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| 12.1.18 (when it snows outside, the bike comes indoors) |
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| 12.3.18 (what a beautiful sight to start the day) |
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| 12.3.18 (he LOVES playing in the snow) |
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| 12.3.18 (but I think she wins all the snow excitement - she is out there a ton (and bonus - can get ready almost 90% by herself!)) |
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| 12.3.18 |
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| 12.3.18 (faint sunset colors in the east) |
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| 12.4.18 (it was the most beautiful bluebird day on our walk to school - I couldn't get enough of the beauty of our little Eden!) |
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| 12.4.18 (it was dang cold, though - like 16 degrees when we left at 12:15 to walk Callie to kindergarten. But I did it because the roads were dry and walkable and I was feeling kind of cooped up after having almost a week steady of snowy days) |
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| 12.4.18 |
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| 12.4.18 (all the heart eyes for this scene!) |
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| 12.4.18 (same view from October and November - kind of fun to see the change in seasons) |
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| 12.4.18 |
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| 12.4.18 (the Hearthside is always lovely, but it looks especially festive in the winter) |
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| 12.4.18 |
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| 12.4.18 (you know you're tired when . . . he had fallen asleep on the walk home from kindergarten drop off and didn't wake up when I picked him up out of the burley, so I wasn't sure what to do with him while I peeled off all his (and my) layers before transferring him to his bed to finish his nap. The table was right there, so I laid him down and he kept on sleeping until I finally got to his snow pants layer. Then he roused a bit but snuggled right into his bed and slept on for another two hours! sheesh!) |
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| 12.4.18 (still pretty on the walk home after school is over) |
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| 12.4.18 (yep, still snappin' three hours later) |
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| 12.5.18 (we picked some angel tree ornaments from the school's angel tree in the office - I had to snap a pic so I knew what to shop for later on our big Christmas Shopping Outing) |
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| 12.5.18 (on Wednesdays we actually get to have a bit of Mom'n'Sam time and today it looked like No Match!) |
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| 12.5.18 (he's pretty good!) |
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| 12.5.18 (that's the face of a match maker) |
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| 12.5.18 (Callie checked out a Christmas craft book from the library and we looked through the whole thing deciding which crafts we could make with the supplies we had on hand. She chose these gingerbread boys and girls and it was really a delightful afternoon activity to do together) |
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| 12.5.18 |
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| 12.5.18 |
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| 12.5.18 (we also opened up The Friend and Callie noticed this rock nativity page and realized that we could use her rock collection to make our own. So we did.) |
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| 12.5.18 (Panda Express for dinner before hitting up Wal-Mart on our big Christmas Shopping Outing (it really deserves all those caps).) |
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| 12.5.18 (they were fans) |
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| 12.5.18 (the sunset was stunning!) |
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| 12.6.18 (Grandma Blanchard invited us over for a fun morning of Christmasing - we had breakfast and then decorated a gingerbread house. Then Callie colored some Christmas pictures and turned them into ornaments for their tree.) |
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| 12.6.18 |
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| 12.6.18 |
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| 12.6.18 |
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| 12.6.18 |
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| 12.6.18 |
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| 12.6.18 (the first of many new ornaments that now adorn Grandma's tree) |
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| 12.6.18 (in case you thought he couldn't get any cuter) |
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| 12.7.18 (we walked Callie all the way into school today so we could drop off the Angel Tree presents in the office. Outside the Callie's room we spotted her grinch picture on the wall) |
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| 12.7.18 (feeling a little deja vu here - ha!) |
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| 12.9.18 (here come some Christmas book faves we/I have liked this month - all new ones that I haven't read before) (I've read other versions of this story, but not this one. And it was cute like the others.) |
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| 12.9.18 (words from the KJV of the bible of the nativity story with really adorable pictures) |
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| 12.9.18 (I've read Four Friends in Autumn, and I liked this one even more!) |
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| 12.9.18 (I had this one on my holds list last year, but it never got to us before Christmas. Love Cynthia Rylant) |
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| 12.9.18 (This one was quite serious but was really good) |
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| 12.11.18 (he's trying on the baby/bear carrier I made for Grace for Christmas - shhh don't tell him he's getting one, too!) |
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| 12.12.18 (another library craft book idea that Cal requested for mom'n'cal time. the instructions actually said to use paint, but she had it in her head to use markers, which I actually liked better.) |
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| 12.12.18 (seeing this little stencil with scribbles on it made me flash back to primary when we would decorate Christmas cards in the hallway on long tables during sharing time (or something?) with similar stencils. the bishopric would then sign them and send them out to all the ward members each December. I sent this pic to Heather and she had the same memory, which totally means it's real!) |
