December Phone Pictures

 We kicked off December with the drywall being delivered for our basement...and from then on out, the basement pretty much took up any and every spare second of Curt's time:

Drywall was the only thing we hired out, and they were amazing and got it all hung in one day! We were so excited to go down and look at it as a family that night, and because it was so dusty, we all wore bags on our feet so we could take the bags off and throw them away when we were done, and everyone thought it was pretty funny, haha:

For Christmas this year, we made a 12 Days of Christmas package for Landen, with symbols of Christmas. We gave him a book with descriptions of different symbols of Christmas, and a little tree with ornaments for each day, and a little present to open each day that corresponded with each symbol. It came together really well (even if it got a little stressful at the end...), and we hope he liked it!

I worked hard and stayed up late to address & put stamps on all of our Christmas cards one night, and then the next morning as I went to gather them up to take them to the post office, I found that Hudson had taken a pencil and drawn on almost every single one...! (while I had been helping the big boys with online school) I was too tired to do anything about it, so I just put them in the mailbox as they were (and then did a social media post to explain, haha). Oh the joys of having a two-year-old!

The only picture we have of Jack our elf this year. And since Curt was doing the basement every night and I was left in charge...this was about the most creative place he hid, haha:

We woke up one morning to snow, and Tucker, bless his heart, went out and shoveled it first thing--before we were even out of bed! Bless him.

Cute Hallie! She smiles really well when I take selfies of us...so I end up taking a lot of selfies with her, haha:

Hudson playing with the ornament container, hahahaha:

More Hudson shenanigans--with a spool of floss:

A picture of our Christmas tree with our new ornaments we made this year:

I don't remember when this was or what we were doing, (or who took the picture?!), but it pretty accurately describes/shows our family trying to sit on the couch together:

Tucker had an appointment (over zoom) with the Bishop...and this is how he dressed (face palm, crying face emoji) Gotta love the 2020 look! (and Tucker was called as the new Deacon's Quorum Class President!)

And then this was the look for tithing settlement (again, over zoom), hahahaha:

Here's the big boys doing a trick on the trampoline (in the dark!) that they wanted me to record: 

My mom had a really rough month, finding out she had a kidney infection and having to get daily antibiotic infusions, and having terrible reactions to the antibiotics that caused all kinds of problems. My siblings and I put together a 12 Days of Christmas for her and took turns taking her gifts and spending time with her, etc. It was neat to be able to come together to do that, and so good to be able to show my mom some extra love and attention.

The last few weeks before Christmas were really, really hard, and one night in particular I was at about my wits end without any dinner ready, when our neighbor Rebecca called and said she was bringing dinner over. Tears were shed, and I was reminded that the Lord truly is aware of us and blesses us through the hands of others. What a tender mercy. This was my post on social media post about it:

I knew going into this holiday season—with Curt trying to finish the basement in the evenings at an accelerated pace—that it would be hard. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to do as much or as many activities as I would like or as much as we have done in years past. And, for the most part, things really haven’t been too bad, and I’ve been able to keep somewhat realistic expectations. But the past week has been really hard. Curt has been working even more crazy hours, and I feel guilty that he’s up so late working so hard and that I’m not helping him, and he feels guilty that he’s downstairs all the time not helping me with the kids upstairs. And for whatever reason, the kids have felt like this is a great time to be even more crazy than normal, haha. 🤪 And then just the normal stress of trying to get all the Christmas preparations done, on top of everything else, has been utterly exhausting. And so tonight when things didn’t go as planned and the kids were hungry and I didn’t have anything ready for dinner...a call from my neighbor saying she was bringing over dinner (out of the blue) was truly heaven-sent. 😭🙏🏻😭 I’ve tried to participate in some of the #lighttheworld activities with the kids this year, but we’ve done far less than I’d hoped. And even though I’d much rather be on the giving end...being on the receiving end tonight, receiving dinner at a time when it was such a blessing, strengthens my testimony that the Lord truly is aware of us and takes care of us through the hands of others. ❤️ Thank you to everyone who is taking the time to serve others this season, and thank you @rebecca.35 for serving us tonight. 😭

During the whole time Curt was working on the basement, I put the kids to bed by myself every night. It was fine at the start, but by the middle of December, it got SO hard, and I was emotionally and physically beat. I decided to do an insta story showing the whole routine I went through, and after recording it all and realizing it took about an hour-and-a-half every night...I realized, no wonder I was dying!! This is probably the hardest/longest bedtime routine we've ever had, and I'm glad I was able to document it. Thankfully, now that the two oldest boys are down in the basement, and Hallie is done nursing, bedtime has gotten easier. (though it's still hard, haha) But hopefully it won't be this hard and long ever again...!

