DECEMBER

1ST WEEK+ OF DECEMBER - I know it's very scary to start a monthly blog post with this picture of a Mexican drug lord - oh wait that's my husband.  So Jed randomly decides sometime during the month every November to participate in no-shave November.  Then on December 1st he wakes up and shaves this mustache - EVERY YEAR - exactly the same and every year is surprised when I'm grossed out by it.  So since not everyone gets the pleasure of waking up to this face staring at you from inches away each and every December 1st - I thought I'd document it here for all of his posterity.  Jed we are all very proud you can grow facial hair.  Funny story - during Thanksgiving my sister made the comment to Jed that she was so surprised his facial hair was that dark and wanted to know if he dyed it.  Jed said, "Of course I don't die my beard!"  And then she said, "You just usually don't see that dark of facial hair on a middle aged man."  He was disgusted by being referred to as middle-aged.  Moving along - December started off with a bang.  Kasen received an invitation to attend the Breakfast of Champions at his school.  It is basically being student of the month.  Each teacher selects two students from their class for the month and then they get to go to school early for breakfast of donuts and juice.  All the teachers and administration attend and line up along the perimeter of the gym.  The principal calls "the Champions" up to the front one at a time to give them their awards and then the student runs down the line of teachers and gets a hi-five from each of them.  It was pretty cool and Kasen was quite proud of himself!

One day while Dallin was napping and everyone else was at school I decided to bust through the Christmas decoration boxes and get them set up.  I felt a little guilty not waiting for the kids, but it was nice to get it done in half the time.  When Dallin woke up he was so awe-struck by the Christmas lights twinkling on the banister.  He kept saying, "Mamma Wow!  Mamma Wow!" and running down and back pointing at them.  Our ward party was December 1st.  Santa was greeting kids in a different room and so we went to say hi and get our annual picture.  This was the first time that Ava got sassy about being in the picture.  I almost thought she wouldn't do it.  This may be her last year. :(  Dallin didn't cry, but he wasn't thrilled to be sitting on Santa's lap either.

Saturday, December 2nd was actually pretty mild weather so Jed and I finished up gathering the last of the leaves in the backyard.  We decided to put them in our trampoline hole.  This hole is deeper than our kids are tall!  And it is completely full and overflowing with leaves.  Kinsley almost got lost in them.  I can't believe it is December and we are still gathering leaves!

That night Jed and I went to an adult-only Christmas party hosted by our friends the Millingtons.  They are fun hosts and had some great games.  One was trying to draw a Christmas tree, mantle with stockings, and gifts on a plate on top of your head.  Ava also went to a party that night.  Her friend Paige had a birthday party and they made gingerbread houses - with homemade gingerbread.  I was impressed with that mother.

While we were gone at our party, the kids decorated our Christmas tree.  They did a great job.  Every year Jed and I laugh and laugh at how tiny our tree is and comment at how embarrassing it is, yet we never end up buying another one.  We just keep saying "next year."  I noticed all the nativities were changed around so all the pieces were in a circle.  I figured it was Kinsley, but I found out that it was Kasen who changed them all around.  He said, "It wouldn't make any sense for the people and animals to be spread out looking in the same direction.  They would have been all looking at Jesus."  His logic is spot on, so we left them that way.  A couple of times I switched them back during the month, just to see if Kasen would even notice.  Within the hour they were back to the way he thought they should be.  It secretly made me really happy that he was taking the time to look at the nativities and think about them without being prompted.

December 2017 brought the most magnificent views at our house.  This sunrise was on December 4th and literally stopped me in my tracks when I looked out the kitchen window that morning.  It was so breathtaking.  I couldn't take my eyes off of it for a few minutes and then had to go outside and stand on the deck for awhile.  Then a couple days later on the 6th I was driving up the lane and gasped at how pretty it looked outside.  I didn't get a very good picture, but our house was framed so perfectly by white mountains off in the distance. 

I finally got around to taking Ava to her birthday checkup at the doctor's office.  Of course Dallin came along.  He had been there the week or so earlier for his 18 month checkup.  I'm not sure what it is with him, but there are two places he turns into a little nightmare: church and the doctor.  Dallin just goes nuts.  The nurse gave him a sucker.  Ava had to get some shots so she gave Ava a sucker and then gave me a sucker.  Dallin went a-wall and screamed until he got all three suckers in his possession. 

