These are the Days!

Leslie decided to start the holiday season off right--by preventing herself from eating all the good stuff.  I should have tied my jaw shut as well.

Happy Wisdom Tooth Day.  Notice the spidey pillowcase--she didn't want to bloody her own.  The ride home from the surgeon's was pretty funny.  She kept yelling and freaking out that she needed chapstick (she had some--and put it on several times--but she kept forgetting.)

Luke also did some yelling.  Usually my kids stop crying and start laughing after we get the tooth out.  Not this one, even though it was an easy job.

Well, atleast the rest of us laughed.

Rosie was having fun living up the toddler life during the Christmas season.  The day we decorated the tree she immediately figured out what those red and white stripey things were good for.

But the most entertaining was when she figured out that "sniff sniff" with her best wrinkly nose is what we do to flowers (Leslie got some from her Wisdom Teeth Day), and the poinsettias were a huge hit.  Every time Mark would come home for dinner she would demand that he pick her up and help her sniff (mostly put her face into since they don't smell) the flowers on the table.

Oh, and we also thought it was hilarious how excited she got for the "Here Comes Santa Claus" song when she didn't even know who that was.
She did pretty good watching the kids' Christmas concerts as well.  I think we had five in one week.
 Boston has been in a percussion class and got to do several instruments.  Here he is on the jingle bells but we liked the big thundering tympanis the best.

 Somehow I missed a picture of Macy's.
 After recovering from her widom tooth removal, Leslie did some fun things to ward off the senioritis (or maybe because of senioritis).  One day she texted me that, "Everything about me is long.  I think I want to chop my hair."  So she did.  She and some friends also decided to brave the TRAX system and go up to downtown SLC on their own to see the Christmas lights at Temple Square.  (Her trip to DC gave her some confidence with commuting).
It's been super fun watching her learn to talk, with new words evey day.  She can say everyone's name in the family now.  "Mama, Dada, Lelleh, Bottin, Boocabooca, May, and Luke.  And I've heard her say "Osie" once.  It's always hilarious how some words are hard and some words are easy.  This was a fun moment at Cooper's orthodontist when she learned to say "Turtle" of all things.

Santa looked a lot like our good friend and neighbor Pres. Funk.  In fact, our kids would have been just as excited to hang out with him as with Santa, I'll bet.
Luke helped make Christmas spritz cookies with our Grandma LaVonne vintage cookie shooter.  He was bugged at it after about the second try, so that held with her tradition of always sputtering and yelling during the cookie making process (much to the entertainment of her granddaughters.)

And tada!  Christmas arrived.  Macy asked for a gymnastics mat.  She is self taught and works very hard on learning new skills.  Her goal for the year was to land an aerial.

Luke asked Santa for Hershey Kisses.  Past that he didn't have many ideas, so Santa brought him that and he got a few other things from his parents.
These boys.  They both wanted pennyboards.  Cooper said, "Let's pretend we are surfers for the picture!"  Also loving the mismatched jammies that I am just now noticing.  These boys.
Rose wasn't really sure what to think, but she got two doggies with fun accessories, books, and a big can of freeze dried strawberries, which she new right away was for her and yelled at me when I tried to put them away in the pantry after her first serving.
Leslie got some new clothes and a George Foreman grill, per her request, for college.  Here she is with Grandpa and Grandma Day who came to be with us Christmas morning.
This was our "Mothers' Day Miracle" (a gift that the giver wants more than the receiver).  I finally ordered the shelf our freezer was missing so that the boxes of ice cream and bags of spinach aren't always tumbling to the floor when we dig for food.  We are kind of a freezer family.  I was raised with two deep freeze chests out in the shed, also a regular freezer, so it's just kind of how we roll.  Lots of room for ice cream.  And spinach.
Rosie was not a fan of our habit of wrapping gifts in empty boxes of food.  I think she had just learned to say cracker, and she was a bit miffed that there were no crackers in this box, even though she doesn't even like this kind.
Cooper had an exciting month.  Our church dropped the age of when Cooper and other 12 year olds are invited to participate in religious ordinances, specifically passing the sacrament to the congregation and attending the temple.  Since a white dress shirt is the norm, I was happy that I had already purchased him a new one before the mad rush on the department store.  (Such is life in Utah.)  Normally he would have to wait until his birthday, but now the ordination is the January of that year.  I was so excited when I found out that I called him at school.  He thought he was in trouble, but now he'll always remember what a big deal this is.  So, last week he was ordained a Deacon and this was his first week passing the sacrament.  He was pretty nervous, so last night we talked about "Fear Not" from Luke 1 during our family scripture study.  That night Luke prayed for Cooper at his bedtime that he would be able to do a good job and not be afraid.  (So sweet!)  Mark had the idea this morning to explain the "route" of where to walk and what to do, as a football play.  Much better.  Cooper also gave a talk during the meeting, so it was a big day.  He did great.
Mark surprised me on Christmas with this fun followup from our Chocolate Tasting Event that we did for my birthday.  Mmm.  I think my favorite was the dark chocolate coconut toffee.  The honey one was pretty good, too.

This was from Mom.  Made me laugh and cry after the year we've had.  Then I realized that all my siblings got one as well, which also made me laugh.  (My naughty brothers enjoyed texting pictures of themselves modeling this with their plumbers' cracks showing.   I'm sure that was a proud moment for my mom on our group text.)

Christmas afternoon we drove up to visit Mark's sister Kathy, who happens to live near my Aunt Michiel, so we dropped in to surprise Grandma and Grandpa Heagy and say hello to my cousins (I'm the eldest).  Sigh, I don't see my extended family often enough.  They're awesome.

We spent some good time together Christmas break trying out the new toys and board games.  This one is Prime Climb, a math game.  They even like it.
We were extra glad that the weather held and we were able to drive up to Logan and visit my brother Jake and his cute family at Rachel's mama's house.  I hadn't seen them for a year and a half.  It was extra cute that little Jett wanted to be Leslie's sledding buddy, and I was glad that she got to play with the kids before she thinks she is too cool.  We drove through USU campus on the way home to let the kids see where she will be next year.
First day wearing a non-hat accessory.  I was a little excited.  I've had lots of people ask me if I'm going to keep it short (and often they are fairly insistent that I do.)  I'm sure I will come back to the short look since it's easy and somewhat polished, but for now my plan is to try a bunch of different styles that I never would have been brave enough to do.
where my Haynes family lived years ago, so that was weird.  Then, I noticed that the card belonged to a Joan Loomis Luster.  I don't know a Joan, but Loomis was also a family name.  I was about to walk away when it occurred to me that my Dad occasionally talked about his cousin "Joey", and that this might be her.  I don't remember ever meeting Joey, atleast as an adult.  Sure enough, this very Haynes-looking beautiful lady found her card and I was able to introduce myself.  We had a great visit and talked about both my Dad and my Grandma, and cried.
The odds of me identifying a complete stranger, who knew BOTH my Dad and Grandma from MONTANA on this particular day in the temple in Payson, Utah, are staggering.  And she doesn't even live around here but was visiting!  I felt very loved and connected to my angels on the other side who surely pushed the two of us together.

Mark has had a crazy busy last few months as he has started his own company, Remarkable Home Loans.  (I helped him decide on the name and earned my pay for the year;)  Isn't this a great logo?  Things are going great and he is so excited every day that he wakes up early with his brain spinning of all the things he wants to do.

New Years' Day we decided to take the kids out to dinner.  At ChuckaRama.  For lunch.  With coupons.  This is why we never go anywhere.  Atleast we didn't find strawberries in the baby's shoe later (Brooke).