December

A day in the life of Jaylie June.....She's a total clown and most definitely keeps us laughing. 

After going 2 years without a Christmas card, I HAD to make it happen this year.  Its kinda hard getting all of us together in one place in somewhat decent attire.  I compromised on the "decent attire" and went with all of us together in one place for our picture this year.  We were headed up to cut down a tree.  We set my phone up on the back of there ranger propped up by some random bucket.  We're nothing if not fancy.  

We were in a race against the sun going down, but found a GREAT tree just in time! 

Jaylie June, still on her pig kick from Halloween, just HAD to have this glittery flying pig Christmas ornament for her ornament this year.  

Sometimes photos just speak for themselves....

We accidentally coordinated one morning for church. And Jaylie was accidentally having a bad attitude.  My threat to "smile for the picture or else" worked....sorta kinda.  

Kan was still sporting his surgery hair do. It was a long mop on 2/3 of his head and shaved to the skin on the other 1/3.  A couple of days later, we shaved the rest of his head, but he wore the Californa like suave do quite well. 

On December 8, Quinn turned 7!  Kory and I took him for a whole day of just us.  We went to Billings to let him pick out a new bike.  We finally found just the right one and he just kept saying "thank you sooo much!" It was a fun day of having Quinn all to ourselves.  We drove home that night and it started to snow.  Little did we know, we wouldn't see bare ground for a LONG TIME so the brand new bike ended up sitting in the garage for a long time.  

The next night we had his "party".  We had a couple of friends over to play and the atmosphere was all things San Antonio Spurs for Quinn the Spurs Fan! He drew this design for his cake several weeks before his party, so he was proud to see it on the cake.  Its sometimes a little painful losing creative control over the birthday cakes, but its still a lot of fun!  Quinn is a great kid with a tender, thoughtful, and loving personality.  He's helpful, responsible, protective, and snuggly.  In many ways he has the characteristics of the oldest child and he does well taking care of his brother and sister.  He is all things sports mixed with the biggest sucker for annoying over commercialized characters that he actually knows nothing about but is drawn to them like a moth to a flame. Music is still a favorite and he hardly misses a single lyric (not always a good thing).  He loves hip hop and annoying pop music, so we've steered him towards Lacrae, Toby Mac, mixed with random top 40 music with a good beat.  He loves to stay up late and sleep late which is just one reason school is going to rock his world next year. Kory and I joke that he's an "Eyore" because he sort of mopes and says all the mopey sad things. Once he gets the mopey-ness out of his system, he's cheerful, fun, and full of imagination.   I have absolutely cherished my extra couple of years with him at home and have been thrilled to watch him learn and mature.  I worry sometimes that his tender heart will crush him and I worry a lot that his mind is pulled and tortured all the time trying to please everyone he's around. But more than anything I am so proud of him and the boy he's turning in to.  He's an absolute treasure.  

This was her clothing choice one day when feeding cows.  I guess real ranch girls wear sequins.  

This year Kory and I and another couple have been in charge of our church's youth group. That was an easy "yes" for us because we love this sort of thing.  Its a pretty young crew, mostly 7th and 8th grade so its been all the things you'd expect from that age, but we have loved it and really gotten a kick out of being with this gang.  We had the Christmas Party at our house and had a blast playing games and not breaking anything or putting holes in our walls.  It was a sucess on all fronts! 

Juney wanted to send Gay Gay a letter, so she wrote "Gay Gay" on the envelope.  Pretty much sweetness.  

We gave the kids their Christmas presents from us before we left for Texas.  They each got a for real sleeping bag! We set them up inside their tents and the boys slept in them that night.  Jaylie was a basket case so we ended up putting her to bed before the "camp out".  

As far as the weather went in December it was RIDICULOUSLY COLD.  NON STOP COLD.  Insane negative temps, no relief, freeze the inside of your nose cold, no recess at school for weeks (it has to be at least 10 above to go outside), layering up just to walk from the parking lot in to the grocery store, letting the mailbox fill up because its NOT WORTH IT to walk to the mailbox that is 7 steps from my back door COLD COLD COLD. But we survived and had a great month anyways!