The close of 2016

Here we are, the end of 2016. Shantel and I thought we would tag team our year end post. 

On New Year's Eve we asked the kids (and each other) what our favorite memories were from 2016 and thought it would be great to just run back through a couple of 2016 highlights. In all honesty, we are not exactly so sad to see 2016 go. It was a good year, but definitely had its challenges. 

Shantel: This is so true. We love our life as a little family, but I think you can love the stage your family is at while recognizing that there are other things in life that are a little rocky. 2016 was pretty good to us, but we're glad to be saying goodbye. 

At times this year our calendar may have got out of control. Usually October is our busiest month with a lot going on in November and December as well. This year, those were pretty typical, but August definitely took the cake with so much going on. 

Shantel: The calendar doesn't even come close to showing how many things were going on. I feel like we had something every night of the entire month. All good things, but it was a lot. 

However, looking back at our favorite memories is a good reminder of how much we loved so many things this year. Even in that crazy August, how great is this picture of Austin (and Andi Middleton) from our awesome Peaden/Middleton camping trip this year. 

David: I'll start with me, my favorite memory, without a doubt, was our vacation to the Oregon Coast. Camping, playing on the beach, driving in the car and seeing so many fun things. It was the best summer vacation since Houston and it was such an incredible trip. Here are just a few of the fun photos. 

(Shantel: David was the one who started this post, so he gets first dibs on his favorite thing from the year - but let's be honest, when we talked about favorite things on New Years Eve with the kids - all we could talk about was how much we loved this vacation!) 

Shantel: Obviously, our biggest (and favorite) event from the year was our vacation. But there were so many other little things that I loved throughout the year. My favorite moments were the times that we were able to escape the demands of life and just be together as a little family. Going to the park together, making a day-trip to the Scandinavian Festival, staying home in our pajamas all day while David chased the kids around the house and played "tacos" with them. The moments when David and I turned and looked at each other and said "Wow, this is just about perfect right now." We started out the year with Austin still not sleeping through the night, but I feel like this year we've grown so much as a family and we're truly in such a wonderful little stage right now. Regardless of all the other noise that 2016 has thrown our way, I've loved the sweet moments I've been able to have with my family.

It is really true, our kids at at such a perfect age for us to really enjoy this "family of four" stage. Now, onto the kids. Lydia said that her favorite thing was the pool! Lydia loved her swimming lessons and loved even more the frequent trips to the neighborhood pool. She is lucky to have a mom who is so willing to take her to the pool so much. She become a good little swimmer and is learning so fast. That is definitely the thing she loved the very most.
Shantel: This is really just lucky for me, because I love the water! I'm so glad Lydia does, too. 

I'm filling in proxy for Austin since he did not specifically mention his favorite thing, but I'm certain he would say playing with Lydia. This year is really when they have started playing together all day long. He loves building with her, running with her and laughing with her. I feel like this is a great shot of them together. They are great siblings and so good to each other.

Shantel: I concur. :) 

We are love our little family, goodbye 2016, and thanks for the memories. 

New Years Eve

December 31st is David's sister Amy's birthday (Happy Birthday Amy!) and most years we throw a big party and celebrate with her - which we love. However, this year for New Years Eve things worked out a little bit differently and we ended up having a relaxing stay-home day with just our little family. It was exactly what the doctor ordered for this pregnant, tired, slightly overwhelmed mama. My only regret from the whole day is that I didn't get a family selfie picture to end the year with. (Honestly, I was sad enough about it that as I sat down to write this post I legitimately thought about going upstairs and waking both of my children up so I could take a picture. Thank goodness I came to my senses quickly.) 

We started the day with a yummy breakfast of aebleskivers and yogurt. Reading books, playing with Christmas toys, enjoying a slow day together. Also- Tacos. This is the favorite thing for the kids to do with David. He rolls them up in a blanket (usually together, but I only got a picture of Austin) then pulls one end and rolls them out. The kids love this. Austin seriously said some version of "I wanna taco/wanna be a taco/taco" like 200 times. It was a good morning. 

We asked Lydia what she wanted to do in the afternoon and she said that she wanted to go to Walmart and bring her quarters so she could get a prize. She counted out all of the quarters in her money bag (where she stores her money) and put all three of them in a smaller bag in her pocket. We took the opportunity to buy a massive amount of storage bins to aid us in our quest to organize our basement. Austin had brought a quarter that he had earned, and had insisted that he hold it in his hand the whole time. I'd been impressed with how well he was holding onto it but by the time we stopped at the much anticipated quarter machines, he'd lost it. We took a quick walk retracing our steps but couldn't find it. My sweet Lydia, without any hesitation at all, piped up and said "I'll give him one of my quarters!" Later, when I was telling her how proud I was that she'd decided to give him one of her hard-earned (and saved) quarters, she responded with "I gave him one of my quarters because I didn't want him to be sad." Melt. My. Heart. This girl has the biggest, giving heart and I'm absolutely in awe of how wonderful she is. Austin got some skittles and Lydia got two-quarters worth of a tiny sticky frog. Ha. But the lesson and example of my sweet girl was a perfect way to end 2016. (Also, those bins - although expensive - are going to be awesome for our basement!) 

