December Happenings

After our sick Thanksgiving, we had a low key December. School parties, elf on the shelf (Doodle was quite boring this year!), and prep for a nice low key Christmas. We ran out of vacation days due to our summer wedding trips so we had to stay home. 

Here's Lily being her usual silly self.

Avery was asked to sing in our church's float for the Franklin Christmas Parade. I got pulled into going on the float as a chaperone last minute. Last year when we went to the parade it was warm and sunny. This year is was FREEZING! Who has a Christmas parade anyways? I seriously have never been so cold. 

But I didn't lose any fingers or toes so you know. 

I made some cupcakes for Avery's class party and also made a gift card wreath for her teacher. Life as a Room Mom can sure be busy at times!

For Christmas Avery asked Santa for a desk for her room, Camryn asked for a scooter, and all Lily wanted was a pink teddy bear she fell in love with at Kroger. Santa also brought her a Dora tricycle with the bear "riding" it.

Unfortunately my phone's camera went through a super blurry stage during Christmastime so I didn't use it hardly at all. 

But we did have a nice Christmas. The nice thing about not traveling was that we all came down with a nasty cough so we didn't have to be sick elsewhere. Merrick actually developed pneumonia and he didn't get better entirely until April. Poor guy. 

But we had fun staying home and playing lots of Phase 10. 

Well now it's April and that was December. Better late than never.

The Best and Worst of Thanksgiving 2013

Best Parts of Thanksgiving 2013-

1. Lindsey and her boyfriend (now fiancee) Collin coming to visit from DC! The girls loved Collin and were all over sitting on his lap and jumping on him. Poor guy!

2. Decorations - I loved my Thanksgiving mantle! I got that chalkboard print done as an Engineering Print at Staples for like $3. I got the frame at Good Will, took the nasty floral picture out, and painted it white. Then we wrote what we were thankful for on those leaves and made it into a nice garland.

3. Thanksgiving Dinner food - Yum! We helped the kids make these cute Oreo Turkeys (from ourbestbites.com) and spent the day cooking yummy food!

It was only my second time cooking a turkey but I brined it and it turned out great. I did end up overcooking it a bit though so next time I will do better!

The Candied Coconut Sweet Potatoes and the stuffing were the favorites. Yum! We stuffed ourselves and had to take naps all afternoon. For dessert I made a pumpkin cheesecake and a traditional lattice top apple pie. Mmm....

4. Catching Fire- Lindsey and I went to see this. It was SO GOOD! I was mesmerized the whole time!

Worst Parts of Thanksgiving 2013-

1. The night after Thanksgiving Collin woke up sick. The poor guy threw up all that yummy food. He was really sick with a fever all day the next two days so we didn't do much. Lindsey and I did go see Catching Fire just to do something the next day but we really didn't get to go do all the Nashville things we wanted to.

2. Saturday Lindsey and Merrick got sick too! Collin was on the mend but poor Lindsey and Merrick weren't well for the rest of the time they were here. We felt so bad sending those two sickies back home on an 11 hour drive to DC feeling so crummy. I didn't even make any food after Thanksgiving because no one had the stomach for it. Lucky for me there were plenty of leftovers to enjoy. Sickness can really kill a vacation, can't it?!

Overall we were so glad to meet Collin and we are excited for their wedding next month! Hopefully we'll all be feeling healthy and happy then! :) 

Merrick's 31st

Merrick turned 31 in November. We threw him a little pirate themed party! He requested a carrot cake and the cream cheese frosting I use has coconut and nuts in it so that makes it hard to decorate in pirate fashion. So we improvised and I think it turned out great!

I also spent a few weeks working on a present for him - my very first quilt! For some reason Merrick has a problem with ripping his work shirts in the elbow of all places! So I had a large stash of ripped shirts I've been holding onto and decided to cut them all up into small squares, add a little grey chevron fabric to give it some pizzazz and attach it to a grey flannel back by tying. It turned out great and he loves it!

 Here's a shot of the whole thing-

I had a fun time making it and it definitely reminded me of my Grandma Haws because she has made so many tie quilts like this before.

Merrick had a nice birthday. We went to Phat Bites for lunch and enjoyed some delicious hummus there and I can't remember what we did for dinner that night but the carrot cake was definitely enjoyed!

My Sweet Grandmother

In November by Grandmother passed away very unexpectedly. She was totally fine one week- planning her big Thanksgiving family dinner- and then a week later she passed away. It was very hard on our family. We all expected her to not only outlive her husband but to live until she was 95 years old! But we know that she is busy on the other side taking care of others in the same way she took care of all of us. Here is her obituary: http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/deseretnews/obituary.aspx?n=joann-kay-haws&pid=167974770

I was able to fly out to attend the funeral services with all of my siblings and both of my parents. It was nice to be there with our large family (she had 8 children and 31 grandchildren, and now 25 great grandchildren and counting).

We miss you so much, Grandma! But it is so comforting to know that we will be together again someday.

Going Buggy!

I meant to publish this a while ago...

Avery had her 2nd Grade music program last October. It.was.amazing. Her music teacher is awesome and has everything perfectly choreographed and rehearsed! All the kids had a short speaking part and no one messed up. The theme was "Going Buggy" and so each song was about bugs since that is what they are studying this year. The kids all had costumes so they looked like bees, spiders, ladybugs, caterpillars, butterflies, etc. Avery was a dancing katydid. She looked great. 

Here she is with her class. 

And here is the stage with all the second graders. Pretty cool, right?