Happy Birthday & Holidays!

We had such a great December! It truly was a happy Holiday season for us, actually the whole month of December was wonderful. We started out the month with a visit to the Merrill's. We had several gifts to drop off for the upcoming birthday's and Christmas, so you could say we had to go. The weather was threatening to snow, so we drove up late Thursday evening to have an extra long weekend with them. It happened to also be the week of Stake Conference, and because it was virtual we could participate from there. It was fun to see Grandma and Grandpa in Conference, they even spoke together which made it extra special. With all my gift cards from coworkers for Starbucks, KT made a hot cocoa run while we were in Conference on Saturday evening. I think the favorite kind I tried was an apple cider, Matthew liked his salted caramel, and KT and I give the white peppermint a so-so rating. It was a bit snowy over the weekend, and on Sunday, KT took Jay outside for a walk while M and I were attending Conference. I am not totally sure what Jay thought of the cold, but he was mostly a good sport and enjoyed looking around.

Aunt KT and Jay

Heading for a walk through in the snowy roads.

Jay trying out Kylee's Halloween Fox ears

Cheers! 

Luckily, we know who is who - pretty cool to see them on TV! :)

For family night, we set up our Christmas decorations. This is one of my favorite things to do at Christmas time. We also thought about what gifts we wanted to give the Savior throughout the Season, which is a great tradition M taught me. Christmas lights bring a sense of joy and warmth to a home, I'd probably put them up everywhere if I could. 

Our tree had decorations on the top half, just out of reach of Jay.

The snowflake we made with the YM/YW virtually, it was fun!

My Christmas Wreath - huge thank you to M for his help! I love it!

It's hard to believe that my baby boy is already 1 year old, and at the same time, M and I aren't sure what we'd do without him or what we did with all our time before he joined us. He's such a happy kid, giggling and smiling all the time. He's a full-time cruiser, but isn't walking. He loves to do downward facing dog poses all the time. Jay is constantly on the move, has two teeth, jabbers all the time, is learning to say "more" and "all-done" in sign language, and is eating more and more table food...although he still wants it as pureed as possible. He hated his 1 year check in at the doctor's office, he cried the whole time and only wanted M. We had lot of fun celebrating him with Grandma and Grandpa on his birthday! We love having them close, it's such a blessing to us. We cooked up Hawaiian Haystacks, which Jay actually ate and enjoyed. We made a quick FaceTime call to Oma and Papa when Jay opened his cars and book from them. He was pretty fascinated with all the attention he was getting and got more excited about the wrapping than any of the gifts. He got such fun toys from Grandma and Grandpa, which he now loves. And, M and I got him a few chewy tubes and a slide! I made a quinoa chocolate cake with cream cheese frosting, and everyone loved it. With the leftover pieces from Jay's cake, I made some cake balls to top the adult cake. 

1 Year!! Woohoo!

This was the best I could do with a baby boy who loves to move, still a little blury.

Jay playing on the slide!

Jay's Cake

Jay, Me, M

Grandpa, Jay, Me, Grandma

Jay loved sharing his cake with Grandpa!

All gone, you can tell he loved it. 

The adult cake

Jay got a super cool book from his cousins to help him get ready for Christmas!

M loves to wrestle with Jay, and Jay loves it too

Jay was helping me one day as a work buddy.

Sometimes we do silly things and Jay loves it!

Somehow he stayed under his blanket, but this is how he sleeps 100% of the time now.

Sad Mr. Jay at his 1 year appointment, he's starting to get a bit of stranger danger.

The downward facing dog pose.

He still loves being in small places and under things.

All of us, the Sunday before we left for the cabin, Merry Christmas! 

Before the Holiday's came, our Ward Council asked us to participate in the "Gift of the Magi." Meaning, they needed help reaching all the people in the ward because we couldn't be at church, so we signed up to deliver some goodies. We made up some yummy plates and delivered mostly to the people M ministers to and some others in the ward. We had a great time serving, and I am so grateful we could do it. 

Our plates!

One day I was having a particularly bad day. If I remember correctly, things at work hadn't gone well and I was getting overwhelmed with the thoughts of M going to work and Jay having to be cared for by someone else. All in all, it wasn't good. While M was out running another errand, he bought me flowers. It was so sweet and I am so grateful for him and his patience and love and support. He spoils me.

Beautiful flowers, you can ignore the banana, I must have also been eating my bad day away.

We headed to the cabin on the 22nd, for the Christmas break! Woohoo! We were so excited to go and spend so much time there. We hit some traffic on the way there, but other than that made great time. It was fun to be able to travel with Grandma and Grandpa up there and they'd gone up early so the cabin was even fairly warm when we arrived! The first item on the agenda was to find the perfect Christmas tree. I'd never hunted for a tree in the forest and it was so fun! We put on all our gear and walked around in search for the perfect tree. We found one close to the cabin that seemed good, but continued to search just to be sure. We eventually came back and got the first one we liked, and it was perfect! Just as we were finishing cutting it down Oma and Papa arrived. Once we got all their stuff brought into the cabin, it started to snow and we were so grateful they got there when they did. We finished decorating the tree and played games the rest of the evening. 

