DECEMBER

1ST HALF OF DECEMBER - This is always such a fun month with so much excitement from start to finish.  The kids were so disappointed in my lack of holiday decorating this fall that I sucked it up and got out the Christmas decorations right at the beginning of the month.  I don't know how many years before it will take before we buy a nice, pretty Christmas tree.  Every year it's a little laughable as we sit and look out our puny tree.  This year the kids decorated it entirely.  They did a good job.  Afterward we watched some Christmas shows/movies.  I looked over and saw what I thought was Kasen and Ava sharing a blanket and thought, "Oh that's sweet."  I realized however it was short lived.  Kasen was ok to snuggle up to his big sister, but when he got too close Ava pushed his head away.  haha.  She is a lot like her mom - stay out of our personal space bubbles!  Kinsley had to decorate an elf for her class.  She worked really hard on it and knew exactly what she wanted to do.  Kasen told me in secret that her elf would probably give him nightmares, but Kinsley thought it was the most beautiful elf of all time. :)

 Dallin is growing like a weed.  He snuggles up to the kids and I swear he has the same size head as they do!  He still had no intention of crawling, but never stops moving.  He rolls and rolls and rolls.  He never stops.  He is getting really good at eating in his little chair.  So far he doesn't like any solid food, but likes his baby food and a few baby snacks.

Kasen finished another season of basketball.  This was his 2nd year playing.  He really enjoyed it and had friends on his team which made it more fun for him.  The unfortunate thing was the YMCA was pretty awful this year as far as refs knowing the game and being consistent and Jed almost went crazy.  It may be Kasen's last year playing through the Y league.  Kasen really got a lot better at dribbling and shooting.  The boys learned some plays and it was fun watching them start to understand the game in greater depth.  At the end of the season one of the boys gave Jed a gift bag.  He had played on Jed's team last year too.  Usually parents will give gift cards or something as appreciation to the coach if they give anything.  This kid gave Jed the plaque below.  It was a nice gesture, but we were almost annoyed that the family had gone out and spent their money on a plaque for a grown adult man.  Seriously what is Jed going to do with something like that? I just feel bad they wasted their money...

Jed qualified for the Vegas finals again.  He went down by himself this year.  I felt a little guilty about that, but I didn't want to take Dallin to sit in a dusty arena for 3 days and I wasn't really comfortable leaving him with someone else yet.  It turned out to be better that I didn't go because Jed's parents went down and they needed a lot of help just getting around.  So it was a good thing Jed could help them as much as they needed.  I watched Jed's run live, but it didn't go so well.  Jed roped a leg so they were out of the big money and then Jake missed or something on their 2nd or 3rd.  I just have to tell myself to think of it as a hobby - a very expensive hobby, but it makes Jed happy I guess.  While Jed was gone, Santa came to the subdivision Saturday morning.  We went over to meet him.  He arrived on a firetruck and we were the 2nd family in line.  It is a fun thing we've been able to do the last 3 winters we've been here.  I am thankful we have a fun committee in our subdivision that organizes these little events.  I thought this picture with Santa was the best one yet of our kids.  They all looked so great.

Also while Jed was gone, Kasen had his big 2nd grade Holiday Music program.  He was so excited about it.  Then all of a sudden I looked over at him and he was in tears.  There was a few minutes before it started so I went over to see if he was ok and he was just so scared with stage-fright.  Poor kid.  He never fully recovered during the whole program.  If he ever made eye contact with me he would just start crying so I tried not to look at him too much which made me sad not to watch him.  He would do a lot of big, deep breaths in like Ava does.  He did a good job on his special part ringing the bells, but wouldn't smile at all.  He was so terrified.  It was sad to watch.  I got a little smile out of him at the end with his pal Drake.  Kinsley's class came in to watch too and she got to sit by Drake's little brother Porter. 

Here are a couple of Ava's projects from school this month.  In GT they had to do a mock campaign election and try to persuade people to vote for them.  I loved Ava's poster.  I thought she did such a good job.  I liked the words she used to describe herself: determined, fair, creative.  I also was impressed with her poem.  I'm always proud of her mind and her effort she puts into everything and particularly in school assignments.

Ava is also a really great helper and sister.  She especially loves helping with Dallin.  He just adores her and lights up when she walks into the room.  She read him quite a few Christmas books this year.  We had Susan, Morgan, and Mason come over for a quick overnight trip early in the month.  Samantha had a gymnastics meet in town.  We were able to hang out the night they got here before bed.  Dallin was obviously excited to see his pal.

