Tappana Times: Gearing Up for Christmas

This year we had a lot of holiday celebrations to get us in the mood for Christmas. Our church always does a Celebrate the Nativity where we decorate the gym of the church full of hundreds of different Nativities with sparkling Christmas trees lighting up the background. Musical numbers run continuously for the three days it takes place, cookies are served endlessly, and other rooms are available for children to make crafts, or families to take photos dressed up in Nativity outfits. They also always try to have a live Nativity.

We were asked to be the live Nativity when Kendrick was one-year-old, and it was such a special experience I signed us up again now that we had another baby. Basically, we play Mary and Joseph and whatever other characters from the Baby Jesus story that we want. As people walk by looking at the setup displays of nativities, we are in the back of the gym, playing a live one.

We make the older three kids stay dressed up and in character for a half hour before they can run off to the craft and cookie room. Brigham and I stay in place for at least an hour. Ivy made the sweetest little baby Jesus. She laid in the manger and played with the hay for about fifteen minutes until she fell asleep for over two hours.

People LOVED seeing a real baby. And really, many were startled to realize she was a real baby because they thought she was a doll at first. Seeing a peaceful baby sleeping in a bed of hay in a manger brought such feelings of awe and peace, imagining what it might have been like for Jesus when He was born. It was a really wonderful few hours that touched many people.

It was also special because this was the last year that our stake was putting on Celebrate the Nativity, so we felt blessed to be able to play a role one last time.

As a family, we watched the First Presidency Christmas Devotional for family home evening. The Christmas message brought a special feeling into our home and the older kids listened so well.

Unfortunately, during the devotional, the bottom half of our Christmas tree lights flickered and went out.

Making for a sad little Christmas tree for the month. We tried fixing it, but the wiring is pretty messed up and unsalvagable. Time to get a new Christmas tree.

Brigham's company had a Christmas party for employees and spouses, so we left our kids with a friend (an awesome friend who also took all of them to the ward Christmas party that night so they wouldn't miss out. And she was on her own with her three children. Seven kids at a ward Christmas party all on her own? Saint, I tell you.) and went and ate delicious seafood on the shores of Des Moines.

My mom works for the same company so my parents were there as well, and we had a fun time with the magician and socializing with coworkers and each other.

We loved the stuffed mushrooms and crabmeat on a stick. Oh, and the shrimp. My dad enjoyed the filet mignon bruschetta bites.

This year my mom also took us to the Ensign Choir Christmas concert.

It was fun to get out as adults, get some culture in our lives, feel Christmasy, and just hear good music.

It made me miss playing the clarinet! There's nothing like playing Christmas music together with a band.

This year we finally returned to baking day! We've been burnt out on baking day for a while. All the cooking and slaving away in the kitchen together was too stressful, so we took a few years off. This year we returned to the tradition, but simplified it. We each picked one thing that we've never made and tried it out.

My mom made these lemon cookies and they received high reviews, though those with sensitive palettes thought they were a bit sour.

My Aunt Sandy also went lemon with these lemon thumbprint cookies. If you like shortbread type of cookies, these are for you. They were a bit harder to make.

I simply dipped pretzels in chocolate and covered them in with sprinkles or crushed candy canes. Simple, and yet delicious. Can't go wrong with sweet and salty.

I took some of the goodies and placed them on these platters I'd been creating to give out to close friends.

Wrap it all up with a bow, and we've got Christmas treats for Brigham and the kids to deliver.

With all of our activities, it wasn't hard to feel in the Christmas spirit this year. Concerts, parties, baking, and giving gifts. Bring on Santa Clause!

Kendrick turns "Fwee"!

Kendrick patiently waited through Kayleen and Brigham's and Aunt Sadies birthday for his big day to arrive.

He knew he was turning three and that he would get cake, presents, and a birthday dinner.

He got his macaroni and cheese with vegetables and oranges for his birthday dinner. This kid is a good eater and loves mac and cheese, of course!

Kendrick was also VERY  specific about his cake preference. He wanted a chocolate cake with chocolate chips in it with green frosting and sprinkles. Yellow and green sprinkles to be exact- because those are his favorite colors.

So if he's going to be that specific, I'm going to give him what he wants! (plus, the request was easy. phew!)

He loved the birthday song and candles. And the cake was a success!

