December 2016

Welcome to the crazy holiday season.  It seems like we were kept hopping from one event to the other.  We got to participate in some of our favorite traditions as well as making some new ones.

Aquarium

During winter break we decided to visit the Living Planet Aquarium and check out the new exhibits.  JJ kind of had to be bribed into going and didn't want to be in any of the photos.  Hannah decided to make weird faces or do weird stuff in every single photo of her.  My favorite spot to visit is always the jellies.  They are so peaceful to watch.  Maybe I should get a screensaver of them to look at when I get stressed! The otters were very active this time.  We loved watching their hi-jinx as they went in and out of their enclosure and played in the snow.

 Choir Concert

 Isn't she beautiful?  She is growing up way too fast.  She's all dressed up for her two choir concerts.

 Ward Christmas Party

 We continued the tradition of going to the ward Christmas party.  The kids are so funny about Santa these days.  They still want to tell him what they want but they don't want to sit on his lap.

 Christmas Lights

A local blogger put up a list of all the fun home Christmas lights in Lehi.  We decided to go check them out.  The pup came with us and wanted a front row seat on Lance's lap to see the lights. It was so fun we went a second time with the grand parents.

Friend and Neighborhood Gifts

 I have a love hate relationship with friend, coworker, and neighbor gifts.  They can be fun to design but often they are a lot of work and it seems like lots of people really don't appreciate them anyway.  This year I bought WAY TOO MANY frosty keytags from Wendy's. When we went to try them out we were disappointed that you can only get one tiny frosty with purchase.  Oh well. Now we are stuck with about 15 extra key tags because JJ only gave them out to a few friends.  For Hannah's gift we recreated a pinterest project with chapstick instead of EOS since I couldn't find EOS in red for Santa's nose.  They turned out cute and we didn't have any leftover.  For the neighbors we did 7UP bottles with the little tag which was another pinterest project that worked out really well.  We got the soda for really cheap so that was a project I would totally do again.  For Asher's gift to his friends we did tiny luck dragons.  It was a big hit according to Asher so that made me and him feel good.

 JJ

 This boy gets into a reading mood every little while. If he finds a series he likes he dives in and spends all his waking hours reading.  You will probably always find at least one of the dogs on or near him.

 Christmas

Christmas was wonderful. We got to spend Christmas Eve at Charlie's house.  Mary, Wes and Dean were visiting from Washington!  Emmy and Cam came over too!  Emmy and Mary are expecting new babies in a few short months.  We are so excited to meet these sweet new additions.  Brandon came too and all of us enjoyed hanging out with him.  He is so wonderful with our kids and is such a loving person.  We brought the puppy with us because we were a little nervous to leave him that long in the house. It was a bit of a mistake because he was really nervous in a strange house with lots of people and I was nervous he would pee on the floor.  This made the night a little stressful.  We should probably have left him home with Jax.  

 

 

 JJ played with Dean a lot! I loved seeing these cousins hanging out together.  It is somewhat surprising to me that JJ is really good with kids in the 2-4 age range.  He is really patient with them (unheard of previously) and very sweet and kind to them.

The kids opened Christmas jammies at Charlie's house.

 Christmas morning dawned a little later than it has in the past.  The kids are getting older and wanting to sleep in a bit more but it was still pretty early.  They had fun opening their stockings and checking out the fancy candy bars that Santa brought as well as all the other gifts.

 Our Bo kitty loves Christmas for the simple reason there are lots of new smells, ribbons and bows.  He LOVES bows . . . and no that is not how he got his name!

 Christmas day fell on a Sunday this year so we couldn't just lounge around all morning.  We had to get up and get ready for church as well as prepare a Christmas dinner. Jake came over to have dinner with us but Carolyn didn't feel up to it so we sent home a plate of food for her.

 

 Merry Christmas from the Madigans!

 Christmas Sing

I can never seem to get the photos in the right order so this happened before school let out for winter break.  Our school has a tradition of holding the Christmas Sing where each grade prepares one or two Christmas songs at a concert during the day for the parents.  I love it!  Asher not so much but he did great and they had some funny songs to share.

I don't have pictures for it but Asher's class party was awesome! It was so chill. We had yummy popcorn and a hot cocoa bar, Christmas coloring pages and the classic Charlie Brown Christmas movie. Pretty perfect in my book. We had some awesome moms so willing to help out. 🎄🎅

 Date Night

For my birthday Charlie gave me tickets to go to a play at the Orem Hale Center Theater.  Lance and I really enjoyed this hilarious play.  It was so well done and we had great seats!

 Gingerbread (actually Graham Cracker) Houses

The kids always want to do gingerbread houses. Now I do not have the baking ability to create the gingerbread myself and the kits are pretty expensive so we tried another pinterest project.  Burnt sugar icing and graham crackers.  Once I got the hang of it, it worked really well.  The kids had lots of fun!  The hardest part was cutting the graham crackers with out them crumbling to bits.  Even Lance made a house! We ran out of graham crackers so I didn't get to make one but that was ok.  Asher gorged on his and gave himself a tummy ache. And no, burnt sugar does NOT taste good.

 Hannah's 13th Birthday

This girl is now a TEEN! Ahhhhh!  She is an amazingly talented and kind hearted girl.  She is a loyal friend and a great student.  When she wants something she is willing to work hard for it.  She is maintaining straight As although math has been a bit of a struggle.  We love her so much!

 New Year's Eve

We started celebrating early with a Harry Potter marathon complete with junk food, carb fest, and HP trivia! After friends went home we stayed up late to watch the ball drop.  I love the time I get to spend with my family!

 Pets

This puppy love to ride on my lap in the car.  We have nose smudges on the drivers side window now because he presses his nose up to the glass!

Mouse decided that this was a good place to hide from the puppy!

Spanish Fork Lights

 One of the traditions that we started with my mom when JJ was tiny was visiting the Spanish Fork Lights and eating at Cracker Barrel.  We continued this tradition and Grandpa Madigan came too!  This is one tradition I hope the kids never outgrow.  It brings happy memories of my mom every time.

 Asher and Hannah opened the sun roof and stood up to view the lights from on top of the car.

Lights on Temple Square

 This year we decided to go see the lights at Temple Square since there wasn't any snow or ice for me to fall on! LOL! The Candy Windows were so fun to look at! It was so magical downtown.  We ate dinner at Olive Garden and took lots of photos of the beautiful temple grounds.

 This is the view from Lance's office window! Not too shabby!

 Random Stuff

 He's absolutely loving playing Christmas songs. Piano is suddenly fun! #jaxthepug always has to sit next to anyone playing the piano. #pianopug#tistheseason🎄

Regs came for a short visit which was the best birthday present Hannah could have ever gotten!

JJ has been doing some indoor soccer with his regular outdoor soccer team just to keep in shape and work on skills. I don't think they won a single game but he seemed to really enjoy doing it.  

This month Lance and I decided to start the process of getting our house ready to sell.  We are hoping to get a slightly larger home with a garage.   It is a big leap of faith and will take a while to get everything done so that we can make it happen but we have felt like it is the right thing for our family.  So here we go . . . !