december.  2012

alex turned 14 this year, and to celebrate, she invited a friend to go ice skating on our super cool evergreen outdoor lake, and then to yummy pizza.  ok, as i’m blogging this, i still haven’t made her birthday cake.  wow, pretty bad!  she got a bit of a spending spree for clothes, since she desperately needed it, and the best part was, we finally figured out her style and what she likes.

christmas was completely laid back, and i wouldn’t post the picture i had of me anyways, in my pj’s without makeup, but it was nice.  our kids make gifts for each other, they don’t spend any money, and they were awesome!  the things they got from mom and dad and santa were nadia-polly’s and such.  camden-bow and arrows and spy stuff.  madison-bow and arrows and vintage working typewriter.  alex-a ukulele.  we usually don’t do anything traditional for meals, but i’m thinking next year we will…and only like on christmas eve…still enjoyed the no cooking on christmas, that was awesome!

the day after christmas, jarom’s brother, wife, six kids-one is married with a newborn, drove up from arizona, so we had 10 people come crash with us.  it was so much fun.  we took them to the evergreen lake, and went ice skating with the beautiful mountains, lodge, and stars all around.  pizza was involved, movies, skiing for some, and lots of snacks, and metal stamping for necklaces.  we enjoyed their visit a lot!

we went over to some friends’ house and not long after, the youth left to go to the dance.  this was alex’s first youth dance! jarom and i were able to visit until jarom had to leave to go pick alex up an hour away.  so i hung out visiting, the kids played, and then we met jarom and alex back at the house after midnight.  this is the first year jarom and i weren’t even together to ring in the new year together in 15 years.  but, it was a shift in our lives as our oldest is now doing more adult things.  am i old enough for this?