When we got home we put together a last minute "New Years Eve" countdown with a balloon for 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7. Inside we put papers like "make ice-cream Sundays together as a family" and "play with a new Christmas toy", ending with "write one thing you want to do in 2017, watch a New Years Countdown, and get ready for bed". It was so awesome. It was everything that I could have hoped it to be. Both kids were so excited to pop the balloons, and we all had fun with the little activities. Our neighbors started shooting off fireworks while I was making dinner (little pizzas, chips and dip, and apple cider). It was SO fun. The kids loved watching them from the window, and at one point Lydia said "New Years Eve is so much fun! This is the best holiday." 

As soon as the kids were in bed, David and I popped some frozen pizzas in the oven and sat down to our big New Years Eve Plans: 

Catch-Up Blogging!

I know that this doesn't sound like the most exciting thing to most people, but I've been looking forward to it all week. It's easy to get behind on the blog posts that we want to do, and it's always so nice when we can sit down together and make sure that we record the events of our lives. (Or at least caption most of the pictures that we've taken.) There isn't anything I'd rather be doing tonight.

Catching up on 2016 blog posts. Pizza. Dr. Pepper. Hallmark Christmas Movie that we ditched in lieu of While You Were Sleeping, which is SOOO much better. Cozying up on the couch. Talking about events and life and our little family. The best of the best. 

Happy New Years Eve! 

Insta-December

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Box lunches for everyone today! #kidseatinglunchinabox

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A pretty accurate depiction of our trip to the Alpine Living Nativity tonight. #keepingitreal #pasttheirbedtime #socold But regardless of our cold toes and sad kids, I'm so glad we were able to go. To take a walk through Bethlehem, watch the shepherds, talk to the wise men and follow the star to see the little baby Jesus... Such an amazing reminder that the first Christmas was spent in a stable with nothing but an abundance of the Spirit. He is the light of the world, and because of this little baby (who grew into the Savior of the world) all things are possible. #heistheligh t#reasonfortheseason #feelingblessed

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Woke up this morning to get ready for an early church meeting, and after I had gotten dressed this popped up on my phone from five years ago! Too good to pass up the photo op. Five years ago (2011), 18 weeks pregnant with Lydia. Today (2016), 27 weeks pregnant with Baby #3. #stretchydressforthewin #happysunday

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Excited for this weekend, but the highlight this week so far was making Christmas treats for neighbor gifts. I can't say how much we laughed, but it was a lot. #bestwifeever #uppastmidnight

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Final product. Plus a Hallmark movie.

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Best part about the Christmas treats. Letting our kids eat the chocolate and Carmel drippings off the counter the next morning for breakfast. It mostly served as a great way to keep them entertained and happy about the candy even though they got very little candy out of it. #parenttricks

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Austin had so much fun this afternoon fixing the table. He would crawl under the table with his screw driver and find the screw. He would work for a minute and then pop out with the biggest smile and say, "me fixed it."

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The moment I told the kids that we were going to Grandma and Grandpa Peaden's house for dinner and having pizza.

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Our second annual Christmas kickoff was tonight and was awesome. We try to kick off Christmas with some time with just us and the kids. We did ice cream at Thanksgiving point, pizza for dinner and popcorn during a movie. We pulled the TV up close and cuddled up to watch the movie. We finished with a lesson about Jesus calming the storm. #lighttheworld#merrychristmas#secondannualchristmaskickoff

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Loved the second annual Christmas kickoff! We went to Thanksgiving point for ice cream and shared a brownie Sunday. Lydia was so excited for the cherry on top. Austin loved the gummy bears and using the napkins to clean up spilled ice cream. We came back to the house and had pizza and popcorn and watched a movie. We pulled the couch up close to the TV and it was great. At least until it got too far past bed and then the kids lost it a little bit. Lydia was jumping off the back of the couch and asking Austin to push her. We did family home evening and then bed. Bed time was a little hard. However, it was worth it for being able to continue a family tradition that I think will be so wonderful for many years to come.

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Happy Wednesday! #28weeks#glucosetest

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The best way I can imagine ringing in the New Year. While You Were Sleeping up on the TV while David and I eat yummy treats and catch up on our blogging. See ya 2016! #bestmovieevermade

Christmas 2016

Okay- I feel like I better give a little overview before I jump into our Christmas Post, so here is what we had planned, you'll notice a few adjustments we had to make later on.

