Christmas Eve

We had a Boise Family get together the Sunday before Christmas. Grandma and Grandpa Arrington came down for dinner, a short FHE and gifts. This is my first Christmas ever to not be in Twin Falls. Even when we lived in Boise the first time, we went to Twin on Christmas Eve. It was good to be able to see family like we normally did. 

On actual Christmas Eve we went to brunch. We tried a place by us called Le Peep. It was okay, not bad not good. 

We came home and opened pj's and our gift exchange gifts. The kids have been asking all week to open them.

A friend from Texas sent the kids gift card and they sent Camden a maze that he had to do in order to get his card. He loved it. It took him a little bit to get it, but he loved the challenge. 

We played games throughout the day. We really just wanted a relaxing day.

We went to a movie with Paul and his family and a family friend of theirs. It was kind of fun to only have a few in the theater, and the owner (the family friend) turned the sound up a little more, which was fun as well. 

Beckham was kicked out of his room for the night. They kept joking that they are just going to 'accidently' open Beck's door. 

All the pj's. 

Emery and Jackson spent the evening in Emery's room watching movies. Cam joined them later. Beckham took melatonin so he could sleep. I'm not sure it helped him much. 

It was weird setting up with how open this front room is. However it was pretty to see from upstairs. 

Random

So this happened for Emery. She got all of her braces put on. I have no idea why we did two at once, but here we are. She still has to have the spacer in, until she gets a wire that is strong enough to hold the jaw. I think she looks super cute with them on. So far they have not been too bad for her. At first she wasn't sure how to show people that she got them on. 

Jackson had a few dress up days at school. He was set on an ugly sweater and loved the one he found. 

Since the trees have lost their leaves the dogs have been really annoying with animals outside. They see a lot of squirrels and freak out and cry when they see them. They will stand for hours just looking at them in a tree It was pretty cold this day and they stayed out for a while. You can see Luna, Eevee is in the back of the tree, she just blends in. The squirrel is on the biggest limb near the top.  I am ready for leaves to be back.

December... So Far

Time is going by too fast. Christmas will be here really soon, maybe too soon. 

After Thanksgiving we put up the tree and Christmas Decorations. I'm not a huge fan of this front room, but I do like how it looks right now for Christmas. 

We got a new tree. Our last one hasn't been open in 3 years. All of that it was spent in a storage unit or our garage. When we went to move the box in the garage there was a black widow, so big nope. I wasn't going to open that. I do like the tall skinny, especially with how tall the room is in this room. 

The kids wanted to make a countdown. We took what we had and made some. A little rough, but really all they wanted was a piece of candy each day. 

We made gingerbread houses. I hate making them, so the kids did them after school. I took so many pictures of them. I thought taking pictures of four little kids was hard.... No, teens and pre teens are much much worse. 

We went to a drive through Christmas light show. It was a super cold night, so this was the best way to see lights. 

The mouths would move to make it look like they sang. Kind of creepy sometimes, but also cute. 

Half way through we remembered we had a sunroof, so Cam and Jacks enjoyed the new view. 

After was hot chocolate at Uncle Paul's. 

It's been a different sort of Christmas season this year, but I think it's been good. Trying to figure out new traditions while keeping up the ones we loved. This may be our last year having someone who believes in Santa (I think Jacks knows and wonders, but doesn't say anything). I don't have the heart to tell him otherwise and I'm not sure I'm ready to not have any kids who are excited to see Santa.  

Halloween

Only about a month ago Halloween happened. It was weird this year not going to Grandparents houses. We weren't sure how well it would go with COVID, but the kids got a ton of candy. Jacks was Sam from 'Trick 'r Treat", Emery is a bear, Beck found this and decided to get candy this year, and Cam was his character from "The Music Man" but he got beat up. 

The whole Boise gang, or those who went to get candy. The kids ended up with a ton. I think Beck said he had 10 full size candy bars at the end. 

Long Time!

It's been forever and I don't have a good reason. But here are a few things. 

My best friend (well other than Brad) lives in Texas and came to visit for a few days. It has been about a year since we've seen each other and it is so nice to finally get together. Emery was almost as excited as I was to see Lea. We hung out with Emery a lot and did a few things on our own. Really it was just to relax. 

We went to Barbacoa for dinner. So good, pricey but good. They serve their steaks on a hot rock. We'll defiantly go back for a date night. 

We even got girly and gout our nails done. 

One night we went to a corn maze place. It was a little chilly but a lot of fun. We got lost in the maze, I'm pretty sure we didn't go on it fully. Some of them said they could take hours. 

Defiantly wasn't long enough, but it was still good to have a break and spend time with her. 

Emery got her expander in. It looks intense but really hasn't been bad. She's been much better than I thought she would be. I didn't want to turn the key, but I've done it every night. It's nasty but also not that bad. She does this for at least 14 days, we'll see when we go in if she needs more.

It happened.... I'm old. I have a kid who can shave. He has had peach fuzz, and darker peach fuzz for a while, but he finally wanted to shave it. I'm still not sure what I think about it. I gasped a few times with how awkward he held the razor. He said that he liked how soft his face felt, and now his man beard can grown in  (eye roll emoji). 

He needs to work on getting the cream out though. 

Just because he's cute and Beck was making me feel old. 

The Happenings

The other day Emery said something I never thought she would ever say again..."can I do piano again?" I may have laughed a little and asked if she really meant it. She did, and we started and it's not going too bad. She has said to me that she doesn't know why she stopped, it's actually fun. I'm taking more of an approach that I am with Camden. She does still need to learn a few theory things, but mostly she is playing 'fun' songs. The first week she played the same song over and over and over and over and ooooovvvveeerrr again. She is doing great and I'm glad she is playing again. 

We carved pumpkins the other day. Not sure how smart it was giving the kids knives. No one cut anything off thankfully. 

Jackson, mine, Beck and Cam's. I guess we all went for puke this year. 

Emery and Brad, they went for a cute approach. 

The kids are back at school every other day and the dogs do not like it. They have not been without the kids home since the end of March. They wouldn't leave us alone the other day. It's going to take them a while to get used to it.