Christmas Day

Santa stopped by and surprised the girls each with a gift and then later in the day, Mom and Dad gave the kiddos the gifts we put together for them.  The excitement still has not died down from all the fun!

I was happy to see that the girls loved the "Seek-and-Find" book I put together with their pictures hidden in each page

as well as the "Scoodies" (Scarves with Hoodies) I made for each of them.

Decorating the Tree

At the beginning of December, the girls could not WAIT to decorate the tree.  So needless to say when I pulled it out they were bouncing off the walls until I plugged in the lights to find that only one of our three strings worked!  Our decorating was delayed just a day so we could replace our dud lights and everyone thought it was well worth the wait.

Family Gift Exchange

At the beginning of December Geoff and I took the girls to the store and let them pick out gifts for each other.  It took quite a bit of coordinating and swapping so gifts could be selected without the recipient seeing--but it all worked out and it was so fun to see how excited the girls were to watch each other open their presents.

Gingerbread Houses

As you can see, I totally 'cheat' when it comes to Gingerbread houses.  Growing up, making these candy creations was a way more involved and elaborate event--(I don't know how you did it, Mom!).  One day I hope to create our own structures and decorate with an unending assortment of candies...but while we have little fingers and a huge need of parent help...I'm sticking with the prefabricated kits!

Christmas 2018

With a busy year of moving and family visits, we ran out of vacation days which meant our holidays would be spent in Chicago.  We have missed being with extended family, but we're blessed with technology that keeps us close, and are extremely grateful for all the family time we did have throughout the year.

Geoff and I have been making extra efforts to keep the focus of Christmas on the Savior and what His life means to us.  We are grateful for the scriptures that testify of Him, the modern resources we have to better understand His mission and how we can be enabled and strengthened through Him.

It was also wonderful to see how much the kids enjoyed learning about the Savior.  We had a devotional each night about His life using "The 25 Days of Christ" gift Dean and Andrea gave us a few years back.  The girls LOVED finding out what the ornament would be each night.  Each item represented something about the Savior and it was lovely to hear Hylie and Eliana talk about what they thought the ornament was portraying. 

Hylie asked if she could do a presentation on Christmas Eve and Geoff and I were touched that it was all centered around the birth of Christ.  She included Eliana and Lillian with everything and ended her message by playing the Christmas songs she has learned on the piano.

We're grateful for the reflection and family time this season can bring.  We have been truly blessed because of the Savior's life and pray to understand and do more of what He has asked of us in our mortality.

Our Finger Sucker...

Ever since Eliana was a wee little thing

she decided she LOVED sucking her fingers.

And didn't show any interest in stopping...

Even when Grandpa asked if he could suck the fingers that weren't in her mouth.

We talked to doctors, parents whose children also loved their fingers, and dentists.  We read article after article on how to get your kid to stop sucking their digits.  Some said to ignore the problem and it will go away, others recommended the yucky tasting finger nail polish, sticker charts, $150 gloves specifically designed to keep kids from sucking on fingers... we kept talking to Eliana about quitting and tried most of the ideas we came across, but nothing was working.

I was not willing to fork over $150 for gloves, so when Grandpa Nelson gave me the idea of using zip ties to keep the gloves on--I jumped on the suggestion.  Eliana was on board for about 5 minutes...

We had incentives for morning, afternoon, and evening to keep her gloves on and her fingers out of her mouth.  Some days these incentives encouraged her, other days she could not care less about shows, stickers, treats, or whatever else was offered if she kept her fingers clear of her mouth.  We started the hard-core process of no finger sucking at the beginning of October and finally in mid-December she decided to pull the plug on her little habit.  And we can all give thanks to Paw Patrol toys!  Our sweet neighbor knew our kids were really into the characters and she had toys that her kiddos no longer were interested in, so she gave them to me.  I placed them up on the refrigerator, had a sticker chart printed out, and Eliana's eyes lit up when she saw the coveted prize!  This incentive, as on-point as it was, still took 6 weeks for Eliana to earn--but she did it!  She loves her Paw Patrol toys, she loves being a big girl, and has admitted several times that she does not miss sucking her fingers.  We are super happy to have made it through this obstacle, but have noticed that her tantrums and meltdowns definitely have increased since the finger sucking has disappeared.  But each day is a new day, and now that she's been cold-turkey for two weeks, we've noticed the tantrums are lessening...a bit.  We're super proud of Eliana and know that once this little thing makes up her mind to do something, there's no stopping her.

Hylie's School Christmas Show

As a former Elementary School Music Teacher, I was super giddy when I found out Hylie would have a music show this December--and let me tell you it did not disappoint!  The kids were animated, sang their little hearts out, and were super prepared for their show.  It was a delight to sit in the audience and not have to do a thing but listen to the wonderful music they sang!

Hylie getting ready to play the hand bells

There was an entire row of kiddos playing the bells and they all had their parts memorized!

Eliana's 4th Birthday

This cute girl was SUPER excited when her birthday finally rolled around!  It landed on a Sunday and she was thrilled the Primary would sing Happy Birthday to her at church and it was so fun to see her sweet smile spread on her face as she wore the birthday crown and was serenaded to.

She loved picking her dinner menu of big chicken nuggets (chicken fingers), corn, chocolate milk, noodles, and of course chocolate cake (with Paw Patrol on top) and cookies and cream ice cream.

For Eliana's final present, Geoff sent her on a scavenger hunt

With a LOT of prompting from Geoff, she finally figured out the clues and found the hidden treasure!

This is the response we usually get when we ask her to smile...

but if we're patient a more natural smile usually rolls around!

This kid NEVER got tired of hearing "Happy Birthday"

Man, do we love this kiddo!

Thanksgiving 2018

We had a small and quiet Thanksgiving in our home this year.  I thoroughly enjoyed putting the entire meal together and was also grateful that some missionaries from our ward were able to come feast on our spoils...and take some home with them!

Eliana helped make pumpkins place settings and Hylie made the turkeys.

Indeed, we are super grateful for all we have.  A warm, comfortable home, our health, vehicles, Geoff's job, Hylie's school.  But life wouldn't be anything without our family and the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I hope we never take such abundance for granted and that our gratitude shows through how we treat one another and how we strive to live in accordance to Heavenly Father's Plan.