Grandpa going to work with the saw

Hooray! We got our tree!

It's in place and now, working to get lights on! 

All finished! Isn't it beautiful! It was my favorite spot to go in the mornings with Jay.

Oma enjoying watching the decorating and the snow.

Jay loved hanging out by the tree and pulling all the movies off the shelves.

Even though it was snowing when Oma and Papa arrived, M, Papa, and Grandpa all headed down to the lake and started shoveling. The sooner you start making your hockey rink, the sooner you can play. On day 2, we actually took the water down and smoothed it out. It was a big rink and the ice was smoother than the last time I played on it. I was very excited when we got Oma and Papa down on the ice in their boots and snow gear and with hockey sticks in hand, we had a great game.  Oma and Grandma enjoyed doing puzzles in the cabin and keeping Jay company while we shoveled the lake. It was so fun to have everyone there with us! It was sad when Christmas Eve came and Oma and Papa had to leave. We had to do a little pushing to get them out, but they made it okay and were safe getting to the Merrill's. 

The dad's - working hard, or hardly working, I can't tell ;) 

The mom's - puzzling away back there.

Papa and Jay

Starting the water process.

Papa and Grandpa shoveling away to be sure we cold put the water down.

Slowly making progress.

You can tell, this rink was big and it was awesome! Nothing less than that is acceptable for M.

Papa, Grandpa, and Oma

Papa, Oma, Me, M

Jay was a little cold, as you can imagine...how cool, all 4 grandparents! Papa, Oma, Jay, Grandma, and Grandpa.

Getting some Momma cuddles after being outside. 

Christmas Eve finished with Grandma reading "The Anniversary" and Grandpa reading the Christmas story from the bible. It was a wonderful Christmas Eve, and we anxiously awaited Christmas morning. We did not get up at 6, rather we waited for Jay to get up. He woke up about 7:30, and the fun began. He again loved the wrapping paper, tape, and packaging more than his gifts but Santa found him and brought him lots of fun things and we had a great Christmas. We played some of our new games and enjoyed a wonderful Christmas dinner with ham and potatoes. 

Blurry, but happy Jay Christmas morning!

Seeing what Santa brought!

Jay and M

Stockings, so fun! 

Starting the love of basketball early.

Helping Grandma, he loves to help

Opening presents requires a lot of focus.

Look at this awesome Zoo set!

The garbage truck! 

Grandma testing out the little bow.

He might have been most excited about this gift, it's hard to find Nuggets gear!

Grandpa put a nice little bow on Jay's head - he is the best present we could have asked for!

More helping, I think Jay loved Grandpa's presents the most.

We couldn't stay in the mountains for two weeks and not go sledding. Our first attempt was a big sledding hill that honestly didn't turn out well. The snow was sparse, we hit some mud and rocks, but got a few runs in before all the paths were taken. We also took Jay sledding for the first time. He actually loved being outside! We went on a warmer day, so he didn't get cold and he loved crawling around and smiled as he went down the hill. We went too with Nathan and Michela and had fun playing on the small hill right by the cabin with them and took Jay out again that day. 

Grandpa about to start his first run.

M and Grandpa

I spy with my little eye, M on the top of the hill

and down he comes! 

Do you see M way back there about to drop into the hole? I made it this far, but he made a wrong turn.

Me and Jay

Down the hill!

M and Jay

The trio, woohoo!

Crawling around in the white stuff.

He loved even playing with the sled.

M practicing his snowboarding skills.

Grandpa, M, and Jay

Jay, loving being pulled in the tube

One of the best parts about being at the cabin is playing games. We played a lot! We played new games and old games. Some of our favorites of the trip were Pandemic Fall of Rome, Castle Panic, Up and Down the River, and Church History Chronology. One that didn't go over too well was Villainous. It's a fun game, but feelings can be tender at times.

M and Grandpa trying out the new laser tag set! 

We decided after Christmas that if we watched one Harry Potter movie a day (plus one day watch two), we could have them all done by the time we went home. Why not? Movies are a great way to enjoy the mountain time with warm blankets and cuddles. It was fun to re-watch them, M and I had never watched them together so it was great! 

I think Jay thought it was awesome to have Grandma and Grandpa accessible 24/7. 

Nathan and Michela arrived mid-week after Christmas. It was a bit snowy, but they were brave and made the drive. We were grateful they arrived safely and we had such a fun time with them. We played lots of games, watched Harry Potter, and of course, played hockey. Unfortunately the first day we played, Nathan's skates were too small and he got big blisters. He had to take the rest of the day off, but luckily he recovered enough to play a few more times. Nathan's kind of the only real competition for M. Even Grandpa and I against M on his own couldn't beat M. Nathan and M really wanted to play together at least one game, so Michela, Grandpa, and I teamed up. We made the rule, if we scored two points we'd win or if they scored 7 points, they'd win. They were at 6, and I snuck in the final shot for the win. We were so happy! The joy the three of us felt was greater than probably any other game played over the break. It was awesome! Seeing M play hockey and skate is so fun. He's smooth, quick, and agile. I am impressed every time! After our last game of the break, Grandpa told me felt like he'd seen me improve over the week, that made me feel really good! I also paid for those with some of the biggest and baddest bruises I have had in years. 