The same night that Susan and family came into town, Sydnee and her family were here for Heath's wrestling match.  I had also committed to meet some other families at Toys 4 Tots to help sort Christmas presents.  We decided to go to Heath's wrestling match first, in hopes that it would be over in time to make it to the warehouse too.  Kasen and Kinsley wanted to make posters for Heath.  They worked pretty hard on them.  I thought it was funny that Kasen put "Age 5" on Heath's poster. :)  Heath's match was at Centennial HS and you could almost tell right from walking in the front doors that it was a wrestling match.  Why does wrestling stink so bad?!  Heath was apparently pumped up to have a cheering section because he tore into his opponent and pinned him quick.  Sydnee was shocked and said he had never done that before.  He had never won a match before.  It was fun to watch because Heath didn't have any clue he had won until the ref lifted his arm up and then Heath just jumped and skipped over to Austin and his coach yelling "I won I won!"  It was super cute.  We were proud of him!  The next day we had already rsvp'ed for the hospital family Christmas party so we couldn't go watch Morgan's gymnastics meet.  She did really awesome though.  The family Christmas party is at a theatre and we got free movie tickets, concessions, etc.  We watched Moana and it was Dallin's first movie.  He did really good.  I'm not sure why we ended up with a picture of Kinsley by the Lego Movie display though???

I have really enjoyed the last 5 months as YW's president.  It has been frustrating at times in many ways.  I have felt completely inadequate in this calling.  I have never really felt that way before with a calling so it has been very humbling.  I feel like I'm a pretty confident person, but haven't been able to get behind myself so to speak in this calling.  I remember one Sunday, a few months after I had been called just looking around the chapel during sacrament and looking at every single woman in our ward and thinking that each one would be a better fit for this calling than me.  One night, after a stake training, I was so down and I just felt like I was the worst person for this calling and completely overwhelmed at all my weaknesses.  I knelt down to pray before climbing into bed.  Jed was already asleep.  I couldn't even get any words out I just started crying.  I just started expressing all my thoughts and feelings to Heavenly Father and went on and on.  Finally I just took or breath I think and I felt a very loving, calm feeling come into my heart and the words "I believe in you" came into my mind.  It was a sweet experience.  My prayer didn't end right away, but it has caused me to reflect a lot on that communication from God.  He knows all my weaknesses and how I'm not this or don't think of that or whatever - probably even more fully than I do!  He didn't patronize me by paying me some compliment or saying "Oh stop you're just great" or dismiss my feelings.  He simply relayed to me that He believed in me - believed in my capabilities to become who I need to be in this calling.  With that encouragement and faith in me, I realized how much I need my Heavenly Father's help, Christ's atonement, and the Spirit's guidance to accomplish what is needed in the Silverleaf YW.  I also realized that I can't fail if I put my trust in them and do all that I can.  I realized that I have to put in a good effort to become better and strengthen my weakness.  I also realized that Satan gets me by getting in my head.  I'm not the person that is going to go blatantly breaking commandments, but if I let Satan in my head then he will cripple me from reaching my potential in other ways like self-doubt or negative self-talk.  Yes there are plenty of other women who would be fantastic YW's presidents in our ward, but for reasons I don't understand yet (some I'm learning) it's me right now.  I realized that sometimes not trusting in God's vision is being disobedient in a way.  Trusting in Him requires faith and I was wasting too much energy worrying about the wrong things.  It was a very tender mercy to have my prayer answered in that way I realized a few days later.  It really strengthened my testimony.  It gave me peace, and confidence.  It refocused me.  It made me realize that more than anything all I need to do in this calling is be a conduit in which God's love for His daughters can be felt.  Since then I have been much more at peace and forgiving of myself - and because of that I've been having much more fun!  These youth are amazing and I feel very lucky to be spending time with them.  In December we went caroling one night and it was quite fun.  The other picture is from a Sunday when we said goodbye to my 2nd Counselor who moved to another stake.  I will greatly miss her and the spirit she could bring when she prayed and bore her testimony.

Dallin turned 7 months old this month.  It is going by so fast!  He is really sturdy at sitting.  I don't worry about him falling over anymore.  As I said earlier, he has no real motive for crawling right now.  He is really good at rolling though.  He is still very large for his age.  I put him back in his infant carrier as it started getting cold because I wanted him to stay warm and it seemed easier for getting him around in the cold.  It lasted only until the end of the month because he is just way too big for it.  His head touches the top of the canopy and his feet hang off at the ankles.  He is such a sweet little boy.  We all just adore him.  He doesn't have any teeth yet and will not even try to hold his own bottle. :) 

2ND HALF OF DECEMBER - Most mornings I do homeschool with Kinsley.  She always groans when I tell her it's time for homeschool, but she enjoys it once we get started.  Dallin joins us if he isn't napping.  Kinsley is such a sweetie to her little brother.  I'm not sure what he and I are going to do next year when she is gone at school all day instead of just half-day! 

