Counting Down to Christmas

With the start of December comes advent calendars, almost-daily Christmas activities, snow, hot chocolate, seeing Santa, pajama days spent indoors, crafts, parties, and fun times with friends. We had a fun month and it has been very full! I'm going to rush through the pictures a bit since I have so many...

Logan woke up from a nap super sad, and needed some cuddle time with dad.

 Meeting Santa at Easton Mall was a highlight! Grace told him she wanted "Frozen" toys.

 Staying warm in the tub. I love those buns... Future blackmail photo!!

 We found a neat advent calendar from Target this year that has little boxes to open each day. Inside was an activity to do that day while counting down to the 25th! I really disliked the homemade advent I tried to put together last year so this was a perfect find.

On this day, the kids each got to color an ornament.

 On this day, we surprised Ryan at work with some TimBits (doughnut holes) to share with the office. He was actually working at our own pediatrician's office a couple of miles away that day.

This day was a Christmas craft: Logan colored another ornament, and Grace made a necklace.

On this day they each got a new Santa coloring book. (crafting was a fun/easy way to go because I found each item for 50 cents to a dollar! and they loved each one)

The kids waited for our mailman to give him a Christmas goodie bag.

A few other things we did as part of the advent calendar days: make cookies and deliver them to a friend, watch a christmas show (found on Netflix or from the classics I have on DVD), and see the zoo lights. We tried to get to the zoo one night, but Ryan was called into a last minute shift. Then we tried again but it was the same night the whole state of Ohio decided to go, and the traffic was horrid. After almost an hour we turned out and went back home. :( We finally made it last night though!

LuLu, our elf from the North Pole, came back to stay at our house again this year. She watched the kids to make sure they were trying hard to be good. She did some silly things at night though, like eating snacks in the kitchen, roasting marshmallows over a battery-powered candle, wrapped red streamers around our kitchen and living room, made it "snow" in our living room, brought some little surprises from the north pole, played a card game with our Rapunzel doll, and dressed up in some of Grace's jewelry. The moment the kids were out of bed, their first thought was "Where's LuLu?!" We enjoy having her stay for the month!

Grandma Stacy sent the kids a new advent calendar just for them with hershey kisses. They loved their chocolates each day!

 Grace's friend Emily was having a Whoo-ville birthday party so I dressed her up like "Gracie Loo-Whoo". :) Her mom went all out and everything was so cute and themed at the party! Grace even got a copy of How the Grinch Stole Christmas and we have loved reading it over and over again.

 We have had some awesome snow storms this month! There was one week where we had 4 snow storms. It could snow all day but we only get 2-5 inches, which is unlike Utah of course. But we were grateful while it lasted! 

However THIS scene is never any fun to deal with after playing outside...

For the 12 days leading up to Christmas Day, we had some secret friends dropping off little gifts with the coordinating poem. It was so sweet! We received treats, frozen lasagna, pictures drawn by some cute kiddos, a puzzle, jello (because our "Secret Friends" discovered Ryan's love of jello), and some of other sweet things. It turned out to be our good friends Brooke and Chad Coon. :) They are so sweet and thoughtful! We're very grateful to have them as our friends!

The kids are beginning to really bond and become great friends. They of course fight like there's no tomorrow sometimes, but they're mostly just silly and crazy and noisy (and destructive) together! This day Grace was having Logan take her socks off for her... no idea why... But they were laughing so hard about it!

I had a project for YWs and the kids were good enough to sit nicely at the table and color while I worked on it. I sure love them!

The Sullivan's annual Christmas party rolled around (which we had been looking forward to for weeks!) and we were not disappointed. It's so much fun getting together with this big group of friends in our ward, with no kiddos! We ate, we played, we chatted, we laughed (a LOT), and had a fun time with the White Elephant exchange. 

Now cover your eyes... 

 The kids and I got together with the Seavers and the Coons (moms and kids) to make gingerbread houses. They'd never done this before and had a great time!

Left is Grace's, Right is mine... I mean Logan's!