Friday the 23rd- Head up to Morgan for Dinner

Saturday the 24th- Spend the day in Morgan and do Christmas Eve

Sunday the 25th- Christmas morning in Morgan, Church in Morgan and then to the Peaden house at about 3.Then sleep over at the Peaden house that night.

Monday the 26th- Spend the day at the Peaden House and then either sleep there another night or maybe go home. 

Right off the bat things did not go as planned. On Thursday Shantel was really sick and was still recovering on Friday. It was not until about 3 pm that we decided to actually go up Friday night because we thought about letting Shantel rest Friday night. We left later than planned and ended up buying the kids hamburgers and chicken nuggets on the way up and then getting them in bed when we got there. It ended up being really nice because we ended up just spending the night talking to Matt and Brooklyn since no one else had come yet. We have not spent a ton of time with just them since they got married and it was great to talk to them. We ended up watching the Christmas Studio C and an episode of Random Acts. As a side note, I love Random Acts and am so glad it just got renewed for Season 2, even if we cry every time we watch it. 

The next day we had a nice day. Brooklyn had her computer with her drawing tool and the kids loved playing with it. Brooklyn was so nice to sit with them and play. 

That night we made some little pizza's for the kids (it was a little crazy and no one else was hungry yet, so we did the family pizza's later). Then we let them open the Christmas Eve present. This year we did a nativity scene with stickers and a Nativity DVD. Lydia really loved putting the stickers on because each one had the shape outlined where it was supposed to go.

Then we did pictures by the Christmas tree and the kids put the stockings out.

Oh and Austin and Lydia took turns climbing on my shoulders and then jumping off. It was good, but a little bit hectic Christmas Eve.

During the day we started the Walker Cup Championship. We've done this 2 of the past 3 years (last year was an off year), Shantel and I won the first year, Jenna and Kevin the 2nd year. The Championship consisted of 4 competitions, target shooting with a nerf gun, a tank game on the wii, foosball, and 30 (a dice game). We played the first three during the day. Shantel and I won the target shooting and took the early lead. Things went downhill quickly though, we got crushed in foosball and the wii tanks. The competition came down to this dice game that we played that night. You have 3 rolls to try and get at least 30 points with 6 dice and if you get less, you lose points, if you get more, the person next to you loses points.

We may not have won, but I could not have asked for a better teammate.

Melissa and Matthew are super cool and ordered a super awesome custom trophy. It has a cup on top and on the front says, "Walker Family Cup in Recognition of Outstanding Awesomeness."

It came right down to the end with Scott going up against Melissa in dice with the winner taking it all. Scott beat her and Scott and Jacob ended up as the 2016 Champions.

Right before the Championship we made pizza, the chicken and bacon was super delicious and we did pepperoni as well. After the championship we made Frappe with Lime Sherbet.

Then we set out the kids Christmas stockings and presents from Santa. For Lydia we gave her Chase and Skye Paw Patrol Pups with their Paw Patrollers. Austin got a CD player. We know that is a random gift for a 2 year old, but he loves putting CD's in and taking them back out and dancing to the music. In their stockings they got a few chocolate santa's, fruit snacks, applesauce squeezers, an orange, a few candies and then Lydia got a paw patrol watch and CTR bracelet, and Austin got marbles.

We had hoped to sip some hot chocolate and watch the Christmas tree, and we did eat our Frappe in front of the tree, but it got cut short. Lydia started crying and had a really bad ear infection. We spent a few hours until after Midnight trying to help her get to sleep in the room upstairs. Austin was a champion and slept through all of the crying. Around 12:30 Shantel had me put all the Santa stuff away so she could just take her out to the couch and hold her. I went to bed and Shantel just help Lydia who basically cried until around 4 am when she finally fell asleep. Around 6 am Shantel brought Lydia into the bed. We let her sleep until around 7 before waking her up so she could be part of all the Christmas fun and see her stocking. It was actually a huge blessing because it would have been easy for Lydia to be grumpy or Shantel to be so tired that she couldn't enjoy Christmas, but Lydia did great and Shantel felt good the whole day, even on very little sleep.

We let the kids go up and see their stockings and they were happy and excited. Lydia loved her watch, but both of them really loved the candy and fruit snacks and dove right into that.

We opened presents together and although it was a little rushed since people had to leave around 9, everyone had a great time. Some of the highlights were: chopsticks for Shantel, some desktop decorations and coasters for me, roller skates for Lydia and a new V-tech racing track for Austin.

In addition, Shantel and Jenna have been working for the last year and a half on a quilt for Scott made out of his DWR jeans. They finally got it done for Christmas this year.

We did a special breakfast with biscuits and gravy that Jenna made.

Then Lydia was so excited to try out her roller skates. It was awesome to see how happy and excited she was racing along the kitchen floor. She looked so cute with her knee pads and elbow pads.