That Friday night our cousin Heath came to town for a wrestling tournament.  We were very excited to go watch him! It was a pretty tough meet, but he still had enough energy to run through the hallways of Centennial HS like a crazy man with the rest of the crazy cousins.

Jed left on Friday to St. George to spend some time roping and getting practised up before the World Series.  So it was just the kids and I for the weekend.  Saturday morning Ava watched Dallin while I took Kasen and Kinsley to a school fundraiser for the Women's Shelter.  They served breakfast and sold cookies and had pictures with Santa and Mrs. Claus.  To prepare each class had created a giant snowman and decorated it differently.  Kasen's class had each made their own special snowflake.  Kinsley's class designed their snowman to look like Pete the Cat.  Each student in her class made their own little cat.

When we got home, Ava went to do some baptisms at the Meridian temple with Mallory, Megan, and Jake.  They were here for a tournament Jace was playing in.  We went and watched him play for awhile.  During the time-outs when they went out to shoot during the early game Kasen went out on the floor with the high school kids too.  He thought that was pretty awesome.  He even made some good shots.

WSTR LAS VEGAS - Sunday my mom came over and I flew down to Las Vegas to meet Jed for the World Series of Team Roping.  This was his 4th year going down.  I went alone with him the 1st time, then the next year we took the kids, and last year he went by himself.  So I was pretty excited to go down again and be able to not have to bring the kids.  When Jed won the Homedale roping clear back in April I made him send in his entry form to Vegas right away.  He always waits and waits and then there aren't any rooms or stalls available.  This year we decided to stay at the Southpointe where the roping is and I also talked Jed into spending a little more money and boarding his horse at the Southpointe as well.  Last year he got really sick of spending all his time driving across Las Vegas to take care of his horse so it was a pretty easy sell.  It changed the whole week for me.  It was so fun being right there and just going upstairs to the room and out back for chores.  It was definitely worth the extra money.

The South Pointe is huge and it is always fun to see it not only decorated for Christmas, but decorated for a Cowboy Christmas.  I am not a fan of Las Vegas and one of the reasons why this week was so fun was that we didn't have to go down to the strip for anything.  The South Pointe has 5-6 restaurants, a movie theater, bowling, spa, etc.  The arena is indoors and connected to the building.  Like I said before, it was just so nice to not have to leave or be waiting for Jed while he did chores.  I just walked out back with him.  Jason was staying up the road and hung out quite a bit with us.  He roped with someone on Monday and Gini, Will, and Lilia came down and watched.  Then we went to eat and Jed and I stopped at an outlet mall to shop. 

Neither Jed nor I have ever really had any desire to gamble - probably mostly because we don't know how and also because we don't like losing money!  We did put $5 into a slot machine.  We chose the Ocean's Glory penny slot hoping that Ava's love of oceans would bring us good luck.  It didn't. Each night the open areas, the ballrooms, and the VIP lounges were packed with people sitting down for a minute to watch the NFR.

Tuesday morning Jed and Jason were set to rope.  They had won at the Pocatello roping in the fall to qualify.  Their first steer was a really tough one and ran really hard and ran at a right slant.  But they caught it clean.  Just a little longer than they wanted.

Then their 2nd steer was better and they roped that one clean.  Jed roped it really good.  After they rope 2 steers they move to a different arena to rope the 3rd one.  I had totally forgotten about that and was just sitting there watching and never moved to the other arena.  So I missed that one.  But they roped it clean again and so they qualified for the short go. (Luckily, they have professionals that take pictures so I was able to sort of see it.) AGH! It was so exciting.  Just for making the short go you were guaranteed to win $3200 so I thought well at least he'll make some money. 

There were a couple hours between the round and the short go so I went upstairs to the room and Jed and Jason stayed and watched more roping.  Then Jed and I walked around for awhile trying to pass the time.  They had everything the winners received out so we went to look at it.  I thought these trophies were pretty cool.

