December Miscellany {take one}

12.2 {Friday} Amber watched my boys while I had a chiropractor appointment and we visited afterward for a while.  Got a few pics of the kiddos together.  Adore them.  I think we may have gone to dinner with T&T this night at Winger's.  Neither of us remember what night it was...how bad are we??  It was a fun time & we had good food and amazing company.  The boys were awesome & big hams the whole time.  We may or may not have watched a movie afterward?  The A Team, I think?  Seriously, I have to write everything down or else it is gone!!

12.3 {Saturday} I taught a gift wrapping class for Enrichment.  It was more of a display table & I preferred it that way.  Thanks to my mom for TONS of help/ideas/resources, it turned out cute. (:  That afternoon I had a booth for TSFL at a Mary Kay fair that Elizabeth McKinney put on.  It was pretty low key which was nice & I met a few contacts.  Hustled home afterward to attend a baptism for our ward.  I grabbed Beckham since Zac had the boys all day & Grayson opted to stay with him.  Beckham is an animal & so much fun.  He loves people & social situations so he thrived.  We got done with the baptism & headed to Jordan & Kirk's reception which was darling.  Long day & I had a headache throughout most of it.  When I got home, Zac had our fireplace mostly fixed {Beckham had broken the glass by hitting it with something-$150+ piece of glass!} which was wonderful and then he ran me a bath & I soaked with some yummy smelling essential oils & read my book.  What a great ending to an eventful day!

12.5 {Monday} we had Jaeger over for a while.  Grayson had preschool & Beckham napped, so Jaeger cuddled with me for a bit before falling asleep on the couch for a couple hour nap.  Talon brought Gray & Amity home from school and they all played really well together for an hour.  Later we took the three boys over to Grami's for a while to play legos, visit, and hang out. 

12.6 {Tuesday} night we watched the Michael Buble' Christmas concert on tv which was wonderful & the boys wrote letters to Santa.  I found a cute template on Pinterest that I think we'll use for a few years.  It had prompts and I read them to Gray and he told me what to say.  He also "filled out" Beckham's for him, too.  Of course most of what he said I hadn't heard of till that day.  (:  Sure love those littles!

12.7 {Wednesday} was our ward party.  I love that they do it so early and it really was a great time.  We invited Bec & her kids and I was so happy when she said she'd be there.  We see her at least once a week and she & I chat on the phone a couple times a week, but it was good for the kids to play and fun to have her celebrating with us.  They had a baked potato bar, a scone bar, and a hot chocolate bar.  Super cute.  Everyone ate & visited, they had a cute little program, and then Santa came.  During the program Grayson's friend Maryn-who he adores-sang a song with her sister.  He asked if he could take a picture with my phone & I said he could.  He waltzed through the crowd-right up to her face, practically-and stood super serious while he held the phone out, focused it, and took the picture!  Totally cracked me up.  Then he proceeded to walk back to me and take pictures of anyone interesting along the way, including Max, and T&T.  Haha!  He is better on that phone than me, seriously!  Both boys were a bit hesitant about Santa, more because he had a pretty scary looking elf with him. (:  They did sit on his lap and Gray told him what he wanted {a storm trooper ship} and loved their bags of nuts/oranges/candy.  We helped clean up a bit and headed home.

12.9 {Friday} was a great day.  We had Kelsey Wilcox come babysit all day so we could go shopping.  Our Peterson family was forfeiting our Christmas from my parents to give it to another family and we were all going together to shop.  The guys {Dad, Zac, Lance & Talon} went in one rig and the girls {Mom, me, Kelsey, Taylor & Doll} went in another.  We had our assignments & they had theirs.  We went crazy!  It was a blast shopping for someone else-and especially for some girl kiddos.  (:  We kept texting the boys to see if they were beating us & we all had a blast together.  We met up with the guys at Red Lobster for a delicious lunch and it was fun to compare notes and visit.  Afterward we parted ways again and finished up.  It was a long, but super productive & satisfying day.  I felt so blessed to be enjoying myself with my siblings and parents and to have been born in the family I was.  They teach me so much about the kind of person I want to become.  Service to my parents is completely natural.  They don't even have to think about it-they just do it.  All the time.  Love them.

12.10 {Saturday} I hosted a teacher appreciation breakfast at our house for the teacher's in our primary. My presidency helped a ton and it was a nice morning.  The boys hung out at Grami's & when I went to get them they were cuddled watching {what else} Star Wars on YouTube.  We only had three teacher's show up {one of which I'm married to}, but it was a good learning experience & a totally new thing for us, so it's okay.  Afterward we had an assembly line & put together the kiddos Christmas gifts from us {cute reindeer candy bars via Pinterest}.  Turned out cute and had great conversation. Layne came over & helped Zac finish cleaning the chimney, too.  They are hilarious-love them.

