December and my sanity

I know December is busy for most families. But I have this dream of curling up on the couch with my kids and watching Christmas movies and sleeping in and cuddling up and just soaking in the season. And that is not what it feels like!

I know that signmaking has a lot to do with it. Lindy and I set a deadline on our custom orders this year for December 5. We each had nearly 80 orders just within a couple weeks. That's intense!

I feel like I need a tuneup on how to switch files in my brain more efficiently. Whether it's the mom file, the housecleaner file, the orientation and mobility job file, the sign maker file, etc. I don't feel like I am as efficient as I would like to be!

Sometimes I sneak pictures of my clients when I am on a lesson. This is one of my favorite high school kids.







Lindy and I always talk about how we get a little embarrassed when we go to Home Depot and have like 30 cuts of wood we need. Even though we both have our own saws at home, sometimes it's nice to have them chop up a huge piece of wood and to all the sizes that we need.






This year, we made ornaments for the girls teachers. Pretty cheap and easy gift, but I thought they turned out pretty cute.



My goal was to have a street a Christmas story to the girls every night. But that hasn't happened! We've done a few so far!



I don't know what it is about me that wants to do everything, but I've had the secret desire to buy metal stamping kit for a while. We finally bought some and want to make the girls teachers keychains for the end-of-the-year gifts.



Another season of Harmony. It feels so crazy to fit yet another thing in, but I enjoy being able to do something like this with my mom.



We have had the same UPS driver for like 10 years. He is so nice! We even made him a gift!



In all honesty, one of the hardest parts about the sign making for me is the humongous mess that it causes. It totally makes me unable to keep up with my health, and it also completely adds to the clutter. I know it's temporary, but it steals energy away from my brain because it makes me feel more weighed down.



Just for kicks, sometimes I like to keep a record of the crazy dance schedule we get each month.


When I can get myself to let go and trust other people to help me, these girls can be pretty helpful!












Elf on the shelf! I think this might be our fifth Christmas having him? It's definitely fun for the girls.



We decided to do the 12 days of Christmas for our neighbors this year. Luckily, Jordyn is old enough to really like to take on projects like this. So we printed off a list of fairly inexpensive ideas and each night she run something over to them and then knocks on the door and runs away.






The girls had a foggy day delay for school on the day we had a harmony performance, so I took them with me. Peyton was so thrilled that she got to stand by the Sopranos and sing with us at one of our places! She seriously knows every song!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

We got home from Utah in the middle of the night Saturday night, and on Sunday we didn't waste any time starting to decorate for Christmas! Our time during the week is so limited, I wanted to get decorations up as soon as possible. The girls absolutely love to be a part of it and are such big helpers now. But no matter what, it is always a huge project!


We get to welcome Elfie back into our lives! Sure hope he doesn't forget to move every single night!


I have never put the tree over on that side of the room, at least as far as I remember, and I really like it there a lot! It's not a huge tree, but it serves it's purpose and fits great in our small living room.









Too bad the rest of the house doesn't look so pretty! This is just a tiny snippet of the laundry that needs to be done after our trip. Not all of it is dirty, but we still need to put it all away. I wish I had a maid!

Utah Day 6 & 7 - the End

Earlier in the week, I texted Nicole to see if there was any way we could meet up with Alyson while we were here, and she is always so willing to bend over backwards to make it work if at all possible. She has a pretty crazy work schedule where she works five graveyard shifts a week, but she said they could meet us for breakfast Friday morning after her night shift. So I found a little café in Ogden, which was about exactly halfway for us. We met there at 9 AM on Friday and had an extremely delicious breakfast and got to hang out and chat for a couple hours. I SO wish we could see Alyson more. Sort of breaks my heart that we can't, and it breaks my heart that there is division and separation with her and Carly. But I am also so grateful that she is still able to see us occasionally and that Nicole understands how important family is to Alyson, when she really doesn't have to do that at all.















