December Happenings

What else happened in December?  Hmmm let's see if we can remember!  First off, Ashley requests an Elsa braid at least once a week!  If we have the time in the morning Mommy is always happy to oblige!

Busy, busy at school!

Ashley loves looking at the ornaments whenever she can - she even remembers that Sophia gave her this one last year!

Trevor and his Legos!

Very busy at school!

Ornament decorating at our clubhouse with friends...

Lunch with Trevor and his buddies at school.  Still breaking the 1 person rule :)

When the girls Trevor's age have breaks in cheerleading you'll always find them trying to get his attention.  He has not a clue!  See him in the Santa hat?

More fun at school with her friend Bria!

We spent a lot of time baking holiday goodies to bring up to Nana and Papa's! Rolo pretzels, Rice Krispie gingerbread man, peanut butter balls, donut holes and cut out cookies!

Ashley often picks out her own clothes these days.  This was one of these days.  Always styling!

Since we met our deductible we decided to allergy test Ashley to see if she had any allergies that are causing her nasally sound.  Nope.  Not one allergy.  The one red area is the control.  So that's good for her but it is looking like she may need her tonsils out after all.  Boo.

Hil-olt Christmas 2.0!

Bentonville square light display!

Cookie decorating at school!

Trevor's annual eye check.  No change!

Still loving cheer and learning to be a flyer!

And the biggest news of the month is that Ashley graduated from speech therapy!!!!!!!  Technically she graduated a few months ago but because we met our deductible the cost went from $150/week to $35/week so we kept with it until the end of December.  Miss Sarah Payne at Mercy is amazing.  So thankful for her and Ashley's hard work to get her to wear she sounds like a 5+ year old!!!!!  Way to go Ashley!!

Christmas in Minnesota!

The kids were once again great on the 9 hour car ride to Nana and Papa Steve's.  Although it seems that when Daddy drives we make it in 8 and a half hours!  Thankful for his driving :)  The kids transferred easily to their beds and when they woke up they were all about the snow!!!  Good thing Mama ordered snow gear for them, it definitely came in handy!

Trevor was most excited to eat the snow!!

Uncle Jim, Aunt Annie, Sam and Elena came to Nana and Papa's in time for lunch.  Elena surprised Ashley with a Best Friends necklace that she bought with her own money!

Gotta love Sam's bear jammies!

After a yummy meal of tortilla soup we hit the bowling alley for our annual tradition!

Then it was back home for some sledding!

And eating snow...

After the kids (and parents) got cold we headed inside for Mr. and Mrs. Right and Left!!!

Then we opened gifts from Nana and Papa!  Trevor was beyond thrilled about getting this Lego gingerbread house he's been eyeing for 2 years!

Since the Vikings were playing that night we gave Sam one of his gifts early!  He was SO excited and happy to get a Diggs jersey!

On Sunday morning our family and Nana headed to mass looking festive!

After that we headed up to Jim and Annie's and got ready to attend their service. 

It was a packed house!  Mommy will probably remember most from this service is her friend Alexis calling to tell her that they are moving.  Pure sadness :(  We moved to Arkansas from Arizona at the same time.  Crazy how transient NWA is!

When we got home Jim and Annie surprised the kiddos with matching jammies!

And a bigger surprise was that Jim and Annie had them too!!  

We played the syran wrap ball game!

Ashley loves Cody!

We grew magical candy canes!

In the morning we opened gifts!  Santa did bring their Santa gifts to MN!!

And Mommy and Daddy brought their gifts for the kiddos too!

They opened a lot of things that one could use in the pool - rings, goggles, a boat, swim cover up, etc.  And then the final gift was some maracas and a note saying that we were going to the Dominican Republic and to pack their bags because we were leaving on Friday!  Yes, in 4 days!!!  Kids were excited!!!

For the rest of Christmas we didn't get out of jammies - we ate our way through the day, played with marshmallow shooters, baked gingerbread man (or girls in Ashley's case, with bows of course!) and played games!!  It was the most relaxing Christmas ever!!

On Tuesday the Dads and kids went to Ferdinand and the Mommies went shopping!  Then we all met up and went ice skating!

Picture is a bit blurry because we probably fell right after this ;)

Kids did great though!!!!  Sam is a pro on skates as he plays hockey and Trevor does better each and every time he's on the ice.  Plus he's starting a Learn to Skate/hockey program with the Dallas Stars in February so he'll be a pro in no time!

After that we headed over to Uncle Jeff's.  The girls opened their presents from us and our kids opened pictures of their presents since the presents were too big to travel with!  But Trevor was excited for his bean bag and Ashley can't wait to get home and play with her Doc McStuffins baby care table!!

So a quick trip but we fit a lot in!!  We headed out on Wednesday and had a pretty uneventful trip home until a potty stop and Trevor slammed his finger in the car door.  Poor guy cried for 40 minutes at the gas station.  Thankfully the gas station had Tylenol so that helped with the pain.  After that it was smooth sailing and it was nice to be back home with 4 full days of memories in our hearts!  Thank you to everyone who hosted us, we enjoyed seeing you and spending time together no matter how short or long!  Love you all!