Random January Happenings, Part 1

New year! Yay...I think??
Here are pictures of some fun things that happened in the first couple weeks of January:

Jan. 3

Batman Ian on a mission to capture some lemons off the tree for Mommy.

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Jan. 4

Sleeping Ian and his cute tummy!

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Jan. 5

I made a cheesy pot pie for dinner that the kids devoured. I will use a bigger pan next time!

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Jan. 7

A cute picture of Ian! I believe he was eating some of my banana bread

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Jan. 8

Ian and Elisa had their first Primary activity of the year. They both got to act out a short bible story. They both did a good job on their little skits!

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Jan. 9

Elisa giving her talk in primary. She did a good job!

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Jan. 10

I made 3 new pairs of beaded earrings, none of which I like much or wear.

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Jan. 11

I made more art for my wall. Valentine's Day themed, of course. I didn't really have a solid idea of what I wanted to do, so this is what I ended up with. I like the hearts' textures (I mixed some wall spackling with the paint) and the sparkle, but I'm not so sure I'm a fan of the camo print. I did not plan to make camo hears but nevertheless I ended up with camo hearts. I think the painting are so-so. I might throw/give them away and make something different/better next year.  

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Jan. 13

Elisa trying out her Marbling paint kit she got for Christmas. It worked ok, unfortunately half of the paints were dried up. Definitely not worth the money!

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Jan. 15

I love this kid. He is just the cutest!

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Jan. 15

Cute girly having fun on her computer game, Roblox most likely.

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Post-Christmas Fun

Post Christmas--Grandma and Grandpa stayed for a few days after Christmas and then went home, and Mark and Tootsie stayed for a few days longer. The kids were still on break from school. Mostly they played with all the fun new stuff they got for Christmas. I went shopping with Tootsie a few times, Mark took himself on some hikes, and Erik went back to work. 

Dec. 27 

Tootsie and Mark gave the kids an Occulus virtual reality set for Christmas. They were obsessed with it for awhile. I tried it too--its fun! It would be even more awesome if the graphics were better, but it is still really neat just as it is.

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Dec. 27

I bought Ian some window markers for Christmas. I had my fun using them, and Ian did too!

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Dec. 27

I ordered this outdoor bench from Amazon for the family for Christmas. I started putting it together and then Mark and Erik finished it. Its nice to have a bench to be able to sit down in our front yard.

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Erik had fun trying all the different root beers he could get his hands on. He put together packs of his favorites and gave them out as Christmas gifts this year, and attached an info letter about his impressions of the many root beers he tried. He also included critic ratings and popular ratings. It was nice for me that I didn't have to bake any treats and pass them out this year!

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Dec 28

Erik smoked some salmon for dinner one night before Grandma and Grandpa left. I made a quiche with the leftover smoked salmon the morning they left, using a recipe from Erik's beloved "Meathead" cookbook. There was another recipe for leftover smoked salmon for Salmon canapes in Erik's cookbook. We thought they would be fun to try. So Erik made them and they were yummy. They would have made great New Year's Eve appetizers, but the smoked salmon leftovers would not have lasted that long.

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Tootsie and the Buffalo Chips

Our yummy hamburger

Dec. 30

For my Christmas gift to Tootsie, I took her to the med spa I go to and treated her to some Botox injections. For her birthday, with is just over a week after Christmas, I also set her up with a facial. After the med spa we went to Tru Burger Co. for lunch. We ordered the buffalo chips and the Jalapeno burger and split it. It was actually quite good, I hope to go back there some time. 

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Dec. 30

Mark and Tootsie left not too long after our med spa and lunch excursion. I thought they would stay longer but whatever. I didn't get a whole lot of pictures of their visit, but I did snap this one last pic on their way out!

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Dec. 30

After Mark and Tootsie left, I took Ian to claim is free pizza from Pizza Hut that he earned by filling out his reading list from school.

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Dec. 31

Ian's bed head! How cute!

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Dec. 31

I randomly decided to clean out and organize the hall linen closet. I threw away a lot of old junk. Yikes. I found this pillow case I made years ago, using paper piecing patterns. I almost threw it away (it was coming apart) but I decided to donate it instead. I took a picture so I can have some record of it. Elisa was never into The Little Mermaid when she was younger, and she definitely won't be in the future!

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A silly creepy junky doll head that I bought at Dollar Tree for the White Elephant party. It didn't find a home with anyone else so it ended up staying with us. We tried to gift it to Mark for Christmas, but he "forgot" to take it with him. LOL.

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Dec. 31

We spent New Years by ourselves. We were expecting to have Mark and Tootsie celebrate with us but oh well. Erik made a few cheeseballs (including a sweet one) and I heated up some mini sausage-things. Erik also made some cookies. We also sampled some more root beer. The kids had a good time. We probably watched a movie-can't remember what though. What we didn't do was stay up till midnight. We put all the kids to bed maybe an hour or so passed their bedtime and went bed ourselves, earplugs in ears.

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Dec. 31

Some silly pictures Elisa and Ian took while messing with my phone.