I will admit, after breakfast on Friday I really hit a wall. I became very mentally drained. It didn't help that I slept hardly at all the night before. But I felt myself crashing a little bit. I laid down for a little bit and try to regather my brain, but I had to be honest and tell Lyndsy and Carly that we were rearranging our plans a little bit and could not have lunch with them like I had thought. We ended up getting takeout Café Rio and eating it at home. And then Jeannine and I took Jordyn, Lexi and Peyton out to Stansbury (which is about 45 minutes away) so they could spend the night at the Gertson's house. After we dropped them off, we visited Lynda at work at the ER. Tucker was at a U of U basketball game with Neal, it was only about 6:30 and we realized that we had no plans and no kids and no husbands! That's as rare as it gets! So we decided to stop by the mall and pop into a few stores. Even though it was technically Black Friday, the crowds had died down and it was no big deal. There is a Sephora in the mall and since I am up obsessed with make up, we had to go in there for a little bit. I had to show her the incredibly pigmented lipstick that Beth and I had found, and we put them on as a joke...but the sales ladies were walking by trying to tell us how much they loved the lipstick on us!


Tucker and Neal got to see Kevin Livingston, who I remember coming over as a little boy when we were first married and hanging out with Emmi while we played games. He has a heart condition and they didn't know if he would even live to be an adult, but he certainly wasn't supposed to exert extra energy with his heart. It's pretty miraculous now that he is a cheerleader for the University of Utah!



After browsing around the mall, Target, and getting a frozen yogurt, we came back home and Carly was there waiting for us. She came in and had some leftover turkey and we visited for a while. Soon, Neal and Tucker got home and we all visited for a while longer. I had to turn in about 1 o'clock when my brain was shutting off!

The final day arrived, and the girls were out at the Gertson's. Tucker and I started to pack up and and since Jeff and Emmi were coming in a little bit later, they brought the girls for us around noon. We chatted for a little while and finally got in the car around 1:30 to depart back to California.





It's always difficult to say goodbye. It makes your heart feel split in two places. I am so thankful for the 12 years of memories that we have had to do this. And each time we leave, I have a sense of gratefulness knowing that it's possible for it to never happen again in the same exact way. Life always changes that's for sure. We love our memories in Utah, and all of our visits, and I'm thankful to have in-laws who are kind and supportive and loving...and unconditionally accepting of us!


I wouldn't say it was "fun" for Tucker to get a ticket about 30 minutes after we left. I just had to breathe deeply and let it go because, lets face it, what's the point in getting all mad?


Cute, tired, sleep deprived girls. Ready for the 12 hour journey!


This picture is rare, and not one that I see almost ever. The girls only fall asleep in the car if we are driving after midnight.


(So I have been madly trying to update my blog, and I have spent the last four hours of our drive home from Utah doing the last 10 or more posts. This is my disclaimer, just in case anything doesn't make sense or is sorely missspelled! You get the gist!)

Utah - Thanksgiving Day!

The tradition thanksgiving morning is to go bowling at FatCats around 10:00. The family has obviously grown over the years, so that is not a small or inexpensive thing to do. It is very nice of Neal to continue to pay for that tradition!


The kids really love it, and it's a fun way to kick off the day.













Then we all gathered back at the house around noon, and we ate, this year, around 1:30. Jeannine is so organized and has her preparations spaced out over a couple days very methodically, so it looks like she pulls the dinner together like a magician, but in reality it takes an amazing amount of effort to off a dinner for 30 people!















I love this picture, this is titled "water challenge" or you could call it "I'm drowning". Mindy challenged us to drink 100 ounces of water every day for 30 days. There is an app called Waterlogged that helps us track our progress. It is amazing how much harder it is then I thought it would be because I have been in such a horrible habit of not drinking enough water. I'm really excited, though, to see how I will feel.




















Annie always has some sort of creative and yummy treat each year!














I took this picture to capture one of the funny things about the family. Jeannine takes the time to set a beautiful table full of China and very formal, yet most of us bring our huge and not-formal water bottles to the table! It never fails!



The little park just around the swimming pool from Gam and Pa's house is often a perfect place for the little kids to get energy out. They also like to play on the little side sloped embankment nearby and it scares me a little bit. But they like to get huge sticks and pretend they are hiking.


River, Andrew, and Peyton worked really hard on this and came upstairs and specifically asked me to come down and take a picture of them with their creation.


Games! Games definitely get harder these days with the big group and lots of people not wanting to play the same games. But we still managed to squeeze them in.


Just some attempts to get a few family pictures.