New year, new crazies

Quick recap from Christmas--I'm not going to bother posting 50 pictures, because no one wants to look at all those! Just follow me on Instagram @younghipstercoolgirl.

Anyway, Christmas. It was a crazy whirlwind month of December, full of fun great activities and lots of family time. My sweet sister Kelsey got married on the 22nd, so my parents were here with us for Christmas. We have not spent Christmas together for I think 7 years! It was so fun to have them spend the night with us on Christmas Eve. We also went to the zoo on Christmas Eve with my brother and his wife and my parents and that might be a new tradition! Then for our dinner that night we had a special candlelit Bethlehem dinner, eating foods that Jesus might have eaten (probably not)--fish, flatbread, cashews, dried figs and dates, rice and couscous. After dinner and reading the Christmas story from the scriptures, the girls opened their new Christmas Eve pajamas and went to bed!

If you're wondering, Helena did love her pajamas but was not happy about taking the picture.

Our kids were up at 4:45 on Christmas morning. Yep. They were all in the same bedroom because my parents were sleeping in Tempe and Helena's, so it was a three ring circus all night trying to get people to go to sleep and stay asleep. Everyone drifted back off around 6:30, so we stayed in bed until almost 8. Christmas morning was a big success--Santa brought Tempe a bike, Helena a super cute fairy doll treehouse and fairy dolls, Juno a basketball hoop, and Pearl some plastic dishes and spoons (we really needed some more, thanks Santa). The rest of us were pretty spoiled too, that morning!
Moving on to New Year's Eve...
We started off with a fondue dinner (cheese and mustard fondue), then had different activities every half hour.

Each activity was in a balloon marked with the time we should open it. We painted nails, read Harry Potter, watched Diary of a Wimpy Kid, ate Butterfinger fondue, played video games, and watched the ball drop at midnight. Here's to 2015!

And just when I got everything finally put away from Christmas and my house back in order... I decided to do this. Cabinets are getting painted!

Live to give

We started a new Christmas tradition this year and I am so, so excited about it. I really want to teach my kids to think about others before themselves--honestly, they do that naturally, so now is the perfect time to capitalize on it. We've done quite a few smaller acts of service this year, but our big thing was a bake sale to benefit Quarters for Christmas.

We spent several weeks planning what to serve, advertising on Facebook, and making posters, all during the beautiful golden warm afternoons we had in December. The day of the bake sale was cold and rainy, but we set up on the front steps and raised quite a bit of money in two hours. We even have a nice neighbor who offered to match everything we raised! I am so proud of my sweet daughters who have such a giving nature and that we were able to have a successful fundraiser.

December goodness

Catch up of fun stuff from December...

City Creek Center

We like to go on little field trips on Friday afternoons in December. First up was City Creek, where we looked at the candy displays in the Macy's windows, the giant Christmas tree, and the other Christmas displays inside the mall.

Writing letters to Santa

The Grand America

We went to the Grand America with our cousins (altogether there are 8 girls, no boys!) This is probably my favorite December field trip. It's inside so you don't have to worry too much about kids complaining about being cold. The window displays are so fun and the toy store is my kids' favorite!

Mailing letters to Santa

I didn't think we would get responses because we mailed our letters so late this year, but on Christmas Eve there were letters in our mailbox for Tempe, Helena, and Juno!

St. Lucia girls

Jason and I were co-chairs with another couple for our neighborhood Christmas party this year. We had a Scandinavian Christmas brunch and it was a lot of work! As part of the program, we invited any girls between 5-18 to participate in the St. Lucia procession. We had about 20 girls participate and they were so darling and sweet, walking in to the gym with the beautiful music playing and distributing authentic Swedish buns. It was a really fun experience and made our party so special!

Bethlehem dinner

This is a new tradition I want to do every year. On the Monday before Christmas, we had a very special dinner where we ate foods similar to those that Jesus would have eaten. We turned out all the lights and ate by candlelight and oil lamp and then read the Christmas story from Luke by the fire and sang Christmas carols. It was so beautiful!

I served fish cooked simply in oil with salt and pepper, lemon, flatbread, olive oil (one with fresh rosemary, one with pomegranate vinegar), and dried apricots and figs.