Gini came back down.  Brent and Mary were there too.  It was so exciting.  I just wanted them to have a good, clean run where they both did good and wouldn't be mad at themselves.  They were 13th call back.  When it was their turn I almost couldn't breathe.  They came out and roped it clean!  They did so good.  So many people told Jed he roped the heck out of that steer.  Of course their language was much more colorful being cowboys and all.  After their run they were #1 in the average.  There were still 12 teams to go and I was hoping so bad they would all miss.  Because the winners took home $297,000!  Split that would be almost $145,000.  As it went though they ended up getting bumped down to 6th place.  Every time they got bumped it was like taking off another $10,000. Ugh!  But they still ended up winning $84,000 so they each got $42,000. 

 

No one was mad about that prize total!  It was so awesome that they both won together.  Jed made the comment multiple times that this was more than he had won in all his 20+ years of roping combined. 

Afterward we decided to go eat at a nice steak house.  It was in a really shady part of town though and had a horrible view of a demolished building! But the food was good.  Then we went to a Cirque show that was super weird.  It was cool and weird at the same time.  Yes that is a giant snail in the background.  Need I say more.

The next day Jed got to rope again with Bruce Seal.  It was a lot less pressure going into this day!  I tried my best to talk Jed into buying me a full body massage chair, but he wouldn't do it.  It was so fun to just walk around to all the vendors.  I did talk Jed into buying a nice jacket that had the WSTR logo on it that he could wear at ropings.  Then it was time for him to rope again.

Their first steer ran pretty hard and they ended up roping it clean, but they were a little long.  Then they did the 2nd one the same, but Jed only roped one leg.  Bruce's horse just didn't look like it was running at all.  Then they went over to the 3rd arena and Jed tried to go out and rope it really fast and cross-fired.  This picture is my favorite! They thought they were done and were starting to put away their horses, when they got a call that the judges had reviewed their 2nd run and thought they should get a new steer.  So they went back to the main arena to rope.  They roped it clean.  So because they roped it clean they got to rope their 3rd steer again.  So we went back to the other arena.  Bruce missed that steer, but it was called out by the judges again so they got another 3rd steer.  By this time everyone was wondering how many steers these guys were going to get chances on!  That last steer came out and I thought the run was clean.  I was so excited, but at the last second Bruce's rope came off one of the horns and they got flagged out.  Neither Bruce nor Jed even realized that the rope had popped off that's how last minute it was.  Unfortunately the flagger noticed so they were done after that.  Jed was so close to going to the finals again - he even had 6 chances!

 

We just wandered around the rest of the day and looked at vendors and then ate at an amazing Mexican restaurant in the Southpointe.  We watched some NFR and then Jed and I went to a movie.  The next day we woke up early and drove home.  We (especially Jed) was still on a high from Tuesday.  I'm not going to lie, roping is way more fun when you win money.  But this trip was really fun for us and for me so I gave Las Vegas a 3 finger review this year. Still not my favorite place, but better than the 1 finger it normally gets from me. I was thinking that it was actually a miracle Jed was even roping at all.  Just 8 weeks earlier he had almost cut off all his fingers.  He never gets to practise as much as he should.  The odds were not in his favor, but he is very talented and a really good roper.  So I'm going to try and complain less about roping this year.  Honestly, I wish sometimes that Jed could really just do it full-time one year and see how far he could get practising as much as all the other cowboys do that he competes against.  Not sure that that chance will ever happen... While we were gone, my mother held down the fort which is not an easy thing.  She took the kids to all their activities - 2 volleyball practises, 2 bball practises, 1 dance practice, 1 choir concert, mutual.  She fed them all and even went to the grocery store.  She watched Dallin all day for 4 days. They were happy and had their hair brushed.  Basically she did better than their own mom does.  I will be forever grateful for her and all she did for us these 5 days.

2ND WEEK OF DECEMBER - The rest of the week was quieter.  I had to have Ava babysit a lot because it was already the 15th and I hadn't done any Christmas shopping yet.  She taught Dallin how to build tower with his legos.  Kinsley finally lost her 2nd tooth.  She has pulled both of them out herself!

