Concerts, Sickness, Christmas, Traditions, Plays, Top Golf, Recital, Working, Business Trips

I am a bit behind so here is a not so quick catch up.  All of December was pretty busy.  Noah had his Intermediate Christmas band concert.  He got to play the snare drum for one song and the xylophone for the others.  He seems to really like being in band--except for the practicing part--haha!

I had to drive out to Gunnison for a clinic in December.  It was an early morning clinic which meant I got to see the pretty sunrise as I was carpooling with the other nurse I was with:

Sarah had her Christmas band concert as well.  The high school turns the Christmas band concert into a fundraiser so in order to see Sarah play I had to purchase a ticket for my seat.  I am NOT a fan of that, but what can you do?!  Unfortunately, Aaron ended up going out of town that week.  We didn’t find that out until AFTER I had purchased our tickets--DOH!  Oh well it was a good concert and it was nice to have an empty seat by me so I could spread out.  Here’s Sarah waiting to play her flute sitting behind the conductor:

Of course Sarah chooses to be sick when Aaron is out of town.  Ugh!  She didn’t feel well and spiked a fever.  I let it go for a few days, but after a few days it wasn’t getting better.  After a long day at work for me, I came home and she was lethargic and her temperature was 103.2.  I took her to Urgent Care where we spent a big chunk of the evening.  UGH!!

She ended up having a UTI/Kidney infection.  Boo!  Luckily, a 7 day round of potent antibiotics did the trick.  Here we are in the waiting area of Urgent Care.  Sarah feels crappy if you can’t tell.

We got to go out to dinner and play with Grandma and Grandpa T. We went to see a play at Desert Star Playhouse.  We had a fun afternoon together.

Sarah and Noah’s piano teacher had a very small and informal piano recital at her house.  The students played their songs as everyone mingled about the area.  It was nice because all the attention was not on the performer so it wasn’t as stressful for them.  Here is Noah playing:

Sarah:

They did great!

The City Youth Council had some fun activities in December.  They did some knock and drops to deserving families in the city.  They gather food donations, sort them, and drop off boxes of food for those families in the city that need a little extra help.  They also got to help shop for some Christmas presents/ Sub for Santa for other families in our city that need a little extra help, too.  Here’s Daniel shopping:

Checking out:

Here’s everyone sorting the Christmas presents:

They also had a fun White Elephant party and gift exchange after Christmas.  I love that Sarah and Daniel can participate in this program and I am doubly grateful for the adults that volunteer to help all this to happen.

I can’t believe how fast Christmas came this year!!  I was not ready, but it still happened.  Thank goodness for Amazon--haha!  Anyway, Aaron and I had our annual wrapping party.  Every year a few days before Christmas we lock ourselves in our bedroom, order Pizza Hut pizza, and wrap all the kids’ presents while we watch the show Arrested Development.  It’s a fun tradition.  We got that done in time to clean the house to have all of my family over for Christmas Eve dinner.  We did something a bit different for dinner this year.  Instead of the traditional ham dinner, we had a brisket taco bar and everyone brought sides or dessert.  It turned out great.  Good thing Aaron was able to hone his brisket cooking skills this summer when he had to cook for the Stake AP camp.  He was able to cook this dinner in his sleep--haha!  Here is everyone (G&G T, Johanna and Burke and their family, Bryan, Michonne and their family) during dinner.

After eating and visiting for a few hours everyone left to do their own traditional Christmas activities.  We drove over to see the Ogden Christmas Village.  It was cold and we told the kids to dress warm, but they seem to know best.  When we got there, guess who was freezing the whole time and who was warm?  Let’s just say Aaron and I were warm and the kids froze because they didn’t listen when I said to dress warm.  Learning life lessons the hard way I guess--haha!  Putting the complaining aside we had a good time.  

Josh had to get a picture in front of the Weber State house:

This must be a lot of people’s tradition because there were a lot of people there.

After walking around the Ogden Village we drove over and tried to drive through the Layton City lights, but the car line was so long we decided to park and walk around it instead.  The kids weren’t too thrilled about walking around the lights because they were cold, but we did it anyway albeit a lot faster than we walked around the Ogden lights, though--haha!

We have done the Layton City lights every year since we moved up here.  It is fun to see the same decorations every year.  Here Aaron and I enjoying being warm--haha!

When we got back home we took our matching jammies picture.  It was so nice to actually have Josh in it this year instead of just in a picture like the last two years.

