A Touch Of Tyrell

The other night we did something super rare... we went out for dinner. We just don't really go out very much as a family #becauseitssoexpensive BUT Jake had a gift card so we went for it.  The kids are totally in love with Olive Garden and we had a pretty fun time.  The kids are growing and changing so quickly (and I'm taking less pictures and blogging less 😅) that I can hardly keep up!  

Christmas week was a fun and busy one. We spent a lot of time with our friends The Smiths. On Tuesday we rode in the back of their truck and drove through the illumination lights. We've never been before and it was super cool. The light dance to the music :) Wednesday they rented out a theater and just our two families got to see Croods 2. We all loved it! Thursday, Christmas Eve, we made cookies all day and drove around and delivered them.  We had a snowball fight with them (with snowballs they bought from the saved ice store :) A Christmas Eve snowball fight is tradition for them. Jake made an AMAZING Mexican dinner for everyone. Smoked chicken, Spanish rice, refried beans, pickled red onions, with shredded cabbage and lots of squeezed lime... all in a corn tortilla. AND the most delicious ceviche. His ceviche is the most delicious of all time and he's completely MASTERED the smoked chicken 😋 When all that was said and done, we left cookies and milk for Kelly and Santa.  Su...

This time of year EVERYTHING happens.  Thanksgiving, Christmas, photography, parties galore AND the weather is finally agreeable! In the end, it all kind-of becomes a blur (and I haven't been taking enough (or ANY!!) pictures)! Luckily I have a few.  Roxy (and Hunter) had their Christmas party at preschool.  Kelly, our elf, moved EVERY night and brought us a new game to play for family night each Monday.  We play outside as much as possible and visit as many parks as we can.  We also play with as many friends as we can too. This is a pretty solid group of friends right here! Jake and I went to an ugly sweater party (which was hilariously fun!). Maghen and I threw our own girls-only white elephant party that turned out to be wildly amazing (but I didn't take a single picture).   

The Sunday before Christmas we all managed to look pretty nice and Christmasy! We. were also able to decorate our houses.  Breckie is so cute and creative about her decorations.  The smily face by the front door is my personal favorite.  I can't seem to create beyond the traditional Christmas colors.  Everett did an amazing and colorful roof and pretty much stopped there. Roxy wanted swirly windows and had some fun with her house. And Jake totally wins the coolest chimney! We always have so much fun with our houses. I think it's a family-favorite tradition.   

Although I have REALLY been slacking keeping things updated... something majorly exciting happened! It rained! Like actually really rained. I feel so deprived of weather (other than clear, sunny skies and hot days) that it feels so exciting and new and AMAZING! And I'm so happy to have a little friend that enjoys it as much as I do! She is my adventure buddy, for sure!  

We don't have very many traditions... but one of them is to decorate Jake's office for Christmas on the first Monday in December. We have pizza and hot cocoa, listen to Christmas music, decorate then tree and then go to Kneaders for cookies afterwards.  This year, like last year, I was SO busy with pictures that we missed the first Monday in December and ended up doing the next Sunday after church. We quickly decorated the tree, without music, hot cocoa, or Everett's help (he was too cool) and we didn't have pizza or cookies afterwards.  Feeling cheated, we decided to go to Kneader for Breakfast the next morning. French toast is such a treat at Kneaders. It's my favorite!!! The kids got their Christmas cookies and all was right in the world. Everett and Breckie did a little re-arranging of the hardened icing 😅 (at first some icing fell off and Everett was trying to fix it and then things just went south!) And Roxy said her's was wearing a diaper: We have so muc...

  I am SO SO SO proud of Roxy! She had her second dance recital and did 10 times better than her Spring recital.  She was so struck by the limelight last time that she ended up just standing on stage from the duration of the song. This time she actually danced!!! She was adorable and brave and I am so proud of her! Because of COVID, only Jake and I could come, but maybe (just maybe.... but probably not) by Spring her siblings can see her dance too.