3RD WEEK OF DECEMBER - Only one more week before Christmas! The 3rd week started off with a little snow!  Sunday it snowed just the tiniest bit.  Enough for Kasen to build this midget snowman on our front doorstep.  Later that day the kids went to sing at a local resthome.  This was their 2nd time this month doing it.  They did great again.  I tried to get some pictures of Kinsley with her friends.  There are 4 girls in our ward that are all in the same grade (5 including Kins) and they all get along.  It has been such a fun change from Kinsley never having any girls her age wherever we've lived.  I'm hoping they all stay here and these girls can grow up together. :)

Later that evening we met Tresa and Tyler over at Scentsy to see the Christmas lights.  They had every tree lit up and the coolest light tunnel.  We facetimed Ryan and Cheyenne while we were there.  Then we facetimed with Katie when we got home.  I love Dallin's face while he was talking to Katie.  :)

This week Kinsley also had her ballet performance.  They did a dance from the Nutcracker and each girl even had their own little solo.  She is in a class with 3 or the 4 girls I mentioned earlier.  They were really cute.  One of the girls has a twin brother and I thought it was so funny he photo bombed the picture at the end.

Jed's office had a Christmas party and they also had an ugly Christmas sweater day.  Jed kept saying he wasn't going to do it, and then the night before went and bought a sweater.  I had to laugh that he was matching with one of the ladies.  Kasen asked very concerned when he saw the picture, "Does that mean that Dad bought a women's sweater??!!"

Kinsley's birthday was on Thursday, but I'm going to come back to that later.  Friday was the start of winter break and Kinsley had her bday party.  Then Saturday we woke up to snow!  It was awesome.  It looked so pretty first thing, but not a lot.  The kids were out for most of the morning building snowmen (or in Ava's case a snow octopus) and making snowballs and footprints.  It was a pretty warm day too so they loved being outside in the snow. 

Tresa had invited the kids over for their annual sugar cookie making that afternoon.  Jed had made an appt to look at a Razor type thing so we dropped the kids off.  They made cookies and then Jeff took them outside to sled behind the 4-wheeler.  Tyler was there too.  I wasn't sure between Tyler and Dallin if any of the cookies would be left, but the kids had a whole plate of cookies for Santa and a few for Jed and I.  That was almost as big of a treat as Jed's new Christmas present.  He ended up getting the vehicle.  It was a fantastic deal and has a plow and a zip enclosure with doors for when it's cold.  It has 4 seatbelts and a dump truck type bed in back.  They had made it road ready with mirrors and blinkers and everything.  It will be great to have around our little farm!  Dallin really thought so too.

KINSLEY'S 7TH BIRTHDAY 

Now back to the most exciting thing of the week... this girl's birthday.  Kinsley has been counting down the days to her birthday since Halloween.  She was so excited!  She got breakfast in bed and then had to go to school.  But she was ok with that because it was the last day of school before winter break and they were having a party.  Dallin and I went to help out at the party which was fun.  That night we had Manwaring FHE - our big Christmas nativity pageant.  I had bought a special birthday cake to bring so everyone could sing to Kinsley and make her feel special.

The annual pageant is always fun and hilarious and over the top and we absolutely love it.  Aunt Patricia has the best costumes for everyone.  We got to watch 2017's performance which was really cute, because Dallin had been baby Jesus and it was fun to see him so tiny.

We had some Christmas appetizers and of course bday cake and ice cream.  Then all the kids were surprised to hear Santa coming in through the front door ho ho hoing.  He had a special treat for each of the kids too!  Ava can never pass up climbing up the library ladder to admire all of Uncle Jed's books when we are there.

The Manwarings have a little nativity set up in their front yard with music.  Their neighborhood has amazing Christmas lights so there are a lot of people that drive through to see it all.  The kids wanted to go out and add a new dimension to the Christmas display in the way of dancing. 

When we got home Kinsley got to open up two presents - two new outfits.  She was so happy. :)  She and Ava could not be anymore opposite!  The next day was the first day of winter break and also Kinsley's friend party.  She had invited 9 friends, but a few couldn't come.  I only knew the ones from church so it was nice to meet some of the other friends.  Kinsley wanted the exact same party as last year - pretend ice skating on the hardwood floors in socks, pin the carrot on the snowman, Christmas bingo, a toy snowball fight, and singing along to Frozen.