Austin's favorite thing by far was the tape measure that he got in his stocking. Whenever he finds one of our tape measures around the house, he can spend hours going around measuring things, so we decided he would love his own. The funny thing is we originally bought the one you see in the pictures below, but then found on Amazon a set of 4 that were made of more fabric material. We were a little concerned about the real one snapping back and hitting him in the face. We ended up putting the one of the fabric ones in his stocking and he did not love it. After we wrapped the real one and he absolutely loved it and was going around measuring everything in the house.

After church we did lunch for the kids and packed up to head to the Peaden house. It was snowing on the drive and we took our time to be safe.

On our drive we talked a lot about what we want Christmas to be like for our kids. We have always known at some point we would want to do Christmas Eve/Morning and our own home, but so far had been happy to go to the Walker's for Christmas Eve/Morning and then to the Peaden's to make sure we could get everyone on Christmas. However, we both felt like Christmas Eve/Morning had been....hectic. We obviously loved being there and had a good time, but we did not really feel like we gave our kids the kind of Christmas/attention to make sure it was special for them. Everything felt kind of rushed or squeezed in and for the first time, we really feel like we might need to change to make sure our kids get the kind of Christmas we grew up with. Some of the things that are important to Shantel and I from her growing up are making pizza and telling the Christmas story. For me it was eating Christmas roll and Frappe and then lining up to go see our presents on Christmas morning. In addition, we now have our Christmas Eve present and we want to make sure we have time to really make sure we spend Christmas Eve really thinking about Jesus Christ.

When we have talked about what to do for Christmas before it has just not been very clear, but I feel like we really had such a more clear vision on our drive on how we need to simplify things and focus our attention to our kids. Next year we are planning to do Christmas Eve/Christmas Morning at our own house. This will give us the chance to start creating our own family traditions and memories for our kids. We can take things at their own pace and enjoy that time with them. Then once we do breakfast and the kids have had a chance to play with their toys we can head to either the Peaden's or the Walker's. We can spend the rest of Christmas with one of the families and then go to the other family the next day. Obviously we will have to sacrifice seeing both families on Christmas every year, but we really feel like it will give us the chance to make some really special memories with our own little family.

We still feel like family time is important, so we'll probably try to add a Walker Family Christmas party so we can use that time for the Walker Cup Championship and really spending time with them.

Okay- on the Christmas the Peaden House.

We did the annual passing out of presents. Everyone was there except Wendy and Sam who came the next day and Matt and Julie who were at home in Indiana.

After things were a bit hectic at the Walker house trying to get everything done before everyone took off, we tried to take things a little slower in the afternoon. Our kids loved opening the presents and had so many wonderful things. All the grandkids opened first (with dinner in the middle of it) and we tried to let Austin and Lydia play with things as they went to really enjoy it. Some of the favorite things were the Paw Patrol Pups from Uncle Bruce and also from Grandma for Lydia and the tool bench set for Austin. My dad also made a custom marble track for the marbles that he got from Amy.

That night the adults opened presents and we really enjoyed watching everyone open the gifts and see how happy everyone was.

We had planned to stay the night at the Peaden house, but with Lydia's ear infection/ear ache, we were not sure she would make it through the night and so we drove home late that night and back early the next morning. The very first thing Lydia wanted to do was use her new snow shovel. We went in the back yard and had a blast clearing snow of the back porch. Eventually Lydia made her way all through the yard. Austin and Shantel had fun watching from the warm house.

The Rencher's came in the morning and opened presents. In the afternoon Lydia, Aubrey and my dad worked for over an hour on a gingerbread house. Lydia usually does not sit in any one spot for more than one minute and it was amazing to see her sit with her Grandpa for so long and work on the gingerbread house. After we went to visit my Grandma, Grandma Peaden (our kids call her Grandma Joyce). It was nice to see her and wish her a Merry Christmas. We took her a pear that we received in a gift box and Wendy and Sam and Aubrey brought her flowers. That evening we played games for a while while our kids slept and then packed them in the car to go home.

One of our favorite traditions is exchanging stockings with each other. Since we do stockings with the Walker family, we actually get two stockings because we like to do them with each other too. Usually we do this first thing Christmas morning before anyone else wakes up, but with the ear ache and everything going on, we pushed it back until that night. It actually was great because we were both so excited and had looked forward to it for the past two days. Shantel was so sweet and had a nice hammer, an Arby's gift card with my favorite treats and candies (Dove Dark Chocolates included) and she got a new set of kitchen scissors, a Del Taco Gift card and some treats. Being with her as our capstone to Christmas was the perfect way to celebrate.

We are grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ and his birth, resurrection and atonement. We are grateful for the opportunity to exchange gifts and spend time bonding as family as a way to remember the gifts that Jesus has given us and as a reminder of our family in heaven.

Merry Christmas to all!