The LDS church invited all people to participate in a daily activity to remember the Savior more leading up to Christmas.  Each day there was a characteristic of Jesus' and then we were supposed to implement that personally.  So for example, Jesus loved little children and I can too.  One day was Jesus honored his mother and I can too.  I had a couple of errands to run that morning (it was on a Saturday), but when I got back Jed had helped the kids make me sweet cards and had the house all picked up neatly.  It was such a great surprise.  Ava's card said: "Thankfulness gives love.  Dear Mom, I'm thankful so much for you!  I appreciate you very much.  You help guide me, direct, and help me in life! Love, Ava"  Kasen's card said: "You're a shooting star that's ALIVE! And as glorious as Jesus' star.  You're the best mother ever!!!! I hope you have a Merry Christmas!  I hope you enjoy your early Christmas gift (the antler pen) and this whole December, January, and February you should write with it.  From, Kasen Foster Erickson."  Kasen had attached a fuzzy craft tie to a pen from the pen drawer to make it look like a reindeer.  Kinsley drew me a beautiful picture of the two of us sliding down a rainbow.  We also got together with our Boise relatives for the annual Manwaring Family Home Evening Nativity Pageant.  It is serious business.  This year it was pretty funny Uncle Jed had the innkeeper (Hunter) and Joseph (Beau) get into a wrestling match.  Dallin got to be Baby Jesus and he did a good job being adorable. We love our Manwaring cousins and really appreciate all that Jed and Patricia do to make time to get us together.

We got so much snow in December.  It would snow and we would shovel and then the next day we would have to do it all over again.  Kasen and Kinsley were good helpers with shoveling! Kinsley also had a little performance at her dance class right before winter break.  She could dress up if she wanted so she chose Ava's old dance costume.  They did a cute little Christmas dance.  Kinsley tried the whole time not to smile at me. :)

Here are a couple of pictures with Dallin.  The poor kid sure doesn't get any love and attention from anyone in this house!

WINTER BREAK - This year because Christmas fell on a Sunday the kids had an entire week off from school before Christmas!  It was fun, but we all decided we liked having time out of school after Christmas so there is more time to play with new toys/presents.  We didn't do much because it was cold and snowy so mostly just spent time at home.  Ava did a lot of babysitting for me so I could run last minute errands for Christmas.  Dallin got moved up to a high chair, because he kept leaning backwards or sideways in his little chair and almost tipping over.  He would try reaching for something and I was afraid he was going to tip off the table.  He is getting the hang of picking up food and getting it into his mouth.  He really liked winter break and having his siblings around all day long.

This actually happened after Christmas during the break...the kids all got puzzles.  I didn't realize what hard puzzles I bought for them!  The pieces were tiny and I think Ava's had 1000 pieces and Kasen's had 750.  They worked hard on them and Jed had to help.  He couldn't not work on them.  He said it made him crazy to not have them done.  Ava did most of hers by herself though.  Kasen also worked on his legos over the break. 

Before and after Christmas we watched lots of movies together.  For a couple of days before Christmas, Kasen got out all his farm toys again.  He hasn't played with them forever! 

KINSLEY'S 6TH BIRTHDAY

During the break Kinsley had her 6th birthday!  She was sooooo excited.  This girl waits all year for her turn to have a birthday.  She got breakfast in bed: honeynut cheerios and two oreos.  I decided very last minute to let her have a birthday party.  She has never had one before, so she invited the 4 girls in her class at school and another friend from her music class that used to be in our ward.  Only 3 girls could come but Kinsley was still thrilled.  She planned her whole party and wanted it to be winter themed.  She wanted to make sugar cookies and decorate them, pretend ice skate on the hard wood floors in their socks, have a snowball fight with the fluffy indoor snowballs, play Christmas bingo, eat ice cream cones, and watch Frozen.  Ava watched Dallin for me during the party and Kasen decided he would "help" with the party.  Later that afternoon my parents came into town so we met them at the bowling alley to celebrate Kinsley.  On Kinsley's first roll off the ramp she got a strike!  It was definitely her special day.

Later that night after Jed got home we celebrated with an ice cream cake with a snowman on top.  Kinsley finally got to open her presents from her family.  She got a big painting pad from Grandma/Grandpa Foster, $6 from her Erickson grandparents, a lion guard playset from her family, and a few other nicknacks. 