Tucker got to help Curt put up shiplap one Friday night, and he really enjoyed it! (And Curt said he was actually pretty helpful!)

He did get a little injury though, when he was trying to hold one of the boards above his head and it slipped out of his hands and gashed his eye...but thankfully he was fine and no stitches were needed.

Curt's white head after painting with the sprayer:

The first time I found Hallie sitting up in her crib!

Celebrating Christmas with my family before Cory & Allie headed out of town. It was a low-key night with just pizza and gifts (and ugly sweaters haha), but it was fun!

Curt even emerged from the basement and put on his Christmas jacket for the occasion. ;)

We did a yummy hot chocolate bar after opening gifts, which the boys thoroughly enjoyed:

Collin & Rachel gave the boys this mini pool table, and they were obsessed with it for a long time. They loved it!!

I was on the hunt for a couch for the basement from the minute we started finishing it, and I came across this DownEast feather sectional on facebook marketplace for a screamin deal...but it was a few weeks before the basement would be done. So Curt, bless his heart, borrowed a trailer early one Saturday morning and picked it up and rented another storage unit to store it until the basement was ready. (And then...spoiler...when we finally put it in the basement on Christmas Eve, it was too big for the space! face palm. So we ended up re-selling it and finding a different sectional instead...which was nicer and brand new, but much more expensive...)

Our master bedroom became overrun with boxes by the time Christmas came around...! Thank goodness for amazon who did all of my shopping for me, haha!

We got this little Santa outfit for Duke...and he was not a fan, haha. Poor little guy!

Mike & Chris took all the older cousins a few days before Christmas and had a day full of fun activities for them--it was the best thing ever! (They wanted to give them some fun time together to do older kid activities without the babies & Hudson.) The boys were so excited to be able to spend a full day with the girls, and it was SO nice for me to be able to have a full day to get more Christmas preparations finished! Win, win!! (though I'm pretty sure Mike & Chris were exhausted by the end of the day, haha)

We did our advent calendar with gifts of togetherness again this year, and we were able to keep with it pretty well, even with Curt working his tail off in the basement. Things were just more simple, and we had to do most of them without Curt. I didn't document very many of them, but here were the gingerbread houses the boys made one day:

Sleeping by the Christmas tree. It always sounds more fun than it ends up being, haha. Calvin ended up going upstairs to his bed during the night because he couldn't sleep well. But at least we made the effort!

Sad day. Curt was trying to blow out the dust from the charging port in his phone, and his idea to use the air compressor ended up backfiring...and it blew out his screen. (face palm) But the silver lining was that he was eligible for an upgrade on our plan, so he was able to get a new phone pretty quickly. (it just cost us some extra money we weren't planning on spending...)

The week after Christmas, I finally broke down and started potty training Hudson. This will require a separate post on it's own, but in a nutshell: he got pee down SUPER fast--he barely ever had any accidents, and he was a champ! The poop, however, was a whole separate issue that took months to work out...and we're just now finally getting the hang of it (as I'm writing this...) But he had a whole fan club of supporters with all his brothers cheering him on! :)

Yay Hudson!

New Year's Eve selfie with miss Hallie:

And a New Year's Eve kiss at midnight!

We had a pretty low-key New Year's--we invited Cory & Allie and Collin & Rachel, and we ate lots of yummy (non-healthy) food and chatted (and played games? I can't remember...). We put the two littles down to bed, and then we let the older three stay up until midnight, and they loved it.

Goodbye and good riddance, 2020!!

December Phone Pictures (including New Year's Eve)

*I started this post a few days before Hallie was born...and then crap hit the fan and I'm just now trying to catch up. Pretty sure I'm going to be playing catch-up for the rest of my life, haha...!*

December started out with Bronco losing not just his FIRST tooth, but also his SECOND tooth...in the SAME DAY! They came out just a few hours apart, and it was pretty exciting!

Hudson stacking his blocks into a tower--pretty impressive!

I can't resist some after-bathtime snuggles--I love this little boy so much, and I'm so sad he won't be my baby for much longer. :(

Hudson is starting to sit at the counter every once in awhile like the big boys, and he LOVES it!

