Arizona

 Monday and Tuesday we started back up with homeschooling since the boys were back at school. I was worried that after the long break it would be rough to get back into it but the girls did suprisingly well. After the girls did their work Monday, I had a dentist appointment. There is a tooth that has been bothering me but I never say anything anymore because I figure if there is something wrong it should show up in the xray and I really don't want to pay for more dental work...The lady who cleaned my teeth commented that the gums were puffy by that tooth and she showed it to the dentist but he didn't seem worried. He just told me to get a water pik/flosser and that would help. I guess I should get one to see if that does help. Monday evening we did another visit to Chuck-E-Cheese. The kids are still obsessed. We will see how much longer the obsession lasts, but at this point I think we have definitely gotten our moneys worth on the passes.

Wednesday I had an extra early flight to Arizona. Ruby had woken up in the night and after I got her back to sleep, I checked to make sure my alarm was on. While checking my alarm I somehow turned it off like a dummy and so it did not go off at 4:30am. Luckily my body woke me up just before 5 and I almost shouted to Tyler "We slept in" (I do like "Home Alone"). He still got me to the airport in plenty of time and I had an hour to sit and read while I waited for my flight. On my flight I got really lucky and had no one sitting by me on my row and no one behind me either. I read a chic lit for part of the flight and then watched the show "Shrinking". My friend had told me about it so I was excited they had it. Unfortunately they only had the first 3 episodes so they hooked me in and then left me high and dry. So rude. 

It was still morning when I made it to Arizona which made the day feel very long and tiring. Mike was nice and picked me up from the airport and brought me to my parent's house. We chatted for awhile and then he had to get back to work. I was hungry at that point so Grams and Poppy took me to Zuppas to eat. After Zuppas Grams and I meal planned and then went grocery shopping. We are super exciting ;)That night I introduced her to the show "The Middle" and we enjoyed watching that in the evening while I was there.

Thursday morning I helped my mom put together her new Swiffer mop and then decided I needed to clean her floors. I'm not sure I did a great job since my socks still got dirty while I was there but I tried real hard. That afternoon Mike and Mecca took me out to a fancy convenience store called "Air Guitar" and ate some very fancy cotton candy burritos. They were delicious! We also spotteed luxury apartments that were named very appropriately "The Tyler"!

When we finished our delicious treat, Mike was nice and took me to a Lego store that resales Lego's. I loved it and spent more money that I should but also less money than I wanted to. I finally got a minifigure for Ruby, new hair for Ruby, a glasses face for Penny and a new Tyler. I also got a few other random minifigures. Our updated family is pictured below on a cool stand that Mike gave me. 

Friday I met my mother in law for lunch at Kneaders. I thought it might be awkwared because sometimes she is not so chatty but it actually ended up not awkward and really nice. We had a good chat about all the things- my kids, her kids, and a lot about Jezerea and her crummy husband. We chatted for 2 hours. Steve gave Leslie cash for the lunch so that was nice. She decided to get a treat and I was a people pleaser and pretended I liked the brownie she got. Brownies usually upset my stomach so I am not a fan. 

After lunch I took Grams to her dr's appointment. I was mostly just a chauffeur,  I don't think I offered much other than that but I was glad to be there and keep her company. Her doctor was in and out very quickly but the guy who checks her pace maker stayed around longer and helped answer her questions.

Later that day, I went and saw "Gladiator 2" with Mike and Poppy. Only 2 other people were in the theater besides us, it had been out for awhile. I really loved the first one so I was hoping this would be good but it was mostly a cash grab. Weird AI animals, shallow characters and lots of repeated story lines. It was still entertaining I suppose but not quite what I was hoping for. 

Saturday morning I went on a hike with Mike, Lillian, and Matilda. It was cold so I had to borrow my moms winter jacket since I hadn't packed mine. I am a baby, even in Arizona. We did "The Ranch" hike which we have done before and is a good one. Nothing strenuous but it's pretty and quiet. We came across some frozen water at one point aned the girls had fun throwing rocks at it and breaking the ice. Unfortunuately breaking the ice revealed the stinky algae underneath. Lillian talked to me about Harry Potter which she loves and she also talked about the boring stories she has to read in school. Matilda found the walk tiring but she was a trooper and made it through. We also walked by a family that had a couple dogs and one was eating horse poop so that was gross.

After the hike we ate at Cost Vida and then went back to my mom's house where Lillian and Matilda helped me make cookies for a bit before they headed off. I was surprised Gram's super ancient mixer was able to mix the dough. It did less great with the cookies I made Monday though... The rest of the day was mostly me cooking- I made a banana pie too and then dinner. However, I did take a break from cooking to go shoe shopping. I helped Poppy find some shoes and we got Ruby a cute pair of shoes because hers were getting tight. 

