New Years Eve

It's New Years Eve!!  We are going to celebrate at home in style!  I have a bunch of games planned, and Jonathan's brother and sister in law are coming over to celebrate with us.  Of course all this means last minute trips to the store.

And party hats and noise makers!

I forgot to mention that Leiden's first Betta, Safari, died a couple days ago.  They buried him in the front flower bed, and Leiden made his little headstone today.

I got the things we needed for several minute to win it games.  The girls were pretty funny trying to get ping pong balls out of the tissue boxes tied around their waists! 

Also noteworthy was the somewhat traditional cookie game.  Get the cookie in your mouth from your forehead without using your hands! 

Crumbs everywhere!

It seemed that for much of the time, we adults were more into the games than the kids.  We played a straw game where you have to get as many marshmallows to a second plate using only the straw and your mouth. 

I took Jordan on with this game.  Sadly, I lost! 

We let the girls stay up until Midnight, when we rang in the new year.

Happy New Years!!  My 2017 be a year of love and happiness! 

Happy Birthday, Jon!

Today is Jon's birthday!  When we went to the dinosaur museum a while ago he saw a cool wooden dinosaur skeleton puzzle and liked it, so while not pictured, the girls gave him a wooden stegosaurus skeleton to build, and I gave him a pteranodon metal puzzle.  He spent quite a bit of time today putting it all together and he's super excited to take his things to work and display them on his desk.

My main gift for him was his own calligraphed family tree.  I was very pleased at how it turned out, and this time I didn't splatter giant ink drops on the paper!  He loved it, and the thought behind it.  I'm so glad it turned out well.

He said his birthday this year was amazing, and I'm so glad he felt that way.  It would be really hard to both share a birthday with three other people in your family, AND have it so close to the holidays.  Happiest of birthdays to you, Jon!  34 never looked so good!

Sledding

This afternoon we got the girls and headed up to Sugarhouse to go sledding down the big hill.  It was a bit of a rocky start...we are having some trouble with Mac, and today was a day she chose to behave badly.  We finally were able to get her out on the hill, and it all turned out okay.

I had planned on sledding, too, but by the time Mac had evened out, I was exhausted, and so just stayed with Jon at the bottom of the hill.  One of his good friends is in town for the holidays, and he met us there with his little kids.

Tonight we celebrated (a bit early) Jon's and his Dad's birthday with a dinner and cake at Tara's house.  Jon, his dad, one of his younger brothers, and his uncle all share the same birthday!  I think he's felt kind of lumped in with everyone else in past years, so I'm hopeful I can help make his birthday this year exciting and about him.

He was very excited about Tara's carrot cake!

It has been really fun to spend so much time with him.  Pretty soon it's going to be back to work and back to real life! 

Today we all headed up to Jonathan's new work building and he gave us a tour.  I saw most of it when we came for the gala at the beginning of the month, but it hadn't been moved into at that point.  It was fun to see his space again, and see all the people bustling about.

Merry Christmas!!!

It's Christmas morning!!  The girls spent the night with Brad, so I headed out in a literal blizzard to go get them.  I knew it was going to snow, so I left really early, but I was worried about getting up the hill to my parents house.  I made it up to Farmington fine, if very slowly, and as it turned out, I DID have to worry about getting up the hill.  :(  We got stuck on one of the roads just below the capitol building, and had to call my dad to leave church and come rescue us!  We were supposed to go to sacrament meeting with Grandmere and Bapa, but it did not work out!

The poor girls!  They had to wait until church was over, then I went and got Jon while my mom began making breakfast.  Meanwhile, my dad and Madison went down the hill in Mad's big truck and towed my car out of its stuck spot!

Finally after breakfast, we were able to get to the gifts!  There were SO MANY presents.  I had come over last night to help Grandmere and Bapa put the presents out and arrange, and I was honestly stunned.

The girls were pretty excited, too!

We managed one picture of Thomas, 

and then he was off!!  Not to be contained on such a morning as this!

Merry Christmas from the Macdonald girls!

There were many gifts to open for each girl.  We had randomly assigned boxes of aquarium stuff to each girl, as well as the gifts from me, Santa, Mad and Joni, and Grandmere and Bapa. 

It was a lovely morning spent with all the people I love!  Warm in the house with the beautiful snowy white Christmas. 

Later in the afternoon the girls went back with Brad and Jonathan and I headed over to his sister's house where we celebrated Christmas with his family.  His parents are in town, and we had a lovely evening.  Jonathan gave me a tablet, which will replace my dinosaur laptop. 

The girls will be with Brad for a few more days, so we are going to enjoy lots of time with Jon's family and parents while they are here.

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Eve

We finished the last of the wrapping this afternoon!  Whew!  There's going to be quite the haul under the tree at Grandmere's tomorrow morning!

It was strange not having the girls for Christmas Eve.  Their schedule this year is pretty back and forth, with all of us trying to get certain activities in.  But I went with my mom and Uncle Mark to Temple Square this evening.  It was pouring rain, which is so random and strange, too.  No one else wanted to go out in the rain, but it's TRADITION!!  I'm glad we went.  It was beautiful, and hardly any people, probably due to the rain.

We had Uncle Mark take a shot of Mom and I on the little pedestal there by the Church Office Building. 

And a selfie in the rain! 

The girls sent a picture of them from their jammie opening!  They were getting ready to go to bed for Christmas!  Tomorrow is the big day!

Fish Tank Parts!

Jon and I had the great idea to make a large aquarium for the girls.  Then we thought it would be a fun Christmas gift.  The girls will open all the miscellaneous parts and not know what they are for!  Then it will be a family project to put the aquarium together and start it up!  We are going to have fish, and shrimps, and little frogs!  It's going to be super fun, and will create more presents to open on Christmas morning!

The girls went to Temple Square with their dad and Annie today, and sent me this picture.  I am bummed I didn't get a chance to take them.  This every other weekend thing limits the time I have with them outside of school nights.  But I'm glad they got to go!

Artworks and Compliments

Mac has a good friend in her class named Lucy.  Lucy gave her this sweet card after she saw Mac's choir performance.  It was such a thoughtful note to give Mac.

Mac did the following two paintings.  I seriously got a kick out of Rudolph's sister.  Cute little cat eye eyelashes and bows in her hair!  

And this cute little portrait of Jon and I.  I love their artwork! 

Mimi drew this of me and her.  I love how our two hearts come together as one! 

Choir Performance

Mac's long awaited choir performance was this morning and again this afternoon.  She looked so sweet up there amongst her classmates.  She has looked forward to this for months.

 

It was a really cute performance.  They sang a funny rendition of the 12 days Before Christmas...but it was the 12 Days AFTER Christmas.  Apparently the two love birds have been fighting and the whole thing gets called off!  It was hysterical, and seriously the best. 

She was so proud of herself, and I'm proud of her, too!  She got to school early most mornings to participate in the practices, and has been so excited. 

I surprised her later when I showed up at her lunch time to have lunch with her.

And then I figured I'd meet Meemers as well! 

It's really fun to see them in their school settings amongst their friends. 

I am also making excellent progress with the family tree for my parents.  I CANT BELIEVE, though, that I dropped a blob of ink on the paper!!!  I was stunned breathless when I noticed.  I'm going to either chalk it up to 'character' or suggest framing it in a round mat.  I simply don't have time to redo the whole thing, and there's really not any way to cover it up.  I could scream. 

Thomas Claus

We got the Santa hat Mac needs for her upcoming choir performance, and we thought it would be cute to put it on Thomas!  We were right!  SUCH a cute little guy.

He brings just as much cheer as the jolly old man himself.  We love Thomas!