Kind of hard to see, but this shows Hudson playing with his laundry basket, IN HIS CRIB, instead of sleeping like he should be. I still have yet to see/figure out how he gets the basket in there...?! #lifesmysteries

More pictures of Hudson... (I promise I do have other kids, haha!) The boys taught him to put this sticker on his mouth when we were visiting the giving machine at the mall, and after that he started putting any and every sticker on his mouth. (as pictured below)

Poor little guy woke up one Sunday morning and had thrown up in his crib, and then threw up again. So sad! But then he was back to his happy self pretty quickly, thank goodness, and he loved wearing the barf bucket on his head:

When he's mad about something, he bangs his head on the ground to try to show how upset he is. We aren't sure where he learned this, and we try to stop him, but I'm worried he's going to do permanent damage if he doesn't stop...!

Tucker's grade went on a full-day field trip up to Salt Lake to attend the JA City Biz Town (where they held positions and acted and ran like a real city for a day), and Tucker was chosen to be the mayor! (The "highest" office available) I didn't realize what a big deal it was until two other parents who were chaperoning started sending me pictures and videos of his speech and stuff. I feel so bad that I wasn't there to see it all in person!

Both of the parent chaperones texted me afterwards and told me a story of how one of the other kids who was supposed to give a short speech totally froze on stage and then started crying--and then they said that Tucker got up afterwards and gave a quick impromptu speech about how hard it is to get up there and talk in front of the entire grade, and how she shouldn't feel bad. Both of the chaperones said it was so sincere and kind of Tucker, and they were so impressed with how humbly and well he handled the situation. Reading their texts (and thinking about it now) made me tear up and made my heart swell with gratitude for what a good boy he is. He gives us such a hard time at home sometimes, and we are often too hard on him...it was so good to hear this story and be reminded of what a good boy he really is. 

To celebrate his "mayor-hood" and how kind he was, I surprised him by picking him up after school and taking all the boys to get drinks at Sonic.

Tucker got or bought or won (still not sure...) this inflatable alien at JA City Biz Town, and Hudson LOVED it. It was the same size as him, and so funny to stand it up next to him, haha!

Hudson still loves to FaceTime with Curt whenever he gets the chance, and Curt is so good to accommodate him while he's at work (and always makes it fun haha):

Hudson has also grown even more attached to me lately, and wants to be by my side (and really, in my arms) at all times. I think he must sense the changes coming... This particular morning he was just sobbing at my feet while I was trying to get ready, until I picked him up. It's getting much harder to hold him with my giant belly, but yet I still love holding him as my baby! (But also it would be really nice to be able to get ready by myself...)

Remember how Curt's car got totaled the day after Thanksgiving, due to snowy roads and a dumb person in front of us who decided to stop in the middle of the road, so Curt had no choice but to steer into the curb? And it did so much damage it totaled his car? So, so sad. This was his last picture with his beloved BMW before it got taken away to be sold at auction. We have so many good memories with this car, and it was so sad to see it go!

And because of this unfortunate event, for a couple of weeks Curt got to spend hours and hours researching, looking for, and test driving cars to find the right one to buy as a replacement. I feel like it overtook our lives for awhile, and neither of us enjoyed it, haha! Tucker got to be Curt's sidekick whenever he did test drives, and he both loved and hated it. ;)

After going back and forth about multiple cars, Curt finally decided on this little Audi A4. It wasn't his favorite, but it fit the bill for the right price, and we were both ready to just be done. ;) (But it wasn't the end of the car adventures, as you can read later down below...)

Here Curt & I are (at the back left of the table) at our very first corporate Christmas party! (Since Xactware is Curt's first official corporate job) I've always wanted the opportunity to be able to attend a corporate Christmas party...and after going, I realized we really haven't been missing out on much all these years, haha. But it was fun to have a night out, and the food was yummy, and it was nice to be able to meet Curt's colleagues. :)

I'm kind of sad it wasn't more fancy--it would have been fun to have a reason to get all dressed up! (Though dressing up the belly all fancy would have been a little difficult...)

Hudson LOVES the roomba. We usually just run it at night when everyone is asleep, but on Saturdays the boys like to use it to vacuum their room, and Hudson loves to sit and watch it go.