New Year!

On Sunday Tyler and Ruby stayed home from church. I wasn't feeling well but I had to play piano (I was subbing for the primary pianist) and I had to teach a primary lesson so I still went. I was feeling really crummy (runny nose, headache and a bit of nausea) and probably should have stayed home too but alas I went and shared my germs with everyone instead. 

On Monday Ruby and I still weren't feeling great and Tyler had joined the sick club. For Christmas Tyler's parents had gifted us a Chuck-E-Cheese pass and the middle three were desperate to use it so I ended up taking them, despite not feeling great. The middle three had a lot of fun so it was probably worth going. Ruby was not in to riding any of the moving cars or playing any of the games, she was still fussy. She spent most of the time wandering around the place and staring at the bright lights and things. Sometimes she joined in games with her siblings. I do feel like the pass his parents got us for Christmas is such a good deal because we have the ability to play 100 games every day for 2 months. It take the kids about an hour to go through 100 games so it entertains them for a good amount of time and is an easy outing.

Tuesday was New Years Eve. That morning I went out to breakfast with Caroline and Grace to celebrate Caroline's birthday (it was on Monday). It was a nice outing but the food wasn't quite as good as I remembered and I probably talked too much.

After Ruby's nap, Penny's glasses were ready for pick up- that was fast! She was so excited that we ended up going to pick them up immediately. She does look pretty cute in them.

That afternoon we did our new tradition (started last year) of taste testing weird sodas. I did not pick well this year apparently. The kids were grossed out by most of them. I had gotten butterscotch beer, marshmallow and bubblegum (I will admit that those were both gross), kitty piddle, alien snot and cookies and cream. After our soda taste testing, Lucy went to Claire's house for a New Years Eve Sleepover.

That evening we had Mariah's family over and her friend's family over again. It seemed like as soon as they got here my eye started getting all boogery and blurry. Ruby had indeed had pink eye after all and had given it to me. Of course, for the whole night, all I could think about was that I had pink eye and they were all going to notice and hate me for contaminating them. So it wasn't exactly a very fun night for me. Mariah didn't seem to be feeling well either. Her friend asked her if she was feeling nauseous and she nodded her head yes- either sick or maybe pregnant? It's probably about time for her to be pregnant again. At 8 they all watched a countdown and toasted with grape juice and sparkling cider. I do not know why they brought grape juice- that was terrifying in the hands of children. Thankfully no one spilled. Then they left and I couldn't help but just feel relief. I was able to take out my contacts and wash my eye with a cloth. I stayed up for a little while longer and Tyler and I worked on our "escape the crate" gift that we had gotten for Christmas. He pretty much solved all the puzzles we worked on that night while I sat there with my goopy eye but I still enjoyed seeing how the puzzles got solved. Meanwhile Ben and Penny watched "Little Rascals". I attempted to go to sleep around the time the kids movie ended but I was unsuccessful. I might as well have stayed up with everyone instead of lying in bed awake.

Wednesday we paid another visit to Chuck-E-Cheese- this time everyone came. It was the only family outing I could convince Steven to go on. I was glad he came and hung out with Ruby. He didn't even complain too much. My eye was still yucky but at least I had my glasses to hide behind. With it being the New Years I didn't want to deal with trying to find a dr's place open so I had decided to see if my eye would clear up on its own. After Chuck-E-Cheese, we went and got lunch at Chick-Fil-A. It was a nice morning out as a family. 

Thursday morning my eye wasn't goopy just a little pink so I didn't feel like I needed to go spend the $100 to go to a doctor. That morning the girls and I went to the mall. Lucy had gotten a giftcard for Claire's that she wanted to spend. It took her quite awhile to decide how to spend it but she ended up getting some earrings and a couple necklaces. I am not sure why she is so in to buying jewlery. She rarely changes her earrings and I never see her wearing necklaces. After Claire's, Ruby played in the kids play area, we got a pretzel, we stopped at the dog store and then we headed home.

Thursday afternoon Ben had Andrea over and wanted to take her to Chuck-E-Cheese so we went yet again. Ruby was napping so we left her with Steven. Tyler was back at  work. Lucy was starting to feel sick so she probably should have stayed at home but she did take a really cute pic while there. Ben and Andrea had a really good time though...