That evening we took the boys to the Nite Lite parade in Nyssa because Julie told us we had to. (: We were dragging our feet because I hate bundling them up & thought it wouldn't be all it was cracked up to be, but then I realized it's not always about us. (:  So we did it.  We were running a bit late, but didn't miss anything.  We sat in Mickey's insurance office & had front row seats.  Once it started, we stood outside on the sidewalk and had a ball.  The boys LOVED it. Grayson had a look of pure amazement and excitement the entire time & neither of them minded the noise or the lights.  I'm so glad we did it.  They picked up candy & were really great.  L&K and Jaeger came too which was fun and Amber & Todd came at the last minute {Ella was with her parents} and it was fun to see them.  We hugged & chatted for a minute and then left to meet Lance, Kels & Jaeger for dinner at Ogowa's.  It was good food & better company and the boys all did really well.

On the way home we made some deliveries to a few friends & came home to get the boys in bed.  Then Zac played xbox online with Todd while I wrapped gifts on our bed and watched "How Do You Know?"  I LOVE this time of year!  The late nights don't seem to phase us and the gift wrapping, goodie delivering, fun mail getting, happy kiddos, magical days just make it all the better.

12.12 {Monday} was busy.  Taylor watched the boys so I could work.  About half an hour before I picked them up, I dropped goodies off at the Nyssa pharmacy {LOVE them in there}, made a bank run & a post office run & then grabbed the boys.  T&T were watching Becca's kids for a few nights while she was in Utah and they needed to grab some groceries, so the boys came over here for a couple hours.  Treyce & my boys played great while Terren played xbox with Zac.  L&K and Jaeger joined us toward the end of the night & Lance played with them too.  After everyone left I sat with Zac and worked on 50 Reasons we love Tracy {a birthday gift for Amber's mom} & Zac chimed in occasionally.  He was super complimentary tonight and I appreciate that so much.

Another big event that happened today was when I was in Nyssa at the post office and needed to mail some Medifast food to some winners on my blog.  I went to grab my debit card and realized it was missing.  I panicked, of course, and tried retracing my steps in my mind.  I remembered the last time I'd used it was Friday when all us girls were shopping.  I had put it in the ATM machine at the Nampa Target and did not remember taking it out.  I was beside myself.  I grabbed the boys on my way home and Grayson could feel that I was stressed.  I told him I was really worried because I lost my credit card.  When we parked at home I asked him if we could say a prayer that Heavenly Father would help me find it.  He and Beckham both folded their arms and were so sweet.  We went in the house and I searched my jeans & the jacket I'd worn that day.  Nope.  I called Target & asked if they'd seen it, just knowing there was no way they had.  She said, "No, I don't think so...let me check."  When she came back to the phone she said, "Yeah, we do have it!"  WOW!  I was so grateful!  I immediately went to Grayson and told him the good news.  We all celebrated in the kitchen and then knelt right there to say a prayer of thanks to Heavenly Father for helping me.  I'm so glad I had recently read Candace's blog where she had a similar prayer experience with her kids and that I was thinking of that and trying to be in a state of mind to ask Heavenly Father with my kids instead of just breathing a silent prayer and not including them in the experience.  They are so trusting and I forget too often to ask & to thank my Heavenly Father for the tender mercies that occur daily in my life.

12.13 {Tuesday} Taylor watched the boys & took Gray to preschool so I could meet Tony and Brenda for lunch at Qdoba's & have a meeting.  It went so well.  I was a bit early, so I got some calls made on my to do list till they got there.  I sure love that couple.  They are some of our best friends & I wish Zac had been able to be there, but he was busy with Cricket stuff.  We chatted for two hours & then I ran a couple of errands in Nampa before racing home to get the boys.  We were only home for a couple hours before leaving to go to Tracy's surprise birthday party.  It was at Jolts & Juice {the upper deck} in Ontario and Amber & Megan did a great job planning it.  It was darling.  I feel privileged to be considered a part of that awesome family and was the designated photographer for the night since Amber was busy.  It was fun to visit with people, celebrate my other mama, and be with our friends.  Gray warmed up after a while {he fell asleep in the car about four minutes before we got there-argh!} and played with his bestie, Ella.  Beckham is always happy when there are balloons and cake. (:  Sure love that bunch.  I'll post pics from Amber's camera when I get them {hint hint, Amber!}  We grabbed kids meals for the boys after because they were starving & got home.

After we got home, our power went off.  For about an hour.  Of course we were putting the boys to bed, so they were a bit scared....so we all went in to Gray's bed with flashlights & put music on our phones & chilled.  Loved it.  We had a blast chillin with the boys & telling stories.  It ended up being a highlight of our week & made us realize how unprepared we really are & how much we rely on electricity! (: