December 2016

Some things that went on this month:

Dec 1- Mom's Birthday
Dec 3- Nicole & Cody's birthday
Dec 6- Parent helper in Kimbri's kindergarten class
Dec 10- Mapleton 14th Ward Christmas party, made Christmas sugar cookies, Emma Wilkinson's birthday party, Rick got back from Kentucky right at the end of the Christmas party!
Dec 21- Relief Society Christmas lunch. We had baked potatoes, salad and cheesecake. It was really fun to go to this activity with the RS and get to know some sisters better. I love being in primary but sometimes I feel super out of the loop, so I really enjoy RS activities.
Dec 23- Shopping with Olivia, Stone Christmas Party, cereal game (everyone brought a box of cereal and then you hid them all under a blanket in the middle and went around and took one without looking and went home with a different box of cereal), made mugs at the family party
Dec 25- Christmas! Played the piano for the primary and was a part of the ward choir (Christmas Eve and Christmas are getting their own blog post).

Rick was also in and out of town for residency interviews. He has gone all over the county during the last part of November (Chillicothe, OH), tons of places in December (Searcy, AR - Dec 2, Fayetteville, NC - Dec 7,  Weatherford, TX - Dec 13, Lake Cumberland, Kentucky - Dec 15, Las Cruces, NM - Dec 19) and will have a couple more interviews in January (Sierra Vista, AZ and Cottonwood, AZ). He also went to Palm Springs, CA somewhere in there but forgot when that one was. It was such a crazy schedule during these months!

Brenna at the dr office!

Reading all the books... 

The blueberry thief!

Kimbri's hair is getting sooo long!

At DI we saw this desk and the kids were
being so hyper and wanted me to watch
because, "They were on TV!" and they wanted
me to watch their show, haha!!!

At the ward Christmas party! Garrett was soooo excited to see Santa. But then when it was time to actually go see him and talk with him, he wanted nothing to do with him! Brenna was super scared too so we only have pictures of Kimbri with Santa this year...

Chowing down on a Christmas sugar cookie.

Her new favorite thing to do.

Brenna is getting good at folding her arms
for prayers!

Saw these fellas on our drive home from church.

Brenna loves lining everything up on the bathtub edge.

2 day till Christmas and she just begged to
sleep out by the tree!

Garrett and Kimbri getting a ride with Gpa Haycock

Lincoln Logs. I love those as a kid!

She loves the fingernail polish she gout from Gma & Gpa Haycock

Saying goodbye to the Christmas tree.

These two somehow made it all the way till midnight for New
Years Eve. We played games and watched movies over at
Grandma and Grandpa Haycock's house. They were so proud
of themselves :)

Christmas Tree Hunting

Going out to find a Christmas tree was a favorite tradition for me each year growing up. So it was fun getting to join in on the fun now that we have young kids of our own. My dad mentioned that tree permits were going on sale and if we wanted to get one we should go get a $10 permit down at the National Forest office in SF. So I loaded up all 3 kids and took them down there and got us a permit :) 

Towards the end of November is when we all loaded up and followed my dad out to the dessert. Our family, Dawson, Stacie and their family, Brooke, Nolan and Hadley, Zach, Olivia and her friend, Liberty, Enoch and of course my parents were all there. It was fun to all be together and let the cousins hang out together. 

We found a great tree! My dad held it while Rick sawed it down. Brenna had fun playing with rocks. Garrett found "a cool rock" and we all burst into laughter when it really was just dried poop. And they loved riding in the back of my dad's truck. It was a really fun little outing. The weather was good and we all had an enjoyable time together!

Eating chili beans

Tired from a fun day searching for the perfect Christmas tree.

The next week we decorated the tree and the kids loved getting out al the Christmas stuff.

Family Walk

Even thought Rick has had to go to Arizona for 6 weeks and Idaho for 2 weeks so far this school year, the times that he is in Utah have been wonderful. All the rotations he does in Utah are the elective ones... so we get to pick where they are! And we pick really nearby ones :) During 2nd and 3rd years, he was just assigned and he had to go where they told him, which sometimes was a very, very long commute. Sometimes he had a 1-1.5 hour drive each way! So he was driving nearly 3 hours per day, not to mention the long days he had in the office or hospital. So even though this year will require a lot of traveling, the times he is in Utah, the rotations are a lot better and we get to see him more. One evening we decided to go on a little family walk, and I love when we get to do that! Here are some pictures:

The wispy clouds and sun setting on the mountains
was the perfect end to our walk.