We then read the Nativity from the scriptures and played some games.  Then we sent the kids to bed.  Josh, Daniel and Noah slept in Sarah’s room.

Matthew slept in Noah’s room.  He does best when he doesn’t share a room.  He requests it to be that way.

Santa visited.

As the kids get older they don’t feel the need to wake up super early.  However, Matthew, still feels like the earlier the better.  When he wakes up he wakes everyone else up.  The kids don’t necessarily like that, but what can you do?!  We got G&G T situated and then unleashed the kids.

We love having G&G T with us Christmas morning.  Sophie loved having them here, too--haha!  She is always up for snuggles.

We started from youngest to oldest to open presents.  Noah went first:

Sarah:

Daniel:

Josh:

Matthew:

Aaron:

After all the morning craziness as soon as everyone sat still for a few minutes they all passed out and took a nap--including me.

The kids are getting old enough that they like to pick out their own things.  Here Sarah and I were shopping so she could pick out some earrings online:

Later that evening we decorated sugar cookies.  Then Daniel’s girlfriend came over and we then watched a movie together.  It was a fun Christmas!!

There was no rest for the weary--the next day we got family pictures done and Sarah had to work.  Sarah works by the Layton City lights so when we picked her up from work we drove through them.

During the Christmas break everyone was coming and going so it was hard to try and do anything together.  We did get everyone together to try out Topgolf.  It was really fun!

We had reserved a two hour spot.  At first we just practiced for a bit.  Everyone tried it out:

Daniel:

Aaron:

Noah:

Sarah:

Josh--we had to get special clubs for Sarah and Josh since they are lefties.  They had to both have separate clubs as well since Josh is a super tall lefty and Sarah is just a regular lefty:

Me:

We then did a round of Angry Birds.  I don’t do well at golfing, but I didn’t do too bad at this:

I had to take a picture, but all the other games we played I lost horribly--haha!  Come to find out my family is a bit on the competitive side which caused a few snide remarks and squabbles....Anyway, after we were done playing we had to drop Sarah off at work and then we went out to lunch at Cafe Rio.  Josh didn’t have us pray before eating our food like he did last time when he got home from his mission--haha!

Noah got to go and spend the day with Grandpa T so they could look at both their coin collections and talk about them.  Noah even came home with some more spots in his penny, nickel, and dime books which he was pretty excited about.

We celebrated New Year’s Eve with the Einzinger’s.  We ate yummy food and played games.  It was fun to hang out.  When the New Year it there was some banging of pots and pans to celebrate with some sparkling apple cider.

We had a pretty relaxed New Years Day.  I had to work the next day.  I had to help train someone doing blood draws, TB testing and immunizations on the Department of Corrections cadets.  For whatever reason I just couldn’t function every time she tried to watch me.  I really know what I am doing, but it certainly didn’t come across that way every time she watched me.  I was just having an off day that day.  Good thing there was another nurse to watch--haha!  I found these funny memes that explained how I felt that morning--doh!!

Everyone headed back to school yesterday.  It was a rough start to a new semester.  Noah came home from school and fell asleep on me.  Sophie did, too.  I was stuck in this position for an hour.  I tried to get a picture with all three of us in it, but my arm wasn’t long enough.  My legs were screaming by the time they both woke up--haha!

Daniel finally answered his girlfriend back for the Preference Dance.  He asked for some help so this is the poster we came up with:

It only took him two months to answer her back--haha!  He definitely procrastinated, but it was his girlfriend so she wasn’t worried.

Over the break Sarah and her friends got together and made some fleece blankets.  Sarah was pretty proud of hers.  Here’s what all the blankets looked like:

This semester of school Daniel is doing a business internship at MarketStar.  He is pretty excited about it.  Josh finished his first semester of college and did well even with that learning curve of starting back to school after a mission.  He had a few mission parties over the break and even got to see both of his mission president’s wives and give them hugs.  Here’s one of them:

He has also got reminded that he is allergic to the cold.  He went for a run the other morning when it was really cold outside.  Every part of his skin that was not covered with something was covered in itchy, red hives by the time he got back home.  He is getting allergy shots so the next time he sees the allergist he will ask her what he should do about it.  His poor arms and legs (he was wearing a t-shirt and shorts):

The hives all went away after about 30 minutes of being inside, but they were an itchy, uncomfortable 30 minutes.

He is a phlebotomist at a plasma donation center and is getting better at sticking people with needles.

Aaron is really traveling quite a bit for his job which has been an adjustment for me.  At least he is racking up some airline miles so that will be nice in the future!