Gingerbread House 2013

Our traditional Gingerbread House making must require it's on post! 

Especially since this was only the second time I had done it without my Mother ever, and last time was a few years ago and I recall a few glitches! 

In the past my amazing mother home makes one house per kid in my family. Not tiny wimpy houses either, awesome houses! I certainly gained a new appreciation for her after attempting this myself. 

I had in mind a much grandeur house but I realized I didn't make enough dough to allow all the parts, so maybe next year. I had a few freak out moments when i called my mom while baking and forming the house, but over all it went well. 

We invited a few friends over and set out more candy than you can imagine and went to town!

Here is Lucy's little house that a friend made for her. 

Here is our final product of our family gingerbread house. 

I am really happy with how it turned out. 

I love this family tradition! 

Festive Outings

I guess the beauty of blogging about December in April is you just want to pump it out. 

SO instead of getting 8 different posts of all the fun outings we had in December they get clumped together!

One collage picture per event. It's probably for the best.

So here we go, some festive outings, some not, in the craziest order possible...Here is our December! 

Our first professional Hockey Game! 

We had a fun date night downtown to watch the Capitals play.

We ended our night at the famous Shake Shake! Yum Yum! 

Nothing better than a date night with my sweetheart! 

Bull Run Festival of lights! 

I went here with my family in High school and remember loving it. 

I'm glad I got to share it with my own family. 

It's a drive through light show through a large park. They really do a fantastic job! 

Saying Lucy loved it is an understatement!! 

I'm so grateful for new friends who let us know of all the must see holiday sites! 

It's really lucky if we get to go with the experts who can show us around! 

The National Botanical gardens were beautiful! At Christmas time they have a train and fairy display carved through this magical little woodland. It's so cute! We also stopped by the National Tree in front of the Capital Building. 

A near by High School puts on this awesome fundraising event each December. 

Lucy had a blast! They had lots of fun, creative games, arts and crafts, treats, a Polar Express play, and fun characters walking around! 

We found friends who love Sweet Frog just as much as we do! 

FroYo and Friends sure brightens our days! 

Another date night to see Saving Mr. Banks. 

The movie was fantastic! We loved it! 

Our Ward Christmas party was really nice. 

We ate a delicious dinner, watched a nice program and they had this great photo spot!  

Not so Christmasy but we went with friends to the Building Museum downtown. 

We have never been before. It was so fun! Perfect for the kiddos! 

Tis the Season? We went shooting with friends!

 We shot shotguns at clay pigeons. It was another first for me and I wasn't half bad! 

Phew! We were busy! 

O Christmas Tree

I love, love going out to get our Christmas Tree during the Thanksgiving break. 

It is the kick off event to our Christmas. 

There is something so romantic and homey about turning on the Christmas music, pulling out your ornaments that bring back past memories, and oh that scent of pine!

This year we went with a convenient route and got our Christmas tree from a quaint little joint called Costco. 

Lucy found us just the one! 

Strapping it on top of our car is always a bit nerve racking. 

We kind of just make it up! :) 

Lucy was such a big help! 

Putting up the lights! 

Ornaments on and Lucy does the honor of putting the star on top! 

Our perfect tree.

Well that's what we went to bed thinking.

 We awoke to Lucy screaming "THE TREE FELL DOWN!!" 

Yep- that was fun. We didn't secure it well enough to the stand and it fell over! 

Needles everywhere, water everywhere, luckily only a couple ornaments smashed, ugh! 

We put it back up and then came home from church a few hours later to it down again! 

What a pain! We learned our lesson and figured the perfect way to secure it. 

Every morning after Lucy would wake up, and ask "did the tree fall down again?" 

What an exciting start to our Holiday!

Holiday's with the Foxes

We love it when all the Foxes come to town to play. Lucy especially as she gets older is loving spending time with her cousins. We squeezed in lots of fun things this Thanksgiving break..

Giselle got to join Lucy's dance class! 

It was a huge overload of cuteness seeing these two ballerinas! 

Thanksgiving Day

Aunt Lisa was cute and had the grandkids make necklaces and do other pilgrim/Indian activities. 

And we of course enjoyed a HUGE and delicious meal by Mamma Fox. 

