We decided to stay home for Christmas this year. It was a combination of a lot of factors. We were sad not to be with our families, but we did enjoy the slow place and getting to spend lots of time doing nothing at all together. In fact, it was so chillax and fun, I forgot to take any pictures on Christmas!

We had a Family Home Evening lesson about giving at the beginning of December and took yummy corn flake wreathes to a few friends for activity. The boys thought they were really cool, but I am the only one who appreciated the hot dot holly berries. We had lots of fun, and the boys loved wearing their Santa hats and delivering presents. Then we talked about how they felt happy when they were giving stuff away. I think if I do this every year maybe by the time they are like, 20, they might appreciate the joy of giving over receiving.

We did Christmas tree crafts with glitter glue and scissors and everything! They were so proud of their creations, they kept them out all December and played with them almost everyday. They even left them on the fireplace of Santa on Christmas Eve. (He left them a sweet note telling them that he like them.) I love this picture. It is just so….them.

This is the closest thing we have to a picture of Christmas. We traditionally give them new pajamas that they get to open on Christmas Eve, and that is what we were trying to take a picture of here, but they were not cooperating. Helaman got pajamas with a matching bathroom that he loves, and Isaiah got pajamas with “hot dog” (Mickey Mouse) on them, and he was super excited. He wants to wear theme very night, actually. Helaman had been dying ever since he brought his present for me home from preschool. When we told them they got to open one present that night, he thought that meant he got to pick, and wanted it to be that one. He was tearfully disappointed that that isn’t what was happening, so I got to open a very special present that night, too. What a sweet guy!

On Christmas morning the boys woke up to a tent with tunnel, glo-doodle for Helaman and helicopters for Isaiah that Santa left. They were so excited to play with those things, we didn’t get to opening any other presents for a long time. I forgot to take pictures because we were just having so much fun playing with them. They were so cute and excited, we loved spending that special time with them. Then we just played all day, stayed in our pajamas, and enjoyed each other.

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Fernando came Christmas night to enjoy some dinner with us. I must be getting old, because I can’t remember what went wrong (so anyone who has hear the story and remembers, please remind me) but somehow Christmas dinner ended up not getting done until around 9:00. But at least it turned out to be delicious! I made ham and scalloped potatoes and homemade rolls and suated green beans with red peppers. It was beautiful and tasted great!

Also on my list of good things I have made lately were the next day after Christmas delicious cinnamon roles. I forgot to pinch the edges closed, so they spread as they cooked, and they were already huge, but they tasted great. I even got Fernando to eat a lot of carbs this trip.

The rest of the weekend was spent just playing around.

And laying around. Can’t beat that.

After Cari and Josh were here we all spent the next week throwing up and really sick. Luckily, everyone got better just in time for Billy, Spencer, and Chris to come visit. I wish I had taken more pictures while they were here. We had a great time, with them as well. We got to go enjoy a mariachi at a Mexican restaurant in Inyokern, take Spencer to ogle at planes and weapons at the base open house, go to Corona and visit cousins, and really enjoy lots of laughs together. I really love my family and how much fun we have together. I’m so glad they were willing to drive down here and have a blast with us! Isaiah cried several times after they left because he wanted his “uncles” back. Cute lovingly little guy.

When we were at the base open house Survivability let us crawl inside real planes and helicopters and a friend sent me a couple of pictures of that.

The weekend after Thanksgiving we were excited to have Cari and Josh come visit from Texas. We just don’t get to see those two enough with all those darn states in the way! We had so much fun with them! Cari and I went shopping at the annual Christmas Craft Fair in Ridgecrest (which, for the record, is bigger than the actual fair here) and Josh and Omar went riding, and we all laughed and played the whole time they were here. Chris tells me he misses living with Cari because she is so much fun, and I know what he means! Our kids really love spending time with them, too. They are just such a barrel of monkeys.

The Christmas trains were running while they were here, so we got to take them to enjoy that uniquely Ridgecrest (and freezing cold!) time. And of course, we went to see Santa, too. We miss them lots, and wish they were much closer!

Omar’s family held with tradition and gathered at our house for Thanksgiving this year. It was lots of fun, and super crazy. We were so glad they came! There were games, motorcycles, dancing, laughing, hard work, and some nasty Thanksgiving food.

Omar’s dad was a huge help with some of the projects we’ve been putting off forever. They stripped ugly cabin siding off the shed and replaced most of the wood for the roof. Grandpa Luis was so patient and cute with the little boys, letting them help pull out and hammer in nails. Daddy even got them their own, real, little hammers. And when Fernando arrived later in the day he had brought a whole little tool set. Needless to say, I had some happy tool loving boys in my back yard!

