New Years

We don't celebrate New Year's as much as other holidays. I just never really got into it. As a youth it was always dances and breakfast as soon as the countdown was over. And when Todd and I first were married, I'd nanny on New Year's for double pay in cash while we lived in Chicago. Now with kids, we've let them stay up later and do fake countdowns but nothing too extravagant.

A couple years ago we were invited to some friend's to hang out, kids and all. Todd had stayed home because Olivia was sick so I just took the older girls. Wouldn't you know, one of them got sick (can't remember which one now I think it was Abby). But, they threw up all over my friend's bathroom and that ended our partying. Since then we haven't really done anything for New Year's Eve.

This year I decided it was time to start a new tradition with New Year's and have a little more fun with it. Todd and I bought a fondue set right after Christmas and we thought this would be a fun thing to try with the girls. What person doesn't like dipping sweets into chocolate to make it even sweeter? I think this is Abby's new favorite dessert.

Olivia's face was a mess but there was more on her clothing!

Cougars!

Todd has seen more BYU sporting events now that he has married me. This Christmas he bought me and the older girls tickets to the BYU bowl game that was here in Dallas. I have an old BYU plastic megaphone that Olivia will carry around the house and yell "Here we go Cougars, here we go!" The girls cheer on the Cougars at home on any given day. I'm training them early.

It was a beautiful day for a game. Since it was the Armed Forces bowl, there were paratroops jump out of the plane with the flag before the game started. The jumper that had the flag attached to his parachute had no legs, it was pretty awesome watching him come down. And there were several helicopters on one end of the field that they let kids climb in and explore. That was a nice little break for the girls from sitting so long. The game was a long one, Kaitlyn was so bored 4th quarter she spent that time playing on my phone. I thought we'd end up losing and Abby was sad most of the game because we were down in points. But what an ending! Thanks Todd for getting us tickets!

Christmas

We had such a wonderful Christmas this year. We tried to keep things easy, of course we always end up doing more than what we want. What saved me this year was buying almost everything on-line. There was no way I would have finished getting things done if I had to drag kids to all different types of stores to find the right gifts. Thank you internet for helping me out!

Olivia with her favorite- Rapunzel!

Christmas morning was nice and relaxed. We ate Todd's awesome French toast before diving into presents. Kaitlyn had asked for an American girl doll at the beginning of December and that's all she'd ask for. This is after Santa had already gotten her gift. After much talk, Santa gave in and decided to add the doll to his list. It made for one very happy girl. Abby didn't really ask for anything. Santa felt that it was time for her to get a pet. Something low key. She got African dwarf frogs which she named Bobby and Froggy.

*Side note on the frogs - they were hidden in Todd's office for 3 weeks and the girls never noticed them on the bookshelf. Four days before Christmas, one of the frogs was dead so a replacement was quickly retrieved. When we returned from church Christmas day, Abby quickly ran over to her frogs and asked "what does it mean when one is on it's back?" The replacement frog had died. Abby was heartbroken and there were lots of tears. We replaced the replacement a few days after Christmas which was named Bobby also. (this was our 3rd frog) It lasted 2-3 weeks before it died. We are now down to one frog, one of the originals, and are still needing to go back and get one more frog. Abby has spent quite some time looking up on the internet all she could about African dwarf frogs. She took notes and told me all sorts of interesting facts about them.

After all the present opening was all done and we played with new toys, we needed to get ready for church. Our meeting time was at 1:00 this year. Perfect way to cap off the morning with a beautiful meeting. I had dusted off my flute and played an arrangement to Silent Night while the congregation sang out of the hymn books. I love playing every now and then so I'm glad our choir director asked me to play.

Later in the evening, Grandma and Grandpa and Aunt Monica came over for dinner and gift exchange. Everyone was happy and had fun. I love the joy and love that this season brings.

This is true to my mom, gets down on the floor and plays with the grandkids.

The girls all got Cowboy hats. Abby didn't try hers on because shortly before exchanging gifts, the girls were playing hide and seek with Monica. Abby hid behind a small end table and the wall. When we couldn't find her and she was getting out, her head smacked on the end of the table and then the corner of the window sill. She had a HUGE bump on her head that made it really tender to the touch.

I like to leave the tree up as long as possible before getting back to regular life. We really had a nice and relaxing break with the kids home. I was sad to have them go back to school.

Cookies with Grandma

One benefit of living close to Grandparents are the activities that the girls get to do with them. This Christmas my mom had invited the girls up to decorate cookies one night. We headed up and made a mess of her kitchen and had a great time.

Kaitlyn rolled the dough so thin, the shapes tore as we tried to lift them up. She wanted to do everything on her own.

sneaking in a taste

Cookies must have sprinkles....

A LOT of sprinkles!

Olivia was adamant about doing a ghost shape so we called it the ghost of Christmas present.

working together

Alec checked out the tree

and hung out with Grandpa

It was a lot of fun Gigi and Grandpa, lets do it again next year!

Santa Alec

We bought this hat well before Alec was born and he's just adorable in it.

He was our cute little Santa this year.