The months leading up to his birthday, Kendrick was obsessed with nice, green dragons. He was a nice green dragon, anyone he liked was a nice green dragon. If you called him something he would always say, "No I'm not cute, I'm a nice, green dragon!" So I went with that theme and we got him a bunch of nice, green dragon stuff.

Unfortunately, by this point, Kendrick had moved on from nice green dragons to power rangers so he wasn't as excited as I had hoped. However, he was really into Christmas because of the current holiday season, so he was thrilled with Christmas shirts and books. And he's always a lover of Sesame Street, Mickey Mouse, and puzzles. Honestly, it's not hard to please a three-year-old.

I was happy when he got Christmas clothes because, previously, all he wanted was Christmas shirts. Whatever holiday is approaching, Kendrick is all about it.

Kendrick is my little buddy during the day. He loves going to exercise class with me and often will work out alongside me. I even borrowed some two-pound weights so he could have his own weights to lift with.

Here he's doing step-ups and side plank rows. And he loves to exercise at home, doing lunges across the floor and handstands on the wall. Hopefully, he'll keep that up throughout his life.

Kendrick loves sports, especially football, and always wants to cheer for the white team for some reason. He is so full of life and has such passion for everything. He's either really, really happy, or really, really cranky. Some of my favorite things he says:

When the sun is out: "Look! The sun is happy!"
When it's raining: "The sun is crying today!"
"Well, probably I am!"
"I'm good to go!" accompanied with a thumbs up.

His hats and leather brown jacket are what he's known for, and his dimples and long eyelashes still save him from a lot of trouble.

He's still super stubborn, but has mellowed out this last year now that he can be reasoned with. Thank goodness, because the year before was a challenge for this mom! But he definitely still has his moments.

He fights naps every day but definitely needs them. And he would probably be reading by now if his lazy mom would get her act together since he taught himself all the letters and sounds a year ago. He has one amazing memory and is one sharp kid. I wish I could keep him three for forever, but I'll just count my blessings that he still constantly wants my hugs to feel better or to be happy.

Happy birthday my playful, joyful, passionate, boy!

Tappana Times: Grateful for November

November always brings out the craft fairs, and I enjoy browsing the local ones with my mom and Lydia on the weekends.

These are a couple of cute crafts that caught our eye this year.

We also start preparing for Thanksgiving. This year we were trying to develop the Christ-like attribute of gratitude. To help us do so, I made a turkey and each day we had to write something we were grateful for on a feather and add it to our turkey. I cut out 122 feathers and our goal was to use every one of them to create a big, beautiful Thanksgiving turkey.

Well, we did. And I'd say we did a good job. Our turkey was big and colorful and full of all of our many blessings. Even Kendrick got into it with things he was grateful for like Elmo, nursery, snacks, and books. I rarely had to help at all since he was so full of ideas.

It does help that the small things make this kid extremely happy - like balloons, gloves, and hats.

We could all be a little more grateful for the simple things like Kendrick.

Ryan came into town with his girlfriend, Kelsie, for Thanksgiving. While they were here we played a lot of games and also did a taco taste test.

We gathered tacos from Taco Time, Taco Bell, Taco Del Mar, and a local Mexican place: La Fogata.

We then blindly tasted them and rated them for best meat, best tortilla, and best overall.

Taco Time won by a landslide - though, Ryan still stayed loyal to his beloved Taco Bell.

Brigham just enjoyed eating all the tacos.

Thanksgiving came and we had a wonderful day of food and lots of pie! So much pie. We played games and enjoyed laughing at each other's terrible drawings in the game Telestrations. We also played a game called Muse, and Kelsie showed us her dancing skills.

We try to make a craft on Thanksgiving that the kids can give out as Christmas gifts, and this year I came up the idea to make sock snowmen/snowwomen.

The kids got really into it and created some pretty cute little snow people.

Then everyone fought over who got to keep Kelsie's snow people because hers were the cutest of all. So basically, craft time was a success.

Brigham turned 34 this year and enjoyed a mint-chocolate-chip-brownie-ice-cream cake.

Once Brigham's birthday and Thanksgiving were over, we decorated the house for Christmas.

The kids were all very excited about decorating with ornaments and they did a great job placing them on the tree. Though, I did go back later and reorganize the clusters Kendrick had stacked on the bottom.

My favorite was catching Ammon holding Ivy next to the Christmas tree. Those magical, sweet moments are the ones I want to remember for forever.