Picture a Christmas

Tonight

Ben is on call which is really just code for working all night. We had a movie night and watched Lion King. It was a risky choice because I knew it would have Macey upset over the death of the king. She literally sobbed when I read the Giving Tree - and though it's a sweet book, it's a tree. She handled it well after some talking. After the movie Cody announced he now knew where babies came from. Interested to know what he thought he let me know, "they get them from the bottom of the hill" (yes the cliff-hill in the movie). So easy. He started to break into tears because dad wasn't home to wrestle (and as we all know there is wrestling in the Lion King and we have to reenact some part of most good movies). So I volunteered to wrestle for a minute. After, we brushed teeth and went to the bathroom. As Macey was finishing going potty Mackayla yelled at me to give her some toilet paper. I did because she yelled with so much force, even for a one year old. She very carefully rubbed the back of Macey's back with her little piece. So helpful. As I asked whose turn it was to pray Mackayla raised her hand. We all smiled and I 'helped' her pray. Her prayer consisted of a few grunts in between my words and then a wave of her hand at the amen. We gave kisses. Mackayla says mmmmmmm before each one. As I put her in her bed I said Jesus loves Mackayla. She always points to the picture above her crib of Jesus and then to herself. Tonight she pointed at me and Jesus too. Yep, he loves me too. Even when I let my kids watch more tv after they already watched some at not-so-quiet time.

********

Last Week

My camera never magically came. I spent a good deal of my day searching for my old college camera and never found it. I can't even imagine after two moves where it is. So this will have to suffice...picture what we did in your head.
After a fun-filled few days with the Purdy's we headed over to Ben's house. The kids loved playing with the new puppy! We decorated gingerbread men, spent time with Amy and Luke sans children, and made a Della dinner for everyone. We gave Bonnie a cookbook of her mother's made into a book and made the dinner from the recipes in it. I brushed up my skills on the trampoline at Get Air. But actually I never had any skills so a one year old was a good cover. I loved getting the chance to go to the temple and always wish we could go more often. We had yummy scones and an early grandparent christmas morning. We even had all the grandkids over the last day and got a picture of all of them, even though they might not all be smiling!
We all got a little sick and had the chance to raid the Crosland medicine cabinet, unconventional as it is. Ben claims you have to do a witch dance to use essential oils but they work and I love them!! Bonnie sent me some and we use them all the time.
We got to see all of our family except the Brady's, Tyler, and LeYenna. We had a chance to visit Kevin and Ben's grandma and see Eric and his girlfriend Yolanda.
There's always a few withdrawals coming home from seeing family - we can't wait to see them again!