December

Every December we seem to cram in as much playing as we can. We had something going on every weekend until Christmas. But in all the crazy busy going on we made some fun memories as well. 

I do catch the girls being sweet to each other every so often. When they are sweet they are sweet. They love playing pretend with one another. Usually Emmy is the mom and Lyn is honey. 

On the 4th Ty, myself and Lyndin went to Cedar City to go to dinner with some of Ty's co workers from St. George and then go to the piano guys concert. Lyn came with us to dinner and then I had my good friend Emily's little sister Rylee come watch Lyn while we went to the concert. Kind of a crazy story but I had all the babysitting worked out for the kids for the trip about a week in advance. Ty first told me that the concert was in St. George so I was going to have Jess watch Lyn and then we would stay with her that night. Ty told me that morning we were suppose to leave that the concert was in Cedar city which is 45 min away from St. George. I said then it doesn't make sense to have Jess watch Lyn because she is so far away. I thought who do I know that lives in Cedar that could help me late notice. I thought of Rylee because Emily had been telling me that Rylee has been having a rough couple weeks because her boyfriend broke up with her and then being so far away from family. I don't know Rylee super well, but we definitely know who each other are. I text Em and asked if it was something Rylee would even possibly want to do. She gave me her number and I sent the text saying it was super late notice but I could use her help. She told me she could. I felt so bad asking her because I knew babysitting a 2 year old was probably something a 19 year didn't want to do. She came to the hotel to watch Lyn and when she walked in I gave her a hug and told her I appreciated her helping us so so much. When we got back from the concert she stayed and talked to us for about an hour. The next day I get this text from her mom Kassi, 

This is Kass, I just want to tell you how grateful I am for you, Ty & your sweet baby girl. You are truly “Ministering Angels” 😇 to Rylee.  I can truly testify God loves us, He is aware of us, He never leaves us alone. We are His hands!  You guys were His hands for Rylee. Most of the time it is the little, simple, crazy things that seem insignificant that mean the most!  You guys were probably thinking how can we make this concert date night work?  We could call Rylee? Then think...she is probably busy?   She probably wouldn’t want to be bothered?  She doesn’t even know our kid??? Everything was kind of just out of the ordinary per day!  But you guys were in tune, you listened to the Spirit, you acted! Therefore, you served my cute daughter who lives so far, and she even feels farther away than ever right now, when she needed it the most!  Thank you! You seriously have no idea what that means to her, to me, to her sisters!  We feel so helpless! She can’t quit talking about how good it felt to be hugged! A simple hug!!  🤗 For you cute lil’ calling her “Sister”!  Ty asking her if she needed groceries! You know when you listen in conference and you think.....that talk was written just for me!   Well I am feeling...your trip yesterday was meant just to minister to your friend’s baby sister!!❤️ We truly cherish yours and Ty’s special friendship!❤️❤️❤️❤️

I was so grateful to receive this text. I told Kassi that I did feel guilty asking Rylee to help us, but I am grateful she reached out to me and told me this. Emily even text me and said that Rylee was telling her all about the fun her and Lyn had and that it felt good to talk to somebody. We don't know what our actions do for others most of the time. That's why it is always good to just be nice. 

On the 5th Emmy had her Christmas dance recital. Ohhh she is going to be our dancer. She got up there with no stage fright at all and danced her little heart out. Cutest thing ever. She was the best little reindeer up there. We are grateful that all of her grandparents were able to come support her. 

Once again caught them being nice to each other. The are the best of friends, but also the worst of enemies. 

I open up Parker's back pack one day and he told me that he had won a drawing and received a bag for his prize. I said what did you do to win the drawing and he hands me this paper. I gave him a huge hug and I said Parker this is so amazing! I love that you are kind. 

I got this picture of Lyn while I was on my trip from a friend that was at the ward's breakfast christmas party. 

This was our neighbor gift this year. That is our tradition during Christmas is to hand out neighbor gifts. The kids love running around handing them out. 

This year I tried really hard to follow the light the world calendar the church puts out for daily acts of service. It totally changed my attitude this year. It helped me really truly serve others the way Christ did. One act we did was write cards to a boy in Idaho who all he wanted for Christmas was 500 cards. His parents would give him $1 to donate to the military up to $500. We invited the van dyke girls to come color with us. They loved putting them in the mail box and had grins the whole time. I followed Joshua's facebook page and he did get our cards! 

We sent Amber a happy birthday video and I snapped this picture while they were singing. 

On December 14 we had a little get a way to SLC to Little America. I got 2 tickets to the Tabernacle Choir concert that night and so we made a little weekend of it. We went over to the Grand America and saw their window displays and their giant gingerbread house. Then when Grandma and I went to the concert dad and the kids went swimming. 

