Drawing a close to 2018

November greeted us with some beautiful warm weather, which we took full advantage of, soaking up the sunshine as much as we could. The boys "helped" Dallin clean out our garden, which resulted in Luke turning he and Caleb into tomato cage robots.

Dallin also took the boys up to McCammon, where they got to witness the digging out of grandma and grandpa's new house. Is there anything better than giant dirt hills to explore for little boys?!

With the conclusion of the 3D train puzzle, Dallin revealed the 3D cathedral puzzle. Luke was over the moon and it quickly became the activity of choice on Sunday afternoons. Caleb even would sit with them and try his hand at finding pieces that fit together.

For Luke's class, he got to disguise a turkey to blend in with our family so that we wouldn't cook it for dinner. After some brainstorming, he decided that dressing him up as a robot would be the perfect disguise. His was definitely one of the most unique turkeys.

Aunt Lexi and Nana came out for Thanksgiving, which was a nice little treat. We had a delicious meal (with lots of sides, because those are the best part), got our Christmas treat (complete with a game of red light, green light in the parking lot), attempted family photos and took Lexi to see the temple lights. They were only here for a couple of days, but it was good for our souls to have them.

That same weekend, we met up with Uncle Bruce and Aunt Dana for dinner who were visiting from Colorado for the evening. Before meeting them, we made our way to the Grand America Hotel to see their life size gingerbread house and window displays. All were entertaining and did not disappoint.

Dallin participated in No-Shave-November again this year...

The first weekend of November, papa Baldwin came out for a visit to welcome in the Christmas season. We convinced him to make a gingerbread house with us, which he contributed an impressive lattice candy cane rooftop, nicely cut walls and candy decor. The boys loved it.

Luke also had his winter show for his ninja class while papa was here so we got to go and see his ninja skills. He is absolutely loving this ninja class and looks forward to it every week.

For our ward Christmas party, they put on a primary nativity play, which Luke got to be a shepherd in. It was fun seeing all the little kiddies reminding us of the true meaning of Christmas.

We got to have the big 20 week ultrasound at the beginning of December where we found out that baby is a girl! The boys are over the moon. When we first moved into this house, Luke kept saying that their room was perfect because his bed, Caleb's crib and baby sister's bed would fit in the room. We giggled at the comment, seeing as a new baby was not even on our radar at that point. He's a little fortune teller!

The rest of December was filled with Christmas prep, Christmas day, sledding (Caleb LOVED sledding), book club  and finding ways to get energy out inside!

Poor Caleb had an ear infection that was missed by the urgent care doctor until it burst. Once that happened, he was happy as a clam.

Luke slipped on ice at school and knocked his front tooth pretty good. The gums started bruising so we took him to the dentist. All looks good and he now has a beautiful grey tooth as a battle scar.

Annual Book Club Christmas gathering. We have been together almost 10 years!
(From top to bottom, left to right: Aubrey, Natalie, Courtney, Tiffany, Kathleen, Mauri, Clarisa)

Seeing the candy window displays at Macy's in Center Creek

Luke decided one evening that he was going to bundle up and ride his bike to Papa Murphy's a good 2 miles away to pick up pizza for dinner. It was 20 degrees that evening. He cried when we told him we would just drive to get the pizza.

For Christmas Eve, we decided to do a Bethlehem dinner. We ate food that would have been eaten when Jesus was born, ate on the floor, by candlelight and Luke told us a beautiful rendition of the story of the birth of Christ. It was perfect. I had always kind of rolled my eyes a little when I heard people doing this, but I ate my piece of humble pie and will admit that it may be one of our new favorite Christmas traditions. On Christmas day, we opened presents then headed up to McCammon to have a nice, cozy dinner with grandma, grandpa and Loel.

We rang in the New Year with a quiet evening at home, sending the boys to bed at 7:30 after a pseudo celebration followed by a puzzle and snuggling on the couch. Happy 2019!