2023, December 25-31

Here we go documenting Christmas through the end of the year. Goodbye, 2023! Don't let the door hit you on the way out. 

Monday Christmas morning dawned bright and clear and without any snow on the ground. The kids didn't seem to mind. Here's their traditional stair shot.  

Prior to going downstairs, the kids opened their stockings. This year they wore matching jammies. 

Back downstairs they opened their gifts, and we chatted with Gma and Gpa O. and Alie. 

 

Fergus is never sure what to make of all the activity. 

Up in Elk Ridge, they did get snow. We went up later in the day to visit with Gma and Gpa M and Carly, Shad, and their family. Here are Eliza and Sawyer getting ready to go sledding up on the back hill. Hallie and Carly made some games for the kids (and kids at heart) to play. People got prizes worth up to dollars! 

Here's a view of Raunchy and Jack from the house of a neighbor. Somehow they got into their hay, and we notified their owners. Hallie learned horses will eat until they are sick. With the work of a couple of families, we were able to save the day.

Eliza got her hair colored back to one uniform color. It is fun to see how curly Eliza's hair has become.

Look at this cute puppy! It's a two-week-old Shitzu that the hairdresser had at her house.

Here's the final outcome. She's happy. 

Eliza and Mike took Sawyer over to see the ponies, and Sawyer got to do a little bareback riding. Eliza is so patient and a good teacher. Way to go putting a helmet on Sawyer.

Kai came back on Friday with new Christmas toys in tow. He was giddy to see Hallie and Eliza when they picked him up, as always. As he had to leave his new toys behind, the girls went to the pet store to get him a couple of new ones for while he's with us.

 

On Gpa M.'s birthday, we went over for dinner, cake, and visits. 

The new digital frame has led to people taking goofy shots of others and posting them for laughs. 

Landon, whatever you do, don't smile! Look at that photo bomb! Good job Grandpa!

One hour later. . . .

E took a picture of her new uke. She likes it a lot, and Mike has taken advantage of there being two ukes in the house to borrow E's old one so he can learn to play, kind of a revisit to when he would draft off her lessons a few years back. 

Emo selfy from the girl to end the year. Here's to a happy and successful 2024!

2023, December 18-24

Bring on Yuletide! We haven't gotten much in the way of winter weather in the valley, but the mountains are white in time for Christmas. We had some festive surprises as well.  

We had some interesting clouds on Monday at sunrise. It panned out to a good bit of wind, and we appreciated breathing the cleaner air. 

When E went to BUH, she sewed some hair scrunchies and a tree-shaped ornament. She has also been practicing Silent Night on the ukelele. 

We had Kai for a few days this week. He came to us garbed in a festive bow from Brittany. 

Hallie only had a couple of days at work this week. The preschoolers had a holiday party. We are grateful for the Ceramics teacher at the high school who let the 3 year old class come and learn how to make some fun things out of clay.

Kai joined the girls running errands. 

At BUH, the deer were out and about. 

On Friday, Kai went back to Brittany's. We'll see him again after Christmas. Eliza felt he needed to ride with her in the front seat. 

Mike took E to visit the horses down the road. She rode bareback and otherwise just hung out with the boys. The owners took the saddles and pads to their house so the mice wouldn't get to them during the winter.

Later in the evening, we received a big surprise at our door! Someone left us a bunch of wrapped gifts. We feel loved. Thank you, mysterious friend!

 

Gma and Gpa M woke up to snow in Elk Ridge, so it's falling somewhere close. 

Hallie received some cute photos of Kai in a Christmas theme. So adorable! We miss him when he is not with us. But we know he shares his love wherever he is at the time.

We decided to let the kids open up a few gifts on Christmas Eve from our friends the Melos and from our mystery gifter. The kids enjoyed it all very much! Fun to see them still enjoying Christmas surprises.

Eliza wanted to make sure Dad caught a photo of Ferg cuddling up with her. She does love her kitty just as much as the rest of us, but she doesn't get as much lap time as she might like. 

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

2023, December 11-17

We have not done a whole lot this week, but what we did was festive. 

Happy little Kai has mostly been content to wear his sweater. Grandma M. stopped by, and boy was Kai excited for the love!

Eliza put a ponytail in Kai's hair and Landon saved him by taking it out. Kai tried for a minute to get it out on his own with no luck.

Landon also thought it was funny to make Kai wear his Harry Potter-style glasses. 

Hallie got into the act too. At night Landon and Hallie get into mischief and laughing fits. 

Mike has had small moments while substitute teaching when he can get some paper snowflake cutting in. 

He subbed as a kindergarten teacher (twice), a third grade teacher, an art teacher, a second grade teacher, and a computer lab tech this week. It's been varied and fun. Here is an embossed aluminum foil project he did with his art class. Still needs to be colored with sharpies (or maybe he'll leave it). 

Hallie has new winter nails. They look like a sweater with snowflakes. Eliza took the picture so it doesn't do it justice. Hallie says going to get her nails done once a month is better than therapy and cheaper.

Kai is such a love. We took him back to Brittany on Thursday and we will get him for three days this coming week. We're sad when he's gone!

 

Hallie tends to find what look like easy projects on Pinterest for the high school and preschool kids for Christmas that turn out to become much more involved than anticipated. As we started making the projects, they become ambitious Christmas presents. This year she found a paint stick Scrabble tile ornament project. Turned out nice.  

In Eliza's science class, she learned about how heavenly bodies orbit each other and how the angle of sunlight creates the seasons.

 

Ferg presented Mike with this "feed me now" face on Friday morning. 

Isn't this gingerbread house setup at a local school Mike worked at so cute? 

Hallie thought the backdrop at the school was cute and tried to take a selfie. Hallie needs a little help she said in the selfie department.

She works the basketball games lately, and she's a big fan of Springville High! Hallie has three of the cheerleaders in her preschool class. Two of the cheerleaders had to go to the bathroom before the halftime show, so Hallie took advantage of having two sets of pom poms left in her possession. In her head Hallie was an amazing cheerleader. Rah, rah, rah!

Ferg gave us an evening blep as well, this time out of post-supper satisfaction. 

Here are a few more paper snowflakes Mike made while teaching and then hung in our windows. 

We opened up one of our first gifts of Christmas, an Amos Pewter annual ornament from Gma and Gpa Dorey! 

 

One of Mike's heraldry friends made this super simple emblazonment of his arms. When you're simple enough you can be interpreted in LEGO, you know you've arrived!

We were blessed by folks from the local church today and two neighbors this weekend. We received fixings for Christmas dinner and an amazing gift bag full of goodies from one neighbor, and another neighbor and his family made us homemade treats. We live in a wonderful neighborhood, and we are grateful for the friendships we have made in Utah.