December 18
We flew out of Lubbock on at 6:35 AM, which means we were up at about 4:30 and to the airport by 5:30. I am grateful for neighbors who will wake up that early to take us. We flew to Denver from Lubbock and the girls slept most of the time, as told to me by Dan because he sat in the same row as them. I had a row to myself with Paige. She slept the whole time so I was able to read my book. We had a 3-hour layover in Denver so we grabbed some Mickey D's for breakfast. I nursed Paige (thank goodness for nursing rooms!) and Dan kept the girls busy by going on the moving walkways over and over until it was time for us to board. Dan sat with the girls again and I talked to the two women next to me until we took off. I was able to read my book again because Paige slept the whole time. My Mom picked us up from the airport. We had some lunch when we got to her house and then all of us but Dan had nap time, he went to track practice at Davis. We spent the rest of the day chilling and went to bed fairly early.
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| Grandpa Ted finally got to meet Paige, and his little shadow was happy to see him again too. |
I got my haircut in the morning. (Kristie Hansen at Blondies & Co. in Bountiful is THE best!) I also got it colored because I have missed being blonde and as weird as it sounds I feel more like myself again with blonde hair. Naturally, I had to stop at Crumbl on my way home and treat myself because there still isn't one in Lubbock. Mike and Nikkole were over that night to watch the Jazz game. Hayley adores her cousin Luke. Evelyn does too, but Hayley loves playing with him and would always ask if he was going to come over. Luke gets excited when he sees Hayley too. They are the cutest and it was so great for the girls to have time with their cousins, on both sides.
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| Paige passed out after nursing. |
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| Having a tea party with Luke. |
Friday morning we were able to our fifth year of Fotofly Santa. I am hopeful this is a tradition we won't have to miss out on even though we will live in Texas for at least the next 3.5 years. I love doing these pictures every year and the girls have grown to like them too. We (the girls, my Mom, and I) decided to go see Frozen 2 after we ate a quick lunch. Hayley loved playing with her automatic recliner and Evelyn was wiggly the whole time. She would get out of her chair or climb into mine. Overall they did pretty well and enjoyed the movie. Hayley was attempting to sing the songs on our drive home. The girls had a nap when we got home. I got ready for my friend get-together at Paul and Becky's house (they were serving in the Temple so their house was empty and they were nice enough to let me use it). My awesome companion, Ashley, was the only one who showed up. So we had a nice evening catching up on each others' lives. It was so good to see her. I was a little heartbroken that no one else came. I understand that it is the Holidays but I had planned this two months in advance to hopefully get people to plan on it and those who said they were coming I thought would show up or at least tell me they couldn't come. Oh well.
December 21
I went to my dear friend Jenna's High Fitness class this morning. I have missed doing High so much. She let me jump up to the front and practice teaching with her on songs that I knew. I hurried home after and showered because we had another round of Fotofly, but this time with Beau and Luke. It was pretty entertaining to try and get all the kids to look at the camera and smile. Our photographer did a phenomenal job though! I love those little cousins so much! We hurried home after that, changed, and loaded up in the cars to head to Logan for the Christensen family Christmas party. We had lunch, played a few games, and then headed home. We dropped my parents off at their house and then went to visit Dan's old co-worker, Brenda, who lives in Ogden. Once we got home from that we had some dinner and then after the girls went down for bed Dan went to play Halo with his friends.
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| It was fun to see Matt dress up as Santa. |
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| Dan hiding in our bedroom eating because he didn't want to share the cheese ball Brenda made. |
We went to church with the Barnes Park Ward today. It was a wonderful Christmas Sunday and it was great to see people I know from growing up in that ward. We ate when we got home, had naps, and then had another relaxing afternoon/evening. Paige turned two months so I took her monthly photos and blogged it. Andrea, my Mom, the girls, and I watched Beauty and the Beast Christmas and then I went over to Jenna's house for an hour this evening to go over some choreography for our class on Tuesday morning. She has been so kind to help me out so much! She is seriously the best instructor!
