December Little Things

What a busy and fun month we had in December! It's time for another Little Things post...

Several friends are turning 40 this year. We celebrated Sloan already this summer and next up was sweet Kalista this month. She really wanted to try Andrew Michael's no menu Monday with a small group to celebrate her big day. The price is set and there is no menu...the chefs decide the menu (several small plates) and everyone in the restaurant gets the same thing, except you don't know what you are eating until AFTER the meal! So fun! Being an Italian restaurant with Catholic owners, no-menu Monday kept the Feast of the 7 Fishes tradition all month. So all courses included fish. The experience was so fun! The food was delicious and made me try things I probably wouldn't make. Plus, we had a private room for our group and Ashley was in town from Alaska to celebrate! I only wish Russ could have been there...he opted to stay home since AM is a little pricey and we'd have needed a sitter.

Kate and Elisha brought pizza one night this month for dinner and we also visited and opened Christmas gifts. Tyler thinks that every time they come over they automatically bring pizza (which is true most of the time!) They stayed in time for our Jesse Tree tradition (and the kids insisted that they participate), so Kate took some fun pictures.

This was actually taken the next morning after Tyler did the pattern
all by himself. We had to share the pic with Elisha and Kate, too. 

Speaking of the Jesse Tree, here are a few more pictures from the month. The experience was a little hit or miss overall with the kids. It was hard to sometimes get them to sit still and listen to the lesson. And also not fight over who was getting to hang the ornament that night. The Hershey kiss bribe  treat at the end definitely helped! They are 2 and 4, so I do think it will get easier as they get older.

We also had Griswold appearances happening throughout the month of December. The kids really did love him and looked forward to finding him when they got up. Though, Tyler is definitely still a little scared of him...he never wanted to go looking for him by himself. Griswold was typically found by the time I got Caroline up, so Tyler would take her straight to him.

Snowball fight with marshmallows

Silly Griswold gave himself and all our pics Rudolph noses!!

It's no secret that Tyler loves to talk and let's face it, he gets it very honest from his Mama. Lately, he's been wanting me to lay down with him at night when it's time to go to bed. At first, he didn't know what to talk about so I started talking about Christmas, all the fun things we had coming up and ways were were celebrating. That turned into talking about all the holidays, but mainly Christmas, Halloween and his next birthday. Ha! He loves to celebrate...again, just like his Mama. One time when we lad down together recently, he said..."Will you lay down and talk with me?  You pick!  Let's talk about Christmas!" Ha! So much for letting me pick.

We also talked a lot about Santa and how he might bring Tyler all the things he needs to play t-ball in the spring (which he did!) Not that he has it, he wants to know how long it is until he gets to play. One night our conversation went like, "How many sleeps until t-ball?" Me: "About 120." T: "How about 58? I just really want it to be 58." Hahahaha! If only it were that easy to make the time move faster for the fun things we are looking forward to!

Our Caroline is still a little ham and loves to sing at night. One night she was singing "Hap Birtday" to both her Minion and Ariel on repeat for over an hour! This child is such a mess!

December is also Aunt Carol's birthday, so I sent her a video of the kids singing her "Happy Birthday", which she said was her favorite gift!



In other big news, our Aunt Elisha (and Godmother to our kids) is getting married!! We are so thrilled for her and Clark, who Russ has known for years through softball! He proposed on Christmas Eve after dating almost a year and they are getting married in April! We love you Aunt Elisha!

In other less exciting news, Russ and I finally finalized our estate documents. I am embarrassed to say that our kids are almost 3 and 4.5 years old and we did not have official wills and custody documentation until this month. #parentingfail We have been working on them / putting them off all year, but it is finally DONE! Now to get a lock box and get them secure inside. So happy to have this off the list. Better late than never.

Here are a few more pictures to close out the month...

Russ and Tyler went to the Tigers game right before Christmas.

I went to a girls night at Hope with my old Moms group...Ellie Holcomb sang. She is amazing!

We've been doing leadership and teamwork training at work over the past
 several months. I HAD to snap a pic of this slide because Russ and I argue
all the time about what we think we each heard. Hahaha!!

These facts were interesting too...

Tyler was so proud of his pattern - sock, shoe, Tyler, sock, shoe. He said he just
needed another Tyler to keep it going. Ha! I love how his brain works!

Sponsorship team after shopping for our 2 angels during our Jingle and Mingle event.

One more video to close out the year...here is Tyler singing "Here I am Lord". I think he actually sang it in November (hence the Halloween placement), but I forgot to post it last month. This is one of my favorite songs that we sang growing up in church and I love hearing Tyler sing it in his sweet 4 year old voice!



Despite all the end-of-the-year holiday fun, I am ready for a fresh start and a new year! I am especially ready for some good luck for our family...no more turkeys, broken elbows (or other kid bones) and that my foot injury gets resolved. It is going to be a busy month with Super Bowl looming, Caroline's 3rd birthday and potty training on the agenda! Cheers to a happy and healthy 2016!