Confession: I have never made lasagna before. Like, ever. Until this pan I whipped up using Curt's mom's delicious recipe for the first time--and it actually turned out really well! The boys have always hated lasagna, until they saw the "Garfield" TV show (he's a cat that loves lasagna), and then they were willing to try it. (eye roll/crying face emoji) We had it at Mike & Chris's house one night, and they were all-of-a sudden huge fans! Thank you, Garfield, and Chris for your yummy recipe!

I feel like this almost deserves a post on it's own, but I'm already so far behind, I'll just have to keep it here. :) Chad & Lisa dropped a bombshell on us in December when they announced they were pregnant...with TWINS!!! It's been months, and I still can't believe it! But we are SO excited for them! (And so excited that our little girl will have some cousins her age! And that we aren't the only crazy people who will have five kids haha!) They did a gender reveal, and it's two more GIRLS!!! They are identical, which will be fun, but it makes the pregnancy more high risk, so we've had Lisa & the twins in our prayers constantly these past few months. What a fun and crazy adventure they have ahead of them! :)

Things like this don't happen super often, but when they do, it melts my heart. Calvin voluntarily reading stories to Bronco. (heart eyes emoji)

This picture makes me laugh so hard, hahahaha! Curt was in charge of dressing Hudson in his pajamas, and after struggling way more than he should have with getting his shirt off, he then put his pajama pants on like this, and I was dying hahaha:

The Sunday before Christmas Tucker made some homemade bread--all on his own! They had had a demonstration at school and sent the kids home with supplies and kid-friendly instructions, so he went at it. He only needed help with a few steps, but other than that he did it all by himself, and the bread turned out amazingly well!

Way to go Tucker!!

Funny, random pictures of Bronco haha:

(He ALWAYS ends up with jam on his face when eating a PB&J sandwich haha)

Watching AFV as a family--our favorite pasttime. And this picture showing Hudson crossing his legs just like me...all the heart eyes. (and holy cow: belly!)

Getting ready for his interview with the bishop to be able to receive the priesthood--and he wanted Curt to teach him how to tie his own tie. Love this!!

Hudson got into my makeup and got some glitter powder (that I didn't even know I had??!) all over himself--the picture doesn't show it very well.

Chad & Lisa got the boys giant tubs of slime for Christmas...and Curt DETESTS slime, haha. But on New Year's Eve day when we were looking for something to do, the slime kept them entertained for literally 2 hours straight!

I tried to put Hudson in some 2T pajamas, but within a few minutes his feet came out of the footies because they were way too big, haha:

Love this little boy so much! (and he tolerates me kissing him all the time)

He's wanting to do and be just like the big boys so much lately--and he started going down the stairs standing up...holding onto the railings thank goodness!!

Trying out the baby's new car seat (that we got off facebook marketplace--I'm so excited about the polka dots!) after I washed it all and put it back together, haha:

He loves to help sweep--which actually makes it so much harder, haha, but I try to let him help me as much as I can! (And looking at this picture now, I'm so proud of myself for bending down so much with my belly!)

On New Year's Eve day, Curt picked up this BMW X5 for only $600! After getting the Audi, he couldn't get over how much he missed having a BMW, and he apparently didn't stop looking for BMW's on KSL. (face palm) He decided that he'd love an X5 someday, so when this one popped up, he jumped on it! It seemed like it was going to be a fabulous car with only a few quick fixes (and he spent a couple of weeks working on it)...but unfortunately it turned out to be more work than it was worth, much to Curt's dismay. And with having a new baby and so many other projects going on, he made the unselfish decision to sell it. (it hasn't sold yet, unfortunately, but at least we have the space to store it for now!) It's the first bust of a car he's gotten, and he's pretty sad about it, but oh well!

NEW YEAR'S EVE

For New Year's Eve we tried to invite a couple of different people over, but everyone had plans, so it ended up being just our family. Curt made some fabulous fried chicken that turned out amazing:

Our last family picture in 2019:

We let the three oldest boys stay up watching Toy Story 4. We thought they would fall asleep (I totally did!), but they were too excited and amped up:

By the time midnight rolled around, they were still wide-eyed (except maybe Bronco haha) and had way more energy than they should have had!

Video of our family countdown:

It was pretty anticlimactic, haha, but they were excited we let them stay up. And then we watched some fireworks from their bedroom window before going to bed. Happy New Year!!

And lastly, here are two cute videos of Hudson. This first one shows him helping unload the silverware from the dishwasher--he's so smart and independent!

And then riding on top of his little truck haha:



Farewell 2019!!