Friday morning I woke up with goopy eyes again and so did Ruby so we ended up at a same day clinic that morning. The doctor confirmed that we both had pink eye and prescribed us some drops but she didn't seem too concerned about any of our other symptoms- just told us to come back if they got worse. Like I want to come back and pay another $100. I just really hate how bad our healthcare is and that is why I procrastinate going to the doctor so much. Ruby seems to be doing better but neither one of us is great. Lots of boogers and coughing.

Friday evening Tyler and I went out to celebrate our 19th anniversary. I had failed to get him a gift that day but he had wrote me a really nice note. We were going to get dinner at our favorite Chinese place but sadly we got there and found it had been closed due to a fire a couple months ago. This was disappointing. We ended up at Applebee's which is not a favorite but it was food and it was nice to have night out without any kids (the girls were watching Ruby). 

Saturday morning we went, yet again, to Chuck-E-Cheese. We are becoming regulars. The kids just really love it and it is an easy and free way to get out of the house on a cold day. Ruby and I played some games. She liked a space invaders game, a chicken game and grabbing all the balls when I was trying to play skee ball. I also introduced the kids to Deal or No Deal and they seemed to like that one. It's nice to be able to try out games because we know we can come back and play more. We are not spending our tickets in hopes that we can get something super awesome at the end of our membership. 

Saturday afternoon I went to go to the piercing place so I could get a shorter rod on my nose stud but it turns out the piercer is out of town for the next 2 weeks. Boo. The rest of our day was uneventful. I think Ruby is finally feeling better so hopefully she will be good for Tyler when I go to Arizona Wednesday. She had been so fussy during the week- needing to be held and waking at nights- it is good we have turned a corner.

Christmas

Sunday we had a nice Christmas program at church. All the songs were really good. The Primary kids sang "Star Bright" which is a new song that I really enjoyed. Penny also sang "Away in the Manager" with some other primary girls. I like it when sacrament is more songs than talking. After church I took pictures of all the kids in their Christmas church attire. For some reason Lucy looks like a ghost. The light behind her really washed her out. 

Ruby looked super cute that day in Elf pajamas so I had to document her. She can make the silliest faces.

I spent most of Monday morning making our sugar cookie dough for our Santa cookies and pies for our Christmas Eve dinner. I luckily had no last minute errands to run for Christmas so I was able to be a hermit and not venture out into the cold and crowds. Ben was sick and spent most of the day sleeping. The girls had Geli and Luna over in the afternoon and that was good for helping their day go faster.

Tuesday we had Mariah's family and her friends that were visiting over for Christmas Eve dinner. Tyler was in charge of the meat-ham and turkey- and the Christmas punch. I had pies, and 5 cup fruit salad. They had the rest of the sides so I really had nothing major to do that day since I had done everything the day before. I baked the Santa cookies and was just going to tidy up before they came but then with the extra time I decided I wanted to decorate the tables. I did drawings on the 2 kids tables and then grabbed random stuff for the center of the grown up table. I think they turned out cute. I did the decorating while Ruby napped and the kids watched "Red One". I didn't get a picture of the second kids' table but here are 2 out of the 3.

Christmas Eve dinner turned out good. Everything was tasty and the company was nice. Mariah's friends were nice enough, almost a little too grateful for letting us host, lol, and all the little ones didn't destroy our house too much. However no one ate my banana pie except me and that made me feel sad. I guess it's because they brought a cheesecake too which they all ate. The kids did all eat my oreo pie that I made from scratch. 

After they all left we decorated Santa cookies. I only had red and green frosting so the kids made some interesting decorating choices. Everything looked a little crazy. Tyler was nice and doing the dishes so he did not participate in the cookie decorating this year. Ruby looks like she murdered her cookies.

After the cookies we opened our jammies (everyone had a quote from the movie "Elf" on their jammies), got our traditional pics and then went and saw Christmas lights in the neighborhood. We didn't travel far because we didn't have Ruby in her car seat and the Traverse had a broken headlight. We were not the safest.

Christmas day Ruby wasn't up until almost 7:30 and she woke up with a very runny nose. It was the start of a long sickness for her. She is not a happy camper when she is sick. She was able to muster up some excitement for her gifts (signing "please" when she wanted something out of its wrapping) but she began to tank after the gifts and spent most of the day cuddling me on the couch.  

For Christmas Ruby got: a baby balance bike, play dough and play dough "tools", a pretend hair salon kit (the hair dryer noise scared her at first), a Target fisher price play kit, a Melissa and Doug cleaning kit and princess shoes and a crown (from Steven).

