Christmas and Corbin's B-Day!

What a week. On Christmas Eve I started cooking the turkey right away. I cook it on low for many hours like my mom. I didn't have to do much other food prep during the day. Around 4:00 I started in on the potatoes, yams, dressing, and gravy. I was happy with how everything turned out. After we cleaned up dinner Gabby got out the gingerbread kit I had bought. I don't know what I was thinking with that! I was already tired from cooking and cleaning up dinner AND we had just decorated cookies and had a giant mess the night before. I am terrible with those stupid kits as well. I cannot separate the pieces without ruining them. Luckily after the initial disappointment was over that I had ruined some of the houses and was too tired to help them, they instead had a blast making a giant mess with some "cake wreck" style gingerbread houses. After that we did a few Christmas Eve festivities including reading a few poems, singing some songs, and playing a round of Guestures. I was beat and we did it as quickly as possible so the kids could go to bed, followed shortly after by me. 

On Christmas morning I ended up waking up the whole house to open presents after 7:00. The kids all seemed to be very happy with their presents. We somehow went from a 1 pet family to 3. The bunny was a big hit. She's so cute! We named her Willow. Gabby spent the next two days trying to hold Willow as much as she possibly could. I'm not sure if bunnies like being held or not...

The day after Christmas Gabby got to pick out her beta fish. She named him Bubbles. 

We hung out Christmas day, I made Cafe Rio Pork for dinner that night. We were going to go to Ralph Breaks the Internet but were disappointed to see they were charging regular prices for Christmas and not the reduced Tuesday rate. Scott and I could not handle being ripped off that badly and changed our plan. Scott had tickets to see the Botanical garden Christmas lights and we had not had the occasion to go yet so we did that instead. The kids were pretty tired and we only lasted a short time at the lights. Ryan wore his snow boots and they started hurting his feet and he had to be carried to the car. The kids happily went to bed tuckered out that night.  

The day after Christmas I tried to get things ready for Corbin's birthday. It's such a marathon getting everything done for Christmas and then to have to worry about a birthday right after is tough. It makes for a tired mama. Rustin flew into town on Corbin's birthday. He could NOT handle that we were not coming down for Christmas. Long story short he ended up flying to Boise and driving the kids back with him. They will get back next Saturday I think. More on that later.

After we picked up Rustin we went to Pojos and played and had lunch there. Corbin ended up playing a game of chance and winning the biggest prize...1,000 tickets! Crazy! He was sweet and used some of his earnings to buy something for his siblings and Rustin. We hung out the rest of the day at the house. 

The next day I helped get the kids ready and packed them up. I was much more emotional about it than I expected to be. Piper kept begging me to come down with them and Ryan was doing his crying not crying routine where he tries not to cry by wiping his eyes and looking up. It is the cutest, saddest thing! I cried for a bit after they left and felt kind of sad and lonely on Friday. Things have been fine since then. I spent a lot of the day working on a puzzle yesterday and much to my amazement I finished! I have a lot of projects I could work on this week. If I'm feeling ambitious I'll get a lot done and if I'm not I won't! Ha. I do want to try to make a weeks worth of freezer meals for when I'm subbing for a week. My coach friend is going on a cruise and she's been harassing me to sub for her since last year. I tried to get her to find someone else but she couldn't find anyone else she wanted so I caved. I made arrangements for Ryan. That week should be interesting. Hopefully it will be okay. It should be fine. Tiring, but fine. 

I've been teaching a lot! I was offered two incentives from VIPKID to work Christmas week and New Years week. They offered me an $80 bonus for Christmas week and $100 bonus for New Years week. They did not make the same offer to other teachers I know. I don't get it and I'll believe it when I see the money. I did keep a copy of the e-mails. I've kind of adjusted to getting up at 3:45 so I may start doing that from now on. We'll see. Well that's it. I hope to enjoy my staycation and hope and know the kids are having a blast in Utah.

Christmas Eve Dinner. We busted out our wedding china. 

Gingerbread house fiasco. 

Christmas Eve. I love my tree except that it leans. Oh well! 

Stockings and slippers. 

Ryan was so happy with his red dinosaur. 

Piper wanted a hatchimal so much! 

Gabby's fish tank! She's such a ham! Dramatic much! 

Corbin got a bigger nicer computer monitor. 

Willow!

