Russ, Shalae, & Kids

Sunday, January 11, 2015

December 2014

December 1st, our Elf on the Shelf Simon showed up... good thing since he was the only Christmas-y thing going on in our house. We had a very busy month and didn't really decorate this year.

He moved the next day to the top of the fridge where our Thanksgiving decor still sat.

December 3rd, he was holding a picture of Russ and I in honor of our wedding anniversary :)

The night of December 3rd, Noah got upset thinking about Simon. He doesn't like that once a few years ago, Simon scared him in the bathroom one morning. So Russ and I told Noah that we would be happy to tell Simon that he can't move around the house anymore :) That night, Russ went down and had a talk with Simon and told him he can't keep scaring Noah and he needed to stay in one place. The next morning, we found Simon on a bookshelf with a note that said he promised to stop moving around. It worked out perfect for all of us. He didn't move again until we moved to our new house a few days before Christmas.

Suzy had an extra little scooter at her house and Abby knew just what to do with it. It was so cute and Suzy let Abby take the scooter home!

Sometimes Abby thinks dad's iPad is actually her's.

Noah and Sophie performed some Christmas songs with the rest of the primary kids at the ward Christmas party.

That night at the party, Abby was forced to sit on Santa's lap and didn't like it one bit.

 She was in good company though. Haha! These are some pictures that our friends in the ward posted to instagram of their babies not liking Santa :) 
(Lucy and Davis Baldwin, Cora Elicio, Abby, Hudson Call, Parker, Marie, and Anya Nischan, Kozie and Boston Manutai.

We had our traditional nativity and caroling night with the Sherwood family. Kaitlyn was the angel, Sophie was a Shepherd, and Noah was a wiseman.




Christmas caroling!

Noah received his ARTIST award at December's pack meeting.

Noah & Sophie played relay games and dressed each other up as snowmen at pack meeting...


Most of our December was occupied with moving. We moved within our same neighborhood and we LOVE the new house. However, it was disgusting and we had a lot of work to do tearing out everything inside and putting in new paint, carpet, and more. We moved on December 20th (how crazy are we?). This is the night we moved in. Abby was so happy to have her toys in a new place.

December 21, we celebrated Grandma Riggs' birthday and Christmas with the Riggs family at the Goodman's house. These are just some of Grandma's great grandkids. Not everyone was there at the same time since it was a come & go party. We didn't have the girls that day and Abby was sick, so Noah is the only one pictured from our family. We love Grandma Riggs!!

Ellie and Noah aren't afraid to share a chair with each other. Maybe because it was the only place to sit in our house?!

Christmas Eve, we visited both Grandma Sherwood and Grandma Riggs, then we ate dinner and In-N-Out. After that, we drove around and looked at Christmas lights. Our plan was to go see the temple lights but it was a little chilly outside!

Each of the kids got to open one gift on Christmas Eve. I wonder what it could have been?!

New pajamas of course!

The kids made Santa some cookies and left him a note with the cookies and milk.

That night, Santa sure did come to our house! 

This is the note he left behind:
 The kids waited anxiously to find what Santa had left...

Here are the 3 kids who wanted to do a sibling gift exchange, getting ready to open their gifts from each other. Sophie had Noah, Noah had Abby, and Abby had Sophie.

Abby loved her gift from Noah.

All the kids opening gifts from Grandma Price ...


Kaitlyn loved her comfy pants...

...and Noah loved his new shoes.

Abby, the panda lover, loved her new panda sweatshirt.

Abby also loved the new wagon that daddy got from Grandma Price.

We went over to Grandma & Poppy's house and were spoiled by them. Noah got new dirtbike boots!

Abby got a new cabbage patch doll!

Abby also had a nice little nap on Lance's lap!

Somebody loves their new doll :)

Traditional stockings from Grandma & Poppy...


4 cute boys...

... and 4 cute girls, with their new dollies!

This was the year of "homemade Christmas". It was so fun to see what everyone had done for each other. My mom quilted hot pads to match each of our houses, Danielle made the cutest beach bags with the bottom painted in each of our favorite colors, I made a DVD for everyone of our Lake Powell variety show, Alisse made chat books for everyone from our instagram accounts, Auburn made oil blends that we can use year round, and Suzanne made us all huge framed chalkboards for our houses!


 We have spent a lot of time at Lowes as we've been working on the new house and fixing up the old one for renters. Abby was being so cute this day as she helped Russ push the cart around.

Abby has got to spend some extra time with Davis lately as Alisse has taken her while I get things done. Lucky girl!

A few times, Alisse has taken her with them to the IDEA museum. She LOVES it!


New Years Eve, the Cummards and Baldwins came to our house to ring in the new year. It took us awhile to get started doing anything fun, but it ended up being a pretty fun night. We played pictionary and the name game and had lots of laughs :)



It was so cold that night that it snowed. In Mesa!!

2014 was a good year for our family. We're excited to see what 2015 is all about though :)