The boys also dug out my ugly hedges in the front! Yay! And that was no easy task getting them out of the hard desert dirt! I helped a little, I think, but I’m not even sure I was that helpful. My little guys had lots of fun trying to dig with everyone and loading stuff in the truck. Isaiah was so cute trying to take his wheelbarrow up the ramp just like daddy. He’s at the stage I love where he wants to do everything just like daddy. Helaman has gotten a lot more independent, but Isaiah is in the hero-worship stage. And that combined with his belief there is nothing in this world he can’t do, makes for some crazy stories! (Like the time he tried to ride his three-wheeler up the ramp after watching dad and Fernando load motorcycles–never look away from the crazy monkey!)

Meanwhile Llael and I were spending the day making batches and batches of jam and jelly. We made several batches of pomegranate jelly and one of Grandma Ruth’s special apricot jam. We had completely run out, so I’m really grateful for all the Gridley fruit that came down to Ridgecrest this season! Helaman enjoys the fruits of our labors every day, and tries to talk me into peanut butter and jelly for every meal some days.

The real story of Thanksgiving, for me, however, was the dinner itself. It would be hard to imagine dinner turning out worse as a matter of fact! We had 3 times too much salt in our turkey brine, so it was suuuuper salty. As if that wasn’t bad enough, one of the times I shut the timer off after basting, I actually shut the oven off. Hours the later the turkey wasn’t cooking, because the oven was completely cold! It never did get done all the way, bleeding as Omar carved it. We just served the pieces on the outside that had gotten to temperature. Not that it was delicious anyway! Meanwhile, I had started the potatoes to get done when the turkey should have gotten done had the oven been on, so I left them soaking in the water for hours! Luckily, it was nothing a lot of butter and cream couldn’t cover up. The rolls were undercooked. I forgot to put the pecans in the topping on my sweet potato casserole, so added them after it was cooked, but they just fell off. And in the flurry of finishing everything I accidentally dumped the milk into the gravy instead of the potatoes where I meant to dump. The gravy was so salty from being made from turkey drippings it didn’t much matter anyway at that point! Hopefully, everyone wasn’t too grossed out to ever come back…

Here are some pictures of all the fun, and I can’t easily remove the ones already in the post, so just ignore those!

My brother Michael and his wife Tara welcomed a precious new little baby girl into the world on October 15th. It was one of my saddest days being away from home. We had so much fun being friends with them on Hepworth Row. I was coaching Helaman’s soccer teams, and we couldn’t leave town for a few weeks, but we were off for Gridley as fast as we could go, which ended up being the second week in November. The timing worked out great. Omar only had to take one day off because of Veteran’s Day, Caysley was getting blessed that Sunday and Christopher was made an Elder, and we got to be there for all the fun!

We had a lot of fun with our family that we sure do miss a lot!

Grandma had delicious cinnamon roles for us, and my boys happily dug right in. Who says these two don’t eat?

They had lots of fun picking Grandma’s garden, too. In fact they talked about the most out of the whole trip when we got back, and it still comes up sometimes. We sure miss little Miss Ava, too. What’s better in life than cousins?

We got to hang out with Ava Belle a lot, and had a blast with her. She has so much personality in that little girl body. We played at Grandma’s, at the park, in Chico. I was worried she wouldn’t remember us, but we only had fun! Isn’t she cute?

And I got a lot of good Aunt time in with Caysley, too. I loved holding that little baby girl. I’m so sad we’re so far away, still! She is perfect in every way, and I would have loved to just steal her away and bring her home with me!

We had a lot of fun playing with the other side of our family, too. These two are so funny, as soon as they get to Bompa Luis’ house, it’s straight to the balls, and it can’t be put await as long as they are there. Grandpa and Jelly are such good sports with all the craziness and noise, and they love being at their house.

Can you tell he was having fun? Helaman is such a silly bug lately. Which is usually funny and sometimes drives me crazy (like bedtime!). Good thing he is so cute!

The only bad part of the trip was when we went to Bagel Works to meet Michael for lunch in Chico. As Isaiah was walking by one of the pictures on the wall he bumped, knocking one off the wall higher up. It fell and cut his head pretty badly and shattered glass every where. It was so heart breaking! We were sitting in the street cleaning his head with a water bottle while he cried, trying to make sure there was no glass in the cut. Sometimes it’s so sad to be a mom!

Funny Isaiah at the big events on Sunday! He kept making this face the whole trip when he would say “cheese!” We’ve been working on smiling with big eyes trying to lose this face, but I’m glad it’s recorded for posterity.

All the Melchizedek Priesthood boys. I am so grateful to have the priesthood in my family. It’s made all the difference in our lives. And I’m so happy and excited for Michael and Christopher. We are so blessed!