Matt, Andrea, Dan and I went to Kneaders for breakfast this morning. I wanted to get some sourdough pancakes while we were there. When we got back I worked on some choreography for the Holiday High Fitness class I would be co-teaching the next day. Nikkole came over and all of us except Mike (he was at work) and my Dad (who was nice enough to keep Paige with him) went to Chick-Fil-A for a late lunch/early dinner before Matt and Andrea went back home. It was nice to spend time with them for the past couple of days.
December 24
I survived teaching my first High Fitness class this morning. I messed up a ton, I blame a lot on the nerves because I definitely over thought things, and I dry heaved once ha (my endurance is not what it was although it is slowly improving) but I did it! It was fun doing Holiday songs and not having to do it alone for my first time. Nikkole and Luke came over and went next door with my Dad, Hayley, and Evelyn to play on the Isom's swing set. They are so nice to let the kids use it. Hayley, Evenly, and I did some deliveries for my Mom that afternoon. Hayley loved it and kept asking if there were more houses to go to. Before going to bed my Dad read to us out of Luke 2, a family tradition I am hoping to continue on with our kids, and we discussed the reason we really celebrate Christmas.
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| All 3 girls have known worn this for their first Christmas jammies. Despite being born at different times of the year, they all fit in it pretty well. |
The girls slept in, hopefully, that wasn't our last year for that, but once they were awake all they wanted to do was open their presents. We waited a few hours until Mike and Nikkole came over and then opened them. It was a simple Christmas, which I decided I prefer because my parents are taking us (except Dan because of darn med school ha) to South Carolina in May. I am liking the experiences over gifts idea, especially when our girls already have so much (thank you hand-me-down Barbies!). we had a delicious Christmas dinner and the girls played with some of their new toys.
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| Evelyn wearing her swim cover-up as a dress. She snuck away with her gushers and was eating them on the couch like so. Mike told us where she went and she was all, "Mike, come on!" It had us all laughing. |
We spent the day at Hayward's doing Christmas round 2 there. Peter and Brittany arrived yesterday so they were there as well. It was a fun-filled day. The girls loving playing with their cousins. The girls were going to play in the snow but by the time we got around to going outside it had all melted. Kind of a bummer for them (I didn't really care to play in it ha). We asked Paul and Becky to help us with our plane tickets for our Christmas, and somehow the girls, and even Dan and I, still ended up with some new toys. They are spoiled, and I am grateful their grandparents love them so much! We ended up working on a puzzle Paul got for Christmas for a couple hours in the evening. When we got home we put the girls to bed and watched the Jazz game.
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| Dan and Peter got nerf guns and there were bullets flying everywhere over the next couple of days. |
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| The puzzle! |
We had breakfast over at Paul and Becky's and finished the puzzle we had been working on the night before. It was a 1,000 piece Hershey's candy puzzle and it just had to be finished! We headed back to my parent's for nap time since Paul and Becky went to serve in the Temple. That night we had dinner over at Curtis and Candace's house. Seth and his wife, Sarah, were there too. It was fun to catch up with them and reminisce about high school a little. We are grateful to have such good friends and to be able to see them when we come to visit.
I went to Jenna's High Fitness class again this morning. She did a recap of the 2019 songs that had been released and I only knew like 2 of them ha. I did not get to do High that much in 2019 because of pregnancy and moving somewhere it is not common. Dan went snowboarding with some of his friends and got done in the afternoon. My Dad and I went to Smith's to get some food for Paige's blessing the next day, and then I prepped it that evening so it'd be ready to take over to Hayward's.
December 29
Today was a great day because we blessed sweet Paige! We started getting ready almost as soon as we got up even though church wasn't until noon. Dan gave Paige a beautiful blessing. (I'll write more about it in her 3-month blog post.) We had lunch afterward at Hayward's. It was great to see so much of our family! Some were in town for the holidays that we hadn't seen in a while so that was a plus. We spent most of the afternoon visiting and then made it back to my parent's late afternoon to put the girls down for a late nap. Mike and Nikkole came over after Luke woke up from his nap. Nikkole brought her Nintendo Switch and we played a little. Hayley wanted to play so I indulged her a little before her bedtime ha.