Straw

This year we started something new. Abby has asked if we could make a manger and put a piece of straw in it every time we did something nice. So that by the time Christmas came, the manger would be filled with a soft bed for baby Jesus. I think she heard this in her Primary class. Everyone loved the idea and we went with it. We just cut thin strips of yellow construction paper and left them on a shelf. The girls wanted to fill the basket up so bad they we constantly doing kind things for everyone. Every couple days I had to cut more paper. I loved it! They were trying so hard to be good. Christmas Eve we filled the basket with all our good deeds and laid baby Jesus (baby doll) in the basket. After Christmas was over they were still asking if they could put hay in the basket. This will be a keeper activity to do next year.

Under the Tree

We do an advent countdown to Christmas and every day we have some activity that goes with it (see Ginger for two of our activities). Sleeping under the tree is always a favorite so we did it twice. We know that it's going to take the kids awhile to fall asleep but we had no idea about Olivia! The girl just wouldn't sleep. The first time she fell asleep watching TV with us around 10:30 after bothering her sisters for a long time. The second time the girls slept under the tree she was too wired. First it was turning the tree lights on and off. Then it was she was scared of the dark (this was after we turned the lights off of the tree finally around 9:30). We settled on dimming the dining room lights pretending it was the moon. Then it was up and walking around the sisters. Finally Todd and I took her upstairs hoping she'd fall asleep to the TV. Nope. Finally around 11:30 we took her downstairs and put her in bed between us. I have no idea what time she finally went to sleep because Todd and I fell asleep before she did!

Ginger

Finally getting back to updating on our holidays! Ahh! Why is time going so fast?

Kaitlyn really wanted to make gingerbread cookies this year. I'm not a huge gingerbread cookie fan but the recipe I love comes from Navuoo and it tastes great, there's more sweetness than spices. As we started to make the cookies, I thought I had molasses but then realized it was just dark Karo syrup so Kaitlyn and I headed out to the store. We ended up buying quite a bit to add and decorate the cookies with.

Kaitlyn loaded her cookie up with red hots then finally tasted one. Decided she didn't like it and threw most of the red hots off her cookie then cover it with colored sugar. Abby tried to make designs with the colored sugar and Olivia had so many red hots that I took some off. She loved eating them though. I wonder what Olivia won't eat! Fun and messy! It might be a new tradition in the Yost house!

Olivia and Kaitlyn look too much alike!

Abby's gingerbread man.

Normally I buy the Costco gingerbread house to have the kids make together but I have found there is way too much candy leftover and the icing is yucky. This year we decided to do individual houses which also cut down on the fighting. I saved a lot of Halloween candy and used mostly that.

Olivia's house lasted a day. She kept sneaking candy off the house to satisfy her sweet tooth.

Don't you love how she wears this headband?

Kaitlyn loaded her house (like her cookie) up that most of it fell off within the day. She threw everything and anything on her house. She too loved eating what fell off. I think she might have overloaded her house on purpose.

Abby made a pattern with her candy. He house had to be just so but she was very creative with what we had.

School Holiday Fun

The girls's school does a few fun activities in the month of December. The first of the month was the "Jingle Bell Jog". This is where the kids walk a mile around the neighborhood, singing songs, and wear bells or any other Christmas attire. I showed up for Abby's walk with Alec and Olivia. After a "hello" from Abby that was the last we saw of her. Olivia couldn't make up her mind of whether she wanted to walk or ride in the stroller so I was constantly stopping to let her in or out. I just couldn't keep up with Abby and reality is, she just wanted to be with her friends. A friend of mine was there pulling her twins in a wagon. She was so kind and had Olivia climb in with them. She pulled 3 kids more than half way but she kept Olivia happy. What a workout!

Later that same day, I dragged Olivia and Alec out again for Kaitlyn's "jog". Same problem with Olivia but this time she stopped to collect everything nature - every leaf, rock, and twig, that she could find . (I did forget about all the things that she put in her hoodie pocket and it made quite the mess when I washed it.) I think I ran most of this jog as I'd gather up Olivia in the stroller as everyone disappeared over the hill, then run to catch up with the classes and then Olivia would get out again and we'd end up at the very end again! Kaitlyn was excited to see us and it was fun to watch her interact with her friends.

Kindergarten had been learning about friction and part of the learning was to make a "float" and push or pull it in a parade around the school. Kaitlyn and Abby came up with the idea for Kaitlyn's float. We had these reindeer with a leash that Kaitlyn used to pull Santa's sleigh. It was a really cute idea and Kaitlyn had fun decorating her float!

The Kindergarten also did a Polar Express watching party on a Friday but the kids had to earn their golden ticket throughout the week. Kaitlyn was very concerned she wouldn't get her ticket- everyone of course gets one. The day she came home with her ticket she was positive the real Polar Express was going to come that night. After we sent her to bed, we went into check on her 30 minutes later and she was sitting up on the corner of her bed listening for the train. It was so darn cute! It took a lot of convincing that it wasn't going to come that night but she made me promise to listen for the train and if I heard it, I was supposed to wake her up.

Holiday Happenings party- I didn't stay long for either of these parties. I learned from the jog that they really just want a hello and that's it. I watched both girls go down the bounce house slide, build igloos with boxes, and go crazy with friends. The PTA goes all out with this party and the kids have a blast. I do wonder whatever happened to the simple parties that take place in the classrooms? And who are these many women that can put 9 hours in to decorate the gym? The kids had fun, don't get me wrong, but that's a lot of time for a party.