December 2023

Seeing that I am almost 2(!) years behind on the blog, I thought I would finish 2023. I’m afraid I’ll forget too much if I procrastinate much more. Onto December!

 

Eden had her Christmas dance recital. We were asked to stay to the end as a special guest would come, but it wasn’t worth it, honestly. There are so many cheer groups and sound problems. Oh well!

Santa!!!

The only two tiny ballerinas who stayed til the end.

Then Eden passed out after getting home!

Grandma Kartchner gifted all the kids advent calendars with each of their interests! I think it was fun for them to open their own calendars with their own interests.

Joseph got a magic calendar.

Eden got a gem painting advent calendar.

Eli got a Lego calendar.

Noah got a playdoh calendar.

We decorated cookies as usual for the holidays.

 

A cute little backdrop at DQ!

Timber Ridge ward had their very last Christmas party (although none of us really knew it at the time). It was Elf-themed with different activities in different classrooms.

The gym where Christmas dinner was held.

The Primary (me) had a snowman building station. 

I found these snowman parts on Amazon and made my own dough.

Each of the kids got a photo with Santa, though Eli was pretty sick and laid on the couch almost the whole time. Santa was super nice in coming to take a picture with him in the foyer.

There was also snowball throwing.

Reindeer ring toss.

And a backdrop to take photos with.

Seaworld is always fun to go around Christmas time. They do a great job at decorating and have different activities and shows. Here is a dump of some of the photos.

Today was the day they unveiled the Aldabra tortoise exhibit. They are the second largest tortoise in the world.

They had a new to us show called the Greatest Story Never Told. It starred the animals of the Nativity Story and had puppets represent them. They then brought the real animals at the end of the performance!

This December was special because Elijah turned 8! We took his birthday photoshoot at the temple.

Eli wanted a Legend of Zelda Cake so I took a store bakery cake and added all the symbols from the game.

Naturally Eli got Legos for his birthday. 

Christmas Eve tradition: opening pajamas!

Lastly, Christmas morning. We contained a special surprise from Joseph. A snake! And not just any snake, a hognose snake. He was named Hoggy (on brand for our kids). He has now gotten frogs, a fish, and a snake for Christmas.

Noah got a truck to ride.

Eden got more stuffies to add to her massive collection.

More Legos!!

Hiss!

It was a pretty exciting December. The worst part though? We got our first bout of lice! Joseph was complaining of his head itching beginning of December but I couldn’t find anything. Then Eli got an itchy head. Then during the Messiah performance I had a really itchy scalp. I didn’t want to believe it, but it was becoming apparent. Then during church the next day Sam said he found a bug in Noah’s hair. I pulled up a picture of a louse and it was confirmed 😱. I wanted to leave right there and then but Sam made us wait through Sacrament meeting. It was torturous. I saw a bug weave in and out through Eden’s hair, it was so gross. Then I let my counselors know (I was the Primary President) and we left to go to Walgreens to get all the lice removing things we could find. We treated ourselves with two kinds of treatments and took a fine comb and picked through everyone’s hair. We washed all bedding, vacuumed every surface, and quarantined all the stuffed animals. It was awful! A few days later we retreated and thought that was that. I figured any itchiness was residual and would go away. Then during a prayer one night I itched my scalp and a louse got stuck in my finger nail. AGH! None of the treatments worked, so I called my doctor and got an emergency prescription for Spinosad and treated everyone again. We also cut all the boys’ hair really short. And we had to rewash everything again. The worst part was trying to get rid of lice than the lice itself. Luckily Spinosad did the trick and we were lice free! Now I am good at spotting nits and can tell if it’s a nit or just dandruff. Any time I see one of my kids itching their scalp I get nervous!

Anyway, next up is our end of year Albuquerque trip!

Dear Eden,

Happy 7th Birthday! These years just keep flying by, but you are still the same Eden. Reading the past letter, I don't think you changed all that much. I'm still going to write you a letter detailing your seventh year of life. Let's get into it.

 

In terms of size, you are perfectly normal. Something I have noticed is how slow your feet grow compared to your brothers. I feel I am constantly have to buy a pair of shoes for one of them but you still fit perfectly in the shoes I got you over a year ago. Maybe you will have small feet like your mom! You finished another year of ballet and after discussing it, you decided to try something else. You were sure you would grow up to be a ballerina until I showed you what grown ballerinas do (and saw their feet). Now you decided you want to be an artist when you grow up.

 

Not just any artist, you specifically want to draw dragons. I don't think you have to wait to do that, you are doing that every day. You are still obsessed with dragons. Your birthday theme for your party was water dragon, you have so many stuffed dragons, your favorite book series is Dragon Masters, and you are reading Wings of Fire. You pretend to be a dragon and want to be a dragon for Halloween (again). This is your dragon era and I love it. If it's not dragons, it's Pokemon. You have so many favorites I can't even begin to write them all. You like dinosaurs too. We went to Build-a-Bear and picked this Raptor complete with claws and teeth. Then you picked out a sparkly outfit for it. The people at Build-a-Bear never seen that before, but I think it encapsulates you perfectly.

You are going to start second grade and I'm excited for you. Last school year you became really good friends with a girl named Dustin. In fact, her birthday party theme was also dragons and her mom said she was influenced by you. It was so cute. You are right where you need to be for school, and you are an excellent reader. I attribute that to reading the Book of Mormon almost every night as a family. I hope you will be in the same class as your friends. I will also look into putting you into after school art classes and hopefully piano!

 

When I was reading your last letter, I had to laugh because your diet didn't change at all! HEB stopped stocking your favorite mac and cheese, so I guess that's off the list, but you do enjoy eating pasta in general. I stopped trying to pack your lunch for school because there was hardly anything I could pack! I hoped you would find something you like in school lunches. That's something we've struggled with. Another struggle is getting you to express yourself through words. You are a talker, but will shut down when you are upset. Instead of using your words you make nasty faces, scream, and hiss and growl at anybody. And it happens pretty much every day. I'm hoping this phase passes by your next birthday!

Three years later you are still a hardcore mama's girl. You ask for cuddles all the time and always want to sit by me wherever we go. Dad and I teach your Primary class and you are glued to me! When you talk, you like to be uniterrupted and will talk for a while. You have big ideas and want anything to be executed exactly how you imagine it. You are upset if I change anything, too! You're just a little stubborn, I guess! You are also a very silly girl. You pick up on the silly antics of your brothers and join in. You don't have the smoothest relationship with your brothers, but you hate being alone and will sleep in the same room with one of them almost every night. I'm very glad you are a part of our family.

I hope I captured seven-year-old Eden well! I hope you continue letting your light shine. I hope you will be kind to others and choose to do the right thing. You will be 8 by your next birthday, so this is the year to prepare and understand what it means to follow Jesus. And I hope you do! We love you so very much, Eden. I'm so happy to have my daughter!

Love,

Mom