December

We finished up our Thankful Tree.

I worked feverishly to finish a t-shirt quilt for Dan for his birthday. He's been asking me to make one for him forever and I finally decided to do it. Here I was working on the layout.

Bumpin'.

I've mentioned before that our maple trees always seem to be the last ones in the neighborhood to drop their leaves. That means raking in December!

 While we were outside, I moved a pile of leaves and found a snake! He was pretty tiny, but very aggressive. I took him to the backyard after we watched him a while.

I just need to document how clean our game cabinet looked. Doesn't look like that anymore!

I bought one Christmas present for the new baby and Afton insisted on decorating the bag. She is the biggest sweetheart.

One of my favorite ornaments.

Dan's birthday fell on a Thursday this year. It also fell on his work's family Christmas party. So after school I loaded up the kids and we headed down to the office. Eli always loves to watch this little train.

And I always love the caricatures!

I decided to get in on the action this year.

After the work party, we came home and had dinner, opened presents, and ate cake. Love celebrating Dan. He's the best.

 There's my finished quilt. He was quite surprised but I thought for sure he knew about it since I accidentally left orange thread everywhere... The kids got him fun socks, he got some camping stuff, a running shirt, a new ski helmet, etc.

A few days after Dan's birthday we had a big snowstorm come through. Really early for that to happen, so I was worried about how the rest of the winter was going to play out!

Dan and Sam shoveled the neighbor's driveway. Good guys. The kids were out of school for many days.

Eli and his friend Elise at the ward Christmas party.

Bumpin' along.

The "after" shot of the guest bathroom! Hooray! Since this was taken, however, I have painted the grout a nice crisp white. So now it looks even better.

Grandpa and Grandma Durst came to spend Christmas with us. We played LOTS of games and Grandma Durst worked hard on four 500-piece puzzles over the visit.

On a day with beautiful weather, we met Dan downtown for lunch at Potbelly's and then took a stroll over the pedestrian bridge.

Another day we visited the art museum.

And ate at ZZQ. A little hipster and overpriced, but the food was good.

Grandpa Durst was brave enough to play Monopoly with Sam.

Went bowling.

On Christmas Eve, we gave the kids new pajamas and had a nice lesson taught by Dan.

Then we got all the stockings ready.

Grandpa and Grandma Cheney came over Christmas morning and spent the day.

We paused the festivities for Christmas Chunky and other breakfast. Then we distributed the gifts and took turns opening them.

Afton's favorite gift was that we'd signed her up for 6 weeks of horseback riding lessons.

Eli loved his scooter.

Sam got a drone. The battery on that thing only lasts like 10 minutes...

Dan majorly spoiled me with some new maternity clothes, some makeup, a new watch. My parents also got me some clothes and some kitchen stuff!

Dan got some climbing things, some camping things, some hiking things. And his yearly desk calendar, which I completely forgot about until he asked me about it later. I ALWAYS forget to wrap something!

The day wore my dad out!

We forgot to measure the kids on Christmas like we normally do, so we did it a day or two later.

The day after Christmas Dan went to Walmart to expand his collection of lights.

After the Dursts left and Dan went back to work, I had to keep the kids occupied somehow so we played laser tag. When Eli plays, he carries the gun and I wear the vest, so I'm basically a walking target and people have no mercy.

Here's Eli on his last Sunday in nursery.

And here he was on his first!

The boys tried out their new scooters.

We went to spend a few days in Earlysville.

And that's a wrap for 2018!