She's so cute!

Gabby loves her sooo much! 

Christmas breakfast. Sooo good! Salmon is a quirky Beal tradition going back a few generations. My grandpa Beal always had fish (trout I think) on Christmas morning and my parents changed it to Salmon. My family had salmon and waffles growing up but I prefer breakfast casserole and homemade cinnamon rolls. 

Corbin's big win! 

Bumper cars! 

Zebra dessert per request. 

My 300 piece puzzle. It took me sooo many hours. Ha. 

Botanical gardens.

Willow's hutch. Rest assured she is an outdoor bunny although you wouldn't know it with how much time she spends inside with Gabby.

Bubbles

Busy Times!

Alright it's late and I need to go to bed! I have been getting up at 3:45 to get some extra bonuses and I will be on that schedule this week as well. The kids had their Christmas concert on Monday night. It was over 2 hours long. They divide them in two concerts K-2 and then the grades 3-5 with a 30 minute break in between. They do it that way because the space is not big enough to house everyone at once. Unfortunately parents with kids in both concerts are in for a long night! Gabby had two special parts where she played the xylophone and in another she did a little dance. I recorded them but I haven't been able to post videos on blogger easily. I used to all the time but I don't know how now.

The rest of the week I was pacing myself trying to get all of the things done for Christmas. It's a busy time of year! I made cinnamon rolls on Tuesday. On Wednesday I made bread and homemade tortillas. I decided I wanted to have Cafe Rio for Christmas dinner. I subbed on Thursday and we had our season basketball party after school. Friday I went to all of the kids' class parties. On Saturday I took the big two ice-skating with the Beal's and then Scott brought the littles when we met up for pizza later. I made and delivered neighborhood treats that night. 

Tonight we had the Linquists over again to decorate sugar cookies. I think this is our third year doing that with them. Tomorrow I will be making our Christmas dinner all day. Okay I need to go to bed now. Peace! 

Gabby is in the middle in the red dress.

Corbin is playing the recorder. He is right next to the girl with hot pink hair. 

Friend Christmas dinner and gift exchange. 

My crazy girls!

One of the parents made a DVD of the season and she gave me a copy. AWW! 

Piper not being impressed by her Cindy Lou Who hair. 

I entered a contest for work. Early on I was trying my no teeth smile, then Corbin got the idea to put the logo in the picture. Unfortunately I typed the logo wrong so those pics were a no go! I went with the no teeth smile pic! 

Wrong #!

Wrong#

Ice-skating

Some old man drew a picture of my parents at a stake conference. My mom is going to kill me for posting this but I want a copy of this forever! 

Here's what they look like in real life.

Cookie decorating time!

Voila'!

Sickies

I finished up my basketball season. It ended on a bit of a bad note. Long story short I made a decision that the A team coach felt was bad and she didn't tell me very tactfully, Ha. She called and apologized for her delivery. It was fine to bring my attention to something but it got me worked up regardless. It brought up a lot of my insecurities of being a coach in the first place. I'm still kind of worked up about it and it makes me anxious about coaching 7th grade. I think they want me to coach the A team and I really don't want to. I don't want the added pressure of being the head coach. We'll see what happens. I'm glad to have a break. I have 3 extra hours in my day now. That will be an adjustment. I've basically been coaching since the middle of August. Dinner time will be much less stressful. Ha. On a positive note I just loved working with my team. It's so fun to watch their progression over the season. I'm so happy with their successes. We had three games where every member of the team scored at least one basket.  We won 8 games and lost 2 over the season. The two we lost were good close games. I still have a lot to learn but I do enjoy so much of it.

All of the kids have colds right now. Corbin was the worst and missed school on Friday. He seems to be doing much better.

I hosted a friend's lunch on Thursday. I made my creamy chicken noodle soup and homemade rolls. I think 8 people came. It was fun.

Scott and I got to go to dinner for Scott's work Christmas party. It was at a restaurant downtown. I love/hate downtown! I hate trying to find parking. It was very festive and pretty down there and the food was good. Scott got a whole cow to himself practically! I just ordered a salad, all of the entree's did not seem like good picks for me. Ha.

I think we are mostly ready for Christmas. I got all of the kids presents wrapped yesterday.This week I will try to think about neighborhood treats. Tonight I'm meeting my closest friends for our Christmas dinner and gift exchange. I'm excited for that!