Salt Lake City library

We've never been to the Salt Lake City library, but I've heard it's cool, so we went there a few days after Christmas. We had fun exploring the Crystal Cave and the Grandmother's Attic, riding the elevators up and down, and exploring outside. The roof was closed because of snow and ice but we will definitely go back in the spring when we can have a picnic on the roof.

Christmas ornaments 2013

Jason's mom got him and all of his siblings an ornament every Christmas. Jason and I have continued the tradition in our own family and every year we have fun picking out an ornament that represents our kids' year. I decided to start taking a picture of each child with their ornament this year and here they are!

Tempe loves loves loves cats and she is so excited that we have one. Her ornament has a little cat and says "Home is where the cat is". That definitely sums up her year!

Helena is such a little diva and she wants to be a rock star. She even dressed up as a rock star for Halloween this year! Her ornament is a very glittery "Rock Star" ornament.

Juno loves tools and has fun "helping" fix things around the house. She even has her very own jigsaw just like Mom's! It's hard to get a picture of a three year old holding an ornament up so you can see it, but hers is a hammer and wrench.

Over for another year

Christmas has come and gone again...

How does it sneak up on me every year??

December has been lovely, with lots of fun Christmas activities and lots and lots of anticipation for the big day. Am I the only one that thinks the anticipation is way better than actual Christmas??

Jason worked most of the day on Christmas Eve so the girls and I got ready for Christmas by baking chewy gingerbread bars for Santa and eggnog scones for Christmas breakfast. Then we went to a local rest home to hand out pictures to residents--the girls have been coloring stacks of pictures to hand out for weeks and it was a nice way to make Christmas Eve a little different than every other day.

After Jason got home, we went to his grandma's house for the annual family Christmas Eve dinner/party. We used to play White Elephant, but now that the family has grown exponentially, it was just too crazy and took forever! Instead we have the best Christmas singalong ever ("Jing Jing a Ling" and "Six White Boomers"!)

When we got home, Tempe, Helena, and Juno opened their Christmas Eve gift (new PJs, of course!) and put out gingerbread bars and milk for Santa before bed. Juno especially was really excited for her pajamas. She hugged and kissed me no less than five times in the half hour before bed saying "Thank you Mom, thank you my 'jamas!"

The girls went straight to sleep and didn't wake up until a little after 7. They were so excited to see what Santa had brought (btw, Juno has been saying "Santa come my house? On roof? On his way?" for weeks. She was soooo excited!) There was a pair of binoculars for Tempe (we live near a great place where bald eagles nest!), a unicorn Dreamlite for Helena, and a wooden train set for Juno plus all kinds of great things in their stockings :)

Other favorite gifts are Disney princess dolls (Jasmine, Aurora, and Ariel), a Cooking Light subscription for Mom, gift cards to The Cheesecake Factory, a babysitting coupon book, and a memory foam mattress topper! We got spoiled this year by Jason's great brother and his wife! They know that our mattress is awful and we both wake up with headaches nearly every day (no joke) so they got us the most comfortable, wonderful mattress topper ever. I love them :)

But the BIGGEST PRESENT of the year was the news that we are having a FOURTH baby girl!!!!

I had an ultrasound the week before Christmas and the tech printed out a picture and wrote the gender on it and then sealed it in an envelope. We went back and forth on whether we should open it or not (we were originally planning on being Team Green) but ultimately it ended up under the tree.

Funny story, I opened the envelope and looked at the picture and had no clue what I was seeing. I was expecting a "potty shot" and I'm still really not sure what this is a picture of. Jason pointed out that the tech wrote "girl" in ballpoint pen on the black part of the picture, so we're going with that!
We're thrilled to have four girls!

Christmas is coming

... are you ready???
I have to admit, I thought I was, but this last week before the big day has got me running around like crazy! Part of that has to do with Jason and I being co-chairs for our neighborhood Christmas party (300 people at a Scandinavian brunch!) but also, those last little things really do pile up before Christmas, right?
Luckily, Juno's new preschool is close to a CVS and I've been able to run in there and grab stocking stuffers, quick little gifts for teachers, and even get a head start on my baby prep!
I know that my due date will look a lot closer when we get on the far side of Christmas, so I thought it would be smart to start stocking up on diapers and other baby gear here and there. So last week when I popped in to CVS after dropping Juno off, I grabbed the only diapers I will ever trust a newborn in: Pampers Swaddlers. I love them They are so much softer than other diapers and really cut down on the leaks!