 On the monday night before Christmas, we had dinner and FHE with the Clydes, Coons, and the Outsens. Ryan was working at the ER that day and came a little later. We are so grateful for such great friends who invite us to be a part of their traditions! 

 The kids made thumbprint reindeer ornaments.

We received so many beautiful Christmas cards from friends and family this year! We sent out our own as well this year. I love seeing pictures of so many loved ones right in my living room... I may just keep them up for awhile longer. :)

What a fun and busy month December was! I am so beyond grateful for some true friends here in Ohio. We feel so loved and included here, and it means a lot to us. :) It was a lot of fun for me to watch my kids get so excited about the "magic" of Christmastime with each new tradition or surprise. We read the Luke 2 story of Christ's birth a few different times, read lots of Christmas books from the library, watched a few Bible videos about Christ's birth on the church website, and talked a lot about Him. I hope the kids continue to enjoy learning about our Savior, giving gifts to loved ones, and enjoying the magic of Christmas time. 

We Are Thankful

Thanksgiving morning = Macy's Parade! I always look forward to a relaxed morning of PJs and watching the parade with family. Ryan went to the gym so the kids and I built a fort and enjoyed all the performances and floats together. :)

Thanksgiving day fell on November 28th this year, which was really late in the month in my opinion. That left less than a month of Christmas decorations to be up, and that's just not cool! Ryan had surprised me the week before by putting up our tree while I was at a doctor's appointment, so we at least had that part up early. That afternoon, we got out the rest of the decorations and the kids helped put the ornaments on. They were so excited and really into it this year. Good thing most of our ornaments are disney characters and fun kid ones from Ryan's childhood, because now all they do is "look" with their little fingers all day long. ;)

 I am so very thankful for my little family and that I am a Mom. It's who I am and what I do. And I'm grateful!

That evening, we sat down together for our own little feast. The kids were definitely not interested, and hardly ate anything. Grace finally ate most of her turkey because we threatened to take away her ice cream pie for dessert. Logan ate a tiny bite of almost everything, but especially loved the baked sweet potato. Ryan and I, however, were grateful for our meals and felt everything turned out great!

  I cooked a full turkey breast in our crockpot (for the 2nd or 3rd time ever) and it was perfect! Then we did store-bought stuffing, Rhodes roll dough, steamed veggies, baked sweet potatoes with a little syrup and butter drizzle, and homemade mashed potatoes. Nothing too intense or difficult, especially since I handled it all by myself. Ryan helped with the turkey-prep which is the part I hate the most, so I'm very grateful for his help in that!

 That weekend we all went to see Frozen in the movie theater. It. was. AWESOME.!! I was completely blown away by the music/voices and I loved that the story-line didn't really have a "bad guy". Or at least not that you can tell for awhile... But I won't say any more than that so I don't spoil it. I loved that the queen is the one who causes the problems for everyone but she isn't actually trying to be bad. Anyway I'm thankful that we were able to use Ryan's week off to do some family activities! We truly had a fun week and enjoyed our time together.

I want to include one last thought, for journaling purposes. I took this photo after our grocery trip the other day because I was feeling extra thankful that we can afford to feed our family. 

We have struggled a lot financially during this 2nd year of residency and have twice had no money in our bank account. Ryan's paycheck as a resident is small, but it is enough to cover our needs and our basics. Sometimes the stars align and we are provided with a little extra to "play" with so we don't go out of our minds, or a little extra to help pay for issues that have come up. And then sometimes we get a bill (a surgery bill, for instance) that is the exact amount that's in our savings account. :/ I might freak out, cry, get anxious, complain, and worry... but we of course continue to pay our tithing and do what we know is right, knowing the Lord will provide. And then sometimes Ryan is able to find a last-minute moonlighting shift that helps put a little bit back into the bank and ease that worry.

We have always been able to pay for our very basics throughout residency, and I am very thankful. Even though Ryan's small salary is just for a short time, I am thankful we have it and that it's enough for our family of 4. I'm thankful that Heavenly Father is aware of us and knows just what we need right when we need it... Or maybe a day or two after we THINK we need it, so we can be humbled and be reminded once again that He is in control.