That night we took her down to the mall for her big birthday present.  A trip to Build-A-Bear and then out to eat.  She choose a cute little pink Reindeer and named it Twinkle.  She even got sleigh bells inside it's foot.  She was so excited and we loved celebrating her.  Kinsley is such a special girl.  She is full of life and energy.  She loves all the girly things, but has no trouble rough housing with her dad or brothers.  She loves going on adventures in the mud and also getting her hair curled.  She is very sweet and in a split second can turn to super sassy.  (Jed says she gets that from me.)  She is very petite for her age.  When I took her in for her birthday checkup she was very low on weight and height (4 inches shorter and 10 lbs lighter than Ava @ 7 - 3 inches shorter and 6 lbs lighter than Kasen @ 7.)  The doctor told her she might be smaller than her siblings and she said with the biggest smile, "Yea I'm going to be a shorty like my grandmas!"  She constantly reminds me that she is still my baby girl.  She sleeps with her stuffed animals and doesn't like to be alone.  She is getting to be a really good reader and loves to read with me.  Jed loves it when he gets home and she comes running saying, "Yea daddy is home!" and gives him a big hug.  We love our Kinny-Winny so much!

CHRISTMAS EVE - Christmas Eve fell on a Sunday this year.  It was nice in a way.  We had church at 9am and then watched some religious Christmas movies.  Around 5 we went over to the Balls for a little Christmas Eve party and dinner.

We played games - even Dallin got into it.  He threw something and it ended up nailing me right in the front tooth.  I thought at first he had chipped it!  Luckily no.  The kids got presents to open from Aunt Tresa - they all got new games because they love playing games when they go over.  Kinsley and Ava told us the nativity story using Tresa's wooden figures.  We talked and laughed and hung out.  Dallin of course had brought his little basketball that he won't put down.  Jed had even let him bring it into sacrament meeting (disaster btw.)  We love getting together on Christmas Eve.

CHRISTMAS DAY - Christmas Eve the kids had opened their new pjs.  The next morning they lined up on the stairs for Christmas morning.  They slept in until about 8:30 or 9 which is always appreciated. 

They all were very specific in their Christmas lists this year.  They didn't ask for much just one or two things.  Kasen: a Kevin Durant jersey.  Ava: no clothes and a pet octopus.  Kinsley: a hatchimal and some puppets. Luckily Santa thought they were pretty nice this year so they got their wishlists granted.  Ava even got a pet octopus - the very nice, soft, stuffed kind!  Dallin got a new basketball hoop and a football book!

Jed got some new shoes and a new toy that he used to plow our driveway after opening presents.  He even took me on a ride down the road!  I thought the Ranger would be our joint present, but Jed surprised me and got me an apple watch!

The Balls came over for Christmas dinner and watched a movie with us.  Dallin loved snuggling up to Aunt Tre-tre and his basketball of course.  Kasen and Tyler had to show off their new sports apparel.

We spent the rest of the day watching new movies, making trades with Kasen's new sports cards, watching Kinsley's puppet shows (rightfully named "The Biggest and Awesomest Puppet Show!") and also watching her ribbon dance, and admiring Ava's new watercolor art supplies.  The whole time Dallin shot baskets - he literally did not stop the entire day.

It was a pretty perfect day.  We facetimed with some family and snacked and relaxed.  I noticed Dallin eating a snack later in the day and he was sitting right under the sign that says "grateful and blessed" and I thought that truly sums up the day and the whole year really.  We have truly been blessed and are so thankful for all of those blessings.

4TH WEEK OF DECEMBER - Jed didn't have to work the next day so we decided to go to a movie!  Dallin has been doing better watching movies so we thought he'd enjoy the theater.  He did better than he ever has so far, but about 3/4 of the way in he was done so he and I went out to the arcade.  He really loved the race car game.

The next few days we got more snow and it got colder.  Jed and I had decided it would probably be best to see if we could find a new home for Gigi.  She just has so much energy and we don't have the time to give her the time she needs and wants.  I had put a listing on craigslist and a man responded so we set up a time he could come over.  It was a college-aged kid and he came with his parents.  They were so nice and absolutely adored Gigi and she loved them.  They told me they already had a chocolate lab and Gigi acted just like their dog.  I knew right away that they would take good care of Gigi so we made the deal.  Honestly, I was surprised that I was as sad as I was to give her away.  But I knew it was the best thing for Gigi too.  She was just playful and friendly, but when we got over by their car and they opened it for her to get in she came back to me and almost hid behind my legs.  That's when I almost started crying.  The kids pretended they were sad to see Gigi go, but they were not. Luckily, the mom has sent me a few updates and pictures.  Apparently Gigi loves having a friend (which I had told Jed she needed) and they got a long great. 