For Christmas Steven got: a Lego Minecraft Crafting Table, a case for his oculus, a Steam giftcard and a wooden gun to build. He also got a Groot keychain from Ruby. I think he felt gipped because he had less presents than everyone...but his presents were pricey.

For Christmas Ben got: a Minecraft book, Lord of the Rings Brickheadz, a wooden gun to build, and a smart watch. He got a drawing journal from Penny and a jar full of "Chill Pills" from his friend Andrea (which he literally ate in one day).

For Christmas Penny got: a Stitch Lego set, a Corgi, Harry Potter mini brands, a Stitch watch,some books and orange peelers (because she was complaining about peeling oranges). She also got a Stitch blanket from Lucy.

For Christmas Lucy got: Disney Mini Brands, a candy shop to build, make up, Inside Out 2 Brickheadz, a wallet and a Claire's gift card. She also got a Beanie Boo from Ben (a lion with a horn that they call Ramsey who is  a Lone Wolf)

From the grandparents, all the kids got gift cards to Dave and Busters, a 2 month pass to Chuck E Cheese, an Escape the Crate Game and some money for a future outing with the kids.

A cute picture of Tyler styling Ruby's mullet.

For Christmas I got: my nose and ears pierced (and a bunch of earrings too), a new bag for church, a sweater, Lego flowers, and shoes. Keshia was my secret santa and bought me wooden flowers to build and Tara was just nice and bought me a pair of earrings and a jewlery dish to put them in. 

For Christmas Tyler got: 2 wooden guns to build, 2 Harry Potter Lego sets, a Minecraft Building book, and a D and D cookbook. Tara was his secret santa and got him a "dumb" shirt and a metal star wars ship to build. He got a lot of gifts to build.

Below is how I spent most of my Christmas- cuddling Ruby and reading a Christmas book. I did not get to build my things during the day but that night I did finish my Christmas Advent puzzle and I built one of my wooden flowers. The kids spent most of their day building all their things and watching movies. It was a very relaxed day.

Here are some of the things the girls made that day and the next...The boys are hard to get pictures of...

Thursday I spent most of the day taking down the Christmas decorations and gettting things back to normal. It honestly feels so good to get out all the clutter. The kids were not as happy about it though. They wanted the decorations up longer. That afternoon Lucy and I went and checked out the after Christmas sales. We got some good things for next year- socks, colorful ornaments, crafts, Christmas pants...

Friday morning we took the boys to a local bank to set up savings accounts- it's taken us far too long to do this. Ruby was still very sick and sad so we didn't want to leave her with the girls so we brought her along. It was a rough time with her there, she was so miserable. One of her eyes was swollen and boogery so I am sure the bank lady was not happy with us sharing her germs. I don't think it was pink eye though because the next day it was all better.

Friday afternoon Steven had his first date. He had talked to us about asking out Renee from our Ward on Christmas day and so we had helped him figure out the details. (I later read in his texts that he was nervous about talking to us about it but I think it was really awesome that he did) He ended up taking her to Marvin's Mechanical Museum and then they went out to ice cream in Milford. It seems like they both had a good time. I'm not sure exactly what inspired him to ask someone out but I do know that his friend Max had apparently checked with Renee to see her interest level before. After the date, him, Ben and Lucy went to the Stake Roller Skating Activity...where he hung out some more with Renee....

Saturday I started to feel under the weather and so did Tyler. It seems we are all getting the disease. That morning I took Penny to the eye doctor because she has been having trouble seeing things far away and sure enough, she needs glasses. She picked out some pink ones (of course) and will join the glasses club in a couple weeks. That afternoon I hit a few more shops for after Christmas sales and found a few more thing. Then that evening we watched Mariah's kids and her friends' kids (7 total) so they could go out. It seems we had shared the bug with them already and they were all boogery too but they were much less fussy than Ruby. I spent the first half just holding my fussy Ruby and then I was able to be more helpful after I put Ruby down for bed. Overall the kids were pretty easy to watch- the one baby would go to the door and ask for her mom but she was still in pretty good spirits. Also one of the friends' kids broke the "slide" on Ruby's Pikler Triangle thing that I got her for her first birthday. I know he didn't do it on purpose but that was an expensive thing for him to break.

That night, after they left, I was exhausted and went to bed but it was a horrible night. First I was woken up by someone shouting for their dog outside- I thought it was Ruby shouting at first. Then I was woken up by chills alternating with sweats. Next Ruby decided to wake up and would not go back to sleep. Tyler was nice and took her after an hour but then the power went out and someone's home generator kicking in woke me up. It was a lousy night. Thankfully the power came back on at 7:30 so we didn't have to get ready for church in the dark.