Thursday Night out to find the deals with my SIL Jennifer and cute niece Jolie.

It was Jolie's first Black Friday experience!

We had actually been waiting to buy some pretty big items that had broken or needed an upgrade around our new place. We were on a mission to get some very specific and "important" things such as a laptop and a tv. I am pleased to say we left with both (and lots more) for a steal of a deal! I love Black Friday! It's my favorite part of Thanksgiving....ha! That sounds pretty twisted, but it's true.  

Each time we see cousin Giselle, Lucy and her get to be better and better friends.

It's so cute to see them together! 

We especially loved getting to see the new movie Frozen with our cousins! 

Visiting the big man already preparing for Christmas! 

What beautiful girls! 

A trip for me to Utah

I know, I go to Utah A LOT! 

 I feel very lucky to get to see my family a few times a year! 

This was my first trip there without Lucy and was my shortest trip yet. 

I went out  for the weekend to go to Time out for Women Conference with my Mom, Sis in law, Grandma, Aunts and Cousin. It was just the trip I needed to re boost my spiritual and mommy self. 

Before TOFW I crammed in some Brigham time. 

Brig is the only teenager left at the house now so I think he really liked having me around to play with and I loved our one on one time. This kid is such a good kid. Let me tell ya in order for him to fit me in his busy schedule I had to go along with his weekly routine to see him. 

First stop- going to the Temple (a weekly occurrence for Brigham)

I have to mix in treats in any outing so we went to this yummy cookie place after!  

Next was a Morningside for Bingham High school at like 6:30 in the morning to hear JOHN BYTHEWAY speak! Now, there are not many people I would wake up that early for but hearing John Bytheway speak has been a lifelong dream of mine so I was there nice and early to get good seat and I loved every minute of it! It was sooo good! (Brigham was embarrassed I was trying to get a picture of us!) 

Friday Night our TOFW fun began! 

I hope to go every year because it truly is so uplifting and inspiring. 

I came away wanting to improve nearly every aspect of myself. 

And being with some of my favorite people on earth made it even sweeter! 

Friday night they brought in the heavy hitters 

Ann Romney and Sheri Dew

Gotta do the photo booth! :) 

I love my "no nonsense" Grandma with the stache in the back! Ha! 

I love these people! 

I know I am rather late with this one but I really fell in love with Hilary Weeks and her music this session.

She is just wonderful! 

Saturday Evening we crafted with Jana and Kailey. We made cute little turkeys! 

And Sunday I got to see one of my favorite people on this planet.

 My dear friend from HS Kim! 

It's always a good time when she comes around and this time was no exception! 

She brought a pomegranate to share and since my mom and I had no idea how to open it we left Kim who was feeling confident to do the honors. A couple splatters on the clothes and face later, then with the help of google we opened the rest in a bowl of water and just kept laughing the night away!  

It was a perfect little trip. 

Our first trip to the ER

 This was one of those days not only would you rather never re live, you also don't even want to re think about it. It's making me really sad to have to remember this horrible, scary day as a mom. This was a first for me and I hope it's a last. (although I know It most likely won't be). 

Let's start at the beginning. I work out a few days a week at our church gym. Which is just a hard, wooden basketball court floor. We have a knowledgeable instructor and I get a work out while Lucy and the other kids run around the court playing with balls, toys, riding there bikes etc.  It's great! 

So I was doing my thing and my back was to Lucy, but a friend happen to look over and see Lucy going to kick a ball, slip and fall up in the air and land right on her head on the floor. Like head over heels (is that the right term?)

She ran over and I still hadn't noticed assuming she was taking care of her own child when she and everyone else started calling my name. I ran over and just assumed it was a typical kiss her owie better and move on kind of a thing. I picked her up and almost immediately I knew something was seriously wrong. She was conscious but she was not with it. She wasn't screaming in pain, more letting out moans and shutting her eyes. She wouldn't look at me, she wouldn't respond to me, her body was practically limp. So the first and only child mother in me started to panic, I stood up carrying Lucy to the group to try to calmly stop the workout to ask for help and advice. I tried to keep my composure so I didn't look like a panicked freak. I still thought- maybe I am overacting, there was no blood, she isn't freaking out...? I just didn't know. All I knew was Lucy was not responding to me and that scared me to death. 

