A roller coaster December

We decided to spend December in Utah since we don't know when the next time we will be able to come home for Christmas is and Maren is coming home at the end of the month! Dal found an ER doctor to work with here and we have done a lot of fun things. We usually don't see many people when we visit because I want to spend all of our time with my family, but it has been fun to see so many people that we don't usually since we are here for a whole month. 

Highlights so far have included...
-A play at the Desert Star with Max & Steph + my grandparents
-Breakfast at little America with Dal's family

-Dinner at Iggie's with Dave and Angela
-Seeing the lights at Draper Park
-Making 200 chocolate covered pretzels

-Getting to see Sherin, Doug, and Mark and eating yummy Pie Pizzeria

-The lights on temple square with Lauren and Zane
-A haircut for Cal where he was weirdly cooperative and sat still quietly the whole time

-Amy's baby shower
-Walking across the street to see the blowup Christmas decorations 390824 times

-Taking Cal to see Santa (he only likes Santa from a distance- he freaked out when we tried to take him up there and really freaked out when we took Mae. It was fun to see his protective-older-brother side.)
-Dallin making stuff with my grandpa in his garage and Calvin following them around everywhere

-The sing-a-long at the Energy Solutions Arena... an annual tradition for my family. Mae slept through the whole thing and Cal did great when he wasn't trying to sneak down the stairs.

-Jackie's choir concert at Brighton where BOTH of my kids slept the whole time. It was lovely, and also fun to go up and sing with Jackie during the alumni song.

-Dal got to go snowboarding with Sherrie

-A morning spent with Kaely, Kaden & Ellie

-Cafe Rio with my mom and her friends

-Wingers! We love Wingers

-Seeing the Hobbit with friends. We took Mae and she slept through the whole thing. Dallin talked about being excited to see it again as we were exiting the theater.

Ready to brave Utah weather

Wearing the same shirt as my grandpa

Cousins at Little America

Mae + her great grandma

My grandpa teaching Cal to sand

"Mom, cheeeeese!"

Wimping out during tummy time

Pre bedtime selfie

Even better than a binkie

Santa Breakfast

The one that isn't terrified of Santa

Being a dream baby during pretzel making

My dad offering to 'babysit' aka getting out of pretzel making

Sunday best

The lights at the sing-a-long

Baby girl is still a terrible sleeper

In time out for breaking a cookie jar

Sleeping through a choir concert

3 years ago Dallin decided that he wanted to be an ENT doctor and has been working hard towards it ever since. He tried to talk himself out of it once he saw just how competitive it was, but ultimately decided that he loved it so much that he was going to take the risk- even though there was a big possibility of not getting a spot.

We have been super anxious all month because the match was earlier this week. After a week of freaking out, the match came and we found out that Dal did not get a spot. It was pretty devastating for him. I am so proud of how hard he has worked, but I am much more proud of how he handled it afterwards. My mom used to joke that she wanted all of our potential suitors to come into the bank where she works and she would have one of her friends tell them that they couldn't cash their check because people's true colors come out when they don't get their way. Well Dal has some pretty awesome true colors and he has been a good example to me this week. I really wish that he would have gotten a spot, but I have truly never loved him more than I do right now.

So in June we will be heading to Washington for a transition year! I keep writing things like, "I don't care where we are as long as I am with my little family", but then deleting it because it sounds so cheesy. But seriously...

Mae @ 2 months

Mae was still pretty chill and sleepy this month... and she learned to smile! If we could only get her to sleep at night she would be perfect.

Here is what Mae has been up to this month..

-She loves the car seat, stroller, and her wrap, making running errands a breeze

-She does not like to be put down

-I can usually get her to take naps on her own (without being held), but for some reason at night she screams bloody murder as soon as we put her down. Luckily Dal has been super helpful stays up with her for half of the night every time.
-Calvin is sooo into her and it is super sweet
-She is obsessed with nursing and would basically eat all day long if I would let her. She has to be on an eating schedule because of her throwing up situation (which has not really improved)
-She loves her binkie, bath time, getting her diaper changed, and taking her medicine
-She has learned to smile and prefers Dallin to anyone else

A Thanksgiving in St. George

We had a lovely weekend in St. George celebrating Mae's first Thanksgiving. The Mitchells spoil us and Cal loves spending time with Dal's family. We spent the weekend eating so much food, hiking, seeing a movie, shopping, and eating more food.

The day before we left we took Cal to the children's museum in Vegas and he loved it. Mae took a nap in her wrap the whole time- that wrap is a lifesaver.

We had about 40 people at our Thanksgiving dinner in Dallin's grandparents' backyard and was filled with yummy food and great company.

Driving to St. George with the whole crew

We spent a lot of time hiking while we were there. Calvin is obsessed with rocks! The St. George weather was perfect.

Dennis and Lisa just got back from a trip to Korea. One night they made us yummy Korean food and then got out some presents they had bought for us and the kids. They looked really cute in their outfits and Cal & Ellie had fun hitting people with their swords.