Family Get-Away

Ryan had work off during the entire week of Thanksgiving this year and we hadn't planned on doing anything. We had already decided to do a low-key turkey dinner at home with just the 4 of us, and we were hoping to do a few fun, out-of-the-ordinary things throughout the week as a family. On sunday night, on a whim, we started looking into indoor water parks and ended up finding a place with a good price and availability the very next day. We are SO not last-minute people, and have never once stayed in a hotel with our kids. The only times we have had any "vacations" in the last few years have been to Salt Lake and staying with family. But when we found a place with a perfect indoor activity for all of us, we booked it and got ourselves packed up!

We left the next afternoon, Monday right after lunch, to drive 2 hours north to Sandusky, Ohio. The kids both fell asleep within the first hour. Woo hoo!

 The place we stayed was at the Great Wolf Lodge. It has a mountain lodge theme and a nice-sized water park inside. Our room had two queen beds, plus a little living room area with a couch and a fireplace.

 As soon as we got settled in our room that afternoon, we ate a snack and headed to the pools! We played for about an hour and half, went back to the room, bathed kids, made some dinner (cold sandwiches, etc, from the cooler we packed), and hung out a bit before bed. 

It was already 7pm ish and the kids were exhausted, but we let them watch a movie for a little while until Ryan and I were ready to turn the lights off and go to bed ourselves. We had one room so bed came early for us adults, haha.

The next day, tuesday, we ate cereal in our room and then headed down to the water park around 9:30am. Here is a picture looking down from the 2nd floor. It has several different types and sizes of slides, a lazy river, a kiddie pool area, a bigger, open pool, hot tubs, and some other areas to play and explore. It was perfect size for us! Grace went down almost all of the slides (even the bigger, scarier ones) and I was beyond impressed! Logan's favorite was the kid area where he was in control of what he did or where he went. They both liked the huge floating snake in the big pool too. 

 Every, oh, 15 minutes maybe?, this huge bucket drops 700 gallons of water. The kids were very scared of it at first, but they finally went along with Ryan as he stood close enough to it to feel the wind it creates and get a tiny bit wet from the waterfall. 

We headed back up to our room for lunch and made some more cold sandwiches from the cooler. Then Logan took a nap (surprisingly) and the rest of us had some quiet time. I wasn't sure how the sleeping would go on this trip with all of us together in a room but my kids really were awesome! Logan was on the other side of this half-wall in a pack n play, and he actually took a nap in there while the rest of us did quiet activities on the other side of the wall with the lights low.

After naps, we hung out, colored, played, rough-housed, and watched some of a movie. :)

In the lobby they have a little animatronics show where the forest and animals sing and talk. It was... a little creepy, but the kids thought it was great!

 By dinner-time we decided we were all tired of eating our of our cooler, so we headed down the street to Applebee's. 

 We had a great time too! The funny thing was that on our way home the next day I asked Grace what her favorite part of our trip was... she said "Eating at the restaurant." :/ Can you tell we don't get out much and especially not to a sit-down restaurant? haha.

"Oh mom..."

After dinner we went back to the water park for a last hour or two of swimming and playing. 

The next morning, wednesday, we were supposed to check out at 11am, so we enjoyed a slow morning with some cereal, playing in front of our fireplace (which felt PERFECT since it had been snowing outside), and got ourselves ready to go home.

The ride home was quick, uneventful, and we didn't even run into any Thanksgiving traffic going our direction. When we walked in our house it was freezing! We had turned off the heat (which is something we always did in Vegas when we left our house for a trip)... but apparently that wasn't very smart. Our poor heater had to run for several hours before it was back up to a comfortable 68. Whoops.

This trip was so perfect and so needed. We needed some family time away from everything, and especially something fun and out-of-the-ordinary. Anyone who knows my husband knows he isn't a fan of traveling or last-minute plans. So when he gives me a positive reaction to an idea like this, I have to run with it before he changes his mind! haha. ;) We are so grateful that we could go and all had such a wonderful time!