What happened after that until I got to the ER was a whirlwind. Let me just say I have some pretty amazing friends, and people I barely know that are the kindest, quickest thinkers I know! Next thing I know they have nurse friends on the phone, missionaries and a neighbor is coming to give Lucy a blessing, someone has offered to drive me to the hospital and that was that.

 I remember trying to keep Lucy awake in the car and also calling Erik and trying to calmly and bravely explain what was going on. I so wanted to beg him to come meet me but I felt bad not really knowing the severity of it and I knew he had Patients depending on him. Looking back though I should have asked and he did later show up he just didn't communicate to me that he was going to try to do that. Anyway- that was the worst part of this, was being alone. I really needed my brave, strong and sensible husband there.....or my mommy...I felt 12 years old. Scared, helpless and alone.

Lucy threw up a couple times once we got there and we struggled to keep her awake. My friend stayed with me for the first little while but once the initial doctor came and determined we needed a CAT scan we knew it would be a while and she had her toddler with her and had to help her other child coming home. She did deliver a change of clothes for Lu and some food for me. She was so kind. 

So the doctor basically said that Lucy had many signs leading her to believe she had a concussion. And that in those cases she recommends CAT scans to make sure there is not brain damage or injury. I felt good about doing that. The only problem was, partially due to Lucy's timid and scardy cat personality and then paired with her just being traumatized the girl WOULD NOT lay down and go through the scanner. I have never seen her so terrified and distraught in my life. She screamed at the top of her lungs and clung to me for dear life. Usually I can persuade her with a bribe such as Ice cream. Not even Ice cream was going to work today. She was screaming "I DON'T WANT ICE CREAM!!" Ha.

Because she wouldn't do it on her own it meant she had to be given drugs to make her calm and sleepy so we could get the scan. Which also meant hooking her up to a monitor and the whole shbang.  UGH! 

These pictures make me tear up! In the back of my mind I knew a concussion was scary but not the end of the world. I knew there was a small possibility she had more severe damage to her brain but I really felt like she didn't. So add that all up and logically I should have been totally calm. But there is something that just takes over when you have to see your kid in a hospital bed, hooked up to monitors, with no life in her, and she looks at you scared and in pain and there is nothing you can do, nothing! It's a horrible feeling. I really sat there and cried not just for us but really thinking about people who have children with chronic illness' that deal with this on a daily basis. How do they do this? My heart swelled with love and compassion for those families. I can't think of anything worse. I am sorry to anyone who has endured this, especially for a long period of time. Your amazing. 

The girl finally conked out so we could do the scan. 

After about another half hour the scan came back and it looked totally normal. 

Phew! What a relief! 

And by that point, look who perked up! A Popsicle in hand, staring at cartoons on the tv, and a stuffed animal on the lap. Life was good again. 

About this point both a neighbor of mine and Erik arrived. I can't even describe the relief I felt to see that support and love in the room. I don't handle emergencies well, especially alone. 

We were discharged and just instructed to have Lucy take it easy for the next few days. No running around or rough playing. Lots of rest! 

By the evening we had our first visitors. Grandma and Grandpa were so sweet to bring by flowers and a balloon. Lucy was pretty much back to her normal self. 

Also a sweet friend brought us by dinner. Wow people are great! 

We were overcome with all the kind texts, phone calls and messages from family and friends.

 It really made us feel loved! 

Lucy's head never even bruised or formed a bump. If you ask Lucy about it she doesn't seem to really remember it happening. It's crazy. I am just glad it's over and it ended well. I am sure I have prayers to thank for that! 

A Day in our November Life

I think it should be a goal of mine to actually start taking LESS pictures. 

Yes, I will work on that. ;) 

Until then, enjoy our November (in march). 

A couple times this fall we went into D.C. with friends just for the morning to have an indoor place for the kids to explore. Sometimes it really hits me how crazy lucky we are that our "playground" is the capital of one of the greatest nations on earth that millions of people travel thousands of miles to come visit. 

Pretty rad.

 Here was us at the Air and Space Museum. 

