Brooklyn turned 5 years old on January 26th, and all she wanted for her birthday was to sleep over at her Auntie Becca's house and go to Chuck E. Cheese's! WISH GRANTED!
Because I was away in DC, Becca and Kevin took over party preparations and made sure that Brooklyn, her little sister, and all her little cousins had a BLAST playing at Chuck E. Cheese's!
Afterward, Kevin took over cupcake making duties and created some beautiful rainbow cupcakes with pink frosting and heart sparkles. Brooklyn was thrilled by her daddy's creativity!
When dinner and cake was done, ALL the girls helped Brooklyn to open her presents. Among her favorite things were a hula hoop from Auntie Becca, a cupcake pillowcase from Auntie Natalie, and an elephant towel from mom and dad :)
Before bed, the cousins got together and played a few rounds of Just Dance. They all had so much fun together and I will be forever grateful to my wonderful husband and amazing sister for taking over for me when I couldn't be there! You guys are the BEST!
This year we were lucky enough to start out 2013 at an AWESOME New Year's Eve party with our friends, the Booths, Robinettes, and Curtises. Each couple has 2 kids, and amazingly enough, they all behaved perfectly during the party and went to bed at 9pm leaving the adults to party, uninterrupted, until 1in the morning!
Another New Years thing of note is that I decided to start 2013 with 5 straight days of nothing but fruits and veggies! This picture shows how much I needed at each meal (5 per day) to get enough calories! It was super hard but in the 5 days I lost 10 pounds and was completely ulcer and migraine free! TOTALLY worth it!
During my fruits and veggies kick, my friend Lisa threw a Downton Abbey party at her house! The tables were stacked with good food but I was actually able to resist and stick to my green smoothie that I brought along. But don't worry, despite my inability to enjoy the food, I had a great time watching the start of the new season, dressed in 20's attire, with some of the most incredible women I know. It was a BLAST!
On the 11th of January the stars aligned and my sister and I were actually able to schedule ourselves and our spouses a trip to the Chicago Temple together! It was neat going to the temple with family again. Its not an opportunity I get very often, and afterward we even got to enjoy some YUMMO frozen yogurt at the Red Mango!
On Wednesday the 23rd, my studly sister was nice enough to take my kiddos home with her after preschool and keep them for 5 DAYS while I flew out to Washington DC to visit my cousin Jennie! BEST. SISTER. EVER!!! While I was gone my nieces took turns sharing their beds with Brooklyn. Apparently they like to snuggle!
I stayed with Jennie from the 21st till the 24th. During that time we ate lots of frozen yogurt, watched some movies, bummed around, talked for hours, slept for HOURS, and basked in each other's company. It was so fun to see my best friend again (despite some food poisoning issues that accompanied us on the trip) and I can't wait to see her again soon!
Christmas this year was low key but tons of fun! We slept in, ate some snacks, and then opened presents. And as soon as the presents were cleaned up, Kevin took the girls on his annual Christmas day run!
We got so many fun things from our families out west, including some pretty awesome church bag toys from my sister-in-laws and an amazing sewing station kit. We also got a year pass to the zoo and a year pass to the Children's Museum from the grandparents, which were a humongous hit the following week when we actually redeemed them! We made a lot of presents for each other as well and just enjoyed the quiet morning opening and playing with them all.
But perhaps the biggest hit of the day came in a wire cage. After a whole entire year of debating cat vs. dog, we bought our daughters two pet rats! I was worried that the girls wouldn't like them as much as a larger animal, but I was wrong! The rats spend about 6 hours a day out of their cage, riding around on the girls' shoulders. They watch TV with the girls, eat snacks with the girls, and sometimes they nap with the girls. They are the two most loved animals in the world.
And if you were wondering why we chose rats over a seemingly more lovable animal, it was because we spent months studying the best animal for small children and EVERYTHING pointed to rats. They NEVER bite, they are social and don't run away, they become very attached to their owners, they are CHEAP, and they have squishy bones... so no matter how hard Lily squeezes them, they never die! Oh yeah, and they have a life expectancy of 2 years, so we figured if it was a bust, it wouldn't be like we were stuck with them for 10 years!
Anyway, after we were all done playing with our toys, we packed up our clothes, some gifts, and the rats, and went to my sister Becca's house to spend the rest of the holiday with family! As soon as we arrived, gifts were exchanged. Brooklyn got a new coat from Auntie Becca and the girls got a bowling set to share. Me and Becca randomly got each other matching aprons. She bought mine online, and I made hers from looking at the same picture on line! CRAZY! I also made Becca's girls chef hats to go with their cute aprons, Taber got a survival kit, and Kevin got a new griddle!
Which he wasted no time using to make us a blueberry pancake breakfast! YUMMY!
We weren't the only visitors at Becca's house though. Her mother and father in law were there too and they spent a lot of time spoiling over Becca's kids AND mine! They babysat for free, played lots of games and made crafts, and Karen even knitted ALL the girls little scarfs and then showed me how to make one for myself!
We also went to a cool chocolate place to get ice cream...
AND fondue...AND hot chocolate... all in the same night! It was sooooo good!
One night, papa and mama Rigg even babysat all the kiddos so we could go on a double date to see the movie Les Miserables! It was an amazing gift and we had so much fun!
And in the midst of it all, we even had time to sit down and play games and watch movies late into the night while the kiddos were sleeping.
It was an amazing Christmas and we felt so lucky to spend it with family and adopted family. Thank you to everyone who thought of us and sent us gifts and Christmas cards. It really helped to make the season bright and we truly felt blessed and loved this holiday season!
