December

 The view from my bed every morning at the cabin. 

 Adam taught the kids how to finger knit and for about a week that's all they wanted to do.  We have hand-knitted snakes everywhere now. :)

 I feel like pretty much from the middle of November until now has been a blur.  It went by so fast.  We had a great holiday season and had a lot of fun doing good things, but as usual, it flies by.  The kids decided instead of making presents for each other they would earn money and buy presents for a family in need.  They wanted to do a shaved ice stand, so that's what we did, along with hot chocolate and lots of baked goods.  It was a TON of work on my part, but worth it to show the kids how fun it can be to serve. 

 Ava making the faces for the snowman marshmallows.

 All ready to go at their stations. 

We sold out within about an hour and made $180, thanks to our awesome neighbors and friends.  Adam and I matched their earnings and we were able to buy Christmas for a family who really needed it this year.  So fun!!

 Grant started scouts (he was so excited) and received his Bobcat award.  Noah was in charge of taking pictures, thus the blurry picture. :/

 Did some caroling with some friends.  

 Crammed a bunch of friends in the house for a dinner and to assemble gift baskets to deliver to those in need of some holiday cheer. 

 Had the bake sale on Saturday, bishops youth fireside at our house Sunday, friend dinner on Monday and sprained my ankle on Tuesday.  I was just finishing cleaning the house from a week+ of preparations and went outside to water my plants.  I thought I was on the bottom step, so when I stepped back to what I thought was the ground I fell a few steps and heard a loud pop.  I fell to the ground, the hose still on and soaking me and to top it off I had really bad laryngitis and had absolutely NO voice to yell for my neighbor.  It's a hilarious visual now, but at the time it was not funny.  I crawled into the house and started to sob from the pain, and then called Adam.  He came home and took me for X-rays.  Luckily it wasn't broken, just a really bad sprain.  It's been almost a month and there's still a few spots on my ankle that hurt and a few range of motions I can't do.  I couldn't walk at all for about 4 days.  Oh man, it was rough.  Can't believe how long it's taken to heal, but glad i am slowly regaining mobility.  And THANK HEAVENS for Amazon!!!  

 Did a pear tasting a couple weeks ago with the kids. 

 Had fun helping with Grant's holiday party at school. 

 Have seen a few movies since getting out of school.  

 Went to our friends house for Christmas Eve (the kids huddled around watching NORAD - the santa tracker)

 Decorating cookies for Santa - and a few for themselves. 

 Came home and opened Christmas Eve pajamas.  April always makes the kids pajama pants every year.  She's so nice. 

 The excitement Christmas morning is overwhelming. :)  The kids fell asleep quickly, so Santa came early, I think.  All three kids came into our rooms and climbed into bed anxious to go downstairs.  After a few minutes of them being fidgety Adam looked at the clock and realized it was only 2 AM!!  We sent them back to bed.  They came back in a little after 6 am and they rubbed Adam's feet to work off minutes to go down earlier.  We made it downstairs around 6:30.  Christmas is even better as a parent getting to watch your kids be excited about everything. 

 Ava and Grant got ezrollers from Santa.  They're really fun. 

 Noah testing out his flint and steel.  

 Grant with his loot. 

 Noah with his loot.  He got a trick scooter from Santa. 

 Ava with her loot. 

Adam was anxious to get to the cabin to try out his Christmas present, so we left around noon.  We've all been enjoying his present. :)

 Our friends came up with us and spent a few days at the cabin.  We had a lot of fun. 

 The kids went from the hot tub to the tire swing pretty much all day.  Heaven for a kid.  The tire swing has been a huge hit.  It goes really high now and each kid has only had about 1 minor incident on it.  If they let go too soon they have quite a fall -  they learn that lesson once. :) 

Found another pretty waterfall.  All three kids are there, but Grant's face got whited out for some reason.  We loved having Adam home for the entire week after Christmas. We've had a great holiday season.   It's been busy, but the good kind of busy.