The next morning we woke up and went and had Sunday brunch with Santa. The kids surprisingly ate really well. When Santa came to our table Lyndin didn't want anything to do with him. If you look closely in the picture you can see her giving him the stare! 

After lunch we took the kids over the the Natural History Museum. Really cool museum that was full of all sorts of history and fossils. The kids really liked it. 

Emmy the butterfly, Addi the hummingbird, Lyn the caterpillar, and grandma a bat. 

My friend Emily copied this quote from a talk given in church and shared it with me. I then turned around and shared it with my friend Whitney. On the 16th of this month it had been 6 months since the babies had died. I sent her a text saying I was thinking of her and that I know they are always close by. She called me later that night crying a bit and said I was the only one that remembered and said something to her. She was grateful to know that they aren't being forgotten. 

This is a recipe of my mom's cheesecake. I have no idea where she got it, but she has made it ever since I can remember. I have changed it up just a little bit by adding fresh raspberries to it instead of using a pie filling as the topping. I wanted this receipe somewhere where I know I would always have it. I also add about about a tablespoon of lemon juice. I remember asking her for the recipe and she said I don't even know if I even have a recipe for it I have it memorized. So this is what the thinks the  recipe is. That's what I love about it, is that you go off of what you think it needs more of. 

These giving machines that the church does are so so neat! They have only been up in SLC on temple square, and the line for them is always so so long. This year they had some in the university mall in provo. It is set up like a vending machine, but you pick things to buy that the church can donate to people. On the 16th, I wanted to take the kids up and let them see how it is pick something out for someone and not receive a thank you and not know who you are helping. I tried to get them to pick things that they would like to receive. Addi picked 3 chicken, Parker picked a soccer day camp for someone, Emmy picked a back pack full of school supplies, Lyndin picked a baby blanket, I picked a water purifier, and we picked 3 bars of soap for dad. They loved punching in the numbers for their gifts and seeing the picture fall down. Such a great idea! The kids came home and told dad all about the gifts they had picked out. 

Also that night we took over some meat, food, and some money to a family that lives behind the Van Dyke's. Emily had told us that the wife had mentioned to her that her husband was going to be laid off his job the week of Christmas. They were already scrimping by and didn't know what they were going to do. We always try to help a family that has fallen on hard times during Christmas. We don't know this family at all because they aren't in our ward and we don't go on that street very often. We did know that they have 2 little girls. We were able to load up 3 boxes of food and take it over and leave it on their porch without them knowing it was us. The kids thought it was so cool to do something secret. I hope it helped them out a bit. 

I bought tickets to the Piano Guys clear back in March for their Christmas show in SLC. Jake and Whitney were suppose to come with us, but then they had plans come up they couldn't get out of and so we invited Ty's best friend from high school Kael and his wife Katy to come with us. We haven't done anything with them for a LONG LONG time. We always pick up where we left off and it is always filled with lots of laughing. After the concert we went to the 10:30 pm show of Star wars. We didn't get back to the hotel until 1:30 in the morning. I may have fallen asleep during the movie. The kids had a fun sleep over at grandpa and nana's. 

The next morning we woke up and had breakfast with the Smith's and then we had to go get the kids we so could go to Vernal for the Massey family christmas party. Then we woke up Sunday morning opened presents with Grandma Debbie and then had to get on the road so we could make it back to Herriman for their family christmas party. BUSY BUSY weekend! It was chuck full of spending time with family. 

Emmy started to catch croup on Saturday night and was not feeling super well unless Motrin was in her. At nana's her medicine was starting to wear off, but she was a good sport. The whole family played a game that involved money. Everyone got $2.50 and then we did a dice game that you'd roll and pass money around. At the end a person would win it all. Guess who won $35?!? Emmy did!! We all had a good laugh about it. 

Lyndin started to catch croup on christmas eve day. She was so so tired that she ended up falling asleep on the rug. Luckily her sickness didn't get super bad until the day after christmas and that is when we took her in for a steroid to open up her air way. The girls still are coughing a bit, but thankfully on Christmas day everyone was feeling ok. 

For New Year's eve we decided to spend it at home as a family. We went and grabbed some shrimp and crab at Costco. We then invited grandma shelly to come over and eat with us and then play some games. 

During the day of the 31st we went to Provo beach and celebrated a balloon drop at noon. It was full of kids and adults so we didn't stay long and didn't play games. 

Yummy Yummy food! 

After the little girls went to bed we stayed up playing card games until midnight. It was a night full of laughs and surprisingly everyone stayed up. Dad did need a little power nap in there. It was a great night to wrap up 2019.