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| 12.13.18 (I really love this snowman picture/ornament (all the bells didn't last since they were too heavy for the branch, so most of them are hanging on our doorknob, which also brings back memories of the jingle bell wreath we had on our doorknob growing up).) |
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| 12.13.18 (She used her paper to wrap up other crafty things she made. A truly homemade gift!) |
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| 12.13.18 (I LOVE Patricia Polacco's books and this was a new one that I haven't seen or heard of before (not that hard, since I just discovered her last year and fell in love).) |
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| 12.14.18 (playing (through the door only) with the stray kitty that was hanging out on our porch for a day or two - he's been around forever, but he comes and goes and it's been a while since we've seen him) |
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| 12.14.18 (a whole row full of people coming to watch my mom's bell choir concert at the tabernacle and the funniest part was that we all arrived from various places at almost exactly the same time! after about a million and one concerts that she's attended for us, it was fun to finally return the favor for her.) |
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| 12.14.18 (The Tabernacle was looking lovely and festive for this packed house/standing room only Westminster Bell Choir concert - the first one we've seen my mom perform in. It was really great!) |
12.14.18
(Kylie took this video of her opening number)
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| 12.15.18 (a lovely and peaceful sunset on our drive home from Cache Valley) |
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| 12.15.18 (we got home from our weekend in Logan and I found this note on the counter from Callie - oops! We forgot to bring it with us!) |
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| 12.15.18 (I love this list of Christmasy things Callie wrote on the back: Joy, popcorn, snow, "stokings", Christmas tree, bells, warmness (my fave!), Christmas "pressints") |
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| 12.16.18 (Gregg remembered similar plastic canvas squish-to-open-and-find-a-hershey's-kiss-inside ornaments hanging on his Grandma Blanchard's tree and decided to remake the memory for each of his siblings and parents (and us!) for Christmas.) |
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| 12.18.18 (morning Christmas story reading by light of lamp and Christmas tree lights - pretty cozy, if you ask me!) |
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| 12.18.18 (He's really into the Cars 3 movie lately (since he's seen it twice in a month or something) and has started acting it out with his own cars - he lines them all up for a race, with some on the side as spectators, and he'll even "train" them with his little launcher track. He talks about Lightning McQueen and "the little brown tow truck" and Jackson Storm all the time. haha. It's kind of adorable. |
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| 12.18.18 (Haven't taken one of these Burley Bundle pics lately - they're getting bigger!) |
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| 12.19.18 (the temple was looking lovely this evening) |
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| 12.19.18 |
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| 12.19.18 (pretty sky from Sister Bott's driveway) |
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| 12.21.18 (Christmas cookie delivery from a neighbor buried under the snow on my porch - there was a package I ordered for Christmas out there, too, but luckily the contents were fine on both) |
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| 12.23.18 (more Christmas book love from this year's library stack. This one was a super quick chapter book read - I think I'll read it aloud next year to Cal. not pictured in this group: A Newbery Christmas, which was a compilation of 14 Christmas stories or chapters written by Newbery award winning authors. It was very fun.) |
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| 12.23.18 (I read this one aloud to the kiddos and we all loved it) |
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| 12.23.18 (I love all things Cynthia Rylant and Diane Goode) |
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| 12.23.18 (just a random pick off the Christmas shelf, but it was fun and cute) |
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| 12.23.18 (I learned a lot about the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree from this one) |
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| 12.23.18 (I didn't know Pam Munoz Ryan wrote picture books!) |
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| 12.23.18 (Cal says she likes this one) |
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| 12.23.18 (I liked watching the DVD of Jane Seymour telling this story - I didn't know the background of this song, so it was fun to learn) |
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| 12.24.18 (Gregg took a few turns at Nordic on Christmas Eve morning. While he was gone, we were making a gingerbread cake, but we ran out of molasses. Since he had the car, we were kind of in a pickle. Cal wrote him this note and put it on his desk. For cute! (I sent him a text, and he saved us by stopping at the super busy grocery store to grab us a jar so we could finish our cake.)) |
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| 12.26.18 (boxing day pre-clean-up) |
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| 12.26.18 |
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| 12.27.18 (we have a full pantry door this December! I love to see it!) |
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| 12.27.18 (this year's rendition of this nativity advent calendar) |
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| 12.27.18 (and this year's rendition of this one - I love to see it evolve each year!) |
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| 12.27.18 (stories and snuggles while it snows) |
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| 12.27.18 (mom 'n' cal time with the giant busy box) |
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| 12.27.18 (she is in heaven!) |
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| 12.27.18 (have you seen googly eyes this huge before?!) |
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| 12.27.18 (ta-da!) |
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| 12.27.18 (frog puppet - check!) |
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| 12.29.18 (Cal had been begging to go ice skating, so we made a visit to the rink in Huntsville Park to slide around on our boots fora few minutes on Saturday afternoon - someday we'll try skates, but for now the boot method works just fine for us.) |