Today was a busy day. The girls got haircuts first thing in the morning. It was Evelyn's first one and her hair looks better now that it is a little evener. My Mom took the girls to get balloons at Bennion Crafts, Hayley remembers that store and calls it the balloon store. Hayley and Evelyn both love balloons, and they each got 3 (the photo was taken the day we left, but put with today cause that's when they got them). After nap time my Mom then took them to see some puppies, which they absolutely loved. As soon as they got back we loaded them up and took them to Hayward's, except Paige who stayed with my parents. Becky watched Hayley, Evelyn, Hadley, and Quincy while Peter, Brittany, Dan and I went to the Jazz game. We ate dinner at Crown Burger, another tradition, and then headed to the Viv to watch the game. It was a good one to go to and so much fun. I miss being able to go to games. All the girls had a blast with Grandma Becky. They made sugar cookies which ended up completely covered in sprinkles. We took them home and put them right to bed since it was way past their bedtime.
This morning we went to Rush Funplex. It was pretty fun but definitely would have been better with older kids. The girls couldn't do too much. We tried mini golf but that only lasted like 6 holes. Evelyn liked roller skating but didn't like the bouncy houses, I still don't know why. Hayley didn't want to drive her own go-kart but enjoyed riding with Dan. We grabbed some lunch at Chick-Fil-A and put the girls down for a nap when we got home, even though they slept in they were both pretty tired from being up so late the night before. We woke them up around 3:30 so we could meet the Paul, Becky, Peter, Brittany, and their girls in Woods Cross for an early dinner at Kneader's. After we put the girls to bed, Dan and I went over to John Tomaz's house to play games with friends and ring in the new year. It was fun, but I am not made to stay up that late anymore. I can't remember the last time I left someone's house at 1:00 AM.
I did not feel good when I woke up this morning. I don't know if it was the nerves of flying or something else, but I threw up. I felt a little better after, but I didn't have much of an appetite all day. We spent the morning loading up all our suitcases. We had a carry-on, medium, and large suitcase and two duffle bags besides our personal items (girls' backpacks, Dan's backpack, and the diaper bag). And one of those duffle bags was only needed on the trip home for all the extra Christmas items. Not too shabby for a family of 5 with Christmas! Thankfully we didn't have to bring any car seats because between our parents we had one for all 3 girls. Once we were packed we headed over to Haywards to say goodbye to them. We ate some lunch when we got back and then my Mom had one last surprise for the girls, which was a silly string fight we did outside. We said goodbye to Luke, Nikkole, and my Mom and loaded up in the car. My Dad drove us to the airport, and I cried almost the whole way there. We made it through security and had about an hour to kill before boarding so we sat by a window and watched planes come and go. I nursed Paige and we ate some snacks. Paige slept the whole flight to Denver. Evelyn got a little bit of a nap but was still tired when we landed. Hayley had to use the bathroom mid-flight so that was fun cramming the 3 of us in there. I was so grateful for my wrap that allowed my hands to be free. She sat by me for the rest of the flight since there was an empty seat next to me. We got some dinner in Denver, I nursed Paige, and the girls watched a little bit of Hercules. Hayley wanted to sit by me on our flight to Lubbock. I watched Parks and Rec while she watched more of Hercules. This was the only flight we got drinks on because the rest were too bumpy for the flight attendants to be up and about. And honestly, they weren't that bad. Dan and I joked that they just didn't want to serve us haha. We landed in Lubbock around 10:30 and waited way too long for our luggage. An awesome neighbor picked us up in our Pilot. We put the girls to bed when we got home, unpacked a few necessities, and hit the hay ourselves. Traveling is exhausting, especially because of the anxiety it gives me.
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| This looks familiar... |
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