the 12th month of the 2,014th year

this post is pretty long. i thought about dividing it up but in the end, it all just got stuck on one. so we started out the month with trying to sell andrew's current truck. a lot of people were interested but no takers yet. we even had someone come from lewiston, idaho to look! 

 on dec 13th: by now you can see that our snow had melted and turned into rain and mud. 

i took this picture because sterling was dressed like his dad. hat, coat and rain boots. they went and picked a tree out...

that evening, i got christmas stuff out. we had been putting it off because of experience. young kids and christmas trees don't mix super well. sterling kept telling us that we needed a tree so we gave in. 

andrew worked hard to find the light that was out. only to have sterling (about a week before christmas) get mad, pull a light out and ruin it by breaking the wires. 

carlee is a rascal and a trouble maker! she can now move the chairs around. the computer is her favorite thing to touch.

the kids did all the decorating of the tree. andrew and i only assisted and put the lights on. sorry i didn't get a picture of the finished tree. carlee did most of the un-decorating.

sterling had his christmas program at school on dec 15th. all the kindergarteners and first graders were snowflakes. it was suppose to be sunday dress. i didn't get that note! but sterling was in the second row, so unless you were sitting close you couldn't see him!

5 little snowmen

he's watching mrs. hall, his music teacher at school and primary.

our family specialist (i can't remember her title) from CDC, karen came by with some gifts for the kids on the 17th. she brought quincey a Merida doll (with bow and 3 arrows!), comforter and wall clings. sterling got a little motorcycle and carlee got a stuffed cat. 

christmas eve was just any other day on christmas vacation. andrew got off work about 2.30, which is always nice. once everyone was ready, we went over to shaun and mary's house for dinner. we didn't want to do traditional food this time so we had hawaiian haystacks. the kids played, the adults visited, then we read the nativity story. we told the kids it was almost time to go and i got a wave of nausea. it came out of nowhere! we got home and since i suddenly wasn't feeling well we put the kids into bed (it was after 8). we watched a show and i felt better as long as i wasn't moving around. once we knew that quincey was going to stay in bed we went to work. 

we brought out our gifts and made sure everything looked good enough. we were going to redo the tree, but i just wanted to get into bed. 

carlee didn't sleep well and was up for a bit during the night. she got up at 7am. the others didn't get up until about 8.15am. 

we just hung out waiting and watching fred claus.

everyone seemed to like everything in their stocking. 

sterling's favorite gift was his cap shotgun. above, he is trying to look down the barrel like how andrew showed him. below, he is showing how to shoot it. 

quincey is snuggled up in their gift from nana and papa, animal pillows and blankets. 

below…sign. andrew had opened the salted carmel macadamia clusters from costco. the kids wanted one and so he gave one to each one of them. carlee knows when she's got something good! 

the after math of christmas morning. 

we unwrapped everything, ate breakfast, face timed with alija and then it was time for us all to relax! sterling and quincey watched the loran. we also face timed with my family, twice (the kids were outside the first time) and the jensen's. 

we got a white christmas by it snowing christmas eve! 

andrew had friday off so we just hung out. i was feeling much better that day. so i was able to help clean up after christmas. 

andrew took the kids out to build a snowman. 

HI! i'm oalf and i like warm hugs!

a few days before christmas carlee fell and got a black eye as a result. i'm not sure exactly how she got it but it didn't seem to bother her at all. this is what it looked like 5 days after it incident.

on dec 28th we had gotten more snow and so andrew went out and plowed the driveway. carlee stood on the rocking chair to watch him. 

i had the chair so that the back was against the wall. then out of the corner of my eye, i see carlee rise to my level. she was standing on the top of the back! i told her to get down. she did, but slipped and fell over taking the chair with her. and people joked that I had given her the black eye….

my kids have never had a problem with hitting their gross motor milestones! 

for new years eve, we went to the Cates' for a party. we had to bring a food from our missions or one that we remember from long ago. we brought fluff n' nutters (big hit with the kids), bacon wrapped pineapple and shrimp since andrew served in Connecticut. i made risalamande since i served in denmark. we stayed at their house until about 10. the kids were in bed about 10.30 (they slept in too!) and we were in bed about 11.30. we heard the neighbors fireworks so we kind of made it until midnight.