately, the news wasn't good--the engine is gone in the Suburban. I am so upset because I babied that car. It got regularly scheduled oil changes and preventative maintenance. It makes me mad, but what can you do?! When Aaron finished the conversation he came over and found us. As we were on our way out of the Apple Store Aaron ran into Brandon Doman which is an old BYU player. He quickly got a selfie with him and we went on our way trying to decide what to do with the Suburban--whether it was worth fixing or just scrapping.
We walked around the Visitor's Center.
Then they turned on the lights as it reached dusk. It was beautiful.
It was also really COLD, too. Luckily, everyone brought their coats except Josh who left his at the Jr. High on the last day of school before Winter Break. He didn't realize it until the school was locked. Sigh--what can you do?! We layered him up and hoped for the best.
We did go up to the top floor of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building to get warm and to see Temple Square from above.
We ran into some friends while we were there and we joined forces. Matthew LOVES this family and tried to be in all their family pictures--DOH! Good thing they were willing to adopt him for a few pictures--haha!
Another 'adopted' picture:
It was a nice night.
Friday Aaron and I decided we would have a pizza and movie party since the kids had been stuck at home most of the week since we had to go car shopping and all that. It was a good distraction from hearing how much it was going to be to fix the Suburban--YIKES. I can't wait to get rid of that car!
The next day was New Years Eve and we had the Einzingers over for dinner and fun. I even got some Drew lubs which I loved. It makes me miss having a baby...my kids are getting too big! We played games while the kids played different things. The hit of the night was the Just Dance game. Josh and Sara E. were a good team:
Josh and Daniel were a good team--haha!
Erin and Blaine danced and so did Aaron and I, but I won't post those pictures though--haha!
Noah snuggled up next to his buddy, Emma.
Surprisingly enough all the kids made it to midnight (except Drew of course). At midnight they took all my pots and pans so they could bang them in the streets to celebrate. It was a fun night. We love getting together with the Einzingers!
I just got used to writing 2016 so switching years on me will take a few months to get used to--haha!
Let's just hope 2017 is a bit better for us than 2016 was! Happy New Year everyone!!
Oh my! Car troubles are the WORST. I am so sorry that the suburban died on you! Buy yay for new cars! The new van looks like fun! I've heard lots of good things about them. Good luck & hopefully 2017 will be the year of good cars! :)
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