Our holiday is over

I seriously don't know what I would do without this man in my life.  He is such a good person.  He keeps our family clothed, literally.  Not only does he bring home the money for us to buy the clothes, but he does all the laundry...all the time.  On weekends and vacations, he is always doing laundry.  This is not odd to me though because growing up my dad also did the laundry around our house.  But I soooo appreciate him washing, folding and putting away the clothes...like all the time!  He deserves his break from laundry getting up the energy to put it away.  This picture is just so him.

Cynjyn wore her new cat stockings she got for Christmas to church Sunday...cutie pie!. 

It had been a pretty mild fall/winter.  It never got so cold that I turned on the heat.  But towards the end of December, the temperatures finally got low enough that we wanted the heat on.  So, we turned it on and the downstairs one never would come on. Garry investigated and couldn't figure out what was wrong.  So we all bundled up and endured.  Finally about a week later, we called a repairman and got it fixed.  In the mean time...Tanner played hand and foot like this.

Nurse Mikel is trying to diagnose Cynjyn's illness and is trying to see if she has strep.  It only made Cynjyn gag and gag...it was funny and they were both laughing so hard it was difficult to get a correct decision...but the final one was NO STREP!!

We got some Sparkling Cider from friends for Christmas.  We got two.  We drank the first one right away and the second one sat on the counter for a long time.  Finally one night, Talon wanted it but he wanted it chilled so he stuck it in the freezer...for just 5 minutes.  The next day, I couldn't get any ice out of the dispenser so I opened the freezer and the cider glass jar had exploded all over the ice maker and into it.  He had forgot about his chilling cider!

Tanner went on a mini mission this summer and when he went to Stella's house they talked about how we had tried to make tamales this summer with my mom.  Stella asked Tanner if we liked tamales and he said yes and so she promised him she'd make him some eventually.  Well that time came after Christmas and boy were they good.  They were chicken an turkey.  We enjoyed them.

Taz and Cynjyn had friends coming over in and out throughout the holiday.  This time they came and went to vball with us and spent the night.  Us adults are always delegated to sitting at the island while they get the table, but this time Mikel and Talon joined them at the table and me, Garry and Tanner got the island.  I tried a new dinner recipe that night too.  Beef tips with mashed potatoes and salad.  I had Tanner quickly try it to see if it was good and he said yes, so we proceeded with feeding them all...6 of us plus Mikel, Becca, Ryan, Andrew and Michael. 

See all the blankets and shalls spewed around...heater still broken!

It snowed.  We had snow in the forecast for a Wednesday...Taz was up by 7 to see if it happened.  It finally did around 9.  We ran outside and tried to get pictures, but it was such a light snow that the camera didn't pick it up.  It would snow big flakes for about two minutes, then small barely visible flakes.  Then big, then small.  It didn't last long either.

It accumulated a little on the swing to see that it was snow.

The "kids" were as excited as ever and kept going to the window to watch.

Talon woke up with a messy beard one morning.  Cynjyn and I thought it was so funny to see his tweaked beard that we wanted a picture.  He didn't get why it was so funny to us.

Tanner went back to BYUI on NY eve.  His plane left at 3:00.  We were all sad to see him go, but the only flights out were that day and then Sunday the 4th the day before schools started and he didn't want to get back that late, so he opted for NYE.  It also saved over $100.00 to fly out then.  So he and Taz were playing XBox up until the last possible moment. 

Cynjyn started getting sick a few days before NY eve.  She started with a cold and stuffy nose and ended up with stomach cramps and throwing up.  BUT, she was determined to go to her first stake dance which was a valley stake dance in Henderson on NY eve.  She could barely stand up straight, but pulled herself together and went with the promise that her dad would come get her if she didn't make it to midnight.  The dance was over at 12:30.  At midnight, she texted Garry to come get her, she'd had enough, but by the time he would get out there, her ride would be there, so she stuck it out the extra half hour. 

I watched mindless TV until the kids all got home on NYE.  Taz had gone to a party at Paige Lee's house.  He got home before Cynjyn by about 10 min.  I took a selfie at midnight.

This is how Cynjyn spent the rest of her vacation...sick on the couch, sleeping and throwing up.  She finally felt better Saturday Jan. 3, 2015!

Garry and I spent a morning organizing all the kids coins and putting it on an excel sheet so they were all cataloged.  It took about 3 hours, but my mom had requested it and now it's done and will be so much easier to update each year.

We took Cynjyn to the mall that Saturday to spend her bday money from grandma.  They still had Christmas up and I had a vision in my head of a picture I wanted to make, so I was snapping away  (much to the chagrin of Garry and Cynjyn).  So these pictures went from this...

to this..my one little word motto poster.  I thought it was worth their embarrassment!!