M, Me, Nathan, Michela, Grandpa

Me, M, Nathan, Michela - sadly we'd taken our skates off already!

Me, M

This was just the beginning, I later had a huge one on my shin that was a bump for a month.

Trying to ice the pain away.

New Years was a blast with Grandma, Grandpa, Nathan, and Michela! We watched the last Harry Potter movie, and played Up and Down the River. Grandma had an awesome spread of food including, pizza, jalapeno poppers, mozzarella sticks, cheese ball, chips and dip, little winnies, etc. Yum!! Early in the day, Nathan, Michela, and M did 21 exercises 21 times to welcome in the year of 2021. I was impressed, it was a hard selection of exercises. Also, it's important to note, that M and Nathan continued the "man" tradition of rolling in the snow shirtless at midnight. They were so excited, and the squeels as they rolled in the snow were pretty priceless. 

Rolling!

They couldn't get inside fast enough.

They insisted they needed a before and after picture, they insisted they were different. 

Can you tell? Before or after?

Nathan did get a snowmobile up and running early on New Years day, so M and I took it around the "block" a couple times. It was my first time driving a snowmobile, so it was pretty cool - literally cool! I can understand why snowmobilers have to have thick gear covering their entire body and face. 

Nathan taking it for a spin, with M on the back.

Me and M

When I bought my winter coat, I had no idea how legit it makes me look about snow adventures.

While at the cabin, we celebrated our 3 year anniversary! We were going to go into town for dinner, but it snowed and we weren't feeling too excited about driving. But, it was a wonderful day! I love M and I am so grateful we said YES three years ago in the temple. Knowing I have M by my side through all of life's adventures still makes me happy and excited! M's gift to me was a bag of PB Snickers (so good!) with memories of some of the best "snickers" we've had together. I loved it! It was the perfect anniversary gift. 

Before I wrap, I'd like to document a couple miracles, and some challenges. First one happened after it snowed at the cabin and the Expedition was up at the top of the cabin. Grandpa decided he should move the car lower so we wouldn't get stuck up at the top and not be able to get out. While he was pulling out, the rear of the Expedition slid sideways down the hill and the tires fell deep into the snow. M went out to try to push it out while Grandpa drove. It failed and the car slid more down the hill. They shoveled around the snow, tried again, getting sprayed with slush and mud. Grandma, Jay, and I were watching from inside, silently panicking. M being behind this huge car that had no traction and Grandpa being inside this car that looked like it could roll at any moment had us on edge. We prayed together, then continued to pray in our hearts. Finally, as they took tools from the shed and loaded them into the back of the car, and gave it one last push Grandpa got the car out. Unfortunately, on the way to the top, the back slid a little more and hit a tree which crushed the taillight. I count it a blessing that Grandpa only lost the taillight. 

Another miracle was our nanny hunt. The nanny we thought would be great for Jay backed out last minute due to some surgeries she had coming up. In order to try to get something lined up in only two weeks was daunting. I posted on FaceBook Nanny pages and sorted through a lot of messages and people trying to figure out who would be the right fit. Looking through profiles was overwhelming and stressful. Choosing someone to watch your baby boy who you don't even know was at times more than my momma heart could handle. There were many tears shed and prayers said along they way. Jack heard of our plight and reached out to his friend who lives in Highlands Ranch. His friend called me, posted our need on their Stake and ward pages, and within the day we'd found someone I actually knew through the singles ward. I was a bit hesitant, but we needed to nail it down and we had to start from somewhere. We were relieved when she agreed to help and agreed to our wage. I soon told the other nannies on the FaceBook pages that we were trying someone out and we'd reach back if we needed them. There was also a BYU-I student who reached out too, and I told her the same thing. We felt blessed in our search, and I feel so much better about leaving Jay with a member of the Church and about having them come into our home every day. 

Another thread that weaved through December was overwhelming thoughts and feelings for both M and I about what we called the starting of "real" life that was rapidly approaching. The thought of M starting full-time work, me swapping to part-time in a new role, and Jay being taken care of by someone else was quite hard to picture. We've really enjoyed our flexibility, our long weekends, our time together over the past year. M and I agree that 2020 might be one of the best years of our lives because of how much time we all got to spend together. For the first time since we'd met, I hadn't had to travel for work (I used to travel at least 1x month or more), meaning we actually saw each other every day. Plus, we had Jay, who every day brought more joy to us as he learned and grew. We visited Grandpa Great often, we went to AZ, we moved to Colorado, we played hard with the Merrill's, we went to the cabin and mountains, played as much as we could with family, went swimming, rollerblading, biking, etc. Looking into 2021 is daunting, what will it be like with M leaving home everyday for work and working long hours, having no more long weekends without vacation time being used, what would it be like cooking dinner everyday and taking care of Jay more, so many unknowns. A couple things we do know for sure is we have each other, we have Heavenly Father, and we have a loving Savior. We'll be okay, it will be hard, it will be good, and we will be able to find joy!