Christmas Eve!

We kept Christmas Eve pretty low-key around here! We played with legos (a lot).

Macey and Cooper formed a Christmas band with their flute and recorder.

We decorated sugar cookies for Santa! (And ate some sugar cookies too!) (Harper liked the toppings!)

We had a big/nice Christmas Eve dinner together!

Frosty the Snowman came and left pajamas on the front porch!

Christmas pajamas photo!

Lucy brought home some reindeer food. It was fun to watch how she tossed it on the ground. She literally dumped the whole bag into her hand and tossed it into the air, squealing! Haha--it worked!

Harper didn't make it through our drive to see Christmas lights! 

 

The Flu

We brought home the flu for Christmas break. The morning of the first day of break, Lucy threw up. It was about a 5 day long sickness. The first 24 hours was throwing up, fevers, exhaustion, and then the next 3 days was diarrhea. The 5th day was always one more day of throwing up. The cherry on top was the cold that came on that last day. It was a weird, weird sickness. Covid negative, but had all the signs of the flu.

Lucy was first, then Harper, Owen, Charlie...all down the very last one of us. We were sick the first day of Christmas break...to the last day of Christmas break. It was miserable.

We had lots of sickness, clothes, bedding, dishes, laundry! Not a lot of pictures, but we survived! 

Lucy. Tired, not wanting to eat anything.

Owen and Charlie had so many baths! At least bath time is a super fun thing!

Reading Christmas books in front of the toilet at 2 AM. 

 

Quinn's Eye Doctor Appointment

We just passed Quinn's 3 year anniversary of his surgery to correct his esotropia. (I can't believe that it has been three years!) We have been going to the Pediatric Opthamologist in Orem every 6 months since surgery. We finally got the okay to go 1 year between visits. Quinn's eyes are doing so well! His eyes have had perfect alignment and vision since surgery.

The best part about going up north for our appointment is chick-fil-a for lunch!

Harper's 3rd Birthday!

Harper's big birthday present was a little playhouse! I got a slammin' good deal on it in May of this last year...so this giant box has been sitting in our shed, waiting for this day for a while! We knew that Harper had to wait for all of her siblings to get home from school to open presents, so Scott set up this house for her to play in while we waited! She played in this house with her brothers ALL DAY LONG!

 We played so hard...that she fell asleep at the end of our mommy/daughter picnic lunch!

She was VERY ready to open presents when the big kids came home!

Birthday dinner was McDonalds happy meals. The kids are always excited for happy meals--especially Charlie!

 

Cooper: The Masked Singer

 This year, the 4th and 5th grades started a new tradition: The Masked Singer. (It's a new-ish reality TV show about celebrities that compete to win a singing competition--all while wearing a mask.) They sent home a flier about it, and I told Cooper, no. It was just one more thing on my plate. Christmas time is so, so stressful. With 5 kids in school and 8 kids who needed a good Christmas--I was working non-stop.

Well, Cooper signed up anyway--the last day possible. He came home and told me he did it. After 24 hours, we could have a level-headed conversation about it. I told him that if he wanted to do it, he needed to come up with a song, practice, and figure out a mask to wear.

He did it! (Let's be honest, with some help from mom and dad.) He sang "Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer" in a Mandalorian mask and Santa hat. We had a little choreography planned. He said it didn't go as smoothly as he had hoped, but he was super excited to try again next year. (Evidently several other kids got VERY into this project!)

I am just super proud that he found something he wanted to try and did it. It took some stellar nerves to be able to stand in front of the 4th and 5th graders at his school and sing and dance! Go Cooper!

Macey's Holiday Band Concert

Macey had her beginning band concert right before Christmas break. The little kids were falling apart at home, so I went to the concert solo! It was so fun to watch Macey! She has improved so much in just a few months! They played a few Christmas songs. She's incredible!