Some other things that happened this week was Kasen played in his first bball tourney.  He  also learned to drive the Ranger and helped Jed plow the driveway.  We had someone come to re-seal our crawlspace and the guy found snakes and frogs.  He said our crawlspace almost made him quit his job. haha.  He killed the snakes and laid them out for the kids to see.  They thought they were awesome.  I'm not scared of snakes, but I thought those were super gross. Jed almost put the house up for sale when he saw the picture.

ERICKSON HOLIDAY PARTY - The Erickson family party was on December 30th this year.   We got there the night before and spent the night at Jake/Megan's house.  This year for Christmas Grandma & Grandpa gave all the grandkids pjs again and alot of the pjs were footie or onesie pjs. I guess Jake felt left out so he went and put on his pair too.  His Bronco pjs weren't quite as cute as Dallin's though. :)

Jason and his family also got there on Friday night.  The 6 adults stayed up late talking and laughing.  Intermittently the brothers would fall asleep and then wake back  up and rejoin the conversation.  Then randomly fall asleep again.  It was like Narcolepsy reunion.  The next morning (Sat) we went over to the Firth High School to burn some energy.  There were basketballs, jump ropes, soccer balls, volleyballs - all flying through the air at the same time.  It even ended with a competition between Jake, Jason, & Jed (shocking right?) to see who could make a basket from half-court off on the sidelines sitting down on the bleachers.

We had a tons of appetizers to eat and a delicious holiday dinner.  There were games, a ping pong tournament (Jed won), Foosball, talking, blanket making for Isaac's Eagle Scout project, and Cheyenne did about a million girls hair in so many different kinds of braids.

One of the highlights of the night was a family talent show.  Kinsley had prepared a ribbon dance, Kasen had done an art picture of a rooster and an elephant for G&G, and Ava had written an awesome poem about her grandparents.  All three of them got such stage fright and were too nervous about it and all three broke into tears and wouldn't talk about their talents.  Tresa ended up talking about Kasen's art, I read Ava's poem for her, and Jed/Jake took over the ribbon dancing.  It was quite entertaining!

There were 54 people at Jake/Megan's for the party - 28 adults (including married grandchildren/spouses) and 26 kids.  It was wild and loud.  Dallin handled it like a champ.  I remember when we would come home with Ava and she would get so overstimulated and just melt down.  It wasn't her fault.  I do think that the younger kids in a family do better with large groups and noise though because they've had that happening since the day they were born.

A few more pics of the fun!  We had a great day and were so appreciated Jake and Megan hosting.  It is no small feat to host a group this size, but they did it with such graciousness.  They probably did too good of a job and will be asked to host every year now! :)

NEW YEAR'S EVE - Sunday night was the final day of the year for 2017.  Not my favorite day for a party, but what do you do.  We went to church with Jake's family and then we drove up to Rigby to see my parents.  My mom had given the kids Monopoly for Christmas so we played that.  We had some good laughs as Jed tried to destroy my mom's railroad dynasty and some cries when Kasen realized he was out of money.  We ate dinner when my dad got home and then later Sydnee's family came over.  My parents had thought of a fun new tradition for New Year's Eve: everyone open a fortune cookie and that would be your fortune for the upcoming year.  Then on New Year's Eve the next year we could look back and see how much of our fortune came true.  I'm really hoping my fortune comes true and Jed's for that matter. I am going to have to start planning New Year's Eve better so that it contains more excitement!  Kinsley went to Raleigh's house to have a sleep over and Heath stayed with us.  I'm pretty sure my parents were asleep by 9:30pm.  Jed shortly after.  So like usual it was me, Ava, and Kasen.  (Heath too.)  I love watching the ball drop on tv and we looked for Deantre and Katie but never could spot them.  Ava is always the most excited for the countdown and she jumps up and cheers in the new year.  Looking back on 2017 we were so incredibly blessed.  Our life changed so much because we moved and it is crazy to think about how fast that all happened.  It is also crazy to think that we had absolutely zero intentions of that happening for 2017.  One of my favorite quotes by President Hinckley is about how the secret to a happy life is to thank the Lord for letting you have the ride in the first place.  I'm really looking forward to seeing what 2018 brings - especially if I can travel far and wide. :)