Journaling

- Nate took me to his Union Christmas Party.  I will admit I was seriously dreading that party all week before, but I ended up having a pretty good time.  There was a lot of stuff I could have done without.  But it was actually kind of fun.  It was a "Gambling Night".  They had tables set up to play games.  We stayed at the 21 table all night, and learned SO much about the game 21!  We were playing with chips that we got because we turned in our raffle ticket.  For every $500 in chips that you ended up with, you would get a raffle ticket to win prizes at the end of the night!  So kinda fun right?!  It's like gambling with someone else's money.  We were pretty good at it.  Wouldn't make it in Vegas though.  We're both too stingy.  There's no way I could set down $5 and say, let's see if I can get closest to 21 with this random deal.... and keep my money!  It sure was fun though.  I can see where the thrill of gambling comes in.  I remember having fun gambling with sunflower seeds when I was a kid too.  Just harmless fun :).  Anyway.  I am grateful for a husband who loves me and treats me so sweetly when we are at those things.  I feel like he's proud of me and likes introducing me to people.  Makes me feel good :).  I did meet a few really cool people.  The Union President's wife was fun at the 21 table.  Then the Vice President's wife was from Sandy and went to Alta!  She was nice too.  I liked Rob's wife the best.  Good thing I'm so good with names, I came out with one apparently.  Just kidding.  Nate will help me remember them later.  So anyway.  It was a nice date with my honey.  12-15-12

- Saturday, we met Nate's parents out at Mimi's in Sandy and had dinner with them.  It was a lot of fun.  Some of the kids and I were sitting down at one end of the table with Grandma Ruthie and Nate and a few others were down at the other end of the table by Grandpa Russ.  There was a lot of talking going on :).  I enjoyed it so much!  I miss having the one on one time like that.  They're so busy usually.  I wonder if they were expecting a big announcement or something... that's what usually happens when we all make time to get together :).  Hope we didn't disappoint.

After dinner, we drove a little further South to catch the lights at Thanksgiving Point.  We had "won" a gift certificate to drive through the lights display at Nate's Union Party.  I can't believe they can charge $9 to do that, normally, but luckily we got in free.  It was pretty fun.  The kids seemed a little thrown off when I told them they could take off seat belts and look out the windows standing up.  I even took Jack out of his seat and fed him as we were driving through.  I'm the seatbelt nazi so you know it was okay :).  I think we were going about 4 mph and nobody around us could go any faster than that.  I guess I did imagine the possibility of some freak speeding through the whole thing, tearing down displays and launching themselves over the bushes and stuff... crashing into us and killing us all because we weren't buckled, but I guess it was unlikely, and I gave in.  Either way, the kids loved the lights :).  We all talked about them all and it was a nice pleasant time for the family.  (I'm avoiding the subject of how long it took us to wait in line to get in the lights.  But the remarkable thing was that about a half hour before we got to the gate, we decided to place bets on what time we would reach the booth to pay.  Nate guessed 9:03, then we all guessed times around then- we know what a good guesser he is- and surprise surprise, he was RIGHT ON!!  to the MINUTE!!!  I couldn't believe it.  He knows the future.  It's nuts!)

We stopped at Malisa and Joe's house to leave their gifts on the porch.  Malisa had gone to the store to get stuff for her sick family.  I wish we'd been able to see them, but it was all good.

- For New Year's Eve day I put some of the fun activities we wanted to do that day, in balloons.  I hung them from the window and then wrote an hour on each one.  We popped the balloon on the hour and did the activity inside.  Pinterest idea.  It was pretty fun.  Although, if I do it again, I will be coming up with some more exciting activities.  Some of them were slightly anti-climactic.  Kind of like the Christmas advent bag.  But it was still fun.  The one everyone was excited about was "going sledding"!!  Nate had bought some sledding disks (since Kambree popped our other two tubes) and we all suited up and went sledding at the church hill, had some friends there with us too.  I spent most of the time walking and driving people to the bathroom (the church had been open for the first few potty trips).  I did manage to squeeze in a few times down the hill on the tube.  Nate stood and talked to Don most of the time, and froze his little cheeks off.  He took a bunch of pictures on his phone and got some fun videos, but I didn't have my camera there, so we will have to get those later.  It was a lot of fun.  Then we went and got some pizza and crazy bread and headed home to get ready for our party.  I really didn't do enough preparation for that party.  I still feel weird about it.  It was almost an after thought by the end of that day.  It's always such a long day.  I need to remember to prepare for it better if we do it again.  We had the Hatches, Heidi and John, and Steve and Jauslin over.  I felt so bad for nagging Steve to come, he was suffering from some major dental problems.  It was so sad!  He ended up leaving early.  Brent had to leave early too to go to work, so that was a bummer.  We did play a few games.  Everyone humors my kids so well :).  And then rang in the New Year with a big bang!  The kids all made tons of noise and screaming... and then it was time for bed!  I was SO TIRED!!!  It's been a while since I was that tired.

I hope that night wasn't a sign of how 2013 is going to be because it was horrible!!  I don't even remember it all now, but Jack took forever to get to sleep, then Luke came down unable to sleep, and then Noah after him.  I think we ended up with a few kids in our bed that night and I woke up about 3 or 4 times with Jack in the night (which I know is normal for a normal baby, but he has not be a "normal" baby!  He's been a dream!  So that was a bummer.  But luckily it was just a bad night, not new habits forming).  It was a horrible night!  We were able to sleep in a little, so that was good.  Then dragged ourselves out of the house to go to Grandma and Simon's house for lunch.  That was a lot of fun.  We had so much fun talking with Brent and Sarah.  Good times.  We were supposed to meet up with Chris and Stephanie that evening, but we rescheduled.  Everyone was starting to seem sick... not good the day before school starts back up!!  1-1-13

- One thing I do want to record was my little bonding time with Jack.  Nate says we don't need anymore bonding :), but it was really special.  The last time he woke me up, around 8:00, I was changing him and dressing him, and afterward sat and looked at him, smiling and tickling him :).  And he was cooing... it was so cute!  I decided we wanted to lay back down and get a little more bed-time in, and so I laid him down next to me, on my pillow, facing me and we just sat there and stared at each other.  It was so awesome.  He was talking, and I was talking and he would smile and I would smile.... SO sweet!  I L O V E D it!!  It was such a special time for us.  I wish I had the time to just sit and stare at all of my kids like that.  Maybe I should make it a new thing... I don't know... but I sure enjoyed it.  Jack still just seems like he has an old spirit.  I love it.  I love getting to know him and his personality.  It was a nice little experience.  1-1-13

- Oh, wow, there's just been so much happening!  I wish I'd been journaling better! I missed half of the month.  HOpefully I can fill in the blanks when they come to me.  Until then....