The Howard Family Est. May 6, 2006: December Fun

Why is it that December seems to always fly by?

I feel like we just started the month and now it's nearly over.

We've been up to the usual holiday shopping, Zayden found the perfect gift for Grammie... seeing as she's an avid Squirrel lover. ;)

We attended our ward Christmas party, which this year was a Dr. Suess themed brunch. There were green eggs and ham, colorful waffles, fruit, oatmeal and doughnuts. The boys got to meet the Grinch in person and there were some musical numbers. Zayden wasn't a fan of the "mean" Grinch, but he warmed up when the "nice" Grinch gave him some "grinch pills" (which were candy).

The boys got lots of new clothes from Grammie and Grandpa Loren and look pretty darn handsome in them.

They also got to attend their good friend's birthday party, which was Frozen theme at the Llyod Center skating rink. Quincy and Braxton both wanted to give it a try, but got a little nervous when it actually came down to doing it. After a lot of convincing, they managed to get out there to try and there was a lot of this going on (picture below):

Honestly, some of the adults looked like that too, so I'd say they did a great job for their first time!

We love having awesome friends like the Garretts!

There's been lots of quality jammie and baking time at home.

This year I decided my nativity, that my Nanny gave to me needed a proper manger, so these two set to work on helping me build one.

The finished result.

It's been a busy month and one of the goals I've had is to try allow our home to have more peace throughout this season. We haven't had perfect streak of endless peaceful days, but the effort I've put out, has had a positive effect in our home. I've also tried to take time to enjoy my kids, even if that means snuggling little ones when I'm trying to dry wet hair, put make up on, and get dressed.

My parent's celebrated their 30th year anniversary at the coast this year and invited us to join them for a quick family get away with my siblings too. Unfortunately Tyler had to work, but we made some smoothies to "celebrate" with them. I'm lucky to have had such great examples of what loving someone entails: forgiveness, understanding, continuous work and effort, and lots of laughter!

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

Since Winter Break has officially started, I've been trying to keep my boys busy, in an effort to offset the opportunities for fighting. I braved some Christmas crafting and painting on Monday and as you can tell, they loved every second of it!

Since we will only see my family for half of Christmas day I decided to host a little family game night for my parents and siblings. I made lots of treats, and snacks. It was a little snug in our small home, but it made me happy to see everyone having fun. We wish my brother Spencer and his partner David could have made it. :(

There was so much food leftover, I think we'll do a round 2 Christmas night!

We were told by a friend that Quincy made the newspaper...

It was cool to read his letter to Santa in it!

We have been truly blessed with the kindest neighbor EVER! She brought over new superhero jammies for our boys this morning and even let them finally watch The Little Mermaid movie (since we were watching youtube clips of it online.) I dream of owning my own home, and hopefully it's sooner rather than later, but I will be SO sad to not have her as a neighbor when we finally do find that future home.

Towards the beginning of the month we went to Damascus for their tree lighting, held at the local fire station. There were Christmas songs being sung, treats and hot chocolate, an old firetruck lit up with lights, and of course, Santa was there. The boys got to deliver their letter to him and each got a candy cane. They were pretty happy about it.