It feels great to be able to start getting some stuff for baby #4, even during such a hectic time of year! Popping into CVS for those last minute holiday supplies leaves me more time to spend with my kids, doing our favorite things to celebrate the holiday season, like going to City Creek, and taking letters to the special Santa mailbox at the post office!

CVS knows that the holidays can be a stressful time, especially with kids in diapers! That's why they make it easy to run into your local store and save on Pampers. Now one of my readers will save even more! Just leave a comment telling me what last minute holiday preparations you have to do and you might be the winner of a full value coupon for a Pampers product--I'll announce a winner in a few days!

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Christmas recovery mode

We're still in Christmas recovery mode here.
Anyone else?
I'm dreading the taking-down-of-Christmas that comes next week, especially the lights. Blerg. Anyone wanna come do it for me?
You would think that as a pushing-30 mom of three, I would be over the post-Christmas blues--you know, that grouchy empty feeling that comes a few hours after you finish your Christmas morning festivities when you realize 'Christmas is over for another year!!' and there seems to be nothing to look forward to and no point in getting out of bed.
Doesn't anyone else feel like that??
We did have a great Christmas, by the way. Jason and I tried very hard not to go overboard on our kids' Christmas, but I think we failed. They were absolutely content with just their Santa presents and stockings and had no desire to open the presents under the tree, although they did enjoy it once we got started. Videos to come!
PS Here is our Christmas card. I love how it turned out!

Christmas prep

We're getting ready for Christmas here!

Our little town's Youth City Council sponsors the "Letters to Santa" program every December...

Tempe and Helena wrote letters to Santa. Look how HAPPY they are! Wow.

Then we took the letters to the special Santa mailbox at the post office...

And a few days later, Tempe and Helena got Santa's personalized replies in the mail!

I took the girls to City Creek to look at Christmas decorations on Friday afternoon. They loved the giant Christmas tree, watching the fountain dance to "Let It Snow", the Christmas scenes, and the candy displays in Macy's!

And I was excited because we went to the Disney store and discovered that the Disney Animators' dolls were on clearance for $15. They're being discontinued after Christmas so I may or may not have bought five to parcel out for birthdays over the next few years.

Helena takes after me, I guess, because she sat down the other day and made this "Christmas checklist" for herself. She drew little pictures with boxes next to them and has been carrying it around saying things like "Buy Christmas presents, yes, check" or "Write a letter to Santa, check" and checking the boxes. 
As for my Christmas checklist, it's almost all wrapped up! What about yours?

oversized rustic Christmas star

Now that Thanksgiving is over, we broke out our Christmas stuff.

Yay!! On Saturday I put up the Christmas lights. Silly me didn't test them before putting them up because hey, they worked last year when we took them down, so why wouldn't they work now, right? Well, most of them don't work. So now I get to drag the ladder out and test each bulb one by one.

On Sunday we put up our Christmas tree and our special "symbols of Christ" Christmas ornaments that Jason's mom gave us the first year we were married. I sure love these ornaments! 

Yesterday afternoon the girls helped me test a recipe for cooking class--a little Christmas tree snack and project in one--and then we put up the rest of our Christmas decorations (we have a lot). We finished decorating our tree for Family Home Evening, while listening to the Chipmunks, just like we did when I was a kid.

Today I was hanging out on Pinterest when I saw this awesome giant star. I really loved it. I really had to have it.  But I am the cheapest person alive and I didn't even want to spend $5 on yardsticks. Plus Juno was asleep so I couldn't go to the store for any supplies and I didn't want to wait. I needed instant craft gratification.

Luckily, my neighbor's old wooden fence saved the day!

Are you sick of me using my neighbor's old wooden fence for craft projects? I've used it as my headboard in our new master bedroom, a window shade, and in my garage mud room. I'm almost out of it, so this is probably my last old wood fence project.

 I cut the boards down to about 3 1/2 feet and arranged them in a simple star shape. I overlapped the ends so that each point has a rounded end on top (instead of the straight edge that I cut). Then I screwed each point together. DONE in about 15 minutes!

It's a very big star. I put it on the mantle and wrapped Christmas lights around it. I really love it. Next year I might hang it outside the house on the chimney, still wrapped in lights.

What are you doing to get ready for Christmas?