December: Before Christmas

Each month I think this will be the month I catch up, but I remain three months behind. If I can't catch up soon, I'm going to have to throw in the towel on this whole blog thing. In the meantime, I will forge ahead and begin December.

One day I bathed Bear Bear and then let her entertain herself in the play room. She began coloring quietly, and I thought to myself how great it was that she wasn't getting into trouble. When I went to check on her, I found her with pen all over her face (and elsewhere):

I count myself lucky that these girls get into a lot less trouble than many kids I know.

Ever sported shades during the beginning of the First Presidency's Christmas devotional:

Tyna looking like a cute little boy:

On one of our Monday-afternoon play dates, Susan took Ever (with Luc, Amelie, and the Zundel kids) to feed horses somewhere on Camp Pendleton. Apparently Ever was really afraid of the horses, but she seemed pleased in the picture Susan sent:

After that, Susan took Ever back to her house, where they made snow globes and Christmas gifts. They hit the dollar store to buy Christmas gifts, too, before Susan brought her home. It was quite the day. 

Back at the house, Wrenzy likes beans;

More Wrenzy speak:

Ever decided she loves chicken enchiladas. Nothing pleases me more than when the girls eat and like a dinner I make:

Bear Bear likes to get into my alphabetically arranged spice drawer and look cute doing it:

Tyna on tummy time:

Missy kept insisting on wearing these onesie jammies she inherited that were way too hot. One night she put them on but then took them mostly off and taught a very interesting Primary lesson on "the article of faith":

My babies:

We love when Wrenzy sings "Let It Go":

Candice Dalton in the ward invited Ever to go with her, Aven, and Dax to Legoland because they had extra free tickets (Zoa, their eldest, was working there). It was the most amazing day of Ever's life. Candice sent me updates and photos through the day.

Jim was spending every spare second studying for his pediatric boards, which meant Saturdays were no fun for anyone. He finally took the exam in December (and did great, by the way). Once that was over, we got a tree and prepared the house for Christmas. I always envision a lovely family decorating party like unto the Rob and Anna's traditional festivities, but Jim always ends up decorating the tree by himself while I deal with the house and children. Someday ...

Ever took this terrifying selfie, straight out of The Ring:

Jim looked tired with Tyna:

Ever moved her bed out into the hall so she could listen to Jim and me downstairs:

We baked, and the girls licked:

Ever was in a little nativity play at church:

She posed with Santa (who appeared to doze off) at the ward Christmas party. The party didn't start until the littles' bedtime, so I stayed home and put them to bed. Jim took the obligatory photo of Ever:

Jim and I took Ever to the toddler-friendly matinee performance of the Nutcracker on a Wednesday afternoon. Susan and Luc Oddou came with us. The kid show is a great idea. The show was cut down to an hour, which is a good length, and it's OK if your kids aren't silent. (The noise level in the theater rose as kids got restless.) The only (huge) bummer was that they cut the Russian dancers. Boo! Before the show:

There were red-carpet photo opportunities with some of the dancers before and after the show. We didn't get there in time for the before photos but took a couple afterward. Ever with Clara:

The line for the Sugar Plum Fairy was way too long, so Ever agreed to pose with this dancer instead (Sugar Plum Fairy in the background):

Ever and Luc, the latter of whom would not stay still for a picture:

November: After Thanksgiving (A Visit From Bags)

Jim and I love Gilmore Girls and were really excited about the reboot being released the Friday after Thanksgiving. Secretly I knew it would be disappointing (the trailer confirmed my suspicions), but I still looked forward to watching it while eating lots of treats. I had the bright idea that Bags should join us. She's flown out a bunch of times to help when each baby was born and just generally to be a nice sister, so I thought this time I'd fly her out. Things ended up working out perfectly for Thanksgiving weekend. Dustin didn't mind being ditched because it was a big hunting weekend. It was decided that they would spend Thanksgiving together, and then Bags would come here on Friday.

Jim worked that Friday. The girls and I fetched Bag Lady from LAX in the middle of the day and then spent the afternoon preparing a relatively simple Thanksgiving dinner. Jim's not into turkey dinner, but I sure love it (minus the cranberries - this is Bags' plate*):

The Gils reboot is four 1.5-hour episodes - one for each season, beginning in winter. We settled in Friday night for the first one:

It's hard to explain how incredibly terrible it was. I can't understand how it was written by the same people. Not only was it incredibly distracting to see how much (and how poorly) the actors had aged, but the writing was just terrible. The script wasn't at all true to the characters, and it was just really, really bad. Jim is a lot more forgiving than I am, so he defends it. It was really hard for me, but I persevered.

Saturday we went on a walk and hit our smoothie place, where Wrenzy was cute:

Jim couldn't deal with Tyna's lengthy mullet (below her bald spot) and lopped it off one night:

Although it was a hack job, it was a massive improvement. 

Every night we watched the Gils and/or movies and ate treats (in other words, we had the fun tims). Monday Jim had the bright idea that we should meet him at Big Bob's for pizza on his lunch break. The girls were all over him, including when he was trying eat. It didn't work out for him but was nice for the rest of us.

Wrenzy helped me clean the floor:

Bags offered to take a Kringel family photo while she was here. Such a nice idea. We didn't manage that, but she did take some pictures of the kids on Tuesday afternoon. My fave Wrenzy pics:

We got some goofy ones of Bear Bear. She's quite a card:

I had to wake Missy so Bags could photograph her before the sun went down. She did not appreciate being awakened from her nap, and there were tears and a bad attitude. Bags still managed to get some cute ones:

Tyna is always a good sport:

Tyna was a reflux baby. The barfing was really, really annoying. She had gotten a lot better, but on that Tuesday night, she had the most incredible projectile-barfing episode ever:

By that night, we'd run out of other treats, so we introduced Bags to Ben & Jerry's The Tonight Dough (Jim and my latest dessert obsession):

We did crepes for Cornyee's farewell breakfast Wednesday. Ever insisted we do crepes while Bags was here:

That concluded Court's last visit to Oceanside as a kidless woman. Good thing I get to go help her with wee He-Homer in May!

*This post is pretty much lifted from Bags's blog. All of the pictures except the two of Wren are hers.