On occasion I dust off that nice camera of mine and try to get some good quality pictures of my kid. 

On this beautiful afternoon Lucy's mission was to get a family of ants to eat her leaf. She was determined and it provided us with some afternoon entertainment. 

Blurry, but so happy! 

Yep. It's out there..ALL. THE. TIME. Anyone else have this problem with little girls pants? Are they too big, too small? This is my daily view while she is playing....lucky me! ;) 

We tried to live up our numbered days down at the river. 

It's almost like these ducks had become friends, Erik and Lucy knew them so well! 

Crazy hair, crazy smiles, crazy cute! 

I bought a bike! Yay! Now I can join Erik and Lucy on their bike rides. Actually, this had to have occurred earlier than November...maybe October. Oh well, i'm so off my game. Either way, I have a cute little beach cruiser we got for a steal on Craigslist and I love it.....except on all the hills because it has no gears. ha. 

Getting good on the scooter! 

I played around with several recipes this fall in the attempt to get the perfect whole wheat bread. 

I think I have found the one I will stick with that is easy and delicious! Mission accomplished!! 

I also played around with these this fall. I can't say I fell in love, I can't say I'm totally convinced they work but I like the idea and we keep trying them here and there. I do love the Lemon in my water! 

Some nights we get a little crazy....and I have Erik look at my teeth! ha!

Perks of marrying a Dentist I suppose! 

This picture kills me! Beautiful fall colors out my gorgeous window while in the foreground my baby experiences her first game of footsie. 

"Look Mom! It's my I Pad!" 

Where's Lucy? 

There she is!! 

Crazy big leaves up in here. 

Gorgeous tree outside church! 

I love those bright fall colors! 

Lookie what we built Daddy! 

If you know Erik and I you will know this is a huge accomplishment. 

It really only took us one day and I am so proud of them! 

I love filling them, organizing them, admiring them, there really is something about a DIY project! 

Now for some PJ Selfies from the cutest 3 YO I know....

Okay...maybe i took this one (or she has talented toes?) 

A Fall wouldn't be complete without raking some leaves! 

We bought a gorgeous piano! 

We owned a very nice digital keyboard but we both felt like we wanted a piano that would look nicer and be more of a statement. So Erik stalked Craigslist for MONTHS looking for the right piano in our price range. His dedication paid off because we were able to buy this Piano for the same price we sold the keyboard. Straight trade! We love the way it looks and are happy to have music back in our home. 

(and don't worry-I centered that picture above the piano-what was I thinking?) 

Btw...in our new ward Erik is in Young Mens with the Deacons and I got put right back into a Primary Presidency. Either I am really good at this or I still have not learned what I need to learn. But "lucky" me I was also snagged for the dwindling Enrichment Committee. It's a lot of work when activities roll around but working with these Ladies make it all worth it. After pulling off a busy yet successful activity we just needed to go out for some drinks! ;) Hot Cocoa hit the spot! 

We also recently splurged and using some birthday money we bought a Blendtec. 

It's a SUPER nice blender and we have never looked back! It has been the best purchase we have ever made. Green smoothies are now daily occurrences in our home packed with amazing goodness such as kale, spinach, carrots, cherry tomatoes, chia seeds, frozen fruit, protein powder and greek yogurt! It has really helped me. Not to mention it serves also as our wheat grinder so we can grind fresh wheat for our bread. 

Our Preschool is still kickin two days a week. On Tuesday's there are 5 girls, on Thursday's there are 3. 

It's been perfect for Lucy and some of her best friends are in the group. 

This lesson was all about community hero's such as Police Officers! 

We also took to sprouting. Not as much of a hit as I was hoping. They have such a strong bitter flavor that I feel like I can detect them in the smoothies. But, I still feel like it's a good thing to have around and  to know how to do as part of food storage. It is easy and kind of fun! 

In the month of November we kept a gratitude chain. 

It was fun to think each day of something we were grateful for. 

Possibly the biggest thing that happened in November was this. 

Lucy wrote her name for the first time on a magnet board in church. 

I was so proud and amazed I had to snap a picture! I am so glad I have this documented. 

It is the most adorable thing I have seen this whole blog post....which is saying a lot! ;)