The next morning Grandpa wanted to take Kinsley to breakfast, so we went to Denny's.  They had reindeer pancakes which were cute.  Kasen and Kinsley played all day with Kinsley's new toy.  Kinsley also got to open part of her Christmas present early from Grandma Foster.  It was a cute clipboard that said, "Though she be little she is fierce."  Kinsley drew a special picture of Grandma and Grandpa with hearts everywhere and their dog in the picture.  My favorite part of it was that Kinsley drew Grandma standing on a rock so she could be the same height as Grandpa.

My mom and dad decided to visit all their grandkids before Christmas (since none of us were going to be home for Christmas this year.)  They started with us, then drove to Gooding to visit the Rasmussens, then down to Utah to visit the Monsons, then ended with Jaxon who was around during Christmas.  They said they had a great time and got pictures with all the grandkids at each stop. We had a great time with them.

CHRISTMAS - Finally it was Christmas Eve!!!  We had another huge dump of snow so that morning the kids went out and played in it.  It was in the single digits but that didn't bother them.  Later in the day we took them over to the park by the Village and they went sledding down the big hill.  It was pretty packed there and on top of the hill the wind was blowing pretty hard and it was freezing.  We stayed for about an hour.  Ava brought her friend Avery.

Later that night we went over to the Balls for dinner (soup/bread bowls) and some sugar cookie decorating.  The kids opened their presents from Tresa.  The girls got mermaid blankets, Kasen got a shark blanket, and Dallin got a cool new outfit.

Christmas morning the kids woke up about 8am.  It is really nice that they don't wake up any earlier!  They lined up on the stairs and then came down one at a time. I love the excitement of Christmas! The funny thing was they all got mermaid/fish blankets from Grandma/Grandpa Foster too!

Santa brought Dallin his first rocking horse named Rufus.  Dallin was pretty entertained by it.  He also really enjoyed hitting the wrapping paper!

Santa brought Kasen some new sports clothes and a new nike backpack.  He also got the #1 thing on his list - a giant ocean lego set.  He also got a sketching art kit, some football stuff, a Peyton Manning wall decal, and Ava gave him a toy pangolin.  Ava got a deluxe art kit, a fitbit, some books, volleyball gear, and her favorite game mancala. Kinsley got her American Girl doll Lea she has been wanting.  She also got a matching dress and bag and some of Lea's favorite stuffed animals. She got some books and one could turn into a little carriage. Kinsley gave Ava and Kasen seashells this year so they spent some time doing a trade.

Ava was so thoughtful this year with her gifts.  She really thought about what each person would want and spent her own money buying them.  She looked up stuff on amazon and had me order them at the very beginning of December.  Jed took her to the store and she knew exactly what she wanted to pick out for me.  She is such a sweet, kind girl.  She got Jed this mug which he loved.  Since Christmas was on a Sunday we went to church.  Luckily our church was at 1pm so we had the morning to relax.  Only Sacrament mtg was held and it was pretty special to go take the sacrament and focus on Christ amidst all the other fun of Christmas day.  After church we had the Balls over for dinner.

NEW YEAR'S EVE - It snowed and snowed on Christmas Day and throughout the following week.  Jed's family had decided to have their holiday part on New Year's Eve this year since no one wanted to travel on Sunday (Christmas.)  We drove over New Year's Eve morning. We almost didn't go because of course I had gotten sick during the break.  I don't know why every year I get sick around New Year's.  It's like my body just gives up after working the whole year or something!!  I didn't feel really great, but the kids were so excited to go that I didn't want them to miss out.  Everyone was there except Jason and his family.  It is always fun to get together.

The kids love the cousin gift exchange and just hanging out together.  It is always pretty chaotic and loud, and even though it is so much work to load up and come we are always glad we do. 

We stayed at my parent's Riverbend house for the weekend.  The kids had a great time playing pool and waiting up for the clock to turn to midnight.  Kinsley, Dallin, and of course Jed didn't make it to the New Year.  I'm pretty much 100% sure Jed has never stayed awake until midnight on New Year's Eve ever since we've been married!  I cannot believe another year is over.  It is always nice to contemplate the year and all the highs and lows.  We have been so blessed and without a doubt have had a lot more highs than lows.  The greatest gift was our son Dallin this year and good health for the rest of us.  I love this family of mine so much and am so grateful for each day that I get to spend with them.  Watching the kids grow and find new interests and develop spiritually has been pparticularly enjoyable for me this year.  I feel so much contentment and peace this year in being a mother.  At times in my life I haven't felt that and have been frustrated at my limits by not working and contributing to society outside of my home.  I feel like my eyes were opened this year in a sense and I gained a better understanding of Heavenly Father's eternal plan for me.  I have realized that I am quietly going about my Father's business every single day as a wife/mother.  My faith and understanding have been strengthened this year and I feel very very happy and grateful for the continued guidance and revelations I have received.