Christmas Day 2021

For Christmas this year, I invited Tootsie (Cindy) and Mark since they were the only ones that hadn't yet spent Christmas with us. And of course we invited Grandma and Grandpa. Tootsie and Mark didn't arrive until very late Christmas Eve. More like very early Christmas morning. They slept through most of the gift opening unfortunately, but Tootsie did manage to make it for the last little bit. Most of the pictures here are of the kids opening their gifts. For the gift opening, we always open in order of youngest to oldest. The kids love passing out gifts for the next person.

Santa came!

Ian's Santa gift: a remote-controlled Mario Kart! Santa does not wrap his gifts.

We always open stockings first. The kids don't wait for us to come down before taking a peek anway.

Erik got some peanuts movies in his stocking. Too bad Santa forgot to put the pistachio nuts in Erik's stocking. I think Santa might be getting a little dementia. I swear every year he forgets some gift.

Ian opening the first gift!

Silly Gabe gave Grandpa a Hot Wheels Car.

Goofballs almost done opening their gifts. We had to keep the wrapping paper trash under control somehow, so Gabe was Bag Boy and Elisa was Garbage Girl and took turns putting the used wrapping into the garbage bag. 

Erik opening a gift

Ian dramatically opening a Mario Kart set from Aunt Makayla

Ian eagerly unwrapping another gift.

 

Erik received a meat cooking cookbook called "Meathead" and he's already read it cover to back several times.

Gabe checking out Elisa's tile-painting kit from Grandma

 

Oh yes---one more present left for Gabe. Yep, its that ginormous Mario from that novelty shop in St. George.  Grandpa was nice enough to get if for Gabe and bring it down. Erik hid it in a black bag in my piano. Silly spoiled Gabe. We sure love him. And he sure loves his huge stuffed Mario!

I'll admit--I wasn't very good about taking pictures. Here are a couple more I took of the remainder of Christmas Day:

Gabe and all his new Mario stuffies he was so excited about! We were sitting around, probably watching some Christmas movies. White Christmas, maybe? Actually, I think we might have finished that show before Christmas day. We also watched several versions of A Christmas Carol. My (new) favorite version is the Disney one with Jim Carrey from 2009. I believe I watched it at least three times. Its just so creepy haha! I like the muppet version too, I heard those songs once and they were stuck in my head the remainder of the day!

For an appetizer for Christmas dinner, I made baked brie for the first time. It was easy and yummy. Not super cheap, but worth it. I also brought out my "Christmas in a Jar" aka cranberry sauce that I canned last year, it complimented the baked brie perfectly.

Christmas Dinner! Erik and Mark smoked prime rib, I made my stuffing, rolls, asparagus, and whole red baby potatoes with lots of butter. Yum! 

Annual Christmas Singing Video 2021

Here is our annual Christmas singing in front of the tree! We chose "Santa Clause is Coming to Town". Elisa wanted "I Farted on Santa's Lap" but (thankfully) I couldn't find the sheet music anywhere for that!

As usual, we put this together last minute. I'm surprised my own playing held up okay, haha! The kids didn't fight too much this year about doing the song. We did it in one take! I think they did well. Could have used more practice but I'll take it.

 Unfortunately, the video is too long to upload directly onto blogger, so click on this link to see it on YouTube:

 

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Random December Happenings, Part IV (Tea Room)

 Here's more fun things we did in the month of December (the most fun month of the year!):

 

Dec. 21

Ian trying to perform a task while playing the "No Thumbs Challenge" game. Some tasks are harder than others!

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Dec. 22

The little gwilly has such a cute profile! 

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December 22-Erik made reservations at the English Rose Tea Room in Cave Creek. We had been wanting to try it out for a while now.  It was fun! The atmosphere is really cool. So many teapots and roses and sparkly glittery things! We ordered one Formal Afternoon Tea for the adults to share, a Nursery Tea for the kids to share, and entrees for each adult. The "Teas" were 3-tiered snack trays that came with your choice of tea. We ordered some fruity herb teas. I ordered the Hampshire Chicken Salad. The food was good but pricey. The portions were also quite small. I think it it would be fun to go back and split a Formal Afternoon Tea with someone as a snack. Its too expensive to fill up at the Tea Room! Still, it was fun. I think its more of a women's brunch n' munch place, not appropriate for a man to have a proper meal there haha.  

 

There was a little park close to the Tea Room that the kids played on for a few minutes. I took this picture of the kids in front of the huge Christmas tree in the park area.

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Dec. 23

I took Gabe to get the mail in the morning, and the sky was filled with hot air balloons! It looked neater in person.

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Dec. 23

I traced Ian on some paper and let the kids have fun with it. They went a bit overboard with it, but at least it kept them entertained for awhile.

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Dec. 23

My annual Christmas homemade gingerbread cookies. I tripled the spices and I still think they needed more spice. I made some quick frosting and decorated most of the cookies myself, but the kids had plenty of cookies to decorate for themselves.  

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Dec. 24

I beaded a clear plastic ornament. Despite using lots of sparkly Swarovski crystal beads, I don't like it that much. Oh well.

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Dec. 24 

Some Christmas Eve exercise with Grandpa! We got the bikes out (had to pump up some tires first) and rode through the cold drizzle and puddles. Luckily no caught pneumonia haha.

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Dec. 24

Christmas Eve dinner at Bobby Q's. The restaurant was surprisingly uncrowded. I ordered fish and chips and tried the beer battered fries. It was pretty good, like everything else I tried there.   

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