Ending 2019

Quotes and Happenings from December:

Gideon (mad at Natalie): "I'll yell at you Natalie! I'll smite you!"
(Too much Moana?)
Rob had been looking for some items (something always seems to be lost in this used-to-be-very-organized house) and at least one we suspected Gideon had messed with. He couldn't find them; he didn't know where they were. Until...Rob and I wanted to run an errand and Gideon wanted to go with us. We told him he had to stay home to look for Rob's ring (silicone ring he wears alternately with his metal wedding band). Before we could get totally out in the van, Gideon had found both Rob's ring & watch band within a few minutes when faced with staying home to look for them rather than ride with Mom and Dad. LOL

As we arrived somewhere, Gideon says out of nowhere, "I want my daggum passy."
(Too much Mater?)

Kaitlyn did her science experiment on Christmas Eve. (Yeah, I know. Don't get me started...) We had to read some nonsense text and try to memorize it while first listening to no music, then classical music, and last "jazz music"... Except what she thought was "jazz" was Marvin Gaye "Let's Get It On." (Oh boy.)

Gideon was fighting with Alee over us getting ice cream, which she doesn't like and was trying to convince Gideon was not healthy. Gideon declared: "Ice cream is healthy!" [Pronounced: helphy]

Let's finish off December (through the end of the break) with all the pictures of things that happened from the last "story blog post" (meaning, not the end of year "newsletter" with family pictures. I'll keep the comments short since it has been over a month since my last real post!

I'm a little lazy with Gideon compared to the others, so I tried to do something more preschool-ish occasionally.

Band Concert (Natalie and Kaitlyn are both in percussion ensemble after school)

Kaitlyn conducted 2 songs (one for beginner band with tricky rhythm, one for her own honors band class). She currently wants to major in music one day.

Last-day-before-break concert by all the performing arts at middle school.

The music continues at home over break. (We did a 12 days of Christmas musical "gift" this year.)

Time with new gifts (electric bass)

Book & Sweatshirt (She also got an electric guitar, but most of Christmas day was spent with a book) :)

 Piccolo (I'm impressed with how quickly she picked it up.)

Several Rubik's things (she is so fast at those!)

She did get presents, but I didn't get a good picture of her with hers; she did however stop to finish scriptures that she didn't finish before presents. Alee loves scriptures!

Gideon had to test out his cheapest toy (bath toys from dollar tree).  Yea Cars!

 We spent several days with Rob's family for this year's Christmas. (We did a surprise visit on Christmas, but most of the visiting was after Christmas since Grandpa has an unfortunate work schedule right now.) First up: Chinese. (Yep, she's eating ice cream with chopsticks.)

(We did lots of presents and games...not pictured.)

Next day: Painting Pottery

The pottery came back a few days later...
These are just the kitchen pieces (Kaitlyn, Alee, and Gideon did little things for their rooms, but I didn't take pictures of theirs as of this point.)

For the second week, we visited half the week with my family and half the week at Great Wolf Lodge treated by Rob's family...the pictures mostly tell the adventure for us. I'll throw in some fun facts.

 My grandma is impressively active for her age. She did feel her age the next day though. :)

What's the weather?

This is a South Carolina snowman by Kaitlyn.

This picture does need a story. You see that little white ring on her finger?

 That's Alee's CTR ring; CTR stands for "Choose the Right." She wears it all the time. It's a physical reminder to follow the Savior every day. Worried it would be lost, she took it off and put it in her pocket, but not even her pants pocket - her (loose) hoodie pocket! We didn't know this until it was time to go and she couldn't find it. (Oh my goodness gracious! It's small and white and it's lost at the beach!)
While Rob put Gideon in the carseat, the rest of us went back to search for it. We looked in the areas she had been digging. As I searched, I silently prayed we'd find it. (I'm sure Alee prayed too; she prays constantly. If you ever see her suddenly stop and bow her head, she's praying.)
After a few minutes my mom said that it was lost and we wouldn't find it. Her guess was most likely right - look at how big the beach is, how the color of the ring it light like the sand, how she played in several areas, digging and turning piles of sand over! {please let us find it; please let her be wrong}
Seconds later, I ran my hand across the same spot I'd been sifting, and like it was pushed up, I saw the edge of a little white ring sticking up out of the sand! We had found it!
Heavenly Father wanted a faithful little girl to have her prayer answered and her faith strengthened. We all were humbled and felt blessed. What a great story to end 2019 on!

 The park isn't the only thing Grandma can do. We all miss Gramps, but we are so thankful to still have Grandma to play with. :)

Now back with Rob's family (at Great Wolf) - what a fun way to kick off 2020!

Alee is so jumpy! (Most of these pictures were taken through my waterproof camera sleeve. I can't believe any were clear!)

 My little fish!

(MagiQuest...like a digital scavenger hunt with "magic wands")

 Home at last! After nearly a week away from home, I wish we'd had a few days break to recover from the break! :)

So really, this puts us a few days into 2020, but it doesn't feel like it "really starts" until that first Monday back to reality! That is where the next blog post will begin. Stay tuned; life is about to step it up a notch!