D-E-C-E-M-B-E-R

December… Caitlyn turned the big 17, so she ditched school and took Gus to see Frozen with Nicholas, Sydney, and Spencer Stirling. It SNOWED the beginning of December, and I was so very excited. I love the snow so much it made my entire month. It was crazy the amount of snow we got, everyone kept talking about how they have never seen it snow here that much. They cancelled church on Sunday because of it so Kyle, Deloy and Penny went and shoveled snow off of the single ladies driveways down our street. When I go running I still see the remnants of that snow storm. There are a few ditches that still have ice in them and I smile just thinking back to that awesome snow storm. Uncle Kip came the Saturday it started snowing, he helped us build a snowman then we went back to Gma Linie's to go sledding down their hill. I took some family pictures for Amy and Ashlee, it took 2 separate outings to get the right one. We had a run in with a neighbor down Ashlee's street over a dog that wasn't even our dog. sheesh. I still get mad when I think about it and it was even the Sabbath. I put up Christmas and this year my tree was decorated with all of my vintage ornaments I have collected over the years. The white deer (I have 2) are from my Great Grandma, I found a few at yard sales, and I have some pink glass bulbs from Kyle's Grandma Scholzen. Most of my christmas decorations are from grandparents and great grandparents, I treasure them. The picture of Oliver and Gus in the bathtub, Ollie is eating an icicle from off of our house. It was pretty nasty and dirty, I didn't give it to him, Kyle's doing there. Kyle has done a lot of trapping this past month, while I was taking family pictures for my sisters he trapped 2 coyotes. Both boys love Cafe Rio, can you blame them? I am so happy they do because so do Kyle and I. We have a family date once a week, usually on Saturday, where we will take them to CFR then to Nilson's to get frozen custard. Yum. I love Saturdays for that very reason!! We have been practicing our headstands, thats why there is a very flattering picture of me doing one. If you tell Oliver "headstand" he will put his head down to the floor then raise his booty clear up. He thinks he is pretty neat, and so do I. Gus is even getting good at throwing his feet up against the couch or wall and doing one. Its a family affair when we do it. So we went to Cambria for Thanksgiving and we didn't rake our leaves before we went. Then the next week was the week it snowed a bunch, so we had to wait until the snow melted to rake the leaves it was a nightmare. Kyle swears we didn't use as many bags this year, but some of the leaves weren't all the way dry so they were heavy wet and cold. We have some awesome people on our street though. Deloy came and helped us and then my neighbor I run with sent her son over to help us as well. The 4 fruitless mulberry trees we have shed a TON of leaves. Bags upon bags upon bags were filed with leaves. I remember thinking before we left to CA that I should rake, but the leaves were perfectly yellow and our lawn looked amazing all covered in yellow. Next year I vow to rake them before it rains or snows though! So the picture of me and Ollie outside by the tree reminded me of leaves. We took that pic, because he is wearing Kyle's old school Nike shoes from when he was a baby. We were outside raking leaves when we took the picture. Boston turned 2 and we went over to Gma Linie's for cake, Meg is such a good little mama to Ollie. He just sat there with her and watched the movie. Grandma Linie has some pretty awesome wigs that the boys tried on. We were dying at how funny they looked. Someone commented on Instagram that Gus looks like Kip off of Napoleon Dynamite and I can totally see it. lol. We helped Grandma Becky make popcorn balls because she had her shoulder operated on. Gus loved doing that and was a big helper at the popcorn machine. We also went up to my dads in Circleville to surprise them the weekend before Christmas. We just had lunch and stayed a couple hours then came back. He gave Gus an RC four wheeler which he loves and he gave Ollie a talking plane that he loves as well. 

For Christmas Eve we went tubing with the Stout's and Barney's. It was pretty darn fun. We just went up to Kolob we could basically drive all of the way up it was craziness. We decided to just sled down shell hill. Poor Gus every time he went down got plastered in snow. Kyle took Ollie down and I almost had a heart attack. I don't know why but it scared me watching him go down. Maybe its because I wasn't in control. Then later that evening we went up to Grandma and Grandpa Ballard's. Side note before we left to their house we had 6 neighbors bring us plates of goodies. 6! I was astonished and very grateful because it was all very good. I just couldn't believe how many people waited until Christmas Eve to hand them out. We ate yummy food and sang songs and donated our $1 to the Dove Center. Grandma always says that instead of giving us all a gift she just donates that money to the Dove Center, but then we all end up coming home with a gift so I don't know how that happens. I came home with a white gravy dish and some canned gravy. Gus and Ollie both got tub paint, and Gus still asks me to buy more for him. Its Avon and I never order Avon stuff. I don't know why I don't have any pictures of Christmas Day. Gus got a new blue bike with pedals. It only took him an hour to figure it out and now we go on rides around the block daily. He is a biker. Ollie got an awesome stand up toy (it used to be Gus', shhh don't tell). Kyle got an awesome record player and records that he made me send back because he said he just wants a cheap one and not one that was a lot of money. I told him he is going to sacrifice the sound quality but oh well. I got a Patagonia puff jacket that I love and wear everyday. Rachelle gave us these awesome bike holders to mount on the wall, she gave Kyle money to Cedar Cycles, she gave me a necklace that I haven't taken off and a gift certificate for Tenny to do my hair. We were spoiled. I was mad Kyle didn't like his gift, he said he wanted one a few months ago. Now after all of the research I did I want one, a nice one. Christmas day we went over to my Grandma Collin's grave in Stg.  She is buried on the south side of the graveyard 3 tree down counting west to east. Her birthday is Christmas day, she is the one that passed away 6 weeks after my mom was born. My mom was pretty touched that we took time to do that. We talked to Elder Barney. He looks amazing and only has 6 short months left on his mission in Houston, Texas. Christmas night Aunt Marylu heated her jacuzzi up and Kyle, Gus, Ollie, Shell, and Marcus aka Marker all went swimming. Fun stuff. I had Naomi and Jim for Christmas. I had a girl make them an awesome River Rock Roasting string art sign and I also gave them 2 huge glass containers full of black and pinto beans. She wanted food storage stuff but I had already ordered the sign so hence the beans. 

Above is the sign. I think it turned out pretty neat. Ollie loves when Aunt Naomi tickles his back and he will just cuddle right in to her shoulder and relax almost to the point of sleeping. It is pretty cute.

Kyle, Gus, Caitlyn, and Kinlee went hiking to 3 Falls over the break. We had to take a picture at the doctors. Poor Gus has been sick all month. Ear infections, strep throat all sorts of fun things happening around here. We have a consultation the first week of February to see if he needs his tonsils and/or adenoids out. Poor kid. New Years Eve was pretty chill. We had everyone come to our house for soup and to play Heads Up then we all went to Amy's. Just Dance was the hit there. We only lasted until 10 then we brought the boys home they went to bed and Kyle and I watched a movie I think it was Mud. It was pretty darn good. This was a super long post, I have been working on my 2011, 2012 blog books, I finally am done with them just need to print them. Now that I am done updating 2013 I can start working on that book and I will be all caught up. It's a blog book freaking miracle thats for sure!!!