December 2019

Every other Sunday, I am allowed to curl Peyton's hair for church

On those Sundays, I take pictures of her so that I can document those days.

She hates curls.

But she looks so cute with them.

Someday, she will look back and thank me

 Allie had an idea to invite a new friend over on Sunday to 

make Gingerbread Houses and it might have been awkward, so she 

asked if the whole family could make them and make things less awkward.

So, I bought $55 worth of candy, frosting and sprinkles.

 And it was serious business.

 We broke up into teams.  But please notice that the new friend didn't come.

At the last minute, it was just going to be too awkward.

 So, we powered on.

Trying to win the contest.

But, I was super bugged.

That is $55 I will never get back during this holiday season.

We had fun and made some expensive memories.

(shaking my head)

Allie got skiis and gear for Christmas early.

She is a natural.

She tries to go at least twice a week

 Raleigh's company has a company party every year

Every year, they are a huge event with so many employees 

eating less than good catered food and a very painful speech from

the CEO.   We hate them.

This year, instead of the HUGE company party, they broke up in departments.  Which meant the event was smaller and more intimate and actually fun.  We ate a delicious 

dinner at OUR FAVORITE, Anazasi.

It was so fun and SO good.

We loved it

Before we left, we tried to take a picture.

Raleigh was trying to get his new camera lighting just right.

I stood in front of the tree for a really long time

Photo after Photo

So bored

 So. Worth. The. Wait.

What a beauty

I look like I have no neck and stumpy legs

The Sunday before Christmas by the tree photo

 KK swipes my make up when I am not looking and puts it on and I don't notice until it's too late...

Like for instance, when I look over at her in sacrament meeting and she is all dolled up like she is 

going to Prom.  I don't know what we are going to do with this one...

 The Sunday before Christmas after church dinner

 Christmas Eve, we met the family at Outback for dinner

And then we went back to our house to make cookies and watch the 

BYU game 

 And play competitive LCR
The Hyde's took home the loot

 And opened Christmas PJs

 Santa brought Peyton a little tracphone.

Because Santa wanted her to be able to get a hold of us when she is the babysitter.

So, a tracphone is 100% cheaper and better for a 10 year old.

And she started crying.

NOT because it was a tracphone instead of an iPhone (like we were sortof expecting)

She didn't even care about that one bit.

She was just so happy to have a phone all her own
so happy that she cried tears of joy and gratitude for 10 minutes.

The fashionista got a polaroid camera

Then we went to Papa and Nana's for brunch 

and more gifts.

And Quince and Vince came

After searching for months, Raleigh came across Fast Eddie.

The block wall installer who bids lower than the competition by $6.00 a foot.

AND who can also put up an 89 foot wall in 2 days.

Skeptical, I was.

Nervous too.

But to be completely honest, it was half built before I even knew about it,

so what good would my anxiety have done for the situation.

 It doesn't look half bad

And it goes a long way to calming my irrational fear that

grown men are running through our backyard at night.

Thanks Eddie.

For being so Fast.
I didn't have to be stressed for very long at all

Coming up on Christmas, I still had EIGHT days of vacation that I needed to take.

That's NOT cool.

It means that 

1.  I didn't take any time off during the year.

2.  I am a loser

3.  I needed to use it before the end of the year or lose it.

  

I called out accountant and plead my case.  

There aren't even eight days left in the year to use them....I said.

And I am a nice person.

She said "Okay, because you are so lame..... 

Take 2 days and I will pay you out for the rest."

So, I took the 2 days after Christmas off.

Making that a FIVE day vacay for me.

And cashed in on $906 of vacation time.

Oh Yeah????  Who's lame now?

So, for our staycation, Raleigh and I decided to paint the bathroom cabinets.

NOT an easy OR fun project. 

I asked him which was worse...

Painting in 110 degree weather

OR

32 degree weather

He had to blow dry them with a heat gun

 My job was priming and painting the trim

 And all I can say to anyone who comes over to our house is 

Don't you Dare look at the trim in any of our bathrooms

I have...  never one day... claimed to be a good painter.

I get bored too easily

I have zero patience

I don't like having paint all over me... and believe me....  it gets all over me.

I am kinda spazzy because I just want it to be over.

There is black paint in nearly every drawer and in several areas on the floors.

 We had to re-do that drawer front because little boy hands touched it when it was wet.

I told Raleigh I would run down to the store and buy a Quicksilver sticker to put over it.

It just goes in the teenager bathroom afterall...  but he said, someday we are going to have to re-sell this home.  I'll re-sand it and paint it by hand another day.  

The parts my lover painted are perfection. 

Ryker's 8th birthday fell on a Sunday this year.

So on Saturday, we took him to breakfast and shopping.

He invited a couple of little dudes over for cake and ice cream

Morgan moved up to Provo right before Christmas to go to UVU.

Her room is so cute when it is clean and there aren't 1000 things on the floor.

This is a cute guest bedroom for now

Oh....  New Year's Eve.

It's so hard for us....  ME.

I am getting so old and after 7:30ish on any given night...

if I sit for longer than 15 minutes, I fall asleep.

Raleigh wanted me to try to stay awake until 11:00 so that I could 

online shop the Dillards Sale.

And I tried SO hard, I really did.

 This was me at 10:45 

and at 11:00....  I was out like a light... mouth wide open... probably snoring.

And he shopped without me.

We watched the first 2 quarters of the Utah Game and wanted to die.

We watched Togo and that was so darling.  I cried.  

That was our ringing in the New Year.

It's such a good thing we found each other. 

We were both so okay with that.

We also continued our New Year's Day tradition of going to Sakura.

We usually celebrate Kami's birthday as well.  BUT 

she lives in Bagdad now and we are chopped liver.

I'm Salty.

We had a great time though.  The food was delicious and our chef was SO funny

So just as everyone else did this year, I paused to reflect on the past decade.

I thought about where we were on January 1, 2010 and where we are now.

I thought about all of the events that occurred that led us to where we are today.

I am grateful for every single one of them.

They molded and shaped us.

And without sounding horribly arrogant....

I am so proud of us.

We have worked really hard to grow and change and develop and discover a ton about ourselves.

The first 5 years of the decade still continue to be a complete blur to both of us.

We can hardly remember that time and those chaotic days when we were non stop pregnant and birthing and diapering and feeding and raising up babies.

But, now I look back and I love that time and mostly that we got through it.

I look at us now and I can hardly believe how we've changed.

We are SO different.

I love the goals that we set clear back then and worked so hard to accomplish.

I love where we are in life right now.

We are proof that "slow and steady wins the race."

We are proof that "taking one day (or hour) at a time" is sometimes the ONLY way you can get through life.

I love that we are a rock solid team....  on the same page....  with the same goals....  with the same outlook on life and eternal life. 

I love that we didn't listen to the nasty voices of a decade ago telling us crappy stuff 

WE SURE SHOWED YOU!!

A new decade is ahead.

But, I'm just going to continue to focus on today.

And feel blessed with the life we are living today

An authentic, unapologetic, constantly changing, ever shifting, fairly crazy, super fun life.