My friend came and watched my game and took some pictures. She caught this moment when my last player that hadn't scored a basket made one in the last 2 seconds of the game! I was so excited. Ha. 

My friend's daughter is hand painting ornaments. I was lucky enough to get an order in before she stopped taking orders. It's so cute! Gabby is even holding Lizzie but Lizzie is not green so she was not as impressed as me. Ha. 

Check out that long grey curly hair I plucked out. I am getting more grey hairs everyday! 

My friend is getting rid of her bunny and we decided to take it. I will go pick it up on Christmas Eve. I hope the kids will like it. I also hope our fence is secure enough for her not to escape. 

Ryan got creative this morning. Ha. 

Corbin followed suit. He even made cuts in his to look more like a Santa beard.

"All I Want for Christmas is my Two Front Teeth." 

Brrr! No heat!

First things first, basketball. My girls just had one game last week and we won by 30. We have two more games this week and the season will be over. I'm happy and a little sad as well. It's so fun to see the growth of the players over the season. It's also fun to watch the team bond throughout the season as well.

Next, our furnace died! Two weeks ago it wasn't working and Scott's co-worker was able to get it back up and running but Wednesday night I came home from my b-ball game to a weird buzzing sound in the garage. It turns out it was our furnace. Scott did some trouble shooting with his co-worker but we realized that it was probably beyond him. The temps were cold! We used the oven to heat the house a bit that night. Mostly we just went to bed in a cold house with lots of blankets. Teaching the next morning was a little brutal. I was wearing many layers. By the end of my session my hands were cold! We had a furnace guy come out and we need a new blower or something. We could have replaced that for $700 but our furnace is already too old. We decided to bite the bullet and opted to replace it along with the air conditioner which will be on it's way out as well. You save some money when you do it together. The cost was bad news as well as the fact that they can't fix it until Monday! Luckily my friends brought over some space heaters and they have saved our bacon! I guess they get slammed when it gets really cold because anyone's furnace with any trouble will die when it has to work so hard. So that has been our unfortunate adventure last week.

The girls had their dance recital on Saturday. They did a great job! Gabby was front and center most of the time and tiny Piper did a great job keeping up with all of the big girls. It's fun to watch them dance.

We went to a fancy dinner Saturday night at Barbacoa for our friend's 40th birthday. The theme was 40's dress since he is turning 40. It was fun to see everyone dressed up for the occasion. It was a spendy night and one we won't be doing again anytime soon. Ha.
I should have taken a full body shot to see the whole dress but this is the dress.

Here is the girls dance.

Snow!

This last week was good. Basketball practice was a little rough for a few days. It's hard to get back in the groove after a long break. We had a game Wednesday and Thursday night. Wednesday night was a blow out so we made our team goal to have every player make a basket and they did! Woot! Thursday night was the game I've been worried about all season. We played Eagle! My hopes for the game were that my players would play well and fight hard and they did. It was a really close good game. We lost 24 to 30 but I was really happy my girls did so well. The Eagle coach shook my hand and said, "I knew that would be a good game" and it was. I almost forgot! Lana got really sick on Wednesday so I had to fill in and coach for her game. That was pretty horrible. We got creamed. I had a parent give me a hard time about not playing his daughter. I just told him I did my best. Jeeze! Doy! Obviously I'm not the coach and I'm flying blind. Give me a break! I was so worried she wasn't going to be well enough to coach the next day but she was. I was sweating bullets over that.

Piper had a tough week because her best friend moved to Jackson Hole on Friday. It's so sad! Gabby and Corbin have always been friends with lots of kids but Piper has had one "bosom buddy" since Kindergarten. It will be interesting to see how she does this week. Her first heart break. So sad.

We woke up to beautiful snow this morning. The kids went out and played in the snow. I'm so glad they are big enough to play in the snow without me! Ha. I got to stay inside and watch a show and make Sunday dinner and it was so quiet and blissful. Ha.

Piper's best friend Emily at Kindergarten graduation.

A Gabby selfie. (I found a bunch on my phone), ha. 

When Ryan is cold in the mornings this is what he does.

I got some cute Christmas stockings at Target for $3 each.

Piper made a count down to Christmas at school. 

Gabby wrote a school essay on what she is